First Inland Bank has announced the adoption of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 as part of its commitment to simplifying the work process and increasing productivity.
First Inland Bank has a reputation for advancing the frontiers of technology usage in banking through its pioneer Flash-Me Cash e-payments platform.
According to Mr. Gabriel Obaji, chief information officer at the bank, who made the announcement, the new business environment and world of work demands that staff collaborate more efficiently and stay connected at all times – connected to the customers, connected to colleagues, connected to suppliers, and connected to competitive information.
He said that after a detailed and in-depth analysis of the previous Lotus Notes messaging system within the bank, the management saw the need for significant improvements in information security, regulatory compliance, service availability, organizational agility and employee productivity.
"The previous system was very slow, taking up to 5 minutes to download simple emails. The complaints from users had become unbearable. We needed to do something about it fast," said Obaji.
The bank’s network of over 4000 users was running on Lotus Notes and Domino v7.0.
Working with Dimension Data, First Inland Bank migrated its messaging network successfully to Microsoft Exchange 2007 that scales across a couple of Intel-based 64-bit server hardware.
Using the Lotus Notes Transporter Suite developed by Microsoft and built on the .NET Framework with capabilities to migrate Domino user objects, groups and mailbox items, the Dimension Data delivery team moved across over 4000 user mail boxes and Distribution Groups from Domino to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 within a couple of weeks.
Dimension Data is one of Microsoft’s leading Gold Partners globally. Mr Jide Agbaje, head of Microsoft Division at Dimension Data Nigeria said "First Inland Bank improved its security and efficiency by using Directory services as a central point of authentication and resource management."
"We mapped FIB’s information infrastructure to its business objectives of higher levels of system availability and security. This provided a new infrastructure platform that supported advanced level applications, such as SharePoint and Exchange 2007, as well as the use or sharing of data that was not possible with the previous system," Agbaje said.
Mr. Obaji revealed that the user experience at First Inland Bank has been phenomenal. A recent company-wide survey shows almost 100% satisfaction for all users interviewed. The bank has already witnessed improved productivity through access to information, e-mail, voice mail, calendar and contacts from anywhere, at anytime.
"The switch to Microsoft Exchange 2007 was very smooth. Now everyone in our bank is happy. Total focus on the Microsoft Exchange 2007 deployment brought about the success that we are now so proud of," Obaji said
Also speaking on First Inland Bank’s recent migration from Notes to Microsoft Exchange Server, Mr. Bukunmi Omidiran, financial services business manager at Microsoft Nigeria said that therole of software has become more imperative than ever for simplifying the way people work together, find information, improve business insight, secure and manage content.
"Our primary objective at Microsoft is to maximise the business potential of our clients by providing innovative software solutions for building a people ready organisation."
"We are pleased with the successful deployment of this solution at FIB by Dimension Data and congratulate First Inland Bank for joining the global train of Exchange users.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 comes with a host of unified messaging features such as the ability to play voice-mail messages directly from an e-mail through an embedded version of Windows Media Player.
Users can also retrieve e-mail messages by calling into Exchange Server on a telephone and have their e-mail messages read to them by an interactive voice response (IVR) system.
Following on from the success of the Exchange 2007 deployment, First Inland Bank and Microsoft are partnering on 3 further projects – implementing Performance Point, a cutting edge performance management solution, deploying SharePoint, the world’s No.1 enterprise portal solution and upgrading Flash-me-Cash to Visual Studio team Suite, the leading development platform in the world.
Adefolu Majekodunmi, Microsoft’s Enterprise business manager, concluded, "The partnership between First Inland Bank and Microsoft has started off on a great footing. Microsoft aims to ensure further success in the future projects we undertake in conjunction with our partners at the bank."