Microsoft Office 365Customer Solution Case Study

Danish Business Solutions Provider Cuts Costs, Increases Lead Generation by 30%

OverviewCountry or Region: DenmarkIndustry: Manufacturing

Customer ProfileKonica Minolta offers high-quality services and solutions, along with a wide variety of product groups, combining four core technologies: materials, optics, nano-fabrication and imaging.

Business SituationKonica Minolta Denmark technicians responsible for lead generation. These technicians are mobile, and needed new tools to reduce workflow and give them more continuous access to corporate systems.

SolutionOffice 365 allows Konica’s technicians to access the cloud-based system anywhere, from nearly any device, and that lets technicians easily manage their lead follow-up tasks.

Benefits Increased Lead Generation by

30% Reduced Workstation Setup by

“With Office 365, lead generation has become far more efficient . . . This solution is substantially more aligned with our business needs than the other options out there.”

Sune T. Perlman, IT Manager, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Denmark a/s

With lead generation as a cornerstone of its success, Konica Minolta sought to improve lead generation efficiency. It also wanted to free up information technology resources by simplifying workstation setup, as well as to boost productivity and morale by giving its mobile employees fast, easy ways to access critical information. The company realized its goals by turning to Office 365.

SituationKonica Minolta Business Solutions Denmark a/s found itself struggling with efficiency issues in generating leads—a core business function. Of its roughly 250 employees, about 100 are technicians responsible for lead generation. These technicians are mobile, and needed new tools to reduce workflow and give them more continuous access to corporate systems. As Sune T. Perlman, IT Manager of the company makes clear, “Ease of access is a big issue for us.” Because of these restrictions to system access, technicians were also hampered in their ability to effectively manage leads, which in turn slowed the sales process.

Konica Minolta was also incurring significant monetary and time expenses preparing new workstations for employees. “We were spending a lot of time and money pre-configuring laptops for our employees,” says Perlman. For every new employee, the company’s IT staff spent 3–5 hours installing software and configuring systems. In all, approximately 80 hours per month were being spent setting up and troubleshooting local systems. This was necessary due to Konica Minolta’s reliance on Lotus Notes, which only partially met the company’s need for cloud-based collaboration, and resulted in extensive use of auxiliary on-premises tools. It became a priority for Konica to pursue a solution that met these needs more completely, in

an all-inclusive package that would free IT resources while improving access to information.

The challenges it had been facing not only impeded its ability to maximize profits and productivity, but also frustrated employees. “We offer an annual employee satisfaction survey, and our results in the ‘Very Satisfied’ category were not what we wanted them to be—only around 50%,” Perlman explains.

SolutionAbout a year ago, Konica Minolta implemented a Microsoft Exchange Server for improved email access. It chose to further streamline systems by implementing Microsoft Office 365 as a complete tool for managing communication and knowledge sharing while increasing remote accessibility. This solution easily integrates with existing Microsoft infrastructure, and with Microsoft SharePoint Online, technicians can access important information from nearly any device, which simplifies and accelerates lead-related follow-up tasks. Further, they are able to better communicate with the sales team, so representatives can contact leads more quickly.

On the IT side, Konica Minolta is now taking advantage of the streamlined Office 365 setup features, which enable new employees to simply sign in to their account and start working. IT personnel are no longer required to install and configure software locally,

24

because of the cloud-based Office 365 applications. With this new solution, the only task IT must complete to orient new employees is a brief, one-hour training session on how to set up a new user account.

Because of this reduction in time spent configuring systems, Konica Minolta’s IT department can now dedicate its energy to optimizing the tools within Office 365 instead of reactively addressing technical problems.

The ease-of-use and improved access to data has also heightened company morale. “I think employees found it frustrating to deal with different applications—ones that weren’t necessarily as intuitive as they’d like. Now, everything has one consistent Microsoft interface, which makes it easier for employees to get more done—and increases their level of satisfaction and confidence.”

BenefitsSince implementing Microsoft Office 365, Konica Minolta has seen remarkable improvement in key areas. Lead generation has improved by up to 30% because of anytime mobile access to documents and applications; IT has enjoyed a roughly 80% reduction of time spent configuring and troubleshooting local hardware and software; and employee satisfaction has risen by an impressive 15%.

Improving CollaborationAccording to Perlman, “With Office 365, lead generation has become far more efficient due to constant field access to contacts, emails, and files. This solution is substantially more aligned with our business needs than the other options out there.” Perlman notes that lead generation at Konica Minolta has increased by 20–30% when compared to the previous Lotus Notes system.

Freeing Up IT ResourcesPreviously, each employee laptop needed the full Microsoft Office suite, plus a variety of other software applications, installed and configured before staff could begin working. “We used to spend up to five hours setting up each employee’s laptop. With Office 365, setup time is down to as little as one hour. The employee simply signs in and everything is ready to use,” says Perlman. “IT professionals have reclaimed 50% of their time—time they can spend focusing on forward-thinking initiatives.”

Driving Productivity—and SatisfactionAnywhere access to information—with one, consistent Microsoft interface—is not only helping IT staff work more efficiently, but also improving employee satisfaction rates. “When you look at the significant increase in lead generation, it’s easy to see why our employees are happier with their work,” says Perlman. “Employees are the backbone of our business, and

34

“IT professionals have reclaimed 50% of their time—time they can spend focusing on forward-thinking initiatives.”

Sune T. Perlman, IT Manager, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Denmark a/s

happier employees means a better, more profitable business,” he adds.

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 guaranteeing 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

44

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 Konica Minolta products and services, visit the website at: www.konicaminolta.dk

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

Software and Services Services

− Microsoft SharePoint Online− Microsoft Exchange Online