ICT Resource Center Ramps Up Productivity And Collaboration with New Microsoft Technologies

"It has improved staff efficiency, productivity and collaboration; slashed our time to market and improved our responsiveness to customers. It is one of the best things to have happened here!"
- Andrew Wong, Chief Executive Officer, MCA ICT Resource Center (MIRC)


The MCA ICT Resource Center (MIRC) assists Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises remain competitive by leveraging on advanced technology. Its Open Source office productivity suite and web mail-based messaging solution contributed to manual processes, and hampered collaboration and marketing initiatives. MIRC revamped its IT infrastructure by deploying Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 for its desktops and Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 at the server-end. The new platform has reduced manual processes, improved communications, staff collaboration, management of marketing activities and customer relationships.




Situation

The MCA ICT Resource Center (MIRC) was established to assist Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) leverage on advanced technology and business processes to help them remain competitive in the era of globalization.

MIRC, a unit of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), seeks to provide a range of programs that bridges the digital divide by helping SMEs make the transition to the K-Economy. MIRC regularly organizes conferences, exhibitions, seminars and workshops for SMEs.

In striving to attain its goal of helping Malaysian SMEs, MIRC needed to build a dynamic marketing engine to reach out to its members and customers, and drive community engagement. However, with the constraint of having a small team, MIRC realized that success in achieving its goals rested on improving organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

When MIRC was set up in January 2005, it opted for an Open Source office productivity suite and a web mail-based messaging solution because of a limited IT budget. "We only had two staff then and our environment was not complex," says Andrew Wong, MIRC's Chief Executive Officer.

However, these solutions failed to live up to expectations which resulted in MIRC staff getting bogged down by manual and inefficient work processes. This had serious repercussions on MIRC's marketing initiatives and hindered it from quickly rolling out its programs for SMEs.

"For example, we couldn't do mail merge and had to cut and paste addresses to print the envelopes," Wong explains. As a result, MIRC would typically take several weeks just to print addresses for 10,000 mailers.

The limitations of its email system meant that it could not effectively communicate with its customers. Because it was not integrated with MIRC's contacts database, employees often had to cut and paste thousands of email addresses when sending out emails.

Internally, the lack of an integrated document management and collaboration platform meant it had great difficulty managing information and sharing knowledge effectively. MIRC faced a major problem in keeping track of its burgeoning number of documents. As there was no central document repository, documents were kept in folders and employees could not easily find the information needed. "The sharing of knowledge and collaboration among employees was hampered as a result," says Wong.


Solution

This unsatisfactory state of affairs made MIRC consider moving to an integrated IT platform that was more efficient, productive and secure. "We realized we needed to adopt a robust and tightly integrated solution leveraging on the latest technologies. The obvious choice was the Microsoft platform," Wong states.

MIRC decided to revamp its IT infrastructure by opting for end-to-end Microsoft technologies. "Our main objective of investing in the Microsoft platform was to drive improvement in productivity, collaboration and customer relationship management," explains Wong.

For its desktops and notebook computers, it deployed Windows Vista and Microsoft Office Small Business 2007. The 2007 Microsoft Office components installed were Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Publisher 2007 and Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager.

At server-end, MIRC deployed Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 Premium Edition, an "all-in-one" solution designed for small businesses. This comprised Windows Server 2003 R2 (with Windows SharePoint Services V3), Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition and Internet Security Accelerator 2004, which provides for network security and system performance tools.

Microsoft Certified Partner V-Work Sdn Bhd was engaged to assist MIRC in putting in the new technology platform. The deployment began in late October 2006 and was completed within a month.

Wong was impressed with the array of new features in Windows Vista and the way it was designed to complement and work well with Microsoft Office and Windows Small Business Server. "Together, Windows Vista and Microsoft Office have refreshing and beautifully designed user interfaces that simplifies many common tasks and just makes working so much easier!," he adds.

By deploying Windows Vista and Windows Small Business Server, MIRC has put in place a fundamentally more secure IT infrastructure. Compared to earlier Windows operating systems, Windows Vista provides greater protection against the latest generation of security threats through a more secure architecture and enhanced security features, Wong acknowledges.

When allied to Windows Small Business Server's built-in firewall protection and tools to monitor Internet access, block spammers and prevent virus attacks, MIRC is better equipped to protect its business information from unauthorized users, external attacks and data loss.


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Benefits

MIRC has no doubts it made the right decision in deploying the latest technologies from Microsoft. The move has resulted in significant efficiency and productivity gains through reducing time consuming and tedious manual processes. The new Microsoft platform has helped MIRC cut the lead time for organizing events; and significantly improved communications, collaboration, management of marketing activities and customer relationships.

Productivity Boost

The productivity tools in Microsoft Office have virtually eliminated the manual repetitive work which once bogged down and demoralized MIRC staff, allowing them be involved in strategic planning and higher value tasks."Marketing execution becomes more efficient, facilitates faster time-to-market and more importantly, it reduces the team's time spent on manual tasks," says Wong.

With Microsoft Office, a simple task like mail merge was slashed by 75 percent in terms of turnaround time and presentations were created in less than an hour. High quality marketing materials were easily produced in-house with Publisher 2007 in a cost-effective manner.

Wong anticipates that MIRC will be able to organize 50 percent more events in the coming year. The productivity improvements also mean it can easily organize large events – something it had difficulty doing previously.

"Our marketing efforts were hindered previously as we did not have the right tools. Microsoft Office provides us with these tools and has boosted staff efficiency and productivity tremendously," states Wong.

Collaboration Platform

MIRC has enhanced collaboration among its staff by leveraging on Windows SharePoint Services in Windows Server 2003 R2. "We now have a collaboration platform that enables staff to share documents, information and updates on events," says Wong.

Previously, these files would be sent out as attachments in emails or just printed and circulated. "With this platform, we are able to consolidate our documents into a central location. Now, the knowledge we have accumulated can be easily shared."

MIRC also plans to manage future marketing campaigns with an automated Marketing Campaign Management system. The proposed system will leverage on the custom list in Windows SharePoint Services, and will incorporate online forms and workflow to facilitate the process. The system, which taps on the task management functionality in Outlook 2007, allows MIRC to track the progress of its marketing campaigns.

Staying Connected

By moving to an enterprise-class email solution like Exchange Server, MIRC is no longer handicapped by the limitations of its previous email solution. It is now able to communicate effectively and efficiently with its large base of business contacts and customers.

Staying connected with team members, partners and customers is no longer about sending and replying to mails. "Exchange Server helps us not only to be more productive individually, we are also able to collaborate effectively as a team in various projects," Wong explains.

"It enables us to securely access our emails, calendars, schedules and contacts from virtually any place and anytime. This improves response time, sharing of resources and managing collaboration among team members even while we are on the road," he adds.

Building Customer Relationships

With a long contact list of SMEs, it is imperative for MIRC to have an effective system to manage its business contacts and accounts. By leveraging on Business Contact Manager (BCM), MIRC is able to effectively manage its contacts and marketing efforts.

"Previously, staff had their own contact lists and they sometimes sent two or more of the same email to a particular contact. With BCM we have been able to consolidate all our contacts into a central repository," explains Wong.

BCM has also been a boon to MIRC as it tracks customer responses to emails and helps ascertain the effectiveness of its marketing campaigns. This means it operates like a scaled-down version of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution, according to Tennyson K.S. Lee, V-Work's Managing Consultant. This is heaven sent for SMEs like MIRC which require limited CRM functionalities but not a full blown CRM solution. Wong affirms that BCM is the "right fit" for the center.

He confirms that MIRC's operations and business processes have improved several notches since the deployment of Windows Vista, Microsoft Office and Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2.

"We have put in place a highly integrated, robust and secure technology platform. MIRC's move to Microsoft's integrated solution provides us with the necessary tools to move forward."

"It has improved staff efficiency, productivity and collaboration; slashed our time to market and improved our responsiveness to customers. It is one of the best things to have happened here!," he says.

"Our experience with Microsoft technologies shows that SME investment into IT should focus on the business advantages such as the returns on investment and not merely on the initial cost of investment," concludes Wong.

Overview
Country: Malaysia
Industry: Information Technology



Customer Profile
MIRC is a unit of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). It was set up in 2005 to help SMEs remain competitive by making the transition to the Knowledge Economy.

Business Situation
MIRC had deployed an Open Source office productivity suite and web mail-based messaging solution which resulted in inefficient work processes, hampered staff collaboration and marketing efforts. It also needed a document management and collaboration platform to share knowledge effectively.

Solution
MIRC decided to move to an integrated IT platform that was more efficient, productive and secure. It chose to deploy Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 for its desktops and Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 at the server-end.

Benefits

• Productivity boost
• Collaboration platform
• Staying connected
• Building customer relationships

For More Information
To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com/malaysia

For other case studies in this series, visit www.microsoft.com/malaysia/business/casestudies

For more information about MIRC's services, call +6(03) 2161 1618 or visit the website atwww.mirc.org.my

For more information about V-Work Sdn Bhd's products and services, call +6(03) 5621 1172 or visit the web site at www.valuedwork.com