Located in the heart of India's premier educational centre, the city of Pune, Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL) is a centre of excellence, offering quality distance education. But the institute’s hosted e-mail service was not user friendly, and took too much time and money to manage. To reduce spending, it decided to replace its aging, in-house student e-mail solution with a hosted solution. SCDL chose Microsoft® Live@edu, a set of free Web-based communication and collaboration services. Students are excited about the new solution’s reliability, as well as the ability to organize their communications in one place. The solution offers online storage with Windows Live™ SkyDrive. Students are using Live@edu to get better organized, and improve communications with their faculty.

Siemens IT Solutions and Services, headquartered in Germany, provides companies around the world with software solutions based on Microsoft® technology. The organization recently implemented Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 for many of its customers. As a result, its customers will be able to lower e-mail storage costs by 50 percent, enhance e-mail archiving, and give remote employees integrated communications capabilities.

Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc. is a U.S.$1 billion global provider of manufacturing equipment and services. The company’s employees rely on up-to-date messaging technology to conduct business with partners and customers around the world. Barry-Wehmiller wanted to upgrade to Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 e-mail messaging and collaboration software. However, in light of tough global economic conditions and a corporate culture that promotes a “Lean” organization, the IT department re-evaluated the cost of deploying an on-premises solution. Instead, Barry-Wehmiller chose Microsoft Online Services to deliver all the scalability, security, and functionality the company needs for desktop and mobile e-mail. The hosted communications and collaboration solution saved Barry-Wehmiller $200,000 in hardware and infrastructure costs, as well as another $100,000 on an archiving solution.

Based in Basel, Switzerland, F. Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche) is a leader in researched-focused healthcare. As part of its strategic IT plan to simplify its computing environment, the company upgraded users’ computers to the Windows® 7 operating system. As a result, Roche is benefiting from enhanced IT security, streamlined IT management, increased system performance, and an improved user experience.

The SAS Group is evaluating new HTC Windows® phones with Windows Mobile® 6.5 to enhance communications for its flight crews. The increased responsiveness and easier navigation of the new user interface deliver up to 20 percent faster performance. Also, the ability to centrally manage Windows® phones with Microsoft® System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 enhances security, which will support new applications to further improve crew efficiency.

Zipper by Enfo employees often work away from the office and need easy access to corporate information. The company is evaluating Windows® phones with Windows Mobile® 6.5. With improved ease of handling and faster operation, Windows® phones are saving pilot users at least 30 minutes a day. Zipper plans to deploy the phones companywide and to recommend them to its customers.

Realtor Kris Anderson was using a smartphone running Windows Mobile® 6 to respond to client needs and conduct business while out in the field. For more agility and speed, she decided to try a Windows® phone with Windows Mobile 6.5. The software provides new touch features and a new Web browser that Anderson uses to help her work smarter, respond faster, and save up to three hours a day, which could translate into a savings of U.S.$35,000 a year.

With operations across Kazakhstan, Intertrade, a wholesale distributor of a wide variety of infant products including food items, streamlines its ordering system with the implementation of a mobile trade applicatoin based on Windows Mobile.

Draft implementation of Office Communicator 2007 R2 along with AudioCodes’ Mediant 1000 media gateway, resolve key communication issues of remotely working Burda’s employees. Client computers’ users now can share single remote desktop and participate in audio, video and web conferences. Integration with PBX decreases the company’s overhead significantly.

Microland Limited, an IT services provider known for being quick in adopting new technology, deployed the Windows® 7 Release Candidate operating system on 250 company computers. With features in Windows 7, Microland can protect data from loss, improve connectivity to company resources, increase employee productivity, and enhance application control in its IT environment.