“With Office 365, customers will be able to view the progress of their jobs online and see exactly when their cabinet will be delivered. They can feel connected without physically being here.”

Nick Beauchamp, Director, ESL Industries

ESL Industries is a small New Zealand manufacturer that prides itself on customer service. To give employees and customers better insight into job progress while keeping business data safe, ESL plans to subscribe to Microsoft Office 365, an online email and collaboration service. With less computer management work and worries, Director Nick Beauchamp will have more time that he can use to grow the business.

Business NeedsESL Industries is a small manufacturer of office cabinets, museum exhibit cabinets, polycarbonate wine glasses, and stationery products, most of which are designed to custom specifications. What makes ESL successful is its total focus on customer service.

“Many of our products are custom-built for customers, who are very involved during the design and prototyping stages,” says Nick Beauchamp, Director of ESL Industries. “But once the jobs enter manufacturing, the process becomes invisible to them.” ESL wanted to find ways to better communicate with customers through the entire product life cycle—and also keep data safe.

ESL owns one server, which runs Windows Small Business Server 2008 plus design and accounting software, but Beauchamp worried about having all these business assets on one computer. “All our files, email messages, a production workflow database, and our finances have lived on that server,” he says. “After the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, many small businesses couldn’t even get to their offices to retrieve computers and simply could not rebuild. If we had a fire or a hard drive failed, we would be out of action.”

ESL backs up data daily to a USB drive and an online backup service. However, performing backups, maintaining the

server, and caring for the firm’s eight PCs were distracting Beauchamp from running the business.

SolutionIn late 2010, Beauchamp learned about Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, a set of cloud-based email, calendaring, collaboration, and conferencing services combined with Microsoft Office Web Apps. He and two other employees tested Office 365 for several months, and ESL plans to move all employees to the service when it is available. “Office 365 seemed a really good fit for our company,” he says. “We had tried Google Docs but found that it was a departure from the Microsoft software we’d already invested in. Sometimes the free offering is not always the best offering.”

ESL will migrate its email from Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 in Windows Small Business Server to Microsoft Exchange Online. “Employees will be able to get to their email messages more easily when offsite, but really, employees won’t notice much difference with Exchange Online, which is a good thing,” Beauchamp says. “We don’t need to retrain people to use this service.”

Similarly, ESL will migrate documents and databases to Microsoft SharePoint Online. One key ESL application that will be moved is a manufacturing workflow database that

Customer: ESL IndustriesWebsite: www.eslind.co.nz Customer Size: 9 employeesCountry or Region: New ZealandIndustry: Manufacturing—Durable consumer goods

Customer ProfileESL Industries is a diversified manufacturer in Wellington, New Zealand, that makes products ranging from file and storage cabinets to museum exhibit cases, home safes, and plastic products.

Software and Services Microsoft Office 365− Microsoft Exchange Online− Microsoft Lync Online− Microsoft Office Web Apps− Microsoft SharePoint Online

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

Microsoft Office 365Customer Solution Case Study

Manufacturer Aims to Better Protect and Share Data by Communicating in the Cloud

contains all current jobs, their status, special requirements, and so forth. As employees complete a stage of the work, they update the application, which currently runs on a PC in the manufacturing area. “Employees should check this application frequently to make sure that they are doing the right thing at the right time, but sometimes they don’t do this and can end up powder-coating the wrong component, for example,” Beauchamp says. “We want to put this application on SharePoint Online and give employees access to it from their smartphones so it’s more convenient. In the future, we want to publish part of this workflow for customers to see so they can track their jobs through manufacturing.”

ESL plans to use Microsoft Lync Online, the instant messaging and web conferencing component of Office 365, to enrich customer communications. And, by using Microsoft Office Web Apps, ESL employees can open engineering drawings, specifications, and other documents from almost any computing device to make customer visits more productive.

BenefitsWith online access to email, documents, and videoconferencing, ESL Industries will be able to enhance customer service, better protect its digital assets, and focus on growing its business.

Better Customer ServiceOnce employees are able to access the workflow database from their smartphones, Beauchamp anticipates a reduction in errors. “We will be able to reduce the number of manufacturing mistakes by at least 5 percent, since workers will have better more targeted information at hand,” he says.

By giving customers insight into the progress of their jobs, ESL can enhance its service. “Customers get quite excited when their jobs are nearing completion,” Beauchamp says. “With Office 365, customers will be able to view the progress of their jobs online and see exactly when their cabinet will be delivered. They can feel connected without physically being here.” Videoconferencing will further deepen customer relationships. “Because so much of our work is custom, there’s huge benefit in being able to discuss things face-to-face

with customers,” Beauchamp says. “It will make customers feel more involved in what we’re doing for them and make them appreciate all the work that goes into what we do.”

Enhanced Security, Peace of MindBeauchamp will sleep better knowing that his business documents are safeguarded and regularly backed up in Microsoft data centers. “A business owner has so many other things to worry about including staff, marketing, and getting orders out on time,” he says. “With Office 365, I have employed the best IT staff to look after my information 365 days a year. That’s what Microsoft is good at, so we can get on with what we are good at.”

Four Hours a Week Redirected to Growing the BusinessAlthough ESL will keep its server until the accounting software vendor offers an online version of its product, half of Beauchamp’s IT work will disappear with the move to Office 365. “I’ll gain at least four more hours a week, which I’ll be able to redirect to growing the business,” he says.

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

Document published June 2011