Microsoft Office 365Customer Solution Case Study

Government Agency Cuts Costs by 12% Annually with Cloud Productivity Solution

OverviewCountry or Region: MalaysiaIndustry: Government Agency

Customer ProfileEmployees Provident Fund is a social security institution that provides retirement benefits for members located across Malaysia.

Business SituationCommunication is mission critical for Employees Provident Fund operations, so finding better and faster ways to share information with their employees and members was extremely important.

SolutionEPF found the right solution in Office 365, with easy-to-manage email, connectivity tools, and business-class security and reliability—all at a fixed monthly per user cost.

Benefits Increased productivity with

Microsoft Exchange Online $393,188 total annual savings Reduce 12% IT costs per year

“Our vision is to be a world-class social security organization that provides the best savings programs for our citizens. Without a doubt, Office 365 is helping us achieve that.”

Mazlena Fauzi, Manager, Strategic Planning & Architecture, Employees Provident Fund Founded in 1952, Employees Provident Fund (“EPF”) is

the oldest social security organization in Malaysia. The ultimate aim of the company is to provide the best retirement services to its 6 million active members, and part of achieving that lies in clear, consistent communication—both among EPF employees and between its staff and members. “Communication is mission critical for us,” says Mazlena Fauzi, manager, Strategic Planning & Architecture of EPF. “So finding better ways to share information with each other and our members is critical.”

EPF wanted to expand its email capabilities and make it easier for employees to work together productively. The social security services agency also wanted to reduce IT-related expenses without compromising quality, security, or efficiency. EPF found that Office 365

SituationEmail is the main channel of communication for EPF, however network constraints led the organization to limit mailbox storage and file attachment sizes. “Employees wanted more freedom to email large files, and more space to store important correspondence; but in Malaysia, it can be quite costly to increase network usage. That’s a cost we wanted to avoid,” explains Fauzi.

Due to the nature of the business, employees often need immediate replies to questions on financial regulations or investment strategies. Yet its 5,600 employees had no way of knowing whether a particular colleague was available and would often spend more time than they would have liked waiting for colleagues to return to their desks so they could track down pertinent information. “I could spend up to three hours a day simply trying to connect with the right person at the right time,“ says Fauzi. “That’s time that could be better spent serving a member.”

The firm was also seeking ways to free up IT resources while reducing expenses. “We spend a significant amount of time and money maintaining and managing separate antivirus, disaster recovery, and archiving tools,” says Fauzi. “We’d wanted to cut those costs with compromising security—and free up our IT professionals’ time to focus on core business operations versus administrating our infrastructure.”

SolutionFauzi found the right solution for EPF in Office 365, a cloud-based subscription service that provides easy-to-manage email, connectivity tools, and business-class security and reliability—all at a fixed monthly per-user cost. “Office 365 combines the collaboration, communication, and security features we need at a really affordable cost,” says Fauzi. “Plus, it seamlessly integrates into our existing Microsoft infrastructure,” says Fauzi.

Office 365 includes Microsoft Exchange Online, which gives users 25 gigabytes of mailbox storage space and enables them to send email messages up to 25 megabytes. “We often send and receive very large files with financial information, so we need to ensure we can share them securely. Rather than having to spend time compressing files or setting up secure FTP sites, we can now rely on Office 365 to send what we need quickly and easily.”

Lync Online, a web-based instant messaging application, includes a presence indicator that enables EPF employees to see when colleagues are at their desks and connect right away. “Being able to determine if the right person is available when I need them saves an incredible amount of time and energy,” Fauzi remarks. Lync Online also gives users the ability to share their screens—reducing the need to email files back and forth. “We don’t need to worry so

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much about email limitations with Office 365, but the ability to share our screens is a great way to communicate while reducing the number of emails we need to send, read, and manage.”

Powered by trusted Microsoft technology, Office 365 comes with a 99% uptime guarantee, antivirus and anti-spam solutions for 24/7 email protection, and enterprise-grade reliability and disaster recovery capabilities. “Office 365 comes with all of the security features we’d normally purchase and manage separately. That alone will save us nearly $400,000 annually,” says Fauzi.

BenefitsUsing Office 365, Fauzi noted significant improvements in communication, collaboration, and productivity: “We’re already predicting an annual savings of almost $400,000 this year. But more importantly, we’re improving the way we work together—and with our members.”

Improved Communication and ProductivityFauzi indicates that increased mailbox sizes and decreased file size limitations have helped significantly boost productivity. “With limited email capabilities, we had to spend a lot of time cleaning out our inboxes and compressing large files,” she says. “That’s simply no longer an issue with Office 365.”

Better Connectivity Saves Nearly 20,000 Hours Annually “With Lync Online, I can see who’s at his or her desk in an instant and communicate right away, which can save me up to three hours each day,” says Fauzi, adding that this savings extends to hundreds of employees each week—adding up to nearly 20,000 hours annually.

Employees can also cut down on email correspondence by instantly sharing documents on their screen. “Yes, we’ll save a significant amount of time,” Fauzi adds, “But the real benefit is being able to work together more efficiently and productively.”

12% Decrease in IT CostsBecause Office 365 comes equipped with enterprise-grade antivirus, anti-spam, and disaster recovery features, EPF no longer needs to allocate resources to maintaining and managing separate solutions. “Third-party security solutions are not cheap. It was such a relief to find out Office 365 included not only the communication tools we needed, but also top-notch reliability and protection. Since we’ll no longer need separate solutions, we’ll save 12% in IT costs this year.” Fauzi adds that Office 365 is perfectly aligned with EPF’s aspirations: “Our vision is to be a world-class social security organization that provides the best savings programs for our citizens. Without a doubt, Office 365 is helping us achieve that.”

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“Office 365 comes with all of the security features we’d normally purchase and manage separately. That alone will save us nearly $400,000 annually.”

Mazlena Fauzi, Manager, Strategic Planning & Architecture, Employees

Provident Fund

Microsoft Office 365Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of our most trusted communications and collaboration products—Microsoft SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online—with the latest version of our Office desktop suite and companion web applications for businesses of all sizes.

Office 365 helps save time and money, and it frees up valued resources. Simple to use and easy to administer, it is financially backed by a service level agreement guaranteeing 99 percent reliability. Office 365 features robust security, IT-level phone support, geo-redundancy, disaster recovery, and the business-class privacy controls and standards that you expect from a world-class service provider.

For more information about Microsoft Office 365, go to:www.office365.com

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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 Employees Provident Fund products and services, call 03-89226000 or visit the website at: www.kwsp.gov.m y

For more information about Enovade products and services visit the website at:www.enovade.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published July 2011

Software and Services Serviceso Microsoft Exchange Onlineo Microsoft Lync Online