International Speedway Corporation (ISC) delivers thrilling experiences for race fans at events such as NASCAR’s DAYTONA 500. Because ISC stays in touch with fans through email, maintaining a healthy email environment is critical. ISC implemented Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange and, as a result, improved customer service, enhanced security, and simplified administration. It also helped avoid costs of over U.S.$120,000.

Business Needs

International Speedway Corporation (ISC) is a promoter of motorsports entertainment activities in the United States, including popular events such as NASCAR’s DAYTONA 500. The company operates 13 facilities, representing more than one million grandstand seats and 550 suites. One event can have a significant impact on the company’s financial performance. Therefore, ISC believes that exceptional customer service for the more than 3.5 million people that attend their events is critical to success.

In addition to call center support for customers, ISC relies heavily on email communication, supported by the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 email and calendar system, to respond to customers’ needs. Email is a primary vehicle for ISC to resolve customer concerns. For instance, it has several aliases that fans use to offer feedback. “It is not an easy task for us to fill 150,000 grandstand seats at one event, so it is key for us to maintain that customer service relationship,” says Brandon McNulty, Senior Director of Technology at ISC. ”Email is at the heart of that.”

In order to stay in touch with its fans, ISC depends on maintaining a healthy email environment—one free from distracting spam, or worse, malicious email that can compromise business operations. “Keeping spam off our email system is critical for both maintaining the integrity of our email security and business productivity,” explains McNulty. However, managing spam must be done intelligently because the company works with legitimate sponsors who can often be the subject of spam messages.

ISC used a third-party service to filter email, but found that spam incidents were steadily on the rise, impacting customer service. In fact, in the final nine months that ISC used the service, the rate of incidents that required intervention from the IT department increased at least four-fold. For instance, the IT department at ISC often had to triage spam incidents and frequently waited longer than service-level agreement times allowed for updated filtering policies—a time-consuming process for IT staff at ISC, and one that put ISC at risk of malicious email.

Solution

ISC has taken advantage of other products and technologies from Microsoft and has an Enterprise Client Access License (CAL) agreement, which includes licenses for Microsoft Forefront security products. To get the most value from the licensing agreement, ISC decided to take advantage of its agreement and implemented Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, a hosted service that offers layered protection against spam and malicious software.

Forefront Online Protection for Exchange helps ensure that our critical business operations are not affected by malware and spam. Brandon McNulty Senior Director of Technology, International Speedway Corporation

In November 2009, to test Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, ISC simply changed its mail exchange (MX) record on one of its 25 domains, allowing the DNS to propagate and mail messages to be processed through the hosted service. After using Forefront Online Protection for Exchange on a domain for one week and tuning its filters through the web-based administrative console to help prevent spam while still allowing through emails from legitimate sponsors, the IT department at ISC was completely satisfied with the hosted service. It moved its remaining domains to Forefront Online Protection for Exchange. Within four weeks, the company completely replaced its third-party service and was using Forefront Online Protection for Exchange across 1,000 employee computers and monitoring a total of 1,300 email accounts, including aliases.

To add accounts to its hosted solution, ISC uses the Microsoft Directory Synchronization Tool, which automatically synchronizes the company’s Active Directory Domain Services accounts and email accounts in Exchange Server to Forefront Online Protection for Exchange. This is a complete departure from its previous service, where IT personnel had to log onto the administrative interface, manually create a user account, and associate any related email aliases for each user.

Benefits

As a result of implementing Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, ISC has enhanced its messaging security, simplified IT administration, and reduced costs. “Forefront Online Protection for Exchange helps ensure that our critical business operations are not affected by malware and spam,” says McNulty.

Enhanced Security Reduces Spam Incidents by 25 Percent

Since implementing Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, ISC has reduced the number of spam incidents on its network by at least 25 percent. “Spam isn’t even a concern for us anymore. It doesn’t require human intervention for us to prevent it as it did before,” explains McNulty. “Beyond eliminating the distractions that simple spam can bring that can draw attention away from customers; we’re also able to bolster our security by focusing on targeted, complex attacks.”

Simplified IT Administration

The IT department at ISC benefits from simplified IT administration since implementing Forefront Online Protection for Exchange. Instead of manually creating and deleting user accounts, ISC can automatically synchronize its Active Directory and Exchange Server accounts to Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, saving six hours of IT administration time each month. “We process up to 70 user accounts on a monthly basis,” says Jason Janka, Lead Engineer at ISC. “Even though it is only a few minutes per user, that adds up quickly and is time we can spend on greater value-added tasks.”

Avoided Costs of More Than $120,000

By implementing Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, which is included in its Enterprise CAL agreement, ISC was able to discontinue its use of its previous service. “With Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, we’re avoiding a $36,000 annual licensing cost,” says McNulty. In addition, because there is no hardware or software to purchase and manage with the hosted service, ISC is saving money compared to an on-premises solution. “By avoiding hardware costs, licensing costs, and manpower to maintain the infrastructure, our savings are easily more than $120,000,” concludes McNulty.

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