In this changing and uncertain economic environment, companies are taking a close look
at their discretionary expenditures and ongoing costs. Microsoft is no different. Learn about solutions and
best practices Microsoft IT uses to reduce costs and increase productivity.
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| Microsoft IT has leveraged DirectAccess as its future in preferred remote access technology. DirectAccess is a new feature in Windows 7 and Window Server 2008 R2.� With DirectAccess, users are always connected to the corporate network whenever they are connected to the Internet, and without having to use a VPN. This seamless and ubiquitous access method has resulted both significant end user and business benefits for Microsoft. |
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| A single, consolidated business intelligence portal helps Microsoft streamline business processes and lower costs. Users can share business information securely across the enterprise, and can view and organize reports with ease. |
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| Do you have limited resources to deploy Windows 7 in your organization? Learn how Microsoft IT (MSIT) optimized its enterprise Windows 7 image to maximize end user productivity and provide a seamless client experience. The Windows 7 installation image was configured to meet corporate hardware and software standards. If the installation encountered non-standard hardware or software, the image directly re-routed the user to Windows Update so that they could quickly and easily be up and running. |
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| Does WAN access cost keep you from providing the datacenter services in branch offices that benefit your corporate users? Learn how Microsoft IT uses Windows Server 2008 R2 to improved performance and availability to branch offices. Services at the branch office level include file and print management, offline folder redirection, operating systems and application distribution, and patch management. This has significantly improved service availability, lowered management costs, and reduced servers. |
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| At Microsoft, the deployment of Windows 7 led to an improved end user support experience, resulting in decreased Helpdesk costs. New diagnostic features, improved software and hardware compatibility, and an investment in self service support content supported an accelerated adoption rate. |
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| The Global Foundation Team (GFS) developed a MOSS 2007-based self-service portal to support over 250 internal clients of highly visible external Microsoft properties. The portal provides comprehensive services such as a service offerings catalog, a sign up mechanism, reporting services, and service tracking. Efficient and easy to use, the portal has proven itself to be a competitive asset. It lowers costs to the business and customers by streamlining workflows and speeding development. |
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| Windows 7 deployment goals have been exceeded and Helpdesk call volume is below anticipated levels. Microsoft IT delivered on a Windows 7 deployment plan that minimized end user disruption. Investments in communications and productivity materials support a prepared end user population. |
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| By evaluating the performance workloads of the MSIT Managed Servers, Microsoft concluded that 75% or the servers had average utilization rates of <=20%. Even with this underutilization of the deployed servers the total number of servers was growing. By adopting an aggressive RightSizing program Microsoft IT was running 10% of its server workloads on a virtualized platform by the end
of June 2007. This virtualization effort produced estimated savings of $9.75 million over the 2 years of the initiative. Microsoft IT is projecting that 25% of servers will be virtualized in 2008 with a goal of 50% of servers virtualized over subsequent years. Microsoft will continue to save on server procurement costs and server provisioning time. |
| A major goal of the project is to reduce non-value-add activities currently being carried out by the OEM sales force. A non-value-add activity is an activity that requires an investment of time or money and does not add value for the customer. A related goal for fiscal year 2008 (FY08) was to increase productivity by 5 percent. By returning two hours to each person per week, the project team vision is to enable the OEM teams to spend more time on core functions that add value for the customer |
| | Microsoft IT manages a global internal helpdesk that receives 63,000 contacts per month. Microsoft IT improved the client support experience and productivity while reducing costs by off-shoring and outsourcing the central and desk side helpdesk and developing a number of call avoidance techniques. Microsoft IT reduced 27% of their overall costs by moving 60% of their volume to India over a 3
year time period. With these savings, they invested in call avoidance technologies and processed reducing costs another 20% by eliminating call volumes, for total of 47% of overall costs. |
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| Over 450 global projects within Microsoft IT are hosted on four Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server (TFS) instances, which are supported by a single operations team. Formerly disparate data sources are now standardized through process templates and a central data source. Collaboration and communication is enhanced by the consolidation of various sites, file shares, and document repositories into a single SharePoint-integrated document store. |
| Centralizing and sharing business intelligence based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 helps Microsoft lower costs, streamline business processes, share business information securely across the entire company, and establish closer relationships with business partners. |
| In the past, Microsoft Human Resources Web was comprised of more than 20 highly customized applications and sites. This resulted in redundant work and a convoluted technical architecture. Migrating the HR Web content platform to SharePoint Server 2007 is expected to provide a return on investment (ROI) of more than $10 million over three years and a reduction of 15 custom global HR Web
sites. |
| Developers for event scheduling and recruiting applications found that using Exchange Server Web Services helped them to create leaner and more robust application code, and to enhance calendaring and collaboration functionality while reducing development time for the internal line-of-business (LOB) applications. The new applications are easier to maintain because they are based upon
Exchange Web Services, rather than custom code. |
| The Microsoft Xbox360 manufacturing team was able to increase on time deliveries by 20%, reduce inventory by 10% and achieve a first year ROI of 126%. The application development time was reduced by 6 months and this time saving can directly be attributed to the team using BizTalk server and RosettaNet technologies over traditional EDI methods. |