Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Customer Solution Case Study
Marquette University Boosts IT Employee
Productivity, Controls Costs with New Solution
Overview
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Education—Universities
Customer Profile
Founded in 1891 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
Marquette University is Catholic university
with 11,500 undergraduate and graduate
students. The university’s IT Services
department manages the messaging and
collaboration for 13,700 users.
Business Situation
To keep up with technical demands, IT
Services needed to find a cost-effective
way to integrate its voice-mail and e-mail
systems.
Solution
IT Services implemented the unified
messaging functionality of its existing
Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 e-mail
messaging environment.
Benefits
 Consolidated messaging capabilities
 Easy-to-use system
 Timesavings
 More productive and efficient staff
 Cost-effective solution
“With the ability to listen to voice mail in my e-mail
inbox through Exchange Server 2007, I can instantly
see who a call is from, and I can choose how quickly I
need to respond.”
Victor Martinez, Windows Engineer/Lead, Marquette University
Wisconsin’s Marquette University has 11,500 undergraduate and
graduate students. The university’s IT Services department
oversees technical support and hosted e-mail services for the
school’s students, teachers, and administrative staff. IT Services
recently sought a new voice-mail solution that would integrate with
the school’s newly deployed Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 email messaging system. The department needed this new solution
to give its mobile employees more flexibility in terms of
communication. In May 2007, IT Services implemented the unified
messaging functionality of Exchange Server 2007, which gives
employees consolidated messaging capabilities that help them
save time and be more productive. The solution also consolidates
servers and technologies, giving the department a more costeffective communication platform.
Situation
Marquette University, located in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin currently has approximately
11,500 enrolled students, as well as 2,200
faculty, staff, and administrators. The
university employs a relatively small central IT
Services department, which is responsible for
managing the messaging and collaboration
environment used by faculty, staff, and
administrators.
“I have everything I need
in my e-mail inbox, and
it’s easily accessible
through Microsoft Office
Outlook. Now I can
consult my calendar,
listen to my voice mail,
and check e-mail from
my laptop wherever I am
on campus.”
Victor Martinez, Windows Engineer/Lead,
Marquette University
In October 2006, the university deployed
Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 on its
existing Windows Server® 2003 Enterprise
Edition operating system. IT Services uses
this solution to manage hosted e-mail
services for 13,700 mailboxes.
Recently, the department also sought a new
voice-mail solution that would replace its
previous Private Branch Exchange (PBX)
system. The university is planning a phased
rollout to VoIP and needed a common voicemail solution that could work with both
traditional PBX and VoIP systems.
The Marquette IT Services team needed the
new voice-mail solution to integrate with its
newly deployed Exchange Server 2007
system, in addition to giving mobile
employees a more flexible way to
communicate. “IT Services employees in
particular are constantly on the go,
responding to technical support calls,” says
Danny Smith, Senior Director of IT Services,
Marquette University. “They rely on their voice
mail, along with an electronic help desk
notification system, to receive word about
technical issues. However, many times
they’re helping a customer and they might
miss another help desk call because they’re
away from their desk and phone.”
IT Services realized that it would need to
explore purchasing a new communications
solution that would integrate voice-mail and
e-mail systems. However, the cost of such a
system was a barrier for the department. “We
found a non-Microsoft [unified messaging]
solution we were interested in, but it was
going to cost us several hundred thousand
dollars to install,” says Smith. “At the same
time, we really needed to have a system that
gave us more flexible ways to communicate,
so we knew it might cost a lot to find that.”
Solution
In early 2007, several months after deploying
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, the
Marquette University IT Services department
expressed interest in the unified messaging
(UM) functionality of that solution. UM
support in Exchange Server 2007 includes
features that integrate with desktop software
on personal computers and mobile devices,
giving employees access to voice-mail
messages, e-mail messages, calendar
information, personal and corporate contacts,
and fax messages, from any type of device in
any location.
By using products such as the Microsoft
Office Outlook® messaging and collaboration
client and Outlook Web Access, university
employees are able to use their computers,
mobile devices, or phones to quickly access
the information they need. Exchange Server
2007 UM also integrates with the existing
PBX system without requiring a new IP-PBX.
In May 2007, Marquette University entered
the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program
(RDP) for Exchange Server 2007 UM. The
university had previously participated in the
Exchange Server 2007 RDP, which made it
possible for the school to run an early version
of that solution. The Marquette IT Services
department decided to use the same core
group of Exchange Server 2007 users. “It
made it very easy for us, because we were
able to roll out the unified messaging
functionality to the pilot users who were
already familiar with Exchange Server 2007,”
says Victor Martinez, Windows
Engineer/Lead, Marquette University.
Marquette enlisted the help of Microsoft Gold
Certified Partner Berbee for planning and
deployment. Berbee, based in Madison,
Wisconsin, is a technology company that
helps organizations in need of hardware,
software, networking, or support solutions.
Berbee installed and configured the
Exchange Server 2007 UM server so that it
would forward voice-mail messages as e-mail
messages within Exchange Server 2007.
“We were able to use
our current investment
in Exchange Server
2007 to get a new
system that didn’t cost
us hundreds of
thousands of dollars.”
Danny Smith, Senior Director of IT Services,
Marquette University
Berbee then helped Marquette install an Intel
TIMG300DTI gateway between the Marquette
PBX system and Exchange Server 2007.
“Installing the Exchange Server 2007 UM
server was very simple,” says Paul Gruener,
Project Manager, Berbee. The entire
installation was completed in less than two
weeks.
Benefits
The new Exchange Server 2007 unified
messaging solution gives Marquette
University employees consolidated
messaging capabilities, allowing them to
access e-mail messages, voice-mail
messages, faxes, contacts, and calendar data
from a single unified inbox. This easy-to-use
system also saves time for tech-support staff
members, while increasing their productivity
and efficiency. In addition, because of the
consolidation of servers and configuration for
the messaging and voice mail, Marquette
now has the cost-effective solution it was
seeking.
Consolidated Messaging Capabilities
Unified messaging support in Exchange
Server 2007 gives Marquette University IT
Services and administrative employees the
ability to check e-mail, voice mail, faxes, and
calendar data using only their e-mail inbox.
With this consolidated messaging capability,
employees can sort, manage, and act on
multiple message types without needing to
switch between systems. “With Exchange
Server 2007, I have everything I need in my
e-mail inbox, and it’s easily accessible
through Microsoft Office Outlook,” says
Martinez. “Now I can consult my calendar,
listen to my voice mail, and check e-mail from
my laptop wherever I am on campus.”
The ability to check voice mail from the e-mail
inbox is particularly advantageous for
Marquette’s mobile tech-support employees.
“One of our employees was recently stuck in
an elevator for several hours,” recalls Smith,
with a smile. “However, he had his laptop
with him, and because of Exchange Server
2007 UM, he was able to check his voice
mail for important messages, which meant he
could keep on working and being productive.”
Easy-to-Use System
The new Exchange Server 2007 system is
also easy to use, which is a big plus for some
of Marquette University’s administrative staff.
“It’s a very intuitive solution that doesn’t
require any training time,” says Martinez.
Martinez adds that this ease of use is also
helpful for the IT Services department. “Voicemail systems can be very clumsy and timeconsuming to navigate through,” he says.
“You have to forward through each message
to find an important message, for example.
With the ability to listen to voice mail in my email inbox through Exchange Server 2007, I
can instantly see who a call is from, and I can
choose how quickly I need to respond.”
Timesavings
Employees in IT Services have also been able
to save time using the new solution. “I’m
constantly away from my office, and in the
past if I was helping a customer, that meant
that it could take several hours before I could
go back to my desk and listen to a voice-mail
message,” says Smith. “It’s much more
convenient now, because instead of walking
all the way back to the office, I can quickly
listen to voice mail on my computer or cell
phone. I don’t waste any time, and as a
result, I can respond faster to a customer
who needs technical help.”
Smith says that the department tries to
respond to voice mail messages in order of
importance versus the order in which they
were received. In other words, critical
situations needing technical assistance are
given priority. “Now, because we can respond
even faster to [customers’] messages,” he
says, “we’re not losing time as we were
previously. In addition, the ability to file,
forward, take notes, and search voice mail
like e-mail is a very powerful productivity
enhancement feature.”
More Productive and Efficient Staff
The new unified messaging solution allows IT
Services employees to have access to one set
of inbox data wherever and whenever they
need it. As a result, they do not spend as
much time looking for information and are
more productive.
“In the past, I would respond much more
quickly to e-mail messages versus voice-mail
messages, because I’m always on or near my
laptop,” says Martinez. “Now I can respond to
voice mail just as quickly, and I am more
productive because I can help customers
faster.”
Martinez and his team are also more efficient
because they can act on the most urgent
messages more quickly. “For our department,
that’s very important,” he says. “We want to
provide better service to our customers, and
Exchange Server 2007 UM helps us do that.”
Cost-Effective Solution
The consolidation of servers and technologies
made possible by Exchange Server 2007 UM
also means that Marquette IT Services has a
cost-effective messaging solution. “Now we
don’t have to purchase another voice-mail
solution, because we have one built into
Exchange Server 2007,” says Smith. “We
were able to use our current investment in
Exchange Server 2007 to get a new system
that didn’t cost us hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Plus, we will no longer have to pay
maintenance costs on the old voice-mail
system, which will save us more money each
year.” Additionally, Marquette can configure
both the e-mail and voice-mail accounts in a
single location, without switching to another
system.
For More Information
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 4269400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
Canada Information Centre at (877) 5682495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing can reach Microsoft text telephone
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in
the United States or (905) 568-9641 in
Canada. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about the Microsoft
server product portfolio, go to:
www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx
For more information about Microsoft
Exchange Server, go to:
www.microsoft.com/exchange
For more information about Berbee
products and services, call (888) 8888835 or visit the Web site at:
www.berbee.com
For more information about Marquette
University products and services, call (414)
288-7799 or visit the Web site at:
www.marquette.edu
Software and Services

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Hardware

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY
Document published July 2007
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Partners

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