What better way than let customers and partners tell you they are satisfied and enthusiastic about your services. Here’s a first batch of customer casestudies for Microsoft Online Services :
- Partner Case Study: LINK Conference Service
- Customer Case Study: Datatune
- Partner Case Study: Virteva
- Customer Case Study: Archiver’s
Online Services Delivers Enterprise-Class Communications to Growing Retail Business - Partner Case Study: PointBridge
- Customer Case Study: Recycled Energy Development
- Partner Case Study: Arctic IT
- Customer Case Study: Staser Consulting Group
- Partner Case Study: SBS Pros
- Partner Case Study: Evolve Partners
- Partner Case Study: BEI
- Partner Case Study: ClearPointe
Offering Online Services Points to a Clear Win for ClearPointe
ClearPointe built its business on the remote management of client infrastructure. But many of the small to mid-sized business that ClearPointe serves were not taking advantage of newer messaging and collaboration technologies because of the high cost of building the infrastructure and licensing the software. When ClearPointe began to offer the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services, it found an excited audience among its clients. Arkansas Physicians Management, Inc., seized the opportunity to move forward with an e-mail migration project that had been languishing for years. This expanded service provider role enables ClearPointe not only to deliver results much faster and with virtually no up-front costs, but also to achieve increased revenues and an expanded set of business relationships with existing and new clients alike.
Online Services Provide Strong Entry into New Markets for Conferencing Company
Concerned that the company might be typecast as a conferencing services provider only, executives at LINK Conference Service actively sought avenues to provide valuable new Unified Communications solutions to their clients. Extending company offerings, they believed, would not only add value to their existing customers; it would also open the door to new opportunities. LINK Conference Service quickly realized these anticipated results with the Microsoft® Business Productivity Online Suite. This new subscription-based service makes Microsoft Exchange Online, Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Office Communications Online, and Microsoft SharePoint® Online available for a low cost, monthly, per-user subscription fee. The ability to offer hosted enterprise-class software solutions that a small business does not have, and that larger organizations can use to streamline their communications and simplify their IT management has helped LINK Conference Service win new clients such as Datatune and support its existing customers more fully.
Online Services Help Software Firm Affordably Access Enterprise-Class E-mail
Based in Seattle, Washington, Datatune is a small business software development firm that serves information-driven companies. After 10 years of running Microsoft Exchange Server onsite, Datatune moved to Google Apps to cut costs. Productivity diminished as users struggled with navigating the unfamiliar interface and had difficulty managing their schedules without the calendaring features of Microsoft Outlook to which they were accustomed. A year later, when communications solutions provider LINK Conference Service presented the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services, Datatune did not hesitate to sign up. With Microsoft Exchange Online and the familiar Outlook client software, Datatune gained an enterprise-class communications solution for a low monthly fee and without the expense or effort of maintaining an on-premise e-mail infrastructure.
Reducing IT Management Burden Creates Opportunities for New Strategic IT Initiatives
Many of the organizations with which the IT consultants from Virteva work have limited resources. As a consequence, these organizations feel they can barely maintain their existing IT environments at the levels they want. They certainly have no time to talk about whether their operations are running as efficiently as possible or how they might use other technologies to enable their organizations to accomplish even more. Virteva needed a way to help these organizations lessen the pain of running their IT environments. The Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services provides just that. By offloading the day-to-day IT management and infrastructure responsibilities to Microsoft Online Services, Virteva’s clients save money, gain unsurpassed support, and have time to work with Virteva on other IT opportunities that may provide more strategic benefits to their businesses.
Archiver’s had established 45 retail outlets across the United States in less than eight years. But with that expansion came growing pains. The company’s POP3-based e-mail system, which had worked well during the company’s early days, no longer suited the enterprise into which Archiver’s was evolving. At the same time, Archiver’s was not in a position to migrate to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, much as its executives wanted to. Archiver’s three-person IT team did not have the time or the resources to build or support an expensive on-premise infrastructure. Archiver’s turned to Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Virteva, which introduced them to the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services. By subscribing to Microsoft Exchange Online, Archiver’s gained the enterprise-class features and services it needed without the cost of building—or the burden of managing—in-house infrastructure.
Realizing a Recurring Revenue Stream by Reselling Online Services
PointBridge specializes in connecting people to people and people to information with technologies such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office Communications Server, as well as collaborative business intelligence technologies such as Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Office Performance Point Server. But PointBridge also understands that for a large number of organizations, the infrastructure and staffing requirements associated with collaborative technologies is beyond reach. By directing these customers to the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, however, PointBridge has been able to offer the enterprise-class functionality these customers desire in an online form that eliminates the on-premise infrastructure requirements. For PointBridge, the results are happy customers and recurring revenue streams without associated cost of goods sold.
RED Saves Green Using Online Document Management Service
Each Recycled Energy Development (RED) project involves complex, multimillion-dollar contracts that need to be carefully negotiated, controlled, maintained, and audited. RED recognized that it needed a better way to manage these documents, but it could not afford to divert its financial or human resources to support a full-service in-house document management infrastructure. Microsoft® Gold Certified partner PointBridge came up with a better approach that used Microsoft SharePoint® Online, part of the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft Online Services delivers the functionality RED needs without the upfront capital expense it wanted to avoid.
Online Services Create Ongoing Revenue Stream while Delivering Customer Value
Arctic Information Technology is a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner based in Anchorage, Alaska that offers end-to-end Microsoft business solutions to organizations in Alaska and throughout North America. Arctic IT recognized that many local organizations did not have the resources, infrastructure or staffing required to support on-premise collaborative technologies such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Exchange Server. This barrier dropped with the introduction of the Microsoft Online Services and the Business Productivity Online Suite, which enable Arctic IT to provide enterprise-class functionality in an online, subscription-based form that reduces or eliminates the need for an on-premise infrastructure. As a result, Arctic IT can deliver business value to its small and mid-sized business client companies, while gaining new customers and creating a new recurring revenue stream.
Online Collaboration Services Support Consulting Company’s Quantum Growth
Based in Anchorage, Alaska, the Staser Consulting Group (SCG) brings together an interdisciplinary team of experienced business intelligence professionals to help companies make better fact-based decisions. To handle a recent four-fold growth, SCG needed enterprise-class communication and collaboration software, but deploying an on-premise solution was not economically feasible, nor was it practical considering SCG’s virtual business model. As a knowledge-based company, SCG found the right solution when Arctic Information Technology—a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner—introduced the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft® Online Services, which provides the capabilities SCG needs in an online, subscription-based service. This solution enables SCG’s highly dispersed team to work together effectively and have access to the latest documents and contact information.
Online Services Enables IT Consultant to Refocus on Higher Value Strategic Services
SBS Pros is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner based in Torrance, California that provides IT services to organizations across the United States—from the federal government to small and mid-sized businesses. Although SBS Pros offers a comprehensive portfolio of IT services, particularly in the area of security, it often found that it was spending more time helping clients administer and maintain core infrastructure than helping them overcome business challenges. With the introduction of Microsoft Online Services, SBS Pros can help its clients migrate their cumbersome in-house infrastructures to a cost-effective enterprise-class online service. This saves its clients money, strengthens its role as trusted advisor, and positions SBS Pros to more effectively help clients refocus on more strategic projects—which contribute more fully to SBS Pros’ bottom line.
Gaining a Comprehensive Messaging and Collaboration Solution to Meet Client Needs
Many of the small and mid-sized organizations that Evolve Partners supports wanted more than just e-mail—they wanted more complete collaboration solutions to accompany their e-mail infrastructure. However, Evolve could not find a service provider partner that could offer a more comprehensive enterprise-class messaging and collaboration solution to meet its client’s needs. Not until, that is, Microsoft Online Services began offering the Business Productivity Online Suite. This offering provides precisely the kinds of enterprise grade messaging and collaboration tools that Evolve Partners’ clients had been seeking—and all for a low monthly subscription fee. Microsoft Online Services is helping Evolve meet its client’s needs, opening doors to new business opportunities, and increasing its revenues.
Online Communications Solution Opens New Doors for IT Service Provider
Business Engineering, Inc. (BEI) has been designing, building and maintaining Microsoft® Windows Server®-based networks for clients in the Washington D.C. area for more than 20 years, but it knows that in-house infrastructures are not right for all organizations. BEI wanted a solution that would enable its clients to access to an enterprise-grade messaging and collaboration environment that they did not have to build and maintain in-house—and it found just the solution in the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services. By reselling Microsoft Online Services, BEI can meet its clients’ need for enterprise-grade messaging and collaboration services, but requirements for in-house infrastructure and IT support resources are significantly reduced. It’s more cost-effective for BEI customers and it opens doors—and increases revenues—in ways that BEI could not before.
