4-page Case Study - Posted 10/23/2008
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Microsoft mobility solution brings BT Financial Group secure and smarter messaging
Senior executives at financial services company BT Financial Group wanted to access critical business information while travelling, including email, appointments, contacts, and task lists. Having recently installed Microsoft® Exchange Server® 2003, BT Financial Group’s IT department decided to use the product’s built-in Exchange ActiveSync remote capability, which enables remote access to email and messaging on devices running Windows Mobile® 5.0 without additional hardware or software. By building on a familiar platform, the solution met BT Financial’s stringent information security requirements. Deploying Exchange ActiveSync® and distributing devices that run Windows Mobile gave staff increased flexibility and responsiveness, reduced business costs, and decreased IT management workload.
Situation
BT Financial Group (BTFG) has been helping Australians create and manage their wealth since 1969. After being acquired by Westpac Banking Corporation in 2002, the company now also looks after the bank’s wealth management operations.
The group’s IT department manages email for more than 3,000 corporate users, including both desk-bound business managers and staff who mainly work offsite, for instance mobile sales staff who work mainly at customers’ premises.
BTFG senior executives needed access to business-critical information such as email, appointments, contacts and task lists at any time and from wherever they were.
“A lot of these people were in meetings all day and it was impractical to keep going back to their desks, logging onto their computers, and trawling through their emails or diaries to get details and information about the next meeting,” says Dat Lieu, BTFG’s IT Solutions Designer.
“The best they could do was consult their calendars early in the morning and plan their day accordingly and perhaps rush back to check their email and respond to anything urgent. We believed that implementing a wireless email solution would help us improve staff productivity and convenience.
BTFG had just implemented Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and wanted to explore the possibility of leveraging its built-in ActiveSync remote capability.
Says Lieu: “We wanted to keep IT infrastructure spending to a minimum and maximize our return on investment in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.”
However, security was a major concern for BTFG.
“We’re a high-profile financial services institution, so it’s paramount that we maintain the highest level of security in our communications at all times,” says Lieu.
Solution
BTFG held talks with Microsoft during which the company highlighted its stringent security requirements.
“We listened to the customer’s concerns and then talked to their messaging and security managers to make sure they understood exactly what the security capabilities of the Windows Mobile solution were,” says Rick Anderson, Enterprise Mobility Solution Specialist at Microsoft.
Exchange ActiveSync establishes and maintains an encrypted connection between the device and the server in order to deliver new email messages, schedules, task lists and contact information to the device. Synchronization is extremely fast, and emails generally arrive on the Windows Mobile device before they appear on customers’ laptop.
After a rigorous evaluation procedure, BTFG executives relayed the relevant information back to their internal stakeholders, who were satisfied that the solution presented no security risk.
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We started out with 30 units and six months later we hit something like 150 – it’s much more cost-effective to roll out over a wide base of people. |
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Dat Lieu, IT Solutions Designer, BT Financial Group |
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“We went over every detail of the Microsoft solution and were happy that we weren’t in any way compromising our information security needs,” says Lieu. “Moreover, we already had all the components and skills we needed for implementation in-house.”
Following a brief trial period, BTFG made arrangements with its telecommunications service provider and handset manufacturers for suitable devices and data packages.
“During the pilot, we found that the Microsoft enterprise mobility solution was very easy to manage,” says Lieu. “From an IT perspective too, the solution was simpler to support. For instance, you didn’t have to worry about managing extra servers – it was all quite efficient. And the best thing was we didn’t have to roll out any additional infrastructure to get the remote capability within ActiveSync working.”
Benefits
Implementing the Microsoft enterprise mobility solution has delivered a range of benefits to BTFG’s senior staff and the organization as a whole. Staff can get a lot more done while away from their desks, organize their time more efficiently, and engage in smarter communication with colleagues. The company, meanwhile, has managed to save on IT management and hardware costs.
Always available
For staff, the obvious benefits have been greater convenience and improved productivity.
“Our executives can keep up to date, get feedback from meetings, and be contactable while out of the office,” says Lieu. “The wireless solution gives them more flexibility to decide when they need to be in the office. The most important thing is that employees no longer need to be in the office or dial in with a laptop to stay on top of their work.
“It is imperative that when our executives go overseas they can still get their email wherever they are – not just in hotel rooms but on the fly and during pit stops. They also love the familiarity of the Windows Mobile 5.0 interface because it’s almost identical to what they’re used to seeing on their desktops.”
Communication is now smarter as well as faster. Executives’ personal assistants can update calendars, filter emails, and accept meetings on their behalf, as well as forward important documents to executive as email attachments.
Cost benefits
The Microsoft enterprise mobility solution has helped keep IT administration costs at BTFG to a minimum.
“We have minimized overheads because Exchange ActiveSync leverages off the same Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 infrastructure we use for regular email,” says Lieu. “This means we gain all the mobile capabilities without a substantial increase in management workload.
In addition, the ability to apply intelligent automated filters to email and for personal assistants to weed out unimportant messages reduces the total data usage over the telecommunications provider’s wireless broadband network.
Scalability advantage
Scaling Microsoft’s solution is also a lot easier, requiring no more effort to make mobile email available to an increasing number of users.
“With our previous system, we only managed to support about 70 or 80 handheld devices,” says Lieu.
“With Exchange ActiveSync and Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, we started out with 30 units and six months later we hit something like 150 – it’s much more cost-effective to roll out over a wide base of people.”
Consequently, BTFG was able to negotiate a favorable data plan with its telecommunications provider because of the large number of users it was intending to connect remotely.
“We were able to cover the costs of the devices and over time we found we got better and better with the device provisioning and procurement process, so it has kept getting easier and less expensive,” says Lieu.
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile brings the power of the Windows® operating system to mobile devices, helping businesses and their mobile employees stay connected while on the go. Windows Mobile runs mobile versions of Microsoft programs, including Microsoft Office Outlook® Mobile, Internet Explorer® Mobile, Pocket MSN®, Windows Media® Player Mobile, and Microsoft Office Word Mobile, PowerPoint® Mobile, and Excel® Mobile. With Windows Mobile, information workers get powerful software combined with the familiarity of Windows. Combined with available service plans and connectivity options, Windows Mobile–based devices, available from 42 device makers and 68 mobile operators in 48 countries, can be used to make calls, send email and instant messages, surf the Web, and access critical business information even when users are away from the office.
More information about Windows Mobile can be found at: www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile
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 BT Financial Group products and services, call 1300 130 272 or visit the Web site at: http://www.bt.com.au
