In the current technological landscape, seamless collaboration and communication are not choices anymore; they are essential drivers of business success. Organizations worldwide recognize the need for integrated solutions that streamline operations, enhance security, and elevate productivity.
Hikal Limited, a global leader in the chemical industry, sought to revamp its ecosystem and set new standards of collaboration, security, and cost-efficiency with Noventiq and Microsoft Office 365. Let’s look at their transformative journey.
About Hikal Limited
Established in 1988, Hikal is a reliable partner to companies in the Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, Biotech, Crop Protection, and Specialty Chemical industries. They manufacture and supply quality Active Ingredients, Intermediates, and Biocides to the global life sciences industry.
Hikal has five manufacturing facilities in India at Maharashtra (Taloja and Mahad), Gujarat (Panoli), and Bengaluru (Jigani), and a world-class Research & Technology centre in Pune. Our facilities have been inspected and certified by the Global Regulatory Authorities.
They create and deliver sustainable solutions for our partners and customers across the life-sciences value chain. Hikal believes in inclusive growth that embraces all constituents. Hikal is among the first Indian life-sciences companies to receive the Responsible Care® certification. They accord top priority to the health of their employees by adopting best practices in manufacturing.
Embracing the Modern Workplace
“At Noventiq, we believe in transforming businesses by leveraging innovative solutions. This project was an opportunity to enable Hikal Limited to modernize their ecosystem while enhancing security, data protection, and collaboration, reinforcing the importance of unified solutions in today's dynamic business landscape.” - Kiran Babu, Director - Solution Sales, Noventiq India.
Before the project, Hikal used an old platform as their main emailing and communications system. It was strong, but they also needed complete email security, identity and access management (IAM), device management, etc. These needs could not be met by separate, dedicated solutions that were costly, complicated, and required larger, more specialized teams.
Hikal chose Noventiq for a more effective and integrated solution: Microsoft Office 365. Noventiq worked with Hikal Limited's IT team to create a plan to smoothly modernize and transform their ecosystem, with minimal interruption or data loss.
Azure AD (Active Directory) Connect was used to link Hikal's on-premises identity system with Azure AD, allowing end-users to have one identity to access both on-premises and cloud-based services, making it easier to connect to O365.
The task was big – 1,100 users and their mailboxes were moved from the old platform to the Office 365 tenant owned by Hikal while setting up security policies in their O365 environment. The average mailbox size was 15GB per user.
Services like Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Office Pro Plus were set up with the help of the Hikal IT team. Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), a cloud-based email filtering service, was also used to improve email security.
Noventiq also helped Hikal find sensitive information, make policies based on specific keywords, and check those policies for effective Data Loss Prevention (DLP). The customer also chose Azure AD Premium P1 which enabled strong Identity & Access Management (IAM) and Device Management across their ecosystem.
This project was done within two-and-a-half months.
The Impact
“The migration to Microsoft Office 365 with Noventiq has been a game-changer for us. It is not just about emails; it is about transforming the way we collaborate and ensuring the protection of our critical data. This transition has increased efficiency, tightened security, and set the stage for further innovation.” - Amar Pujare, Asst. Gen. Manager (IT), Hikal Limited.
The shift from a legacy email platform with limited security and management capabilities to Microsoft Office 365 had a substantial impact on Hikal Limited. The customer could potentially save up to 50% on capital expenditure (CapEx) and operating expenses.
The migration was achieved in a go, effectively moving all data as is, so that users could access their data without interruptions on a better, more modern platform.
By moving to a unified collaborative suite, Hikal Limited improved efficiency and executed business processes more effectively. Overall, the customer can drive greater value with their IT investments after migrating to O365.
The Way Forward
Noventiq keeps providing value for Hikal Limited by creating detailed plans for implementing every O365 component. We also perform regular security evaluations and check if any Power Apps development can improve the O365 experience for end-users.
To enhance security, the Noventiq team will keep offering secure score analyses and solutions using current SKU components. A three-year contract with Hikal Limited guarantees that we keep progressing the customer’s transformation journey.