Writeimage CSB Government Organisation Empowers Managers with Unified Messaging

“If someone tries to call me while I’m in a meeting, I receive an e-mail message showing the missed call along with the voicemail as an attachment, which means I can immediately see how urgent the call is.”

Nawaf Mohammed Abdulrahman, Chief, Information Technology, General Organisation for Youth and Sports (GOYS), Kingdom of Bahrain

Traffic congestion and busy travel schedules made it difficult for managers from the main and branch offices of the General Organisation for Youth and Sports (GOYS) to coordinate on projects. The organisation was also spending a large part of its budget on telecommunications. After implementing a Microsoft® unified communications system, collaboration between managers has improved and productivity is increasing.

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Document published January 2009

Business Needs

The Kingdom of Bahrain, a rapidly modernising island state in the Gulf, has been recognised as the world’s fastest growing financial centre by the City of London’s Global Financial Centres Index. This economic prosperity is reflected in the longest-standing public education system in the Arabian Peninsula and a strong local infrastructure supporting sport and leisure for young people.

GOYS is responsible for providing an environment that encourages the development of sport in Bahrain. The organisation employs 350 people in five offices to administer services to sports clubs and youth centres across the kingdom. It provides sports facilities and sponsors and coordinates events, including international sporting fixtures and Bahrain’s participation in the Olympics.

To run such far-reaching projects, managers at the different locations need to communicate on a regular basis. His Excellency Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, the President of General Organisation for Youth and Sport (GOYS) says "We always need to follow up the guidelines and decisions that are issued to the directorates.”

However, busy schedules combined with travel commitments, and high levels of traffic congestion on local roads make it time-consuming and difficult to meet face-to-face regularly. Shaikh Abdulla bin Rashid Al Khalifa, the Director of Planning and Follow-up of GOYS, says: “Attending meetings uses up a lot of time. We can’t predict when everyone will arrive, or how long it will take to get back to our respective offices. Furthermore, some issues require short meetings, and because we operate from five buildings located in five different areas, it becomes difficult to meet face-to-face.”

Managers were spending a lot of time communicating by phone, and even more time following up on calls they missed. For landline telephone calls, they relied on a Nortel PBX telephone exchange, and sometimes they had to contact the organisation’s operator to make calls. All managers had mobile phones, but with the increased number of calls and travel to locations where mobile phone communications become expensive, mobile telephony could not be relied upon to cover all of the managers’ needs. Mohamed Mahmoud, Account Technology Specialist at Microsoft Gulf, says: “They needed a solution that would let them use their current infrastructure more effectively, and give them better communication on the move.”

Solution

The IT infrastructure at GOYS was built on Microsoft technology so it made sense to find a solution that would work within this framework. IT administrators consulted with Microsoft and decided that Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 would fit well with the rest of the infrastructure to provide a unified messaging system combining instant messaging, audio-video conferencing, Web conferencing, and telecommunications all in one system. Ahmed AlSawafiri, Public Sector Account Manager for Microsoft Bahrain, says: “We have worked in partnership with GOYS for some time, and we knew we could help it deliver a system that fitted its needs and kept costs to a minimum.”

IT administrators at GOYS hired Microsoft Gold Certified Partner EXCEED to implement the system because of the company’s experience combining Microsoft and Nortel technologies to set up unified communications systems. Nawaf Mohammed Abdulrahman, Chief, Information Technology for GOYS, says, “It understands implementation inside out and could focus more on the specific configuration we needed.”

In March 2008, EXCEED integrated Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 messaging and collaborative software with enterprise real-time communications server Office Communications Server 2007. When integration of all Microsoft technology was completed in May, the team started to upgrade the Nortel PBX system, completing the job in October.

Now, managers at GOYS have complete control over the way they communicate with their colleagues. “Unified messaging has changed the way we work,” says Nawaf. “If someone tries to call me while I’m in a meeting, I receive an e-mail message showing the missed call along with the voicemail as an attachment, which means I can immediately see how urgent the call is.”

Phone calls can be transferred to a corporate instant messaging system so managers can respond immediately. Before making any telephone calls, users can see if their colleagues are available, in a meeting, or on a telephone call, and recipients can decide how they want to answer the call: by e-mail, instant messaging, or telephone. They can invite other people and create impromptu conference calls.

“If I need to contact someone, I don’t have to look in multiple places for an office or mobile number. I can open Office Communicator 2007 and find everything I need in one place. When I’m on the road I can even access my calendar and reschedule meetings, send e-mails, check my voicemail and call someone in the corporate directory by voice commands. Plus, figuring this out didn’t take any training on the system,” says Nawaf.

Benefits

Using its new solution based on Exchange Server 2007 with unified messaging and Office Communications Server 2007, all branches of GOYS can now easily work as one organisation. A single point of contact for all offices saves money and streamlines communication, helping managers to use their time more efficiently.Abdulla says: “We now have improved communication between offices and reduced cycle times on many procedures, which has made our ISO9001 auditors very happy.” And, with more productive managers,theeffectiveness of the entire organisation increases.

More open channels of communication increase productivity and efficiency of managers. Single point of access improvescommunication while travelling—including international travel.

Communication costs between offices eliminated.

Reduced administrative time increases productivity across the organisation.

Multiple offices now function as one cohesive organisation.Ahmad El Chayati, General Manager at EXCEED, says: “GOYS now has a unified communications and collaboration solution that lets its staff work together no matter how far apart they are geographically.”