MICROSOFT EXCHANGE SERVER 2003 UPGRADE SPEEDS UP MESSAGING SERVICES

“Allianz is moving towards a mobile workforce and having Outlook Web Access is one of the biggest advantages that we have derived from deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.”
Dang Kok Heng, Chief Technology Officer, MIS Department, Allianz General Insurance Malaysia Berhad.

A leading general insurer in Malaysia, Allianz General Insurance Malaysia Berhad realized its aging Microsoft Exchange 5.5 communications solution running on Microsoft Windows NT 4 was in dire need of an upgrade to take advantage of Microsoft’s latest technologies. With Exchange 5.5, Allianz’s staff could not access their emails, calendars and contact lists when they were out of the office. Maintaining a client-based Microsoft Outlook messaging system presented additional administrative difficulties for the IT Department. This prompted Allianz to upgrade to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003, resulting in significant productivity and efficiency improvements among its staff.

Situation
Allianz is one of the world's leading insurance and financial services groups. In Malaysia, Allianz has tailored its services to suit the unique and sophisticated needs of the Malaysia market in the areas of commercial and personal insurances.

Its Malaysian subsidiary, Allianz General Insurance Malaysia Berhad (Allianz) offers a wide range of services including marine, fire, personal accident and motor insurance. With about 900 employees, Allianz ranks among the top five general insurance companies in Malaysia. The company has a network of 35 branches and 5000 agents nationwide.

In a competitive industry where there is not much product differentiation, Allianz focuses on enhancing its customer service as a key strategy to keep ahead of its competitors. “We use IT as a platform to enhance our service delivery because in insurance, everyone is selling homogenous products,” says Dang Kok Heng, Chief Technology Officer, MIS Department, Allianz General Insurance Malaysia Berhad.

The drive towards continuous improvement has seen Allianz upgrade its IT systems and introduce solutions to improve productivity and internal business processes. “The new management is very IT focused,” he adds.

One of the key challenges which confronted Allianz was that its increasingly mobile workforce could not access their corporate email accounts, calendars and contact lists when they were away from the office.

At that time, Allianz was running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 on Windows NT 4 and staff could only access their emails and calendars through Microsoft Outlook clients in their office.

The administrative difficulties associated with a client-based messaging system was also a burden on Allianz’s IT department. For example, each time there were new staff or employees assigned new PCs, the IT staff had to install the Outlook application and configure it on the desktops. If this situation occurred in an outstation branch, Allianz had to commission a vendor to handle the task, says Tan Zhi Hong, Senior Systems Engineer, MIS Department, Allianz General Insurance.

Another inconvenience was that whenever the Exchange databases had to be backed-up, messaging services had to be shut down for between 2 ½ hours and 3 hours, Tan adds. This meant that the IT staff had schedule backups after office hours and the weekends. This considerable downtime for Allianz’s messaging services was a “major headache” and needed to be resolved, says Dang.

Allianz staff also faced the inconvenience of having to remember up to four passwords as they logged in and out of the company’s IT system. The problem was compounded as there was a policy requiring the staff to change their passwords periodically. As employees often forgot their passwords, the IT department had to field many calls from staff who had forgotten their passwords.

“We realized it was time to upgrade our operating system and messaging application to overcome these challenges as well as to take full advantage of the technical advances and new functionalities of the latest Microsoft technologies,” says Dang.

Solution
As part its continuous improvement policy, Allianz standardized its IT platform by upgrading its servers to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and its front-end clients from Microsoft Windows 95 to Microsoft Windows XP. At the same time, it also upgraded its collaborative communications solution to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 from Exchange Server 5.5 which was running on Windows NT 4 previously. The application was installed on its existing three Pentium 3 Exchange servers.

Dang says that Allianz did not seriously consider other options because it was more economical to stick to Microsoft Exchange. Over a three-year period, he says the total cost of ownership was significantly lower.

Deployment of the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 started in August 2003 with a month-long pilot. Allianz had engaged Microsoft Consulting Services which assisted in the designing and planning for the implementation. The implementation process also leveraged on the Microsoft Solutions Framework - an adaptable framework for successfully delivering IT solutions faster, with less risk while enabling higher quality results.

“As we were doing a two version jump from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange Server 2003, the pilot enabled us to monitor system performance and evaluate user acceptance. Everything went relatively smoothly,” says Tan. The success of the pilot project prompted Allianz to move ahead as it progressively rolled out the new messaging services to its 700 users by March 2004.

Instead of accessing their email accounts through Microsoft Outlook clients, Allianz leveraged on the Outlook Web Access (OWA) functionality of Exchange Server 2003 to allow users convenient web-based access to their email accounts, calendars and contacts. This means that Allianz’s workers, particularly those on the move, can now access important business information through Microsoft Internet Explorer or a browser from any computer connected to the Internet.

The standardization of Allianz’s IT system on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 at the back end and Windows XP on the front end has also reduced the administrative complexities for Allianz’s IT department. Previously, because there were a multiplicity of versions in the Microsoft operating systems and applications, diagnosing problems IT-related problems was more complex and time consuming.

“Now it is very simple as there is only one environment. It has become much easier for the IT support team, and turnaround time to fix problems is much faster,” says Dang.

Benefits

Eliminating Messaging Services Downtime
The deployment of Exchange Server 2003 has enabled Allianz to overcome one of the key challenges facing its IT Department – to keep downtime to a minimum. The backup for the messaging databases can now be done without shutting down the messaging services as was required under Exchange 5.5.

This is because Exchange Server 2003 supports the Volume Shadow Copy service implemented in Windows Server 2003. And this copy service functionality provides a near-instantaneous backup and restore because a mirrored copy of the database exists at any time and can be used for restore processes.

“Previously, we had to turn off the messaging services whenever we did the backup, so we usually did it during the off-peak hours or weekends. Now, we can do the backup anytime and we don’t have to bring down the email services,” says Tan. And that has improved the department’s service levels to its internal customers.

30 Per Cent Improvement in Performance
The new solution has resulted in a major improvement in performance in terms of sending and receiving of emails. Previously, emails had to be transferred between the Exchange servers and distributed to multiple recipients and it was very slow because an email could be transferred many times.

With the new web-based access, there is no need to download emails from the Exchange servers to individual client machines. In addition, GZip compression also provides substantial performance improvements for Outlook Web Access users.

“We noticed the speed in receiving and sending emails has increased by as much as 30 per cent,” says Dang.

Web-based Email Access for Mobile Workers
Exchange Server 2003’s built-in support for Outlook Web Access and mobile device support has provided one of the biggest benefits to Allianz’ workforce, especially its executive and management staff who are often working outside of the office.

“Allianz is moving towards a mobile workforce, and in this regard, having Outlook Web Access is one of the biggest advantages that we have derived from deploying Exchange Server 2003,” acknowledges Dang.

“Many of our workers are on the move and they need to access their emails, calendars and contact lists. Now, they are able to access their business information from anywhere with their notebook computer or any PC with Internet access,” says Dang.

Allianz has plans to tap on the Outlook Mobile Access functionality which is built in to Exchange Server 2003. Outlook Mobile Access provides mobile phone browser access to Exchange servers for mobile devices such as cellular phones, PDAs and Windows powered mobile devices.

Impressive Productivity Gains
Allianz is reaping the benefits of Exchange Server 2003 being the first version of Exchange designed to run on and take advantage of Windows Server 2003, particularly in leveraging on the latter’s Active Directory features.

Allianz staff now have a much easier time logging into the company’s IT system and their email accounts. By leveraging on the single log-on functionality of Active Directory in Windows Server 2003, Allianz has managed to reduce the number of user IDs and passwords which staff had to remember from an average of four to just one.

“With so many passwords to remember, it was common for staff to forget their passwords. And then they would have to contact the IT support staff,” says Dang. Since introducing the single log-in, the number of calls to the IT help desk has dropped dramatically.

The implementation of Outlook Web Access has enabled Allianz to achieve significant productivity gains, says Dang. Under the previous Outlook client scenario, whenever there was an email-related problem at the client end, there was often a need to send an IT support staff to deal with it. If it happened at the branches, a third party vendor had to be sent to address the problem. Outlook Web Access eliminates the need for IT staff to troubleshoot at the hundreds of client machines nationwide because all emails are accessed directly from the Exchange servers.

The reduction in their maintenance workload has provided IT Department staff more time to focus on new IT initiatives to improve business and processes.

Lower Cost Platform
Allianz saw the value of sticking to a cost-effective and technologically advanced IT platform when it opted for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003. As a multinational, Allianz could enjoy the economies of scale provided by its Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft

“We are able to get the global discounts which Microsoft offers to Allianz worldwide,” says Dang, adding it made business sense to leverage on the company’s substantial investments in Microsoft technology.

“All the while we have been on the Microsoft and Exchange platform, and our staff is familiar with it. Retraining costs is lower and overall, we will enjoy significant savings,” he says. Resources skilled in Microsoft technology is also readily available and more cost-effective compared to other competing platforms, he adds.

Allianz also enjoys further savings as Outlook 2003 comes with advanced junk mail filters. “As this anti-spam feature is part of Outlook 2003, we don’t need to buy separate anti-spam solutions like we did previously,” says Tan.

Dang acknowledges that Allianz is very happy with its upgraded Microsoft-based IT platform. “We have less stress, less phone calls and users are not irritated (because of email-related problems). It is difficult to quantify the benefits but we can see and feel the improvements,” concludes Dang.

Software and ServicesProducts

Overview
Country: Malaysia
Industry: Financial Services Industry

Customer Profile
Allianz General Insurance Malaysia Berhad offers a wide range of services including marine, fire, personal accident and motor insurance. It ranks among the top five general insurance companies in Malaysia.

Business Situation
Allianz’s increasingly mobile workforce could not access their corporate email accounts, calendars and contact lists when they were away from the office. The administrative hassles associated with a client-based messaging system also taxed the resources of Allianz’s IT department.

Solution
Allianz upgraded to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 from Exchange Server 5.5. It also standardized its IT platform by upgrading its Windows NT 4 servers to Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

Benefits

• Eliminates messaging downtime
• Boost performance by 30 per cent
• Web-based email for mobile workers
• Impressive productivity gains
• Lower cost platform

For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at 1-800-88-3248. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com/malaysia