Windows 7Customer Solution Case Study

Bank Reduces IT Costs by $170,000 a Year with Updated PC Environment

OverviewCountry or Region: CyprusIndustry: Banking

Customer ProfileBased in Cyprus, Marfin Popular Bank delivers banking services in 11 countries. With almost 9,000 employees and more than 470 branches, Marfin Popular Bank earned revenue of €1.075 billion (U.S.$1.46 billion) in 2009.

Business SituationMarfin Popular Bank needed to update its computer operating system and network infrastructure to streamline IT processes, reduce costs, and enhance efficiency, security, and business agility.

SolutionMarfin Popular Bank consolidated its PC and network environments with Windows 7 Enterprise, Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, Windows Internet Explorer 8, and other Microsoft solutions.

Benefits Reduced IT management costs More efficient processes Enhanced security Enriched system performance

“We can now install Windows 7 Enterprise with zero touch, so we can redeploy the three people who were involved in PC preparation to other areas and keep our head count constant.”

Andreas Chrysafis, Manager of Network and Infrastructure Services, Marfin Popular Bank

The Cyprus-based Marfin Popular Bank has expanded rapidly since 2007, and the company now delivers banking services at 470 branches in 11 countries. In order to accelerate IT processes, reduce costs, and enhance efficiency, security, and business agility, Marfin Popular Bank needed to update its aging and disparate computer environment and network infrastructure. The bank installed Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows Internet Explorer 8, and Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 on company computers in Cyprus, and it used Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, and other Microsoft technologies to consolidate its IT infrastructure. As a result, Marfin Popular Bank has delivered enriched system performance to its employees, reduced IT management costs, increased efficiency, enhanced information security, and improved its enterprise readiness.

Works the way you want

SituationBased in Nicosia, Cyprus, Marfin Popular Bank delivers commercial and consumer banking services in Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Serbia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Marfin Popular Bank holds almost 20 percent of deposits in its broad market, and the banking group controls more than €40 billion (U.S.$54.3 billion) in total assets.

Since 2007, Marfin Popular Bank has expanded quickly through merger and acquisition. To help deliver a high level of service for its customers while maintaining operational efficiency and business agility, Marfin Popular Bank manages a comprehensive IT infrastructure. But by 2010, the company employed more than 8,700 people and managed 478 branches in ten countries, a situation that had begun to strain the capacity of its IT environment.

Most employees at Marfin Popular Bank in Cyprus used PCs that ran the Windows 2000 operating system and Microsoft Office 2000 productivity software. The company used Windows Server 2000 to manage applications and network services, and it used Lotus Domino to manage its email and collaboration environments. Unfortunately, Domino did not interoperate easily with the rest of the bank’s infrastructure or with other messaging systems, which sometimes made it difficult to exchange email messages and attachments with customers and external partners.

“Domino is not used by many people,” says Andreas Chrysafis, Manager of Network and Infrastructure Services at Marfin

Popular Bank. “We wanted a messaging environment that was more widely accepted among our customers and associates.”

Employees had trouble accessing information in documents, spreadsheets, and presentations that they received from outside the company that were prepared in later versions of Microsoft Office, and some were clamoring for the advanced capabilities available in the newer versions of Office. As a legacy of the bank’s growth model, the IT department had to work with a collection of Active Directory environments that made it difficult to manage network domains coherently, and potential security risks would have been difficult to remediate with the company’s aging and disparate IT systems.

In fact, IT management had become difficult in general. IT administrators had problems trying to automate processes or get newer applications to work correctly with the bank’s outdated operating systems, and even though the department had a dedicated three-person team for the preparation of new PCs, it could take up to eight days to deploy or replace a desktop or portable computer.

“In the current economic climate, we have to keep our head count from increasing and improve efficiencies,” says Chrysafis. “We needed to reduce the burden on the IT team and speed up service provision.”

Marfin Popular Bank needed to update and standardize its computer environment so that the company could enhance its efficiency, security, and business agility.

26Works the way you want

“In the current economic climate, we have to keep our head count from increasing and improve efficiencies. We needed to reduce the burden on the IT team and speed up service provision.”

Andreas Chrysafis, Manager of Network and Infrastructure Services, Marfin

Popular Bank

“Our strategy is to deploy common systems across all the countries we operate in and run them centrally from our data center in Cyprus,” says Chrysafis. “So we needed uniform procedures and updated software, and we wanted to start with an advanced operating system on the desktop and portable computers.”

SolutionIn 2009, Marfin Popular Bank decided to update its computer environment with the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system and Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007. To manage, consolidate, and globalize its IT infrastructure, the bank also deployed Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, and Active Directory Domain Services (part of Windows Server 2008 R2). At the same time, its Lotus Domino licenses were due for renewal, but when the company saw that it could enhance its email capabilities and reduce costs by expanding its Microsoft enterprise licensing agreement to include messaging and collaboration systems, it decided to migrate from the Lotus environment to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

Marfin Popular Bank worked with HS Data, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, to execute several pilot deployments, then a phased deployment of Windows 7 Enterprise and Office Professional Plus 2007 to 3,000 desktop and portable computers in bank branches and offices in Cyprus. Chrysafis credits the collaboration between HS Data, Microsoft, and his internal IT team with making the deployment a success.

“We had great people helping us from Microsoft and HS Data,” he says. “And we call our IT people the ‘dream team’ because they work so effectively as a group.”

For instance, IT engineers at Marfin Popular Bank worked with HS Data to install Windows 7 on employee computers using components in the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010, and then they used System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to manage the installation packages and execute automated installations of Windows 7 and Office 2007.By updating to Windows 7, Marfin Popular Bank could migrate from the Windows Internet Explorer 6 Internet browser to Internet Explorer 8 and provide its employees with enhanced web capabilities and improved defense from malicious websites and the exposure of sensitive data. The bank had already modified its online banking application to support customers using Internet Explorer 8, and it worked with application vendors and modified some security settings in Internet Explorer 8 to resolve a few issues that prevented some web-banking applications from operating with Internet Explorer 8.

It took the bank two months to determine that the majority of its applications worked well with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Engineers at Marfin Popular Bank and HS Data easily resolved compatibility and installation issues with one line-of-business application using command-line tools in Windows 7 and tools in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 and System Center Configuration Manager 2007. When servers at individual branches were updated to Windows Server 2008 R2, the

36Works the way you want

“We enhanced software performance and we can deliver new employee services much more easily. By deploying Windows 7 Enterprise with Windows Server 2008 R2 and other Microsoft management tools, we’ve untied our hands.”

Andreas Chrysafis, Manager of Network and Infrastructure Services, Marfin

Popular Bank

bank used Hyper-V virtualization technology to virtualize Windows Server 2003 environments to run applications until IT staff fixed those applications to run with Windows Server 2008 R2.

“We tested the systems in regular cycles, and as soon as we ran into issues, we solved them,” says Chrysafis. “But we rarely had to spend a lot of time digging deep into any specific application issue. It was usually just a small adjustment in a configuration file.”

Marfin Popular Bank completed the deployment of Windows 7 Enterprise to all 3,000 computers in branches and offices in Cyprus at the end of 2010. The company plans to gradually deploy the updated computer environment throughout its global organization.

BenefitsWhen Marfin Popular Bank deployed Windows 7 and other Microsoft technologies, it reduced the time and money it spends on IT management, simplified its IT and business processes, increased organizational efficiency, and helped enhance its information security. It also improved its productivity and enterprise readiness by delivering enriched system performance to its employees.

Reduced IT Management CostsWith a standardized PC image across company offices in Cyprus, and with a desktop deployment that requires minimum intervention from IT staff, Marfin Popular Bank reduced the time it takes to deploy an employee computer from eight days to as little as one hour. As a result, the

IT department was able to reassign the three-person PC-preparation team to more critical tasks such as application development and infrastructure optimization, which could save the bank €120,000 (U.S.$170,000) per year.

“We can now install Windows 7 Enterprise with zero touch, so we can redeploy the three people who were involved in PC preparation to other areas and keep our head count constant,” says Chrysafis. “Given current global economic conditions, keeping operational costs down is imperative to weathering the storm.”

More Efficient ProcessesBy simplifying its computer and network environments, Marfin Popular Bank now has more control over its IT systems and business processes, while making it easier for its IT department to support employee efficiency. Instead of having to wait more than a week for a new or repaired computer, employees can now get their PCs in less than a day, and they can expect reduced application downtime and enhanced IT services.

“Everything is smoother now,” says Chrysafis. “We enhanced software performance and we can deliver new employee services much more easily. By deploying Windows 7 Enterprise with Windows Server 2008 R2 and other Microsoft management tools, we’ve untied our hands, and we’re ready to help improve the company’s productivity.”

Enhanced Security Marfin Popular Bank is enhancing its computer and network security with

46Works the way you want

“We decided to deploy Windows 7 because we wanted to be in the forefront of the current technology. Now we feel that we have made a big step in offering the right tools to our front-line colleagues to enable them to compete and grow the business so that Marfin Popular Bank can meet its business goals.”

Andreas Chrysafis, Manager of Network and Infrastructure Services, Marfin

Popular Bank

features in Windows 7 and by managing all its domains in a unified Active Directory Domain Services environment. Employees can use the BitLocker and BitLocker to Go features to encrypt data on computer hard drives and portable media, which helps protect company data if a computer or device is lost or stolen. IT administrators can implement centralized group policies across the organization with Active Directory Domain Services, making it much easier to identify and resolve security vulnerabilities.

“We made a commitment to our CEO that we would resolve the vulnerabilities identified in our security audit,” says Chrysafis. “We were able to honor that commitment using tools in Windows 7 and Active Directory Domain Services.”

Increased Enterprise ReadinessWhen Marfin Popular Bank deployed Windows 7 Enterprise and Office Professional Plus 2007, it increased its enterprise readiness by providing employees with the tools they need to be productive in today’s business environment. For example, to produce complex quarterly reports, the accounts department relies on Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet software, and some employees in the accounts department had been using their

own PCs to take advantage of advanced features in Office Excel 2007, which made security management more difficult. Now employees use the version of Office Excel that they need without creating IT manage-ment headaches, and they can publish their reports in formats that financial analysts at other organizations can use.

By migrating to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 messaging and collaboration client to manage its email environment, Marfin Popular Bank made it easier for employees to communicate with colleagues and customers, and integrate their communications and calendars with the other Microsoft Office tools they use.

“We decided to deploy Windows 7 because we wanted to be in the forefront of the current technology,” says Chrysafis. “Now we feel that we have made a big step in offering the right tools to our front-line colleagues to enable them to compete and grow the business so that Marfin Popular Bank can meet its business goals.”

Windows 7Works the way you want: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work.

56Works the way you want

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 HS Data products and services, visit the website at: www.hsdata.com

For more information about Marfin Popular Bank products and services, visit the website at: www.laiki.com

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

Document published June 2011

Software and Services Windows 7 Enterprise Microsoft Office− Microsoft Office Professional Plus

2007 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Windows Server 2008 R2− Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

− Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007

Technologies− Active Directory Domain Services− Hyper-V− Windows Internet Explorer 8

Partners HS Data

Your people will be able to be more productive anywhere. You will be able to support your mobile workforce with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies for enhanced corporate IT security and data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows 7, go to:www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7

66Works the way you want