SMG Improves E-mail System With Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

“By moving to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, we have improved employee productivity with unified messaging and easier remote access to messages, while strengthening messaging security,” says Gaurav Gulati, General Manager – Information Technology T Infrastructure, Sumi Motherson Group

The Sumi Motherson Group (SMG) has core competencies in manufacturing of Electrical Distribution Systems (EDS) and polymer processing. These competencies are supported by specialization in engineering design, information technology, tool manufacturing and metal machining. The Group has collaborated with global technology leaders and adopted backward integration in key areas. However, its messaging system built on Linux software could not keep pace with the changing communications needs. As the company grew it found that it needed a more advanced and integrated communications and collaboration environment. With the help of MothersonSumi INfotech and Designs Ltd. (MIND), SMG replaced its messaging infrastructure with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and implemented Exchange Server Unified Messaging technology. Today, the company has a reliable messaging infrastructure with advanced functionality, including full support for its mobile executives. Staff productivity and collaboration also saw a boost with the rich set of productivity tools offered by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
Situation

The Sumi Motherson Group (SMG) is India’s leading full system solution provider for the automotive industry. It is also India’s largest wiring harness manufacturer. SMG was established in the year 1975 and its flagship company MSSL is actively traded on Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. MSSL has been ranked amongst India’s top 150 companies. SMG has established joint ventures with world’s leading automotive suppliers. It has a global footprint spanning India, Middle East, Europe, Australia and the USA.

In order to serve varied customer requirements, the Group synergizes the unique competencies of its constituent companies to provide totally integrated solutions for a wide range of applications for customers across different industries. The Group offers total solutions - starting with designing from first principles to delivering fully engineered modules.
SMG’s accomplishments include being the first in India to manufacture integrated Wiring Harnesses and Woodstock Door Trims. The company continues to set higher targets for themselves in their pursuit to become a globally preferred solutions provider.

SMG relied on a Linux based messaging solution to support its e-mail based communications and collaboration. Though this infrastructure was reliable and provided value for money, the company faced the challenge of managing its ever growing communications needs.

With the setup of new businesses across the globe including India the end-to-end manageability of the messaging system was becoming a non-feasible task. As SMG was adding more business locations setting up an e-mail infrastructure at each location was adding to the complexity of the problem.

Staff could not access their emails from outside the office due to a combination of security policy and system limitations. Users had an intermittent problem with the delivery time of e-mails as there were multiple hops and failure points. In addition, mobility was restricted to the use of Web mail only and no integration with mobile devices was possible.

However, as competition became increasingly intense, employees required a more robust, feature-rich e-mail system, which will enhance the flow of information to improve collaboration and enhance mobility.

Solution

Through technology partner MIND (a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner), SMG implemented Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with Unified Messaging to take advantage of improved security, and easier management.

“Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 seemed to have been designed specifically to meet our company’s challenges and address the messaging needs,” says Gaurav Gulati, General Manager – Information Technology T Infrastructure. “The new capabilities of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 deliver the advanced protection the company demands, the anywhere access people want, and the operational efficiency.”

While implementing this new solution, as an underlying architecture, the Windows Active Directory, directory services was migrated from its current multi forest-multi domain to single forest-multi domain architecture. This was a fairly complex Active Directory migration which involved around 50 physical locations in India and overseas.

Once the Active Directory was in place then Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 was rolled out and as per the recommended architecture from Microsoft the company was able to reduce the number of servers from 40 to 12 servers hosted out of 4 locations. This number would further reduce once there is more reliable connectivity availability at some of the factory locations.

Users were already using Microsoft Office Outlook as the mailing client hence there were no major training efforts required on the client tool. But the users were migrated to new mailing system location wise from the configuration perspective. Post the rollout regular tips are being sent to users to leverage the capabilities of the system more effectively and increase the productivity. The vision is to use this solution as a comprehensive collaboration tool for all employees for their modes of communication.

Vandana Avantha, Chief Information Full Officer , SMG says,“The improved collaboration features help people to focus on creativity, giving us the competitive edge we need to thrive in a fast-moving industry.”

Security and policy compliance were major concerns that have been largely addressed with the new solution. “In the previous solution if a content filter was to be deployed then the configuration was required in 40 different servers in a manual manner,” says Gaurav. “This approach was not only time consuming but also prone to errors. In the new system the policies are created once at single location and it is replicated to all concerned servers in an automated manner.”

Mobility features for field staff and senior management has reduced the dependence on third party solutions such as Blackberry and has added to the productivity. New tools and features simplify day-to-day maintenance, monitoring, and troubleshooting efforts.

From the administration point of view the manageability part has been addressed and now the e-mail administrators are well aware about the service levels the users experience with the solution in an end-to-end manner. “Due to the structure of our company, there was a unique requirement of intra-group user migrations and situations wherein a user would hold multiple e-mail addresses with different domain names. Earlier this requirement used to create problems for e-mail administrators while forwarding rules were implemented,” says Vikas Agarwal, Project Lead - Messaging, “With the new system this requirement is no longer a challenge.”

Traceability of e-mail was a major issue and in a non-integrated solution it was a very time consuming task. But with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 the traceability of incoming and outgoing e-mails has become seamless.

SMG saw the immense potential of Exchange Server 2007 with focus on unified communications and collaboration in promoting greater productivity among its workforce. The company was particularly pleased to implement the software’s Unified Messaging component. Users access their messages through a Web browser using Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access or by using Microsoft Outlook by connecting securely over the Internet using “Outlook Anywhere” feature.

Benefits

By moving to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, SMG has improved employee productivity with unified messaging and easier remote access to messages, while strengthening messaging security.
Increased Productivity

Ensuring open communications between company employees and its customers is critical to maintaining rapid business response. SMG’s employees are able to be more productive by taking advantage of Exchange Server 2007 features such as the Unified Messaging server role, the full-featured search engine, and the meeting-planning assistant.

Exchange Server Unified Messaging has made email access much simpler especially for mid-level managers, and the highly mobile senior management and sales force. The new messaging environment has also made employees more productive by allowing them to quickly sort through the messages that daily flood the inboxes and voice-mail systems. By moving to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, we have improved employee productivity with unified messaging and easier remote access to messages, while strengthening messaging security,” explains Gaurav Gulati, General Manager – Information Technology T Infrastructure, Sumi Motherson Group

Secure Messaging

Exchange Server 2007 includes built-in protection with features like Edge Transport, Hosted Filtering Integration, and anti-spam filtering and extensibility for antivirus protection. The Edge Transport anti-spam capability helps reduce the risk of users’ opening messages that contain malicious software attachments or links to malicious Web sites. The recipient filtering feature provides additional security by filtering out unknown recipient’s right at the edge of the messaging network. The secure environment enables the interactive collaborations and maximizes efficiency in providing security.

Unified Communications

Exchange Server 2007 and its Unified Messaging capability deliver an end-to-end unified communications platform for the enterprise by combining voice mail, fax, and e-mail in one inbox. Users have the same messaging experience regardless of whether they are accessing e-mail using their workstations, portable computers, or mobile devices.
Integrated and Manageable Solution

According to SMG, the Exchange Server 2007 system is more manageable and more reliable than the previous system. New graphical and command-line interfaces offer improved manageability and increased automation while integrated tools simplify maintenance. In addition, Exchange Server supports a complete Outlook experience, from Outlook on the desktop to Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile, and the new Outlook Voice Access, a feature of Exchange Unified Messaging. Exchange Server also integrates with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and other Office applications as well as third-party systems and devices.