“Premier Support has shifted the focus of our IT operations—we now take a proactive approach to infrastructure management. Our roadmap is aligned with our business goals and is driving efficiency.” Yousef Dhawi Almajnouni, IT General Manager, Al-Tuwairqi Holding Company Leading manufacturing group Al-Tuwairqi Holding Company wanted expert advice and support to improve its IT and infrastructure management. Since 2008, Microsoft Services Premier Support has helped the company build an environment with minimal downtime. The Microsoft Technical Account Manager (TAM) is a key factor in aligning the technology roadmap with the group’s business and cost reduction priorities. Business Needs Steel manufacturer Al-Tuwairqi, founded in 1977, is one of the leading business conglomerates in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, having grown rapidly by acquisition. It is the second-fastest growing firm and ranked 26 of the top 100 companies in the country. The organisation has expanded from its head office in Dammam to operations in Jeddah and Riyadh, as well as in Pakistan and the United Kingdom (U.K.). This has presented challenges for its in-house IT department. Over the past three years, Al-Tuwairqi has adopted a new strategy to support its expansion plans. As part of this, the IT department is building a state-of-the-art data centre and disaster recovery site to serve the company’s international needs and future requirements. Yousef Dhawi Almajnouni, IT General Manager, Al-Tuwairqi Holding, says: “The roadmap includes infrastructure services, messaging, unified communications, monitoring and security solutions, and an enterprise resource planning system. We also wanted to use virtualisation technology to improve the availability of business applications, and ensure a more consistent level of service across the organisation, especially to employees in remote locations or on the move.” In 2008, Almajnouni and his colleagues identified the need for support on how to use their existing software assets—in particular, unused licences—more effectively, with a view to enhancing productivity and reducing overheads. The group already had a Microsoft Services Enterprise Agreement for low-cost volume licensing of Microsoft products, but required access to end-to-end IT services and support. Solution Al-Tuwairqi decided to invest in proactive support through Microsoft Services Premier Support, which provided the group with a Technical Account Manager (TAM)—a job assigned to Ahmad Al- Mohamed. He initiated the assignment with a health check and risk assessment programme for the company’s Active Directory service, recommending an upgrade. Almajnouni wanted to extend the range of consultancy to proactive planning for a move to an IT environment based on Microsoft technologies. This will include the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, which has virtualisation features and Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning software. The group will drive additional cost cuts with other Microsoft technologies for collaboration, security, and data management. Customer: Al-Tuwairqi Holding Company Website: www.altuwairqi.com Number of Employees: 3,500 Country or Region: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Industry: Manufacturing Customer Profile Al-Tuwairqi Holding Company is among the top 100 companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with primary interests in steel manufacturing and offices in Pakistan and the United Kingdom. Software and Services Services − Microsoft Services Premier Support Microsoft Dynamics − Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio − Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 − Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 − Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2010 − Windows Server 2008 R2 For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies Microsoft Services Customer Solution Case Study Steel Firm Uses Support Services to Align Infrastructure with Business Goals