Microsoft Office SharePoint ServerCustomer Solution Case Study

Top Industrial House Increases Collaboration Among Employees with New System

OverviewCountry or region: India Industry: Manufacturing

Customer ProfileMahindra & Mahindra Limited (M&M) is the flagship company of U.S.$ 6 billion Mahindra Group which has a significant presence in key sectors of the Indian economy. A consistently high performer, M&M is one of the most respected companies in the country.

Business SituationM&M needed effective tools for improving information management and knowledge sharing across the company. SolutionThe intranet portal - Mahindra Connect was developed using Microsoft Office SharePoint Platform.

Benefits Integrated platform Improved collaboration Improved access to information

and knowledge Streamlined content management

“We chose Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server as an integrated intranet platform - based on its capabilities to enable information and knowledge management through user-friendly interface.” Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (M&M) is a U.S.$6 billion

conglomerate that has a strong presence in virtually

every sector it's present in, across the globe. The

Mahindra Group is a leader in diverse businesses such

as automobiles, engines, telecom, leisure hospitality,

rural finance and a host of other businesses. It's a

journey that began with making general purpose utility

vehicles in 1945 and has been driven by its motivation

to excel ever since.

The company wanted to provide its employees with

simple tools to ensure information sharing and fast

access to key information. An intranet portal - Mahindra

Connect has been developed using Microsoft Office

SharePoint® Server 2003 – later migrated to

SharePoint® Server 2007. The solution supports

collaboration, workflow processes, and document

SituationThe US $6 billion Mahindra Group is among the top 10 industrial houses in India. Mahindra & Mahindra is the only Indian company among the top tractor brands in the world. Mahindra’s Farm Equipment Sector has recently won the Japan Quality Medal, the only tractor company worldwide to be bestowed this honour. It also holds the distinction of being the only tractor company worldwide to win the Deming Prize. Mahindra is the market leader in multi-utility vehicles in India. It made a milestone entry into the passenger car segment with the Logan.

The Group has a leading presence in key sectors of the Indian economy, including the financial services, trade and logistics, automotive components, information technology, and infrastructure development.

With over 62 years of manufacturing experience, the Mahindra Group has built a strong base in technology, engineering, marketing and distribution which are key to its evolution as a customer-centric organization. The Group employs over 50,000 people and has several state-of-the-art facilities in India and overseas.

The Mahindra Group has ambitious global aspirations and has a presence on five continents. Mahindra products are today available on every continent except Antarctica. M&M has one tractor manufacturing plant in China, three assembly plants in the

United States and one at Brisbane, Australia. It has made strategic acquisitions across the globe including Stokes Forgings (UK), Jeco Holding AG (Germany) and Schoneweiss & Co GmbH (Germany). Its global subsidiaries include Mahindra Europe Srl. based in Italy, Mahindra USA Inc. and Mahindra South Africa.

M&M has entered into partnerships with international companies like Renault SA, France, and International Truck and Engine Corporation, USA. Forbes has ranked the Mahindra Group in its Top 200 list of the World’s Most Reputable Companies and in the Top 10 list of Most Reputable Indian companies. Mahindra has recently been honoured with the Bombay Chamber Good Corporate Citizen Award for 2006-07.

IT ChallengesM&M IT believes in early technology adoption for business benefits. SAP and Microsoft are the two major technology platforms used in M&M.

M&M intranet, Mahindra Connect, has been functional from 1997. Initially static Web pages (on html/ASP platform) were catering to information requirement of M&M users. Information updation requirements were routed through a central agency – “INTRANET SUPPORT”. There was a time lag between users sending latest updates to INTRANET SUPPORT and actual upadation on the site. The search capabilities were very limited. Separate applications were created

“We wanted to make it easier for our employees to find and access information with fewer clicks, while enhancing security and performance.” Krishna Nabar, Senior GM, Corporate

IT, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

for knowledge management related requirements.

The company wanted a collaboration solution, which will provide authorized users with easy, secure, and quick access to documents and rights to update. Other required features include - organizing the information into logical communities, workflow capability and document versioning.

As M&M’s businesses are growing rapidly and spreading across various geographic locations, domestic and abroad, Mahindra Connect is now available to more number of users across the globe. In this situation, all updation through a central agency was not practical. As the information and data volume increased, the need for a proper Search functionality also became prominent.

“We wanted to make it easier for our employees to find and access information with fewer clicks, while enhancing security and performance. Our focus was on decentralizing information and knowledge management process,” says Krishna Nabar, Senior GM, Corporate IT, M&M. “In addition, we wanted to build functional communities across organization – supporting our Knowledge Management movement.

SolutionThe primary focus was to make its employees more productive by providing them access to tools,

information, and people contacts faster and easier.

M&M surveyed various portal solutions available in the market and after careful evaluation decided that Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2003 would support the company’s stated business needs.

“We chose Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server as an integrated intranet platform - based on its capabilities to enable structured information and knowledge management through user-friendly interface,” says Arvind Tawde, Senior VP and CIO, M&M. “The platform needs to have future technology roadmap and at the same time it should seamlessly integrate with our existing office productivity tools. Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server met both these requirements.”

M&M intranet - Mahindra Connect was earlier migrated from html/ASP platform to Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2003 in the year 2006 and later migrated to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server® 2007 in the year 2007. It is the common interface for sharing information/knowledge across M&M. Mahindra Connect reaches to each and every employee, and supports different teams and groups within the organization.

Building the IntranetMicrosoft Office SharePoint Server® 2007 is an integrated suite of capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by

“Mahindra Connect is single, central place for sharing organization-wide happenings, information and knowledge – aptly enabled by SharePoint platform.”Mandar Vartak, DGM, Corporate IT,

M&M

providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight. Office SharePoint Server® 2007 supports all intranet, extranet, and Web applications across an enterprise within one integrated platform, instead of relying on separate fragmented systems. Additionally, this collaboration and content management server provides IT professionals and developers with the platform and tools they need for server administration, application extensibility, and interoperability.

Mahindra Connect has main sections such as What’s New, Organizational announcements, People corner (Fun & Frolic, Helpline, Reading Room, Birthday updates), Mahindra Information Services, Policies and Manuals, Fact file, Media Room etc. Users can directly contribute in people-centric sessions like helpline, reading room. The sections like Polices and Manuals, Fact file are informative and used as central information resource. Information owners are identified for each section and they are given appropriate updation rights.

Many functions and departments in the organization maintain their own sub-sites under Mahindra Connect. These sites are used to share functional information/updates with M&M users. Many sites are also used as a platform for close interaction

within the group. This has been facilitated by appropriate role-based access. These sites are owned by the functional owners. Project sites are created for project teams – covering project-specific information and documentation. Project sites are owned by project team members.

Knowledge communities are formed in different functional areas such as R&D, Quality, Manufacturing, and IT. Under the umbrella of Mahindra Connect, Knowledge Web has been developed to propagate knowledge management movement. Knowledge Web hosts various repositories covering various functions, and projects. Various knowledge communities are effectively collaborating through features such as Search, and Discussion Forum.

This platform is also used for Internal Blogging. Other Web 2.0 features are also being explored.

Developed on Microsoft SharePoint platform, Mahindra Connect effectively uses features such as search, role-based access, content management, team-sites, discussion forums, blogs etc.

“Mahindra Connect is a single, central place for sharing organization-wide happenings, information and knowledge – aptly enabled by SharePoint platform,” says Mandar Vartak, DGM, Corporate IT, M&M. “Microsoft Office SharePoint Server® 2007 has provided rich support for various kinds of communication and

collaboration needs across the enterprise, within departments and among teams.”

The company has focused on exploring standard product features for meeting user requirements. Third-party web-parts are also used in few cases. Some design related customizations are used for enhancing user experience. Other customizations are kept at minimum level.

Mahindra Group Intranet will be the common window for all information and knowledge related to Mahindra Group. All Mahindra Group employees will access Group Intranet through MahindraWorldNet and Internet. The common content will be accessible by all whereas role-based access will be provided to document libraries/knowledge repositories. The Search scope will cover all information/knowledge repositories, databases across Mahindra Group Companies.

BenefitsThrough the implementation of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server® 2007, M&M has experienced several improvements.

Integrated PlatformMicrosoft Office SharePoint Server® 2007 serves for information and knowledge management requirements at M&M with its standard product features. The need for developing and maintaining

variety of separate applications has been minimized to a great extent.

Improved CollaborationMahindra Connect is used to share knowledge, find information, and collaborate more easily and more securely within and across Business Units and Locations. The company is expecting to get more benefits through further exploring Web 2.0 functionalities.

Improved Access to Information and Knowledge All information and knowledge is now available at one place and can be searched through the intranet platform. Enterprise Search feature facilitates searching people and business data along with documents and Web pages to provide more comprehensive results.

Structured and Effective Content ManagementMicrosoft Office SharePoint Server® 2007 has helped M&M IT users to manage their own content on intranet sites, sub-sites, project-sites. Content access is managed at document/folder/site level based on user requirements. Multiple versions of the documents are maintained, wherever required.

Integration with familiar Microsoft Office client applications, e-mail, and Web browsers has simplified the user experience. Enriched user experience has been a major motivating factor

behind wide acceptance of the platform.

Microsoft Office SystemThe Microsoft Office System is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact.

For more information about the Microsoft Office System, go to: www.microsoft.com/office

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 who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. 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 Mahindra & Mahindra Limited products and services, call +91 22 2493 1441 or visit the Web site at: www.mahindra.com

© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published January 2008

Software and Services Products

− Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Hardware Two front-end servers – with

Network Load Balancing One indexing server – facilitating

Search Two database servers with SAS

storage