Microsoft Certification Ensures U.S. Bank Continuous ...



Overview

Country or Region: United States

Industry: Financial Services

Customer Profile

This large, Midwestern U.S. bank serves more than 60 million customers in personal and consumer finance and commercial, private, and corporate investment banking.

Business Situation

To ensure continuous operations and the highest standards of system performance and customer service, the bank limits access to network assets to certified IT professionals.

Solution

Microsoft® certification of the bank’s software engineers and system administrators provided a structured learning environment that helped them develop IT expertise in a wide range of technologies.

Benefits

■ Improve employee productivity

■ Maintain high levels of customer satisfaction

■ Avoid IT operations and hardware costs

■ Develop deep IT expertise and put it to use more quickly | | |“Microsoft certification provides us with a cost-effective way to develop knowledgeable, efficient, and adaptable IT professionals, who can deal with constant technological change.”

Assistant Vice President, Large Midwestern U.S. Bank

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| | | |A large, Midwestern U.S. bank is dedicated to providing the highest level of customer |

| | | |service. Avoiding system downtime is an important part of this service. To maintain system |

| | | |reliability and avoid the financial risks of system downtime, the bank limits IT support duties to |

| | | |certified professionals. As a result, only Microsoft®-certified professionals operate Microsoft-based|

| | | |IT systems. |

| | | |Interview data indicates that compared to uncertified colleagues with comparable work experience, the|

| | | |company's Microsoft-certified IT professionals: |

| | | |Resolve network support and maintenance problems from 25 to 40 percent more quickly. |

| | | |Achieve a comparable level of expertise in 50 to 75 percent less study time. |

| | | |Use their IT expertise to improve system performance by an average of 30 percent. |

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Situation

In the financial services industry, uninterrupted system availability and high-quality IT support are essential to successful operations. An Illinois-based business unit of a large bank in the Midwestern United States operates a complex, Microsoft® software–based computing environment. At one of the company’s data centers, 13 dedicated Microsoft IT professionals support 250 servers, network communications, financial applications, and hundreds of off-the-shelf applications.

To keep system availability and customer satisfaction high, the bank encourages company IT professionals to make Microsoft certification an integral part of their career development process.

This policy is part of a larger strategy. As one of the bank’s Assistant Vice Presidents explains, “Whenever people are not familiar with the systems they work on, the financial risk of service interruptions and sub-par customer service is too high. For all our systems, our policy is, if you’re not certified on it, you can’t touch it.”

Solution

The bank uses two key aspects of Microsoft certification to ensure that only qualified employees work on sensitive IT systems. These include:

■ Performance-based testing for real-world skills. Microsoft certification tests for relevant job skills by having individuals strive to achieve real-world goals in simulated technical environments. These simulated environments better reflect problem solving in the real world, and candidates perform tasks rather than just answer questions about them.

■ Ongoing development of IT expertise. Standardized certification content and procedures give the IT professionals at the bank ongoing access to hands-on experience with Microsoft software that are valued and used by organizations around the world. Making Microsoft certification part of the company’s in-house career development program promotes employee confidence and motivation to work with new technologies and engage in more complex tasks.

Benefits

Microsoft certification enables the bank’s IT professionals to work more productively, deepen their IT expertise, and put that knowledge to work more quickly than they could with ad hoc study methods.

Certification Boosts Employee Productivity and System Performance

The Assistant Vice President comments that the company’s Microsoft Certified Software Engineers and Microsoft Certified Systems Administrators:[1]

■ Resolve system problems more quickly. Microsoft-certified IT professionals are able to use a wide variety of tools to identify and find answers to system problems an average 25 percent more quickly than uncertified colleagues. This advantage rises to 40 percent for IT professionals certified on more than one Microsoft software product. Faster problem resolution translates into faster system recovery and improved system availability, which are vital to maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

■ Improve system performance. Microsoft-certified technicians gain deeper IT expertise, which helps them to tweak the network and improve system performance by 30 percent. Improved system response enables the company to avoid buying new servers to maintain current levels of performance and helps customers to complete online transactions more quickly. This improvement promotes customer satisfaction and retention and increases revenue.

■ Accomplish more work in a complex IT environment. The ability of Microsoft-certified technicians to resolve problems more quickly, improve system performance, and develop a deeper understanding of the Microsoft environment than uncertified colleagues results in greater overall productivity.

The Assistant Vice President remarks, “In a bank I worked at previously, 18 IT professionals supported our data center. Here, my 13-member staff of Microsoft IT professionals supports our data center, provides help-desk services, and supervises software rollouts—in a more complex IT environment. Microsoft certification provides the extra knowledge and experience that our staff needs to work more productively. The ability to do more with a lean IT staff and avoid the cost of hiring new technicians is due largely to Microsoft certification.”

Microsoft Certification Accelerates Development of IT Expertise

A structured approach to training enables the company’s IT professionals to develop technical expertise and put it to work more quickly than their uncertified colleagues.

The Assistant Vice President reports that to perform at levels comparable with Microsoft-certified professionals, uncertified trainees who use unstructured, ad hoc study methods require 12 months—twice as much effort—as their Microsoft-certified colleagues. In the case of the Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 operating system, part of Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software, IT professionals using Microsoft certification classroom instruction, books, and online learning resources learn the same material in an average of two months rather than an average of nine months for administrators working in a less structured learning environment.

Company experience also indicates that Microsoft-certified technicians adapt more quickly to new technologies and generally develop deep IT expertise in at least three areas, compared to uncertified technicians, who generally gain deep expertise in only one.

The Assistant Vice President concludes, “Microsoft certification provides us with a cost-effective way to develop knowledgeable, efficient, and adaptable IT professionals, who can deal with constant technological change.”

Microsoft Learning

Microsoft Learning builds innovative learning products that enable both individuals and organizations to make the most of their investment in Microsoft technology. Offerings from Microsoft Learning—encompassing Microsoft training and certification, Microsoft Press® books, and Microsoft TechNet publications—include skills assessments, books, certification programs, classroom and lab-format curriculum, e-learning, and other online reference materials. Our goal? To make you a more efficient user of Microsoft technology. Learn more about Microsoft Learning at:

learning.

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[1] All comparisons cited in this study match performance of Microsoft-certified professionals against that of uncertified professionals with comparable work experience.

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| |Software and Services

■ Services

– Microsoft Certified Professional Program |Partner

■ Absolute Solutions, Inc. | |

“Microsoft certification provides the extra knowledge and experience that our staff needs to work more productively. The ability to do more with a lean IT staff and avoid the cost of hiring new technicians is due largely to Microsoft certification."

Assistant Vice President, Midwestern U.S. Bank

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For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing 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: .

For more information about Absolute Solutions products and services, call

(630) 893-3300 or visit:



This case study was written by Lawrence Associates. For more information about Lawrence Associates, call (908) 762-2100 or visit:

lawrence-

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Microsoft, Microsoft Press, Windows Server, and Windows Server System are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Document published July 2005

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