The National University of Singapore leads the way with Windows XP January 2002 The National University of Singapore (NUS) has a reputation as an early adopter of technology and it had a head start against its fellow competitors – with help from Microsoft – rolling out Windows XP Professional even before it was launched in Singapore. Situation Singapore’s flagship tertiary institution, NUS became the first organisation to adopt Microsoft Windows XP Professional in Singapore and Asia, deploying it even before the software was officially launched. The upgrading exercise will see potentially up to 20,000 PCs and notebook computers migrating to Windows XP Professional from Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT. The university saw clear advantages in standardising on the new operating system for both its own PC inventory and staff- and student-owned PCs. Solution The Director of NUS Computer Center, Professor Lawrence Wong, had no qualms about the early rollout. “Our assessment indicated a convergence of the corporate and consumer operating system with Windows XP Professional,” he said. “In terms of robustness, features and scalability, we’re reasonably confident about our early rollout.” In an environment with so many mobile users, improved stability, backed up by advanced support features, made Windows XP Professional a logical choice. The opportunity to make support more efficient by standardising on a common platform was also too good to ignore. Professor Wong said the remote assistance feature, which enables users to allow trusted friends or the IT helpdesk staff to remotely support their PCs over the Internet, has clear benefits when staff and students are widely dispersed. File protection and automatic updates are also beneficial with a large community of users. Putting that together with a more robust architecture created a clear winner for Professor Wong. “Windows XP Professional is more stable, making it worthwhile to upgrade. On the client side, there seem to be fewer problems compared with older Windows software.” Before deciding on Windows XP Professional, the University tested and evaluated release candidate copies of Windows XP Professional, and began the deployment with the final version ahead of the Singapore launch on October 26. (Release candidate copies are not final software, but those ready for general public review and evaluation). The university had already converted 1,500 of its own PCs from Windows 98 to Windows XP Professional by the end of October, even before the official launch of the new operating system. By the end of 2001 it had already rolled the operating system out on 3500 desktops. It also had licenses permitting upgrading of 13,000 to 15,000 staff and student-owned PCs, mostly notebooks bought by students under a university scheme offering them a 25-35 per cent discount on the retail prices. Most of the older versions of the Windows operating system software used by NUS were bought in 1998, so there was a need to upgrade to 256 MB of RAM, “but it’s a worthwhile investment”, Professor Wong said. Professor Wong says the university is also keen to explore the instant messaging and alerts capability in Windows XP Professional, as there was already widespread use of Short Messaging System (SMS) and instant messaging services among the students. “There is a bunch of applications we have identified using SMS, for example sending alerts to students about exams, or to students who have overdue library books.” The university is using Exchange 2000, recently upgraded from Exchange 5.5, as its messaging platform. It currently handles 35,000 users sending a million messages a day Benefits For NUS, which must maintain a large network of computers, consolidating onto the robust Windows XP platform makes perfect sense. A better PC experience, greater reliability and ease of use are clear benefits for the university’s computer users. But it is the ability to provide better support to his academic customers that excites Professor Wong the most. “The convergence to Windows XP translates to consolidation of our support capabilities, helps us improve our service levels and reduces our total cost of ownership,” he says.			Solution Overview
			Customer Profile The National University of Singapore is the premiere tertiary educational institution in Singapore and one of the leading universities in the Asia Pacific. The university has over 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students from Singapore and around the world. Business Situation NUS needed to standardise on one operating system across internal systems as well as faculty, staff and student owned computers. This meant up to 20,000 computers, all requiring a robust operating system that was powerful, easy to use and easy to manage. Solution Windows XP Professional’s robustness, features, scalability, and low total cost of ownership enabled NUS to confidently deploy it throughout the university. Software & Services Windows XP Professional Exchange 2000 Hardware Multiple brands
			'The convergence to Windows XP translates to consolidation of our support capabilities, helps us improve our service levels and reduces our total cost of ownership.'
			Professor Lawrence Wong Director, Computer Centre National University of Singapore
For More Information For more information about Microsoft products or services go to http://www.microsoft.com/singapore. For more information on the National University of Singapore visit the Web site at  http://www.nus.edu.sg. © 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, ActiveX, BizTalk, Visual Studio, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.