Windows 7Customer Solution Case Study

Insurance Bureau Saves 7,000 Hours with Operating System and Notebook Solution

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Insurance Fraud and Crime Prevention

Customer ProfileNICB partners with insurers and law enforcement agencies to facilitate identification, detection, and prosecution of insurance criminals.

Business SituationNICB needed to enhance flexibility for mobile workers, boost overall productivity, and reduce time spent troubleshooting IT issues and creating training manuals.

SolutionWindows 7 Professional and the Dell Latitude E6400 improve performance, give users faster, easier ways to complete everyday tasks, and help simplify IT and training processes.

Benefits Startup, resume, standby are 25

percent faster Battery life with Dell is 20 percent

longer Annual savings of 7100 hours with

Windows Search Weekly savings of 165 hours with Aero

“Using the Dell Latitude E6400 with Windows 7 Professional made it clear that both companies had the end user in mind in terms of design. Productivity has skyrocketed with this blend of power and flexibility.”

Bryan Rust, Technical Support Manager, NICB

In 1992, the Insurance Crime Prevention Institute merged with the 80-year old National Automobile Theft Bureau to become a leading insurance fraud fighting organization in the U.S. In fact, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) is the only company in the country that collects and maintains comprehensive resources of materials needed to prevent, detect, and deter insurance-related crimes. NICB’s success hinges on leveraging advanced technology coupled with its extensive crime-fighting expertise. As such, the company’s leaders wanted to find faster, more efficient ways for its employees to accomplish critical tasks. When it turned to the Dell Latitude E6400 running on Windows 7 Professional, NICB found a combination of speed, performance, and mobile flexibility that pushed productivity to new heights.

Works the way you want

SituationWaiting several minutes for a system to respond can wreak havoc on any busy professional’s productivity, and NICB employees found this an all-too-common occurrence. Starting up, resuming, and even shutting systems down took longer than users liked, and applications could often take several minutes to load.

Mobile users found that connecting to new networks was difficult and frustrating, often resorting to calling on tech support for help resolving the issue. Users noted that finding important documents required a seemingly endless search through multiple folders, and comparing files side-by-side was difficult. While NICB leaders wanted to overcome these challenges by upgrading its systems, they needed to ensure that a new operating system could work seamlessly with legacy software and applications.

In addition, NICB employees often found proprietary insurance programs, which were not widely distributed and thus difficult to research online, were difficult to use. Relaying IT issues was also a challenge when having to describe or recreate problems, and the training staff wanted to find a better way to communicate new processes to employees that would help boost retention. On top of finding solutions to these issues, NICB leaders also wanted to find a more effective and manageable way to monitor company-wide assets, system warranties, and BIOS upgrades.

SolutionThrough a collaborative arrangement between Microsoft and Dell, NICB was

given the option to test the Dell Latitude E6400 notebooks running the Windows 7 Professional operating system.* For Bryan Rust, Technical Support Manager at NICB, the combination of speed and performance was just the solution NICB had been seeking.*

“Using the Dell Latitude E6400 with Windows 7 Professional made it clear that both companies had the end user in mind in terms of design. Productivity has skyrocketed with this blend of power and flexibility.”

Benefits

Boosting Efficiency—In the Office and On the GoAccording to third-party test groups, the Dell Latitude E6400 running Windows 7 starts 10 percent faster and resumes 61 percent faster than previous systems. As Rust indicates, “When running Windows 7 Professional on the Dell Latitude E6400, our systems have been starting up 25 percent faster.”

Working on the go without worrying about having to find and select the right network is a problem of the past with Network Connection Wizard—a feature of Windows 7 that automatically detects and connects to the right network in any environment.

“With Network Connection Wizard, employees can locate and connect to the right network almost anywhere,” Rust says. “They’re frustration is gone—and our help-desk time is freed up to resolve other issues.”

24Works the way you want

“When running Windows 7 Professional on the Dell Latitude E6400, our systems have been starting up 25 percent faster.”

Bryan Rust, Technical Support Manager, NICB

Notebook batteries last longer than ever when using the Windows 7 Power Management feature on the Dell Latitude E6400—particularly beneficial to workers increasingly on the go.

As Rust points out, “The Power Management feature complements the long battery life of the Dell E6400 to give employees maximum wireless freedom.”Getting More DoneWith Windows Search, users can locate files and applications in seconds, eliminating the need to scour through layers of folders. As soon as users begin typing, the Instant Search Suggestions populate the search bar with relevant information.

“I don’t need to search through menus anymore with Windows Search,” Rust remarks. “It easily saves each employee 30 minutes per week—so they can complete projects faster than before.”

Rust is equally enthusiastic about Dell Built-to-Last Durability and Dell’s Inspired Design, which feature robust hinges and a bright display screen to help enhance a users’ ability to get work done. “Being sturdy yet flexible and lightweight, yet capable of powering up applications faster than before, the Dell Latitude E6400 is the best-built machine I’ve ever used,” he says.

“The matte LED screen on the Dell Latitude E6400 is easier to see than glossy versions and helps push down energy costs—making it easier to work and cut expenses,” Rust adds.

Cutting time out of everyday tasks is a benefit Rust and his team noticed upon

using Aero desktop personalization features, such as Snap. Users can easily place windows side-by-side by dragging and dropping them or hitting the Windows logo plus the P key.

“The Snap feature has made my life so much easier,” Rust indicates. “Manually resizing windows is now a thing of the past—I could never go back!”

With Windows XP Mode, users can rely on the power and performance of Windows 7 Professional while still being able to use legacy programs and applications. “We only have one program that hasn’t been upgraded in time for the Windows 7 Professional release—but it’s one program we need,” Rust points out. “Windows XP Mode enables us to use it without a hitch.”

Simplifying Complex TasksProblem Steps Recorder, a new feature of Windows 7 Professional, enables users to record any IT issue in real-time and send the file out to a technician for immediate help.

“Problem Steps Recorder has virtually eliminated the word ‘problem’ from our vocabulary,” Rust says. “We can simply send a step-by-step recording of our IT issues to techs for help and resolve issues right away.” Rust and his team have also found that this feature helps create better training manuals in less time.

“We’re also using Problem Steps Recorder to create rich training manuals faster than before,” he says. “And the visual impact definitely heightens end-user retention.”

34Works the way you want

“I don’t need to search through menus anymore with Windows Search. It easily saves each employee 30 minutes per week—so they can complete projects faster than before.”

Bryan Rust, Technical Support Manager, NICB

Managing and maintaining system assets is also easier than ever with Dell Client Manager, a subset feature of Dell Image and System Management tools. Using this tool, NICB leaders can effortlessly keep track of system warranties, service tags, and BIOS versions.

“Dell Client Manager simplifies the process of managing assets. We can basically maintain a database of service tags, warranties, and BIOS versions without doing a thing!”

*As part of the solution deployment through the Windows 7 SMB Evidence Program, the customer received complimentary notebooks and technical support from Microsoft and Dell.

Windows 7Works the way you want: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anywhere. You will be able to support your mobile workforce with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies for enhanced corporate IT security and data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows 7, go to:www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7

44Works the way you want

For More InformationFor 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 in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about NICB products and services, call 800-447-6282 or visit the website at: www.nicb.org

For more information about the Dell Latitude E6400 products and services, call 800-456-3355 or visit the website at: www.dell.com

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

Document published September 2010

Software and Services− Windows 7 Professional−

Hardware Dell Latitude E6400

Partner Dell