The Ministry of Education is responsible for all primary and secondary schools in Egypt. Previously, third-party security products from multiple vendors protected the Ministry’s IT environment. However, the Ministry wanted a new solution that would integrate well with other core infrastructure software while providing high performance and strong technical support. The Ministry worked with Global Brands—a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner—to deploy Microsoft Forefront™ enterprise-ready security products. The new solution offers centralized management, integration with existing IT infrastructure, and comprehensive protection against viruses, spyware, spam, and other threats. The Forefront solution’s performance on client computers is three times faster than the previous software, and its multiple scanning engines provide better protection and more uptime for the Ministry’s e-mail servers.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Economy is setting the standard for e-government with a technology transformation based on a complete Microsoft® infrastructure. Around 60 per cent of the ministry’s services will be available to customers online, eliminating the need for them to attend the ministry in person. Automated workflows reduce manual processes by 50 per cent. The system is paving the way for closer cross-government collaboration.

Disparate IT systems at trade regulator Finnish Customs made it difficult for employees to manage data and communicate effectively. The organisation needed to standardise its infrastructure to support the business and help boost efficiency. By migrating to a complete Microsoft®-based infrastructure, the organisation has created a secure environment in which employees can collaborate more effectively and enhance customer service.

The Queensland Department of the Premier and Cabinet was finding it increasingly difficult to communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders. As part of the Microsoft Queensland Spotlight 2007 program, it worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Networking Plus to create an integrated content management system and collaboration portal. The solution will streamline content management, allow fast Web site development and improve collaboration.

To achieve self-sufficiency and maintain high-quality services for its citizens, the Government of New Brunswick (GNB), Canada, wanted to reduce costs and improve operations efficiency. Toward that end, GNB signed a Microsoft® Enterprise Agreement, which provides predictable software license costs and Software Assurance benefits to help the government standardize technology across the organization. Working with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner xwave, a division of Bell Aliant and a full-service business solutions provider, GNB saved approximately CDN$2.1 million in license acquisition costs and gained another CDN$1.4 million in additional benefits over three years. The Enterprise Agreement also provides the flexibility for each department to make its own software decisions, and the tools to support compliance and maximize the value of license expenditures.

The Department of the Environment and Water Resources was having problems managing its existing technology environment. Frequent outages were reducing staff productivity and internal satisfaction with the Department’s IT systems was measured at below 30 percent. The Department worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Volante to completely refresh its IT and network systems. The project included migrating to Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003, Microsoft® Active Directory® and Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003. Since the upgrade, the Department has boosted productivity by an estimated A$2.5 million each year and increased staff satisfaction levels to more than 80 percent. Its IT environment is now stable, reliable and easy to integrate with third-party applications. The project has won several awards for its exceptional project management.

Sport England is the Non- Departmental Public Body (NDPB) that makes strategic investment decisions about government and Lottery funding of sport projects.Following a review of its overheads, Sport England decided to modernise its IT infrastructure to suit its increasingly mobile workforce, while reducing its licensing, maintenance, and operating costs. Working with triple Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Eurodata Systems, Sport England migrated to Microsoft Windows ServerTM 2003, part of Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM .It reduced its servers from 80 to 43 by a combination of moving its e-mail messaging to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and rationalising its application and hardware architecture, significantly lowering its total cost of ownership.

South Gloucestershire Council (SGC), a unitary authority in the South West of England, wanted to replace its ageing infrastructure based on Novell’s NetWare and GroupWise products. It was experiencing major problems managing the legacy servers and ensuring adequate storage and back-up processes for its business-critical systems. SOCITM Consulting advised SGC to migrate to Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 communication and collaboration server and Microsoft Windows Server® 2003. SGC now has a resilient and stable environment, to which it is adding new applications including Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM. SGC plans to implement Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 to replace its intranet. The migration project, managed by Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Telamon Systems, replaced 27 NetWare servers with 2 data management centres.

The Local Government Association (LGA) represents the local authorities of England and Wales — some 450 bodies in total. It acts as a lobbying organisation on their behalf, organises conferences, publishes a range of publications, and provides an enquiry service. Over time, dozens of islands of information had grown up built around different technologies, which made it increasingly difficult for anyone to get a full picture of the LGA’s activities. Because the LGA's legacy systems could not communicate with each other, it was decided to consolidate all the contacts and their related activities into a single system making it accessible to everyone in the organisation. To do so, the LGA’s IT infrastructure was significantly upgraded and a fully-integrated Microsoft® Dynamics™ CRM with third-party add-ons was introduced.

Macclesfield Borough Council, a United Kingdom (U.K.)–based local government authority, had trouble satisfying government targets on the use of information technology (IT) while using its legacy mainframe-based financial management system. The local authority wanted to speed up reporting procedures and improve business processes. Macclesfield replaced the mainframe with Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000, part of Microsoft Windows Server™ System integrated server software, for improved scalability. The local authority also engaged Microsoft Gold Certified Solution Partner jmc.it to deploy Microsoft Dynamics™ GP, as its business and financial management system. Microsoft Dynamics GP assisted the local authority in improving its reporting procedures, enhancing efficiencies, and saving approximately £55,000 (U.S.$94,729) per year.