"In Office 2007, there were lots of great features, but we had to do a little digging to find them. With 2010, all the good stuff is front and center."

Laurent Mougeot, CEO, SUMA

Promoting the efficiency and unity of local communities is the driving goal of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA). Representing 450 municipalities in urban areas of Saskatchewan, Canada, the organization helps local governments by providing corporate services, negotiating more affordable improvements, and facilitating effective communication among members.

SUMA is committed to promoting the strength, vibrancy, and knowledge of urban cities, towns, and villages. It has built a diverse membership that includes approximately 75% of the Saskatchewan population.

To help them meet their efficiency goals, SUMA needed a more resourceful, intuitive software suite that would let it focus more on project details and less on applications. By deploying Microsoft® Office 2010, the association has significantly increased productivity and expedited delivery of information.

SituationTo best serve its members, SUMA creates many highly detailed documents, including summaries of the latest government legislation, high-quality training manuals for new employees, and presentations for meetings and conferences.

To cut costs, the association was trying to produce more documents in-house rather than outsourcing them. Due to software limitations, the results weren’t always as professional as they would have liked, and the process could be time-consuming. The company also experienced difficulties when incorporating multimedia to create high-impact, professional presentations.

Document workflow posed another challenge. With multiple people reviewing and editing documents before being delivered to municipalities, the

company needed to find a more efficient means of collaboration.

SolutionTo increase the efficiency and quality of their document output, SUMA upgraded from Office 2007 to 2010. In just a short amount of time, the organization has already streamlined the authoring process and increased the value of its end product.

Users have also noticed an overall ease and intuitiveness in the software applications. “In Office 2007, there were lots of great features, but we had to do a little digging to find them,” notes Laurent Mougeot, CEO. “With 2010, all the good stuff is front and center.”

Professional Graphics Made EasySUMA users immediately noticed the more robust graphical capabilities in Word 2010. The improved SmartArt tool offers several new diagram types, with new Ribbon buttons that make it easier for users to interact with graphical elements.

The software is also equipped with enhanced image editing resources. In addition to basic cropping and resizing, authors can now adjust brightness, contrast, color saturation, and other elements. “We have a greater ability to dress up documents now,” notes Mougeot. “We can achieve the same level of professionalism as a custom printer.”

Customer: Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA)

Web Site: http://www.suma.org/

Size: 13 employees

Country or Region: Saskatchewan, Canada

Industry: Government

ProfileSUMA represents 450 municipalities in urban areas of Canada, working to improve the efficiency and unity of local governments.

Software and Services Word 2010 PowerPoint® 2010 Co-authoring

For more information about Microsoft Office, go to:www.office.com

Microsoft Office 2010Customer Solution Case Study

Canadian Agency Cuts Document Production by 50% with Microsoft® Office 2010

With the new Microsoft PowerPoint®, adding multimedia to presentations is a breeze. Embedding videos is now much more intuitive, allowing users to add special effects and titles without using an external video editor.

By eliminating the need to outsource documentation and removing the extra step of third-party editing tools, the association has enjoyed significant savings in production costs.

Efficient Document Workflow Due to the length and volume of the documents SUMA produces, it’s often necessary for multiple people to review and edit the same files. Instead of sending emails back and forth and waiting for documents to become available, employees are now using the new co-authoring* feature in Office 2010. In addition to allowing simultaneous document access, the tool also makes it easy to scan tracked changes and comments.

“With the new co-authoring tools, our employees are less dependent on each other, and can be more proactive in reaching project milestones,” notes Mougeot. As a result, SUMA’s process of reporting information to provinces has been shortened from 1 month to 1 week.

Building Credibility, One Document at a TimeFor companies that rely heavily on timely, high-quality documentation, the robust authoring features offered by Office 2010 translate to significant time and cost savings. The new versions of Word and PowerPoint have transformed the way SUMA produces documents, expediting

delivery to members and promoting a team-oriented approach.

In the coming weeks and months, the organization looks forward to extending the power of Office 2010 to enhance other aspects of their business.

Mougeot sums it up: “All in all, upgrading to Office 2010 was much more seamless than going from 2003 to 2007. For such a smooth transition, we’ve seen surprisingly dramatic improvements.”

* Co-authoring capabilities require either

Microsoft® SharePoint® Foundation Services or a

free Windows Live account.

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Document published 11/2009