A desire to deliver the best outcomes for its clients and provide a manageable work-life balance for employees drove A.T. Kearney to provide its consultants with tools to develop and maintain relationships with clients all over the world while also staying connected to colleagues and family members closer to home. The company first looked at adding unified communications capabilities such as instant messaging, presence, and softphone capability for mobile voice over IP (VoIP) to its existing Cisco VoIP solution, but it found that Microsoft® Office Communications Server could provide a full solution for a fraction of the cost. After the deployment was completed for all 3,400 employees in March 2008, consultants could collaborate more effectively with each other and with clients, streamlining processes and project times, and gaining more ways to pursue better work-life balance.

The major weakness in the IT structure of Reja was the lack of centralization. In the central office, computers worked in the Windows domain, under the control of Windows Server 2003 software, but in the branches, outside the domain. The firm decided to modernize infrastructure introducing a Microsoft software package, whose base is Windows Server 2008 system, supplemented by Exchange Server 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007. Installation allowed the Warsaw company to achieve larger capacity, increased reliability and enhanced functionality of the firm's Web services.

Telekom Austria TA AG, (Telekom Austria), is the fixed-net segment of the country’s principal telecommunications company, Telekom Austria Group. Telekom Austria wanted to increase employee productivity and enhance communication internally among teams and externally with customers. As a part of the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program (RDP), Telekom Austria deployed Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 to take advantage of its improved communication capabilities. As a result, the company now has a unified communications solution that has increased productivity and improved communication. The company’s IT team also are able to take advantage of the simplified management and flexible deployment enhancements, while increasing network resilience and ensuring network availability for all Telekom Austria employees.

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.

Elabs is a Germany-based hosted service provider that supports IT solutions for resellers and customers of all sizes. Elabs requires a highly available, secure, and cost-effective messaging environment to supply its customers with communication and collaboration services. To improve its service offerings and reduce costs, Elabs deployed a pilot of Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010, as a part of the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program. With the new capabilities in Exchange Server 2010, Elabs expects to simplify administration, provide better site resiliency with higher availability, lower mailbox costs, and reduce storage requirements, resulting in a 50 percent reduction in the cost of hosting a mailbox. Using the new messaging environment, Elabs can offer more premium services to help improve its customers’ communications capabilities.

Mobitel, a subsidiary of Telekom Slovenia Group, provides advanced mobile telecommunication services for the Slovenian market. As a company that offers high-quality services at reasonable prices, Mobitel understands how technology helps businesses streamline processes and reduce costs. In its own technology environment, Mobitel had an aging messaging network that was expensive to maintain and cost-prohibitive to grow. After considering an upgrade from Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007, Mobitel decided to join the Rapid Deployment Program for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. Mobitel was attracted to the solution for its high-availability architecture and range of storage options, but during the pilot it discovered additional benefits. With Exchange Server 2010, Mobitel expects to reduce hardware costs and administration and to offer an improved user experience.

Lion Nathan is a major producer, marketer, and distributor of premium alcoholic beverages in Australia and New Zealand. E-mail is critical to Lion Nathan’s operations, including the processing of orders received from many retail stores and pubs. To help ensure high availability of e-mail messaging, Lion Nathan has deployed a pilot of Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010, as a part of the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program. Lion Nathan expects that messaging enhancements will reduce storage requirements, resulting in a savings of AU$90,000 (U.S.$75,000). With the new messaging environment, Lion Nathan will be able to provide better site resiliency with higher availability, along with capabilities for employees to better manage and prioritize their communications.

Super Group is a supply chain management business that handles all activities involved in sourcing, procurement, and logistics management. Based in South Africa, Super Group has 10,000 employees and owns companies in numerous African countries, Australia, and New Zealand. The company is always looking to reduce costs while providing the latest communication and collaboration capabilities to employees. To enhance its unified communications platform, Super Group chose to deploy Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 as a part of the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program. Benefits of the upgrade include expanding e-mail service to employees without computers, reducing IT administration, and cutting storage costs. The move to Exchange Server 2010 will also make it easier for Super Group to transition some or all user e-mail accounts to Microsoft Online Services in the future.

Lifetime Products was founded as a manufacturer of portable basketball systems. Its offerings have expanded to include other residential playground equipment, folding tables and chairs, sheds, utility trailers, and outdoor furniture. The company’s 1,400 employees are located in the United States, Mexico, and China, and work with supply chain partners and customers around the globe. Lifetime employees depend heavily on messaging technologies to keep everyone connected. To strengthen its lines of communication, Lifetime recently deployed Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 with Unified Messaging. Employees not only receive their e-mail and voice mail in a single inbox, but also now get a text-transcription of voice-mail messages. The company expects the new capabilities to result in faster resolution of customer issues, better supply chain collaboration, and reduced IT and storage costs.

Global Crossing provides IP-based telecommunications services to customers in more than 60 countries. With 5,000 employees around the globe, e-mail is a critical component of the company’s day-to-day business. In 2007, it implemented a unified communications solution based on Microsoft® software to help employees communicate more effectively. To build on that solution, the company sought to consolidate servers and data centers, increase employee mailbox size, retire its e-mail archiving solution, and update mobile and voice-mail services. Global Crossing joined the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Rapid Deployment Program to evaluate the benefits of the new architecture and capabilities. After deploying the pilot, Global Crossing found that it would be able to reduce costs, increase availability and performance, and offer employees better options for communicating anywhere, anytime.