The Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu)

Swiss Safety Council Enhances Unified Communications, Improves Productivity

The Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu) works to improve safety in the fields of road traffic, leisure, and sport. Most of its 130 employees work in Berne, with the remainder in nine regional offices. All rely on the communications capabilities inherent in Microsoft® unified communications solutions, including Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Office Communications Sever 2007 R2. bfu deployed a pilot of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 as part of a Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program. With Exchange Server 2010, bfu can improve employee productivity and responsiveness by enabling larger mailbox sizes; decrease spam and improve mailbox security; and take advantage of the enhanced functionality in Microsoft Outlook® 2010.

 

Situation

The Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu) is a private foundation that provides safety advice to local authorities, institutions, and individuals. bfu has 130 employees, the majority of whom work in the main office in Berne, Switzerland, while others are located in the foundation’s nine regional offices.

bfu addresses safety concerns related to roadways, sports venues, and housing, compiling statistics about accidents in these areas and then publishing safety recommendations related to road safety for schools, protective equipment for sports, and structural engineering. The foundation also runs a helpline that answers queries from companies and the public.

While the majority of the foundation’s workforce is office-based, 15 of its employees are engineers, psychologists, and consultants who conduct surveys at accident sites. Half of these employees work out of the Berne headquarters, while the others work from the regional offices.

bfu has been a consistent early adopter of unified communications technology. In 2004, it deployed a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution based on e-phone, an IP-based software solution that interoperated with its Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 e-mail messaging and collaboration solution. In 2005, bfu deployed Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005, and in May 2007, it deployed Office Communications Server 2007 and the Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 unified communications client. As a part of that deployment, bfu also upgraded to Exchange Server 2007 to take advantage of the Unified Messaging capabilities. A year later, all 130 employees were using the solution for voice, instant messaging (IM), presence, and Web conferencing, and bfu made plans to upgrade to Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

Even though it has experienced great benefits through its current solution—such as reduced travel costs, reduced IT administration, and improved mobility options—bfu still sees room for improvement, particularly in the areas of mailbox storage, secure communications, and administration. It also wants to continue to improve employee productivity by offering the latest communications enhancements.

bfu provides 150 megabytes (MB) of storage to employees; however, many employees were having problems staying within the limit. “For example, users in our marketing department frequently receive television spots in their e-mail,” explains Peter Schönthal, Head of Information Technology for bfu. “Their mailboxes could quickly fill up in one week or less.” Employees used Outlook Data Files (PSTs) to archive messages on their personal computers, which caused problems for the IT staff because the files were not backed up. bfu also wanted to reduce the time spent on the administration of Exchange Server, including moving mailboxes and managing security and access permissions.

Solution

In August 2009, as a member of a Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program (RDP), bfu took the opportunity to deploy Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Standard Edition. bfu is excited about several features in the new release, including the enhanced management capabilities, increased spam protection, advanced productivity tools, and more streamlined integration with Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

I expect that Exchange Server 2010 and Outlook 2010 will greatly enhance our user productivity through capabilities like MailTips, conversation view, QuickSteps, and the integration with Office Communications Server. Peter Schönthal Head of Information Technology, bfu

As an initial step in the deployment, bfu worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Baggenstos IT Services and Solutions to test its upgrade scenario and production deployment plans. Baggenstos deployed Exchange Server 2010 on the Windows Server® 2008 operating system with Hyper-V™ virtualization technology, replicating the bfu environment as accurately as possible.

bfu will now deploy Exchange Server 2010 on one server that shares the Mailbox, Client Access, and Hub Transport server roles. An Edge Transport server will be deployed separately outside of the corporate firewall to handle incoming and outgoing simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) mail, while a Unified Messaging server will receive voice-mail messages and deliver them to users’ inboxes. As part of the deployment, bfu will increase the size of employees’ mailboxes from 150 MB to 2 gigabytes (GB). bfu can do this because of the reduced input/output (I/O) requirements of Exchange Server 2010, which enable bfu to use larger disks for storage.

bfu was especially interested in the enhanced spam protection in Exchange Server 2010 that the Edge Transport server role provides. With the previous server configuration, close to 15 percent of the messages that reached employees’ mailboxes were spam. The Edge Transport server role offers enhanced message protection through connection filtering, sender and recipient filtering, and content filtering. The intelligent message filter (IMF) in the Edge Transport server consolidates guidance from available filters to apply a spam confidence level (SCL) to all messages. bfu administrators can preconfigure actions based on SCL ratings to reject messages outright or route messages to the proper location, such as a user’s inbox or junk mail folder or to the spam quarantine folder on the server.

The Edge Transport server also eases administration of spam messages by stamping each filtered message with information about why the message was considered spam and which filters contributed to the assessment. bfu administrators can view this information to determine if their current filter settings are effective.

When Exchange Server 2010 had been thoroughly tested, Baggenstos continued testing with Microsoft Forefront™ Protection 2010 for Exchange Server. bfu decided to take advantage of the interoperability between the two products—replacing its previous antivirus and antispam solution, McAfee GroupShield—to increase protection and automate security tasks. Microsoft Forefront Protection for Exchange Server helps bfu provide additional advanced antispam protection to its employees. Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server includes automatic content filter updates, specialized spam signature data, and access to the Microsoft IP Reputation Service, a real-time IP block list used by the Edge Transport server to block addresses that are known to send spam messages. The automatic application of content and signature updates eases bfu’s administration effort and also ensures that its employees receive the latest protection.

With each upgrade to its unified communications solution, bfu continues to focus on increasing productivity for its employees. bfu will deploy the Microsoft Outlook® 2010 messaging and collaboration client so that employees can take advantage of the many advanced capabilities.

Whether they access their mailbox through Microsoft Outlook Web App or Outlook 2010, bfu employees can take advantage of productivity features, such as MailTips and conversation view. Using MailTips, bfu employees can know—before they click the Send button—whether a message recipient is out of the office or if an attachment is too large to send. With conversation view, messages from a single conversation are grouped together. Employees can then quickly and easily identify the most recent messages, view the chain of responses, and see a preview of each response in a conversation upon opening the individual messages. Conversation view is always preserved, even if individual e-mail messages are located in different folders in the mailbox. Conversations can be managed, ignored, moved, or deleted altogether. QuickSteps, available only in Microsoft Outlook 2010, is a feature that automates frequent tasks so that they can be completed with one click.

The Microsoft Office Fluent™ user interface with the Ribbon has also been added to Outlook 2010. “Having the Ribbon in Outlook is great for our users,” explains Schönthal. “Everybody likes the interface so much that we are adding it to applications we create ourselves.”

We love the ability to send SMS messages through Exchange Server. We use them constantly, and now we can send them through Windows Mobile, Outlook Web App, or Outlook. Peter Schönthal Head of Information Technology, bfu

The Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync® technology now provides the ability to send and receive Short Message Service (SMS) text messages from Outlook and Outlook Web App. Incoming messages sent via Exchange ActiveSync to an employee’s mobile device will be seen both in the usual SMS message location, as well as the e-mail Inbox. “We love the ability to send SMS messages through Exchange Server,” adds Schönthal. “We use them constantly, and now we can send them through Windows Mobile®, Outlook Web App, or Outlook.”

Benefits

bfu has experienced a number of benefits from upgrading its current unified communications solution by deploying Exchange Server 2010, including improved productivity, streamlined IT management, and security-enhanced communication. It has also laid the foundation for continuing to grow its unified communications solution with Outlook 2010.

Improves Productivity

With the deployment of Exchange Server 2010, bfu can increase employees’ mailboxes from 150 MB to 2 GB, enabling employees to respond to e-mail messages more quickly and efficiently and to focus on the content of the messages they receive, rather than the number. This productivity increase should also enable employees to keep all of the mail they need on the server, where it can be backed up and easily restored, rather than stored in PST files on their desktops. Using larger disks for storage will help bfu significantly reduce the average cost per gigabyte.

Helpful new features in Outlook 2010, such as MailTips and QuickSteps, will ensure that employees can take a proactive approach to managing information and communicating with coworkers and customers alike. bfu also looks forward to the improved integration between Outlook and Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Because all voice communications take place through Office Communications Server, having employees’ IM contact lists available in Outlook will facilitate communications. “I expect that Exchange Server 2010 and Outlook 2010 will greatly enhance our user productivity through capabilities like MailTips, conversation view, QuickSteps, and the integration with Office Communications Server,” explains Schönthal.

Streamlines IT Management

Using the online move mailbox feature in Exchange Server 2010, bfu administrators can move mailboxes between databases without taking employees offline. IT staff can perform tasks they used to perform at night or that required user downtime during regular business hours. Employees can continue to send and receive mail during moves, saving valuable time.

Provides Enhanced Communication

With the combination of the Edge Transport server role in Exchange Server 2010 and Microsoft Forefront Protection for Exchange Server, bfu has seen a 90 percent reduction in the amount of spam messages that reach employee mailboxes. Reducing spam not only saves time that employees spend deleting messages, but it also helps make the environment highly secure.

Enables Future Growth

With its upgrade to Exchange Server 2010, bfu has consolidated its messaging infrastructure into a highly available environment that better supports its business users while reducing IT costs. The company’s investments in its unified communications capabilities help position itself for future growth.
 
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
Exchange 2010 can help you achieve better business outcomes while controlling the costs of deployment, administration, and compliance. Exchange delivers the widest range of deployment options, integrated information leakage protection, and advanced compliance capabilities, that combine to form the best messaging and collaboration solution available.

For more information about Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, go to:
www.microsoft.com/exchange

For more information about Microsoft Unified Communications, go to:
www.microsoft.com/uc  

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 in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. 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 Baggenstos IT Services and Solutions products and services, call +41 44 832 66 66 or visit the Web site at:
www.baggenstos.ch

For more information about The Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu) products and services, call +41 31 390 22 22 or visit the Web site at:
www.bfu.ch