Civil engineering firm, Aas-Jakobsen in Oslo, Norway, wanted to provide its staff with the tools to maintain a high level of productivity. The firm standardized on Microsoft® software, and as its staff grew to 90 people, wanted to reduce its software licensing costs. Working with OfficeTeam, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, the firm acquired a Microsoft Open Value Subscription with the single-platform option. Through this subscription Aas-Jakobsen pays a fixed cost per desktop for the operating system, Microsoft Office Professional, and client access licenses for core server products. The firm can add or subtract PCs or upgrade products covered under the subscription without changing the cost per desktop. As result, Aas-Jakobsen reduced desktop administration time by 25 percent, lowered licensing costs by 27 percent, and gained more value and predictable licensing costs.

The personnel and management consultancy Mercuri Urval wanted to update the server infrastructure in its Swiss offices with a standardized, reliable, and flexible environment. By using Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ virtualization technology and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Mercuri Urval was able to enhance the performance and manageability of its server infrastructure, while developing a powerful and extensible IT environment.

T-Systems deployed Windows Server® 2008 R2 to evaluate new virtualization, backup, and installation options. The technology services provider found that it can use Windows Server 2008 R2 to lower IT expenses, streamline administration, and improve system availability. In addition, the company can help its customers lower costs by consolidating hosted servers that run Windows Server into virtual environments supported by Hyper-V™ technology.

GoGrid, is a cloud computing service that delivers datacenters in the cloud for multi-tiered Web application hosting, testing, and on-demand workloads. GoGrid worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Blue Star Infotech, to develop a suite of tools that help customers seamlessly build and deploy applications for Windows Azure. With Windows Azure, GoGrid can extend its service offerings and maintain a competitive advantage while attracting new customers. In addition, GoGrid can take advantage of the cost-effective, pay-per-use pricing of Windows Azure so that they can offer customers cloud infrastructure solutions that reduce costly hardware investments.

Siemens IT Solutions and Services Thailand (SIS) is a leading provider of SAP application management services and IT infrastructure services. To cope with the economic downturn, SIS set out to reduce data center costs. By moving to the Windows Server® 2008 R2 Enterprise operating system with Hyper-V™ technology, SIS managed to reduce 46 physical servers to 8, thereby cutting its annual data center fees by U.S.$60,000. Using Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, SIS gained the ability to deploy a virtual machine in less than an hour, which helps the IT staff respond to business needs without continuous hardware investments. And, with Hyper-V clusters and snapshots, SIS has slashed data-recovery times from eight hours to one hour, ensuring business continuity.

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.

VINCI Energies wants to standardize the use of Windows® phones in its environment, so the company is evaluating Windows phones® with Windows Mobile® 6.5. Faster operation and improved ease of use are saving users more than one hour a week, and Windows® phones are about U.S.$150 less expensive per user than BlackBerry phones.

Claranet, a managed services provider, wanted to help customers improve availability while controlling costs. To meet those needs, Claranet deployed Windows Server® 2008 R2 including Hyper-V™ technology. As a result, customers can increase uptime and expand more affordably. They can also simplify administration by virtualizing their desktop and server infrastructure.

Do you have limited resources to deploy Windows 7 in your organization? Learn how Microsoft IT (MSIT) optimized its enterprise Windows 7 image to maximize end user productivity and provide a seamless client experience. The Windows 7 installation image was configured to meet corporate hardware and software standards. If the installation encountered non-standard hardware or software, the image directly re-routed the user to Windows Update so that they could quickly and easily be up and running.

Faced with data center capacity limitations, soaring server use, and increased energy consumption, Microsoft IT (MSIT) organized for and developed an Environmental Sustainability (ES) plan. Aimed at reducing the environmental impact of Microsoft, the ES plan includes the strategy of using software to reduce the energy consumption of software-driven devices.