In conjunction with the directory services consolidation project, the organization will also benefit from a messaging (email) consolidation effort. Consolidating to a single messaging platform, likely Microsoft Exchange 2000, across departments provides many benefits and cost savings. This effort will tie in very closely with the directory services project in that Exchange 2000 relies heavily on a solid Windows 2003 Active Directory infrastructure.

A consolidated messaging platform can provide the following benefits:

 Consolidated application licenses and required middleware

 Reduced help desk costs

 Reduced maintenance costs

 Improved communication among employees, customers, partners

 Increased customer satisfaction with stability (vs. unplanned downtime)

 Minimized “frustration factor” among employees who can now communicate easily

 Improved productivity among mobile/remote users who now have access to “real-time” information while away from the office

Consolidating to Exchange 2000 specifically will provide the following benefits:

 Microsoft Outlook and Exchange is the predominant messaging environment in the marketplace

 Stop paying for high-paid support resources due to short supply in a niche product

 Easy to train your existing staff and maintain their knowledge and motivation through the Microsoft Certified Professional program

 The market has a large supply of trained and experienced Exchange and Windows support engineers

 Integration with Microsoft Office

 Powerful information management tool (calendaring, tasks)

 Consolidation – new features and performance of Exchange 2000 Server (Storage Groups and multiple databases)

o New hardware (disk, backup and recovery) technologies allow more users per server and better Service Levels

o Ability to scale-up – Exchange 2000 supports a greater number of users per server (up to 5 times as many as Exchange 5.5) which means you can cluster your Exchange servers for high availability and still use far fewer servers (yielding lower total cost of ownership)

 Utilize the application benefits of Active Directory by maintaining system and user information in a common directory

 Better/Centralized Administration

o Reduces the overall administration required for users, since user information is maintained in AD

o Centralize administration based on Active Directory benefits (one AD forest vs. many NT domains and Exchange Sites)

 Much improved Outlook Web Access – simplifies access for employees without dedicated workstations; enables email access from any web browser

 Secure Instant Messaging server – for companies that rely on instant messaging for business communication and want strong security

 Backup and restore capability greatly improved – seconds not hours – means virtually no downtime and no impact to the end user

 New deployment and troubleshooting tools that will make it easier for the organization to get Exchange and AD up and running

 Built on the same code base as Exchange 2005 Server, ensuring a smooth upgrade from Exchange Server 5.5 or 2005

A complete assessment, with business case, of the organization’s current messaging environment would take approximately 4-6 weeks. The messaging consolidation assessment should occur in conjunction with the directory services assessment as information and results from these efforts will feed each other. Typical annual cost savings for a messaging or email consolidation effort range from 10%-20%.