Microsoft Office 365Customer Solution Case Study

Human Resources Development Firm Increases Productivity in the Cloud

OverviewCountry or Region: The NetherlandsIndustry: Business Services

Customer ProfileGITP is a human resources development company with 13 locations in the Netherlands and Belgium. The company provides training and consultation services to utilities, banking and other industries. Business SituationGITP sought a fast and reliable method of sharing information with potential clients and employees at its 13 branches. Regular on-site meetings meant employees had to travel long distances—which was both costly and cut into employees’ most productive hours.

SolutionMicrosoft partner Wortell introduced Microsoft Office 365 to GITP. In Office 365, the company found a cost-effective solution to its collaboration and communication challenges.

Benefits Saved €11,000 monthly with

Lync Online SharePoint Online increased

productivity by 20 percent Improved candidate matches to

client requests

“We expect a 20 percent increase in productivity with SharePoint Online document and knowledge management.” Dick van Weering, IT Manager, GITP

GITP sought to boost productivity by increasing collaboration with partners and employees at its 13 branches, in addition to reducing travel costs and improving its method of recommending candidates to clients for placement. With Microsoft Office 365, GITP was able to achieve greater communication with off-site personnel and cut expenses so it could focus on quality training and matching candidates to client needs.

SituationGITP, a human resources development company based in the Netherlands, was looking for an IT solution that would not only improve communication and collaboration with clients and employees but also help it achieve greater productivity.

The company sought a fast and reliable method of sharing information with potential clients and employees at its 13 branches. Regular on-site meetings meant employees had to travel long distances—which was both costly and cut into employees’ most productive hours. “GITP needed a communications solution that was easier than driving by car to meetings. Our branches are 100 kilometers apart, so travel costs add up quickly,” says Dick van Weering, IT Manager at GITP.

The biggest challenge to working as productively as possible was the fact that GITP employees had to rely on email to exchange files and information. “Improving collaboration was a big thing for us,” remarks van Weering. “Once employees are able to more easily share larger files and work together, we see a big jump in productivity.”

The company also wanted to improve the way it matched potential candidates to its clients, who were seeking specific skill sets. “We had difficulty matching clients to our own assets as quickly and accurately as we’d like,” says van Weering. “What we needed was a tool to give us better insight into the candidates in order to provide the best matches for our clients—faster.”

In addition, GITP wanted a reliable and secure way to store documents online. “We believe in the cloud—it’s the way forward,” says van Weering. “But we needed to make sure the solution we implemented was secure.”

Solution Microsoft partner Wortell introduced Microsoft Office 365 to GITP. In Office 365, the company found a cost-effective solution to its collaboration and communication challenges. “Office 365 is intuitive and easy to set up, making it a natural choice for our IT needs,” declares van Weering. To save on travel expenses, employees now use Microsoft Lync Online, an easy-to-use audio and video conferencing application that eliminates the need to travel long distances to regular meetings. “Lync is a valuable tool for training, too,” adds van Weering. “We can now hold virtual courses with even more participants, which translates to greater revenue. That’s something we didn’t expect.”

Microsoft SharePoint Online makes it easy to create and use collaborative workspaces, which enable GITP employees to share large files and information in the cloud instead of exchanging emails back and forth. With the co-authoring capabilities in this tool, team members can work on documents simultaneously, providing a big boost to productivity. “We expect a 20 percent increase in productivity with SharePoint Online document and knowledge management,” remarks van Weering.

Microsoft My Site gives users the ability to store and share documents and other information, making it easy for GITP employees to quickly determine client requests and then match potential candidates to those requirements. “The My Site profiles will also connect employees with similar knowledge, which benefits collaboration,” notes van Weering. “GITP is a company that runs on knowledge sharing, and a product that enables knowledge sharing is vital to us.”

Office 365 also offers round-the-clock security features and a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee. “With Office 365, we don’t worry about the security of our information. We trust Microsoft technology implicitly,” says van Weering.

Benefits Office 365 offers cost-effective communication and collaboration tools, including the ability to share large files from anywhere. “We’re saving time and money—and gaining superior security—with Office Online,” says van Weering.

Trim Travel CostsGITP is now using Lync Online to conduct videoconferences, which has eliminated the need for employees to

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“We spend €11,000 a month on telephone usage. These costs

will largely drop using Lync Online, but

that’s nothing compared to the

productivity gain we will see with Office

365.”Dick van Weering, IT Manager, GITP

travel by car to meetings—while improving the way people work together. “We spend €11,000 a month on telephone usage,” remarks van Weering. “These costs will largely drop using Lync Online, but that’s nothing compared to the productivity gain we will see with Office 365.”

Improve CollaborationSharePoint Online enables employees to share and work simultaneously on documents for greater efficiency. Employees are also able to store large documents in the cloud, which further reduces the need to email files back and forth. “We have seen a 20 percent jump in productivity with SharePoint Online. Employees are creating quality training materials faster than ever,” says van Weering.

Better InsightWith My Site, GITP employees can set up project workspaces to quickly and easily share documents with colleagues. The tool also enables GITP to gain insight into potential candidates to better match them with client requests. “My Site is connecting people in new ways. We can match skills to create stronger teams on-site and help our clients do the same,” notes van Weering.

Increased Reliability and SecurityOffice 365 includes enterprise-class security features and a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee. “Microsoft can provide us with better security than we can ourselves,” says van Weering. “It gives us the security and reliability we need to succeed now and into the future.”

Microsoft Office 365Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of our most trusted communications and collaboration products—Microsoft SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online—with the latest version of our Office desktop suite and companion web applications for businesses of all sizes.

Office 365 helps save time and money, and it frees up valued resources. Simple to use and easy to administer, it is financially backed by a service level agreement that guarantee 99 percent reliability. Office 365 features robust security, IT-level phone support, geo-redundancy, disaster recovery, and the business-class privacy controls and standards that you expect from a world-class service provider.

For more information about Microsoft Office 365, go to:www.office365.com

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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 GITP products and services, visit the website at: www.gitp.com . For more information about Wortell products and services, visit the website at: www.wortell.nl .

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published June 2011

Software and ServicesMicrosoft Office 365

Microsoft Exchange Online

Microsoft Lync Online Microsoft SharePoint

Online