4-page Case Study - Posted 1/9/2007

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Hyundai-Kia Motors

Hyundai-Kia Motors Unifies Messaging for Secure Global Mobile Communications

The Hyundai Motor Corp was established in 1967, and merged with Kia Motors in 1998 to form Hyundai-Kia Motors. The company exported more than 10 million vehicles to 193 countries in 2004, and has more than 100,000 employees worldwide. It needed a roadmap for company policy to handle increasing integrated communication services demands, and a blueprint for its global groupware system Autoway. The company took advantage of the Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 Rapid Development Program (RDP) to verify the technological and business values of Exchange Server 2007 from July to September 2006. The RDP program allowed the company to successfully establish a long-term policy for its group-level unified messaging infrastructure.

Situation

Hyundai-Kia Motors was originally established as Hyundai Motor Corp in 1967, and merged with Kia Motors in 1998 to form the current company. It exported more than 10 million vehicles to 193 countries in 2004, and has more than 100,000 employees worldwide. Since 2005, the company has been proceeding with the global introduction and distribution of its groupware system, Autoway. 
 

This is a big and important challenge for us. Without the Exchange Server 2007 RDP, it would have been very difficult to come up with the right future direction for Autoway.  Young Jin Sohn E-Biz Service Team Chief AutoEver Systems

In order to solve this problem and to actively cope with customers’ demands, the company deployed Exchange Server 2000 and Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server. Later, Autoway went through its second turning point in 2003: the company carried out migration of its system to a Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 environment to better support its global services and also provide improved services for more than 100,000 customers. The project, managed by Auto Ever Systems which provides IT services to Hyundai-Kia Motors, was a huge exercise.

It included not only system migration but also redevelopment to set up Microsoft® .NET system as its standardized environment, and componentize core devices. From 2005, Hyundai-Kia Motors distributed the upgraded Autoway system, which provides advanced e-mailing and reporting functions plus multi-language support to its overseas subsidiaries. As of November 2006, the company had distributed its Exchange Server 2003-based groupware system to a total of 14 overseas subsidiaries, on target to complete the distribution to all subsidiaries by 2007.

However, due to an increasing demand for integrated communication, the company needed to expand and mobilize its system even further. User demand for new functions including integrated communication using mobile devices, and voice e-mailing were just some of the drivers for the latest upgrade. Currently, the company is making efforts to come up with a solution to innovate its Autoway groupware system even further, and so took part in the Microsoft Rapid Development Program (RDP) project as part of its solution development.

Auto Ever Systems decided it needed to check whether there was a gap between the architectures of the 2003 and 2007 versions and, if so, how such a gap affects Exchange Server customized for Autoway.

Solution

Following enrolment in the Exchange Server 2007 RDP, this project included server deployment, development, and education for three months from July to September 2006. The RDP consisted of a verification of scenarios regarding unified communication including mobile and voice e-mailing and a verification of interoperability with the preexisting system infrastructure. Young-Jin Sohn, Head of the Hyundai-Kia Motors Biz-Service Team notes: “We wanted to carry out a technological examination on the use of Autoway under a mobile environment. At the time, Microsoft Korea offered to us a chance to carry out an RDP for Exchange Server 2007.”

“Our company has always conducted prior examinations before introducing new technology and functions, to minimize possible problems that could happen, so thinking that Microsoft’s RDP would enable us to conduct internal, prior examinations more easily and effectively, we decided to proceed with the project,” he says. “We proceeded with the Exchange Server 2007 RDP so we could evaluate the technological and business values of Exchange Server 2007 in advance, right at the field, and without serious risks.”

The company set up a system topology by deploying two Beta 2 versions of Exchange Server 2007 on three 64-bit machines including HP DL 360 servers with Intel® Xeon™ 5100/5000 series processors offering best-in-class reliability through features built in to the processors, chipsets and memory architecture that improve reliability and deliver high levels of system availability for Exchange Server 2007.

The pilot system installed the mailbox, unified messaging service, hub transport, client access service and edge transport service of Exchange Server 2007 onto the servers. In addition, for testing purposes, the company created approximately 100 e-mail messaging accounts. Auto Ever Systems managed the project and FeelaNET, a partner company of Microsoft Korea, participated as the developer.

Testing was conducted to check the efficiency of email messaging read and write under a wireless environment, and to verify the ‘Remote Wipe Out’ function which automatically removes the information in a lost or stolen mobile device.

Verification checks were also made on the use of voice e-mail messaging utilizing the unified messaging service. The company examined the practicality of voice messages left on a phone and collected using Microsoft® Outlook®, without changing the preexisting PBX to IP-PBX. Mr. Sohn says: “The RDP allowed us to better understand Exchange Server 2007. One of its main features is that it enables companies such as Hyundai-Kia Motors, with huge user infrastructures, to establish realistic integrated communication.”

In addition, the company examined what kind of change management it has to carry out when it changes its groupware system to a totally Exchange Server 2007 basis.

Benefits

Within the three scenarios mentioned above, Auto Ever Systems obtained much more knowledge of the roll-out of Exchange Server 2007, and the advantages it brings. These fell into two general areas. The first one was how to cope with a wide range of users’ demands in regards to unified communication, while the second one was that the company could establish a mid- and long-term load map for the innovation of group-level standardized messaging infrastructure.

Unified messaging

Mr. Sohn points out that while the main issue in the implementation of Exchange Server 2003 was globalization and enhanced performance, the main issue using Exchange Server 2007 was unified communication.

“Hyundai-Kia Motors, has to support more than 110,000 users, exclusive of overseas subsidiaries. We think that the RDP was a very good chance for a company like ours with such a huge user base to conduct a prior technological verification regarding how to establish unified communication. We hope (the RDP) will be expanded to cover SQL Server 2005,” he adds

Future proofing

To Hyundai-Kia Motors, unified communication is not an issue for the future. The company always prepares itself for the next era of communication unification, and has introduced IP-PBX in its newly established facilities as part of that preparation. In this light, there is no doubt that Autoway, the global communication hub for Hyundai-Kia Motors, is ready for various kinds of unified communication.

Collaboration ready

Mr. Sohn points out that the future definition and role of groupware systems will be very different from what it is now. “Rather than a system, it will be a content-level service which delivers various kinds of information necessary for communication and collaboration within and without the company,” he says.

Global level service

“The new system has to support more than 110,000 users at the domestic level and more than 30 countries at the global level,” adds Mr. Sohn. Based on the results of the RDP, Hyundai-Kia Motors will continue to advance Autoway to meet the demands of the era of communication integration. 

“It is a big and important challenge for us to change Autoway to the level of contents-level service. Without the Exchange Server 2007 RDP, it would have been very difficult to come up with the right future direction for Autoway.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about AutoEver Systems products and services, call or visit the Web site at:
http://www.autoeversystems.com 

For more information about Hyundai-Kia Motors products and services, call or visit the Web site at:
http://www.hyundai-motor.com/

Microsoft Windows Server System

For more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to:
www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx

For more information about Microsoft Exchange Server, go to:
www.microsoft.com/exchange 

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published January 2007