Writeimage CSB London Pub Chain Relies on Microsoft for Email

Microsoft Office 365 Customer Solution Case Study

London Pub Chain Gets Up-to-Date Business Information with Centralised System

“Even as a small business, there are a lot of demands on my time. Microsoft Office 365 takes away the headaches for me.” Michael Richards, Owner, Inn Public

Inn Public is a chain of three London pubs. Owner Michael Richards wanted to replace the existing email and file server with a more reliable, cost-effective solution. He chose Microsoft Office 365 to provide an email system and create a central file store so managers could upload daily reports and access a shared calendar. Inn Public now has centralised email and documents. This gives the managers up-to-date information and helps them stay in touch with their staff without the worry and expense of buying and maintaining hardware and software.

Business Needs and-wife team. Since the first pub, The three gastro-pubs in the Inn owner Michael Richards had been a Public group—The Dartmouth Arms, big fan of technology. For example, he The Dolphin, and The Duke—employ uses Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for 30 staff and are run by a husband- tracking daily takings at each location

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published October 2011 and he creates his own menus daily using Microsoft software. Centralised documents. “Now, there’s just one access and one system—this is the best way to share the data,” says Richards. But for email and file storage he was People can log on from any web browser, using a server that dated back to 2004. check email, check the company calendar, While it was still going strong, it ran an and read or edit documents. outdated version of Microsoft Small Up-to-date business information. The duty managers from each of the pubs log Business Server software and he worried on daily and update the cashing up sheets. that it was out of warranty and at risk of Richards says: “I can wake up in the hardware failure. He used it as the hub morning and see how much we made the of his business—sharing files and night before.” Similarly, they can update stock records online. running email. Richards says: “I knew Saving money. Because employees can that one day I was going to turn it on access Office 365 and work with and it wouldn’t work.” documents using a web browser, Richards doesn’t need to buy extra software for Losing the server—and the email and every PC in the business. Instead, he has bought Microsoft Office software for the files stored on it—would be a big PCs he uses to manage the business. problem. In looking for a replacement, Richards says: “It’s a huge saving and it he wanted to address three basic needs: stops staff using our PCs for personal use.” Less to worry about. With Microsoft Sharing data between employees and taking responsibility for reliability, Then, in 2011, he got the opportunity security, backup, and updates, Richards locations to upgrade from Business Productivity Keeping information secure has less to worry about. He no longer loses Ensuring that the system was reliable Online Standard Suite to Office 365. sleep over the risk that an in-house server This added several new features, might fail suddenly. Solution including the ability to create private team websites and shared calendars. Of course, running a chain of pubs is At first, he tried to replace the server “Now we have a shared calendar and still a people business. And Office 365 with another local storage device, but it everyone can see what’s going on, gives Richards more time to see didn’t hold email and on occasion plus a document library that everyone people on-site. But even here, it can locked users out. So, in 2010, Richards can access,” says Richards. The system help. He says: “A lot of times I left the switched to Microsoft Exchange Online integrates perfectly with Microsoft office without the right documents, —part of the Microsoft Business Office, including Outlook, so Richards but now I can log on to Office 365 and Productivity Online Standard Suite—to doesn’t need to train people to use it. print them out when I get there. It take care of email for nine users in the saves me half-hour round trip each company. “Moving mail off our server time.” was a great success,” he says. Benefits The pub group has seen real benefits from Office 365, including:

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