Mohammed Kamal, Head of IT, Seera Investment Bank

“If we were to hire individual consultancies for each of the many projects we needed to do, it would cost more than Premier Support and we would probably get less in return.”

Mohammed Kamal, Head of IT, Seera Investment Bank

Business Needs

Based in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Seera Investment Bank is a Shari’a-compliant investment bank with a paid-up capital of U.S.$291 million.

The Bank was founded in 2006. To support its operations,which went live a few months later,the Bank needed to develop an IT strategy. Mohammed Kamal, Head of IT at Seera, wanted to ensure that this strategy would support the Bank’s current and future operations. Thestrategy, therefore, entailed providing the Bank with a reliable and scalable IT infrastructure that wouldhost the core banking system and other key systems.

Based on the strategy, Seera IT developed an infrastructure plan outlining the key IT systems and design.For a major part of the core components of this infrastructure, Mr. Kamal decided to take advantage of Microsoft products and technologies. He recalls, “I felt that Microsoft products and technologies wouldmeet our current and future business needsand provide us with the high quality, scalability, and reliabilityof attributes we were looking for.”

Seera’s next goal was the quality implementation of the infrastructure plan.“We wanted to ensure that any future implementation and expansion would be done the right way,” says Mr. Kamal. “We knew that consulting the right people would help us avoid potential pitfalls.”

Solution

Seera IT, in conjunction with Seera’s Technical Account Manager (TAM) from Microsoft, developed an implementation framework for the Microsoft components. This framework was designed to take full advantage of Seera’s Microsoft Services Premier Support contract, not only to resolve any issues that may arise, but alsoto help in the design, implementation, and operations of the related parts of the new IT environment.

As a first step, Seera took part in an Operations Strategic Review based on the Premier Service Delivery methodology. Through the review, Seera assessed the current IT state, determined a desired future state, andthen developed an actionable road map for attaining this state.As Mr. Kamal notes, this helped the Bank’s IT “Get healthy and stay healthy” by supporting the stability of IT systems. Mr. Kamal also adds, “The Operations Strategic Review helped us ensure that our infrastructure projects covered the right areas of our business. It also gave us a plan for managing and administering the infrastructure later on so that we can maintain a reliable environment and the desired level of continuity in our business.”

Mr. Kamal and his IT team then worked closely with Microsoft Services consultants to implement the new infrastructure that would support Seera’s core banking system—including, at that time, a Windows Server 2003 cluster implementation and associated Active Directory service. Along with this implementation, Seera IT team brought in Active Directory subject matter experts to help ensure that the system wasarchitected and implemented according to best practices and leading expertise. Seera systems administrators then took part in official Active Directory training programs.

Seera took a similar approach with other projects; in many cases, the Bank ran pilot programs to help avoid business disruption during deployment. Projects to date include:

Migration from a stand-alone implementation of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to a clustered implementation of Exchange Server 2007 to help ensure high availability of the Bank’s messaging environment.

Implementation of Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006 as a cluster.

Rollout of Microsoft infrastructure products used for the establishment of a disaster-recovery site.

Complete renaming of the Bank’s domain to reflect a brand change.

Once new technologies are in place, Seera helps ensure the quality of the implementation by taking advantage of regular Health Checks and Risk Assessment Programs. Through these proactive services, which are available through Premier Support, Mr. Kamal and his team, supported by technical experts from Microsoft, review the implementationand identify and remediate any issues. “We plan the Health Checks and Risk Assessment Programs into the phases of our implementations, which helps ensure proper implementation and configuration,” says Mr. Kamal.

Seera also worked closely with Microsoft Services to adopt the IT Infrastructure Library and Microsoft Operations Framework to align IT initiatives to larger business goals and more effectively manage the IT services life cycle and governance.

Benefits

For Seera, Premier Support is not a simple insurance for its IT investments but rather a strategic resource that helps the Bank to cost-effectively and successfully executeon the infrastructure aspects of its IT strategy and initiatives. “If we were to hire individual consultancies for each of the many related projects we needed to do, it would cost more than Premier Support and we would probably get less in return,” says Mr. Kamal. “By engaging in Premier Support, Microsoft Services consultants help us starting on day one,from planning to postimplementation.”

Proactive Approach in IT Operations

Taking advantage of Premier Support for nearly three years has helped Seera IT in proactively identifying and resolving issues. Illustrative of this, the Bank spent approximately51 hours with Microsoft support engineers to resolve issues in its first year with Premier Support. In year two, this number dropped to zero—a number thatremains the same in year three. Says Mr. Kamal, “The services provided have helped us establish our IT environment. Although we have been continuously investing in our infrastructure as our business grew, I think that in the coming years, we willbe able to reduce IT costs and capitalize on our investments.”

Gain Knowledge and Skills for Enhanced Supportability

Seera has found the knowledge gained through Premier Support to be invaluable in helping the Bank build its IT environment and operation. “Premier Support is excellent,” says Mr. Kamal. “It opens the door to talking to subject matter experts in any domain and provides the training and knowledge resources we need. This in turn helps drive productivity and lets our IT staff become more self-reliant in implementing and managing our infrastructure.”

Establish a Strategic Relationship

Seera has found the relationship-based approach of Premier Support to be particularly effective. Says Mr. Kamal,“During the course of implementation of a new project, our TAM helps by providing recommendations and by connecting us to the right people. He knows our operation, our IT environment, and even our business, and he knows how to help us maximize the value we get from our Premier Support agreement.”

Looking toward the future, Mr. Kamal notes, “We aspire to further take advantage of our strong relationship with Microsoft to constantly improve our IT infrastructure.I am confident that, with the help of Premier Support, we can address future challenges and maintain a reliable IT operation.”