Microsoft Office System Customer Solution Case Study

Middle East Bank Standardizes on Unified Communications Technology

“Productivity gains made possible with Microsoft unified communications technologies are already apparent, as are the features that help us respond more efficiently to customers.” Dr. Ashraf Sabry, Chief Information Officer, Arab African International Bank

Middle East–based Arab African International Bank (AAIB), with its head office in Cairo, wanted to reduce costs and improve productivity with a new unified communications and collaboration solution. AAIB chose Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, with Windows Server 2008 replacing Lotus Notes on IBM AS/400. By standardizing on Microsoft technology, the infrastructure is easier to manage, and integrates well with other line-of-business applications.

Business Needs AAIB has diversified into retail One of the fastest expanding banks financial services. The bank has a in Egypt, AAIB is a joint venture growing reputation for its expertise between the Central Bank of Egypt in using technology to deliver and the Kuwait Investment products and services to its Authority, incorporated in 1964. customers.

From its early beginnings in As part of a review of its commercial and investment banking, communications infrastructure— both at branches in Egypt and

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published April 2010 elsewhere in the Middle East—AAIB signed a Microsoft Enterprise Sabry says: “We enjoyed good approached Microsoft Services for Agreement for Volume Licensing support from Microsoft Services in advice on implementing a unified and standardized on the Windows the design phases, and Nile.Com did communications and collaboration Server 2008 operating system. a great job with the systems solution. The company faced several integration with our line-of-business challenges—a central one being high The deployment included Microsoft applications. It completed the bandwidth and communication costs Office Outlook 2007 messaging and deployment within a challenging for fixed lines. collaboration client, and Microsoft timeframe.” Office Communications Server 2007 Dr. Ashraf Sabry, Chief Information R2 for unified messaging and Benefits Officer, Arab African International presence awareness. The bank also AAIB is making significant savings on Bank, says: “Our previous internal implemented Microsoft Office Live its communications budget, having system relied on Lotus Notes with Meeting for Web conferencing. standardized on the Microsoft external e-mail hosting using These products use the Active unified communications and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. We Directory service for simplifying messaging technology. Sabry says: wanted to improve the IT support password administration, ensuring “Productivity gains made possible service to our 2,000 users by giving single sign on, and improving overall with Microsoft unified them a single standardized security. communications technology are messaging and collaboration suite already apparent, as are the features with the added benefit of unified Other technologies include that help us respond more efficiently messaging and presence features.” Microsoft SQL Server 2005 data to customers. However, the principal management software for non-core benefit is reduced costs. It’s too AAIB was also concerned with banking applications such as human early to give specific figures, but the achieving a low total cost of resources, Hyper-V virtualization savings are significant.” ownership, but with the reassurance technology for the disaster recovery that its new communications and site, and Microsoft Forefront Client Ongoing technical support from productivity suite would be supplied Security for protection against Microsoft Premier Support by a vendor that was highly viruses and malware. AAIB has also Services. With its Microsoft committed to providing excellent deployed Microsoft Internet Security Services Enterprise Agreement, service. Existing applications would and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 AAIB receives ongoing technical remain on AS/400, but all new in- to complete its security portfolio. In support through Software house developed solutions would be addition, Microsoft Office Assurance, which cuts the need for built in the new environment. SharePoint Server 2007 has been expensive third-party services. deployed and internal sites created. Previously, Web site administration AAIB specified a suite of integrated was outsourced, whereas now it is products capable of supporting Nile.Com—a Microsoft Gold internally managed. collaboration technology, such as Certified Partner and solution IT team freed for higher value calendaring, e-mail messaging, Web provider of infrastructure and work. The team of 20 IT conferencing, and instant messaging. security engineering services— professionals at AAIB no longer has to cope with performance and AAIB also wanted to ensure that its managed the systems integration, usability issues, so it can new system was resilient and included with the solution going live in 2009. concentrate on development a disaster recovery solution. Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Unified projects. These include desktop Communications Technical virtualization, migration to Solution Consultant, Nile.com, says: “We took Windows 7, and Hyper-V server The bank decided to consolidate around a month to deploy presence, consolidation. external and internal e-mail instant messaging, and Familiar Microsoft user interfaces messaging into one system using conferencing. And we now have 200 speed adoption. Employees were Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. As a users enjoying unified already using other Microsoft result, it moved the external e-mail communications. Use is increasing technologies, so the familiar look system—which was previously as employees become familiar with and feel of the interfaces means they handled by an Internet service a new way of working.” require little training, reducing costs provider—in-house. The bank also and increasing productivity.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published April 2010 Microsoft commitment to unified commitment to unified Framework. communications encourages communications.” Office SharePoint Server adds confidence. Sabry says: “The Applications developed in new collaboration features. AAIB investment by Microsoft in research Microsoft environment. is continuing to develop new and development into unified Previously, applications were collaboration features with Office communications is impressive. It developed for AS/400, but now all SharePoint Server 2007, including gives AAIB the confidence that new applications are developed document management and blogs. Microsoft has a long-term using the Microsoft .NET

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published April 2010