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Microsoft Office SystemCustomer Solution Case Study

Consumer Goods Company Cuts Costs,Boosts Efficiency with UnifiedCommunications

OverviewCountry or region: IndiaIndustry: Consumer Goods

Customer ProfileMarico is a leading Indian group inconsumer products and services inthe global beauty and wellnessspace. The group has crossed themilestone of INR 1,500 crore (U.S.$375 million) in sales revenues andINR 100 crore (U.S.$ 25 million) inprofits.

Business SituationBeing a fast growing firm with a

vast network, Marico needed alarger communications system thatwould provide a foundation forintegrated communication andcollaboration.

Solution The company deployed MicrosoftOffice Communications Server 2007as part of a unified communicationssolution.

Benefits

Enhanced productivityImproved information sharingReduced travel costs

The new solution enabled communicationand collaboration with vendors and partners,

thus achieving faster time-to-market for thecompanys products and services.Vinod Kamath , Chief Finance and Information Technology, Marico Limited

Marico Limited, a consumer goods company, is a leadingIndian corporation that operates companies in the haircare, health care and skin care segments of the beautyand wellness consumer goods market in India andabroad. Over the past 15 years, Marico has beencontinually improvising, building new brands. Every

month, over 70 million consumer packs from Maricoreach approximately 130 million consumers in about 23million households, through a widespread distributionnetwork of more than 2.5 million outlets in India andoverseas. With such a vast network, employees werespending a lot of time in travelling. The companywanted to improve communication and collaborationcapabilities of its employees. With the help of Microsoft

Consulting Services (MCS), Marico deployed MicrosoftOffice Communications Server 2007. The new solutionreduced administrative and maintenance costs alon

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SituationMarico is a leading Indian Group inConsumer Products and Services inthe Global Beauty and Wellnessspace. It markets well known brandssuch as Parachute, Saffola, Sweekar,Hair and Care, Nihar, Shanti, Mediker,Revive, Manjal, Kaya, Sundari,Aromatic, Fiancee and HairCode.Maricos brands and their extensionsoccupy leadership positions withsignificant market shares in mostcategories - coconut oil, hair oils, postwash hair care, anti-lice treatment,premium refined edible oils, nichefabric care etc. Marico is present inthe skin care solutions segmentthrough Kaya Skin Clinics (48 in Indiaand the Middle East), the Sundarirange of Spa skin care products (inthe USA and other countries) and itssoap franchise (in India andBangladesh). In India, Marico isheadquartered in Mumbai.

As of today, Marico operates inconsumer products, aestheticservices, and global ayurvedicbusiness. Marico's own manufacturingfacilities are located at Goa,Kanjikode, Jalgaon, Saswad,Pondicherry, Dehradun and Damansupported by subcontracting units.

Maricos focus on sustainableprofitable growth is manifest throughits consistent financial performance

a CAGR of 19 percent in revenues and19 percent in profits over the past 5years, while setting a record of several consecutive quarters of yearon year growth is 31 percent onprofits and 27 percent for sales anddistributing dividends for 26consecutive quarters.

Being a fast growing company with avast network, Marico wanted toenable better communication andcollaboration among its employees.

The company wanted to reduce thetime and cost on traveling of theiremployees for meetings and reviews.Also, most of the services available tothe companys employees werehosted, hence with the pay per usemodel, cost was a major constraint.

The company wanted an integratedsolution that would provide unifiedmessaging and communication.

SolutionAfter looking at several messagingenvironments such as Skype, GTalkand Yahoo messenger, Marico choseto implement Microsoft OfficeCommunications Server 2007because it met all the specificcommunication needs of the

company. Marico partnered withMicrosoft Consulting Services (MCS)for implementing the new solution.

We selected Microsoft OfficeCommunications Server 2007 forpresence, instant messaging, andWeb conferencing, says BhagwantPai IT Infrastructure Manager,Marico Limited. This will furtherincrease productivity, improveinformation sharing, and simplify ITmanagement.

Office Communications Server 2007incorporates software powered voiceover IP (VoIP), so users can make,receive, and manage phone callsusing Microsoft Office Communicator2007 running on their computers. Italso offers improvements to instantmessaging and presence, and itprovides an on-premise version of

Microsoft OfficeCommunicationsServer 2007providedinformation workerswith the ability touse OCS presenceto increase theirefficiency thusincreasingproductivity.Girish Rao, Head IT Solutions ,Marico Limited

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Microsoft Office Live Meeting for Webconferencing.

The new solution delivered theinfrastructure capabilities thatsupport collaboration across offices inIndia. It supports the following meansof communication and collaboration:

Enterprise wide communication andcollaboration platformGroup IMSupport for multi partycommunicationArchival of communication

Microsoft Office CommunicationServer 2007 provided rich presenceand instant messaging services toenhance collaboration.

The project consisted of three phases,solution architecture, testing, androllout. Solution architecture took 5

days (it started on 23rd April, 2007and was completed on 27th April,2007). The testing phase was startedon 23rd April, 2007 and ended on17th May, 2007. Production rolloutwas done from 20th May, 2007 to 5th

June, 2007.

The new solution provided Maricowith a competitive advantage byproviding messaging tools that enablecommunication across multiplevendors / partners / offices and

locations, says Vinod Kamath, Chief Finance and IT, Marico Limited.

The OCS server was implemented inthe Datacenter at the main office atRang Sharda in Bandra Reclamation.Chat, Presence awareness, and Audioand Video conferencing were themodules implemented.

BenefitsBy deploying a unifiedcommunications solution, Maricoexpects to improve productivitythrough easy access to informationand collaboration tools.

Enhanced Productivity The range of communications optionsprovided by Office CommunicationsServer 2007, will give the mobile workforce at Marico powerful new tools tomake their time on the road moreproductive.

With Office Communications Server2007, we will gain presenceawareness. Employees can see theavailability of their colleagues andhow best to contact them whether byusing phone, email message, instantmessaging, or video conferencing,says Girish Rao, Head IT Solutions

Marico Limited. This will improveservices through employees workingas productively as possible.

Improved Information SharingOffice Communications Server 2007will make it possible for Maricoemployees to collaborate more easilyand through more modes of communication. Employees can usefeatures such as conferencing andinstant messaging from inside theMicrosoft Office applications they

work with every day, such asMicrosoft Office Word and Office Excelspreadsheet software. Improvedcollaboration will help our employeesto stay informed, and foster newideas, says Bhagwant Pai, ITInfrastructure Manager, MaricoLimited.

Reduced Travel Costs

The new solutionprovided Marico witha competitiveadvantage byproviding messagingtools that enablecommunicationacross multiplevendors / partners /offices and locations.Vinod Kamath , Chief Finance and IT,

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By using Office CommunicationServer 2007, Marico has reducedtravel costs for its engineers and ITpersonnel. With OfficeCommunications Server 2007, ITprofessionals can use presence to findout who might be available to helpand make contact with that personinstantly.

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About Microsoft ServicesMicrosoft Services is the consulting,technical support, and customerservice arm of the worlds leadingSoftware Company. The organizationhelps customers and partnersdiscover and implement high valueMicrosoft solutions that generaterapid, meaningful, and measurableresults.

With its global partner network andsupport infrastructure, MicrosoftServices enables the successfuladoption, deployment, and use of Microsoft solutions and technologiesfor all customers, from the individualto the enterprise. Microsoft Services isdesigned to provide the right scope of services at the right time, includinglocalized support solutions forbusinesses and consumers around theworld.

Microsoft Office System The Microsoft Office System is thebusiness worlds chosen environmentfor information work, providing theprograms, servers, and services thathelp you succeed by transforminginformation into impact.

For more information about theMicrosoft Office System, go to:www.microsoft.com/office

For More InformationFor more information aboutMicrosoft products and services, callthe Microsoft Sales InformationCenter at (800) 426-9400. InCanada, call the Microsoft CanadaInformation Centre at (877) 5682495. Customers who are deaf orhard-of-hearing can reach Microsofttext telephone (TTY/TDD) servicesat (800) 892-5234 in the UnitedStates or (905) 568-9641 in Canada.Outside the 50 United States andCanada, please contact your localMicrosoft subsidiary. To accessinformation using the World WideWeb, go to: www.microsoft.com

For more information about MaricoLimited products and services, call(91) (22) 6648 0480 or visit theWeb site at: www.maricoindia.com

2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only.MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS ORIMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published September, 2007

Software and ServicesProducts Microsoft Office Communications

Server 2007

HardwareHP ProLiant DL380 G42.80 gigahertz Intel Xeon16 kilobyte primary memory cache2048 kilobyte secondary memorycache

PartnerMicrosoft Consulting Services

http://www.microsoft.com/officehttp://www.maricoindia.com/http://www.maricoindia.com/http://www.maricoindia.com/http://www.microsoft.com/office