“We have enhanced our IT service with Microsoft support, and respond around 40 per cent faster to new requests.” Yazan Bsool, Service Delivery Infrastructure Manager, Zain Telecommunications company Zain wanted IT administrators to reduce downtime and manage the IT infrastructure more proactively. As a result, it began working with Microsoft Services, and the IT team embarked on a process of improving its knowledge and standardising processes. Now, employees get a 40 per cent faster response to IT issues and 60 per cent of the IT team’s time is spent in proactive management. Business Needs Zain is the leading provider of telecommunications services in Jordan. Since launching in 1995, originally under the name Fastlink, the company has grown each year, bringing a series of new services to market, such as multimedia messaging and mobile internet. The organisation plays a key role in the economy— employing more than 1,000 people in Jordan—and promotes the country as a rising business centre in the Middle East. Many of its employees are long-serving members of the team—not least Yazan Bsool, Service Delivery Infrastructure Manager at Zain, who has worked at the company for six years. Since joining Zain, he’s seen employee numbers rise by around 30 per cent, and the IT team face increasing pressure to maximise availability. He says: “Our priority is to deliver more responsive IT to personnel so they can enhance their productivity and deliver a better service to our customers.” Over time, Bsool and his colleagues implemented new Microsoft solutions to help employees work more effectively. However, personnel didn’t gain the full benefit of the software. Bsool says: “We needed a greater level of Microsoft expertise in the IT team. We lacked the IT processes to manage the infrastructure proactively. Around 60 per cent of our time was spent reacting to issues.” In one instance, employees didn’t have access to email services for nearly a day because a member of the IT team hadn’t correctly followed a change management procedure with Microsoft Exchange Server. “This level of downtime wasn’t acceptable,” says Bsool. “The IT team needed some extra guidance.” Solution Zain talked to Microsoft Services about Premier Support when it became available to customers in the region. Zain adopted the Premier Standard service, which includes round-the-clock support, an extensive range of proactive services, and a dedicated Technical Account Manager (TAM). Straightaway, Microsoft Services created a plan to enhance the IT team’s expertise and standardise IT processes on internationally recognised guidelines. As a result, IT administrators took part in a series of workshops, whereby Microsoft engineers gave them advanced technical training in a range of solutions to boost their skills. Bsool says: “I attended some of the workshops, including ones on Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. They were excellent and well organised.” Customer: Zain Website: www.jo.zain.com Number of Employees: 1,000 Country or Region: Jordan Industry: Telecommunications Customer Profile Zain is a leading telecommunications company based in Jordan. It has a presence in seven countries in the Middle East and Africa, and around 37.6 million customers. Software and Services Services − Microsoft Services Premier Support For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies Microsoft Services Customer Solution Case Study Jordan-Based Telecommunications Company Proactively Manages IT with Support Services