Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Aegon Religare Case Study
Aegon Religare Case Study
Page 1 of 4
Solution
Top Benefits
Page 2 of 4
Overview
Country/Region : India
Industry: Insurance
Customer Profile
AEGON, an international life
insurance, pension and investment
company, Religare, a global financial
services group and Bennett, Coleman
& Company, Indias largest media
house, have come together to launch
AEGON Religare Life Insurance
Company Limited (AEGON Religare).
This venture is dedicated to build a
profitable customer-centric business
with scale, providing a work
environment that fosters excellence
and innovation.
AEGON Religare launched its panIndia operations in July, 2008
following a multi-channel distribution
strategy..
Background
The parent companies - Religare Group and AEGON were both using
MS Exchange as their mailing system. So it was natural for AEGON
Religare to consider following suit and adopt MS Exchange for its
mailing requirements during its inception stage.
However, the Indian financial market conditions are different. The lower
transaction value per customer, rapid growth and a highly competitive
business environment means lower revenue per employee. The result is
a pressure to keep costs low across the board.
"We wanted to have an effective email solution that could bring down
the cost of e-mail per employee."
Srinivasan Iyengar Director IT
& Operations
Challenge
The key challenge for the IT team at AEGON Religare was to lower the
cost of providing e-mail to its fast-growing employee base without
compromising on key features and functionalities.
Page 3 of 4
Solution
We are always trying to explore
ways to manage costs efficiently. And
this has been one of the significant
projects that we have undertaken to
cut costs.
Rajeev Chugh Financial
Controller
Srinivasan Iyengar, Director IT & Operations, was aware of the cost and
scalability benefits offered by Open Source but also did not want to
compromise on the features required by the key employees. So he
proposed implementing a hybrid solution using a combination of MS
Exchange and Open Source Software.
AEGON Religare decided to consider OSS based solutions as a way to
lower the cost providing email to its employees. The plan was to extend
the MS Exchange 2007 based email set-up for additional users.
Page 4 of 4
Mithi team worked closely with the Aegon Religare team led by Mr.
Paras Kothari, Assistant VP, IT, to implement the solution while ensuring
there were no disruptions in the existing system.
The implementation of Connect XD resulted in impressive savings of
between 40 and 50 percent. "The results are way beyond our
expectations," says Iyengar. Which is why Iyengar doesn't see the
reason why more organizations won't follow his approach given that
mailboxes are a commodity. "By default you don't expect much from a
mailbox. Unlike an app you don't wonder what business value it can
offer or the sort of revenue it can generate. It's just a mailbox, he
says.
The Open Source solution is also scalable. Iyengar says he has tested
his system for up to 20,000 users. "And I don't have to deal with
sophisticated or high-end servers," he says.
Mithi's solution provides automated synchronisation between the
Microsoft Active Directory and Open LDAP directory used in Connect XD
to offer a global address book accessible to both MS Exchange and
Connect XD users.
Benefits
Besides the 40-50% cost benefit on the email infrastructure, some
other key benefits provided by Connect XD included
References
CIO.in Case Study: Aegon Religare Got Great Savings With an Open Source Email Solution
http://www.cio.in/case-study/aegon-religare-used-open-source-email-solution-and-saved
Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Mithi Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
This paper is for informational purposes only. Mithi makes no warranties, express or implied, in this paper. Mithi Software Technologies, Mithi Connect Server,
Connect XD, Connect Xf, Mithi Web Mail, Mithi Personal Address Book, Mithi Global Address Book, Mithi Corporate Directory, Baya are trademarks of Mithi
Software Technologies. Other product names and brands mentioned in this document are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective companies.