The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) transports cargo across 200 sea routes to 315 ports. To improve the coordination of global, door-to-door service, employees use Microsoft Office 365 cloud-based collaboration tools. With mobile access to files and one-click video calls, employees work together to stay on top of tight shipping schedules, unpredictable weather, and changing customer needs to offer personal customer support. And with Office 365, MSC reduced the costs of workplace solutions by 45 percent.

“We use Office 365 to work together as part of a global team. When the entire workforce has the same business tools to work more efficiently toward better customer service, the whole company benefits.”

—Fabio Santucci, President, Mediterranean Shipping Company US

Mediterranean Shipping Company standardizes with Office 365, reduces costs by 45 percent

Mediterranean Shipping Company www.msc.com 60,000 employees Geneva, Switzerland Shipping/Transportation

Company profileBased in Geneva, Switzerland, the Mediterranean Shipping Company was founded in 1970 with a single general cargo vessel. Today, it is one of the world’s leading container shipping companies.

The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is comfortable dealing with business on a global scale. From routing its fleet of 460 container ships around the world to safely transporting more than 16 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent unit) of cargo in all kinds of weather, nothing is too daunting. So, when it came time to update the company’s business productivity technology, MSC approached the task of standardizing IT tools in 148 countries the same way it goes about the business of moving goods: decide on the best route to a destination, and arrive there as quickly and safely as possible.

Moving to the cloud with Microsoft Office 365 proved to be the ideal route for MSC to improve agility and flexibility in an industry known for its commodity approach to service and tight profit margins. “We looked at Google, but Microsoft showed us that it has a more complete vision about the communication environment today and what it needs to be tomorrow,” says Fabio Catassi, Chief Technology Officer at MSC. “We asked to work with Microsoft Consulting Services to help with predeployment communications to our employees, and with post-deployment change management. Microsoft Consulting Services has the right knowledge and understanding of our business to maximize the value of Office 365 within our company. And that value is set to increase, as we have just added 17,000 seats of Office 365 E5 so employees can take advantage of end-user analytics like Power BI Pro, and we can expand our cloud-based telephony solution.”

In the past, the business productivity landscape at MSC was as varied as the 315 ports of call that the company’s ships visit. Migrating everyone to Office 365 translates to more than just raising the bar for productivity and eliminating communication gaps across the organization—it also saves money in user management and infrastructure maintenance. “We reduced the number of email environments from approximately 65 to 1 and removed several third-party collaboration solutions,” says Andre Simha, Global Chief Information Officer at MSC. “We are saving approximately 45 percent in our IT budget that was previously allocated to business productivity tools.”

“Being efficient and cost-conscious is the key to the operation of any business, and one way MSC is achieving this goal is by simplifying our IT processes,” says Catassi. “With Office 365 ProPlus and Click-to-Run, everyone gets the latest Office apps on up to five devices, and we don’t have to worry about deployments. It’s easy to manage user identities and permissions within one global system.”

And with all employees on one domain, the company is reinforcing its tightly knit, family-oriented culture. “We use Office 365 to work together as part of a global team,” says Fabio Santucci, President of MSC US, a subsidiary that employs 1,200 people. “When the entire workforce has the same business tools to work more efficiently toward better customer service, the whole company benefits.”

Better communications boosts customer service Today, employees use Office 365 to connect with the numerous MSC agencies and partners around the world that collaborate to efficiently transport cargo across land

“Now, we use Power BI to deliver a much more compelling, interactive customer presentation. A sales rep brings up a dashboard to share the latest vessel and cargo data, including locations, routes, and shipment volumes.”

—Fabio Catassi, Chief Technology Officer,

Mediterranean Shipping Company

and sea. “We are in the transportation industry, but we are basically a service agency,” says Santucci. “We are in constant dialogue with internal and external agencies, ports of calls, and customers to orchestrate the most efficient shipping routes, so real-time communication is critical. Now we can have a customer in California, an account rep in Charleston, and a rail operator in Chicago, all using Skype for Business Online video calls to discuss business and get live updates on the status of a shipment.”

MSC employees also use Skype for Business Online to conference with their colleagues in overseas agencies to understand local port capabilities and costs structures, so they can provide the most competitive quotes to win business. In North America, MSC uses PSTN Conferencing to enable attendees who do not have Internet access to join a Skype for Business video call by dialing in on a phone. “We use OneDrive for Business to store Microsoft Excel files, so all we need to do is share links to the files with agencies in Africa. Before, we had to email files, which proved difficult because of challenging Internet connections and low bandwidth,” explains Paolo Magnani, Quality Control and Marketing Executive Vice President of MSC US. “We use Office 365 to exchange information in real time with vendors and partners as well. For example, we might have to update staff at a port that we have a list of hot containers for a top VIP client that needs to be loaded immediately to make the deadline for shipping.”

Improved mobility increases sales force productivity Today, MSC US sales reps out visiting customers are equipped with Microsoft Surface devices to access interactive Microsoft Power BI dashboards that use live data. MSC uses the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite for cloud-based user identity and mobile device management and will soon be using Microsoft Intune to manage and secure these mobile devices. In the past, sales reps took notes during customer visits, returned to the office, performed research, and then got back to the customer. “Now, we use Power BI to deliver a much more compelling, interactive customer presentation,” says Catassi. “A sales rep brings up a dashboard to share the latest vessel and cargo data, including locations, routes, and shipment volumes.”

After conducting an internal study, MSC US found that employees were filling out a total of 693 reports, on a daily, weekly, monthly, or occasional basis. The subsidiary asked IT staff in each of its 54 departments to compile data marts for the interactive dashboards. The dashboards are used during meetings and are also sent to customers and other agencies via an email link. “We design the dashboard once, then it’s automatically updated,” says Santucci. “We are saving 45 FTEs in labor out of our 1,200 staff at MSC US. At least 60 percent of those savings have come directly from eliminating redundant report generation.”

Productive teamwork drives business efficiencyTeamwork is important for a distributed organization like MSC. Today, MSC US employees in the Vessel Reconciliation department use Office 365 to boost collaboration and teamwork across seven locations to prepare final container load lists for vessels at approximately 22 ports in the United States. “Everyone in Vessel Reconciliation has to be on the same page to keep all ports functioning at peak efficiency,” says Santucci. “They share screens during video conferences to guide port operators on how to solve issues or get around the terminal, for both import and export operations. This is a great example of how Office 365 helps us centralize communications, streamline business processes, and improve local customer service.”

“I’m using Planner for all my budgeting in 2017 and to organize my team’s deliverables for marketing events. It is just another aspect of the mobility and accessibility we are getting with Office 365 that is improving productivity for everyone at MSC.”

—Paolo Magnani, Executive Vice President, Mediterranean Shipping

Company US

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published February 2017

MSC also plans to use data collected from Microsoft Power BI, a suite of cloud-based business analytics tools, in a custom app that will show on a map the position of different vessels and their cargo.

Improved disaster recovery and security builds business continuity Anytime, anywhere access to files stored on OneDrive for Business improves business continuity for MSC. More than 300 employees in Charleston, South Carolina, stayed productive thanks to Office 365 tools, even after being evacuated during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. “We had no problem handling our business,” says Magnani. “Even if most of our people had to evacuate the coastal area, they could still connect to the office resources through cloud-based storage and by working on their own computers or Surface devices.”

In addition to Microsoft Exchange Online Protection hosted email filtering service, MSC is using Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection to help protect its mailboxes in real time against sophisticated attacks. “The beauty of the Microsoft approach to multilevel security is that from a central console, we can control malware detection and check attachments and unsafe links—all as part of our Office 365 solution,” says Catassi.

MSC will be taking advantage of more Office 365 services. Already, several pilot projects are underway where employees are building workflows for document management in Microsoft SharePoint Online. Employees are beginning to use Microsoft Planner to improve project management for budgeting and marketing events. Each new plan created in Planner automatically creates a new Office 365 Group, which comes with a shared inbox, files, notebook, and calendar. “I’m using Planner for all my budgeting in 2017 and to organize my team’s deliverables for marketing events,” says Magnani. “It is just another aspect of the mobility and accessibility we are getting with Office 365 that is improving productivity for everyone at MSC.”

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