Microsoft Exchange Server 2007Customer Solution Case Study

The Second Largest Municipality of Cyprus Reaches Citizens Faster, Better with Modern IT Infrastructure

OverviewCountry or Region: CyprusIndustry: Local government

Customer ProfileThe Strovolos Municipality is the second-largest municipality on the island of Cyprus, providing administrative and civic services to almost 70,000 citizens through a workforce of more than 300 employees.

“We are very pleased with our Microsoft solution. We are now leading the way with the most modern IT infrastructure in all of Cyprus, and I am sure that many other municipalities will see our success and adopt similar hosted solution powered by Microsoft technology.”

Andreas Lambrou, Chief Executive of StrovolosProcessing citizen requests quickly and efficiently is the key to a functioning community. Strovolos Municipality, the second-largest regional government municipality on the island of Cyprus, needed to upgrade the messaging and collaboration solutions for its more than 100 employees. Strovolos needed to update its on-premise Microsoft Exchange Server architecture into a hosted Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 solution that would be secure and cost-efficient and keep in accordance with the country’s legal full-service requirements for public sector organizations. This task was entrusted to the country's incumbent telecommunications provider and Microsoft partner, Cyta (Cyprus Telecommunications Authority).

SituationEstablished in 1986, the Municipality of Strovolos is located about 40 kilometers inland of the Cypriot coast and is governed by a Municipal Council of 27 members. Headquartered in the recently renovated Municipality Building in downtown Strovolos, the workforce of over 100 employees provides administrative, social, financial and technical services to almost 70,000 citizens in six parishes within its jurisdiction.

The Municipality handles requests from all areas of civic life; including tax payments, civil weddings, business licenses and infrastructure improvements across 25 square kilometers of town area. To more efficiently receive and process citizen requests, the Strovolos Municipality installed the Citizens' Service Bureau in 1997, and has been certified with the high-quality ISO 9001:2000 standard since 2003.

“It is our mission to serve the people of our town. We take it very seriously, and it is a big focus for us to implement the right structures for processing requests and formalities as quickly and efficiently as possible,” says Andreas Lambrou, Chief Executive of Strovolos.

For many years, the Municipality has been keeping its employees connected with a Microsoft product suite: “The solution we had on our premises was a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 to offer basic email

communication to the Municipality’s employees through Microsoft Office Outlook,” says Nicos Kyriakides, Head of IT Operations of Strovolos Municipality.

When it was time for an upgrade, the Municipality decided to turn to Cyta: “We wanted a cost-effective, robust and secure solution that would provide the Municipality’s employees a tool for mail correspondence, calendar, task manager and contact manager,” says Lambrou. At the same time, the Municipality IT team re-evaluated the pros and cons of building the upgrade around its on-site server. “We would have had to deal with schooling our IT staff on the new on-premise solution and take care of server maintenance - adding new user accounts, backing up data and managing frequent updates,” says Kyriakides. The hosted solution by Cyta allowed the Municipality to continue using Microsoft Exchange by paying a per-user monthly fee without having to manage the technical and operational issues that come along with maintaining an on-premise server architecture.

SolutionIn search of a provider that could offer secure hosted server solutions compliant with federal regulations for Public Sector organizations and local governments, the country's leading telecommunications provider and Microsoft partner Cyta (Cyprus Telecommunications Authority) emerged as the logical choice: it has

24

high standards for data confidentiality and also offers in-country hosting solutions for data storage. Lambrou says that these were key factors in their decision to trust Cyta with hosting their mail server.

Performing a cost-oriented analysis, Cyta decided that a cloud-based software-plus-services platform would be the best fit: “The hosted solution by Cyta offered the opportunity to continue enjoying the benefits of Microsoft Exchange by paying a monthly per-user fee without having to deal with all the technical and operational issues that come with maintaining an on-premise server architecture,” says Michalis Lois, Manager of Services Development at Cyta.

The hosted solution required no initial capital expenditure and is completely serviced and constantly updated by Cyta – alleviating the need for municipality employees to invest in additional server hardware or up-front software license fees. Cyta initially migrated all existing on-premise Microsoft Exchange 5.5 mailboxes to a Cyta hosted Microsoft Exchange 2003 infrastructure. It also installed and configured Microsoft Outlook 2003 to the Municipality’s workstations, offering employees complete communication features beyond basic email.

Employees can now use shared Calendars, Contacts and Task lists. The Exchange solution also allows access to communication data via

Outlook Web Access and mobile phones. “It gives our employees the ability to stay in touch with the office at any time, from any place,” says Lambrou.

Recently, Cyta upgraded the Municipality to the latest hosted server version, Microsoft Exchange 2007 on an HMC 4.5 platform, in combination with Microsoft Outlook 2007. “The entire upgrade was carried out by Cyta smoothly, with absolutely no downtime and at no cost to the customer,” says Lois. “The solution can also be upgraded with Communication Services at any time.” he adds.

BenefitsStreamlined communication increased overall productivity. In addition to reducing the office’s paper consumption by 15%, the hosted Exchange address book and task manager have reduced the time it takes to process citizen requests by roughly 20%, saving each employee about four hours per week. “These time savings free up our employees to devote more time to being of service to the citizens of Strovolos in other areas,” says Lambrou.

Positive response to familiar Microsoft Office user interface. The new solution was received positively by users, at a 100 percent adoption rate. “The technology built around Microsoft Outlook could be implemented with a minimum amount

34

of staff training, even the new shared functions,” says Lambrou.

Future-proof, scalable solution with transparent cost structure. The subscription-based payment model and full-service maintenance – including system upgrades and added users – by Cyta helps the Municipality to stay within budget and save taxpayer money. “There is no need for server purchasing, installation and deployment. This saves us valuable time and money,” says Kyriakides.

Trusted, award-winning partner guarantees business continuity. “The high level of trust that Cyprus municipalities share for Cyta is the driving force behind their coming to Cyta for ICT solutions. The joining of the two big brand names of Cyta and Microsoft – a partnership we value highly – offers customers peace of mind when selecting Microsoft Hosted Solutions from Cyta,” says Lois.

Strategic milestone for securing additional public sector accounts. The Strovolos Municipality is an important reference project for joint Cyta and Microsoft efforts. “We really hope, and are currently putting the plans in place, to build on this success and replicate this project in other public sector entities and

municipalities throughout the country,” says George Lakkotrypis, General Manager of Microsoft - Cyprus.

Microsoft Server Product PortfolioFor more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to:www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx

For more information about Microsoft Exchange Server, go to:www.microsoft.com/exchange

44

For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Cyta (Cyprus Telecommunications Authority) products and services visit the Web site at: http://www.cytanet.com.cy/

For more information about Strovolos Municipality products and services visit the Web site at: http://www.strovolos.org.cy/

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

Software and Services Microsoft Office

− Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio

− Hosted Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Partners Cyta (Cyprus Telecommunication

Authority)