Case studies
Daimler AG
Skaylink’s comprehensive consultation services have been instrumental in supporting Daimler AG’s Microsoft Exchange environment since 2010. With a focus on compliance, security, and integration, Skaylink has facilitated a secure migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange and provided ongoing support in optimizing architecture and interfaces. Leveraging insights from Microsoft’s pre-release programs, Skaylink ensures Daimler AG stays ahead with future-proof solutions. Compliance remains a major concern, with topics such as email encryption, single sign-on, and mailbox management addressed through Skaylink’s expertise, ensuring alignment with corporate guidelines for data protection and retention policies across Daimler AG’s extensive employee base.
Success concept since 2010
Skaylink has been successfully advising and supporting the automotive group in Stuttgart since 2010.
After making the decision to migrate from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange, Daimler AG hired the Skaylink founding company infoWAN as its consulting partner for its new messaging environment in 2010. For almost seven years, the consulting services have been focusing on addressing questions about the product, its architecture, as well as security and compliance.
Jürgen Haßlauer, who has been the master consultant for the automobile group since 2010 on questions relating to the Microsoft Exchange messaging environment, noted that with hundreds of thousands of mailboxes, the automobile manufacturer is one of Skaylink’s largest customers. The company also benefits from the experience that Skaylink has working with other customer segments, such as SMEs. The experience of these companies is relevant, since they are sometimes able to adopt new products and technologies faster than large companies.
Integration know-how
An essential part of the consulting service provided by Haßlauer and his colleagues was advising on the integration of other applications and services into the new messaging environment. In addition to other Microsoft services, such as Skype for Business (formerly Microsoft Lync) and SharePoint, this also affected other products with interfaces for the Microsoft Exchange mail system.
The consulting contract, which was initially renewed every six months and then annually, covers the three areas of private cloud, security, and compliance along with knowledge transfer. For the migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange 2010 in a private cloud, Skaylink helped review the system architecture with a view to optimizing it together with the corresponding interfaces in addition to completing other tasks.
The consultancy services provided by Haßlauer and his colleagues also included the creation of concepts to improve the security, stability, functionality, and innovation of the Exchange infrastructure within the customer’s own private cloud. Last level support in the private cloud area also included interfaces to integrated services, such as mobility or business applications that use the POP/IMAP protocol or Exchange Web Services.
"The practical experience we get from using the pre-release software at Skaylink and the knowledge derived from it allow us to take into account the direction in which Microsoft products are developing when providing advice to our clients. In this way, managers at our major clients can better assess which technologies will be relevant in the future"
Skaylink lets customers see farther
Skaylink participates in Microsoft’s pre-release and beta programs, allowing it to gather early information about new products, updates, and services. Haßlauer explained: “The practical experience we get from using the pre-release software at Skaylink and the knowledge derived from it allow us to take into account the direction in which Microsoft products are developing when providing advice to our clients. In this way, managers at our major clients can better assess which technologies will be relevant in the future”. Hasslauer believes this is a major reason why the Stuttgart-based automotive group has repeatedly renewed its consulting contract with Skaylink for almost seven years now.
Technologies Used
- Microsoft Exchange
- Skype for Business (Microsoft Lync)
- SharePoint
- POP/IMAP protocol
- Exchange Web Services
Major topic: Compliance
Of course, such a large company as Daimler AG largely wants a consultant that can help it with security and compliance issues. These areas include topics such as authentication methods, email encryption, single sign-on (SSO), and compliance functions, such as litigation hold and eDiscovery.
Responsible management of mailboxes
One topic currently confronting the managers responsible for enterprise email is the question of how to handle the mailboxes and associated content of departing employees. This also raises the questions of how long and where the mailboxes and their data can be stored. After all, it must be ensured that the mail data is treated and protected in accordance with the corporate guidelines.
Microsoft Exchange offers the ability to define rules for retention or archiving and automatic deletion of old emails via so-called retention policies. This is one of the topics addressed by the current consultations, which are still ongoing due to the complexity of the said 250,000 mailboxes from employees in different countries and the resulting varying requirements.
Microsoft Exchange offers the ability to define rules for retention or archiving and automatic deletion of old emails via so-called retention policies. This is one of the topics addressed by the current consultations, which are still ongoing due to the complexity of the said 250,000 mailboxes from employees in different countries and the resulting varying requirements.
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