Writeimage CSB Sports Retailer Moves Communications to the Cloud to Cut Costs and Operational

Microsoft Office 365 Customer Solution Case Study

Sports Retailer Moves Communications to the Cloud to Cut Costs and Operational Risk

“Microsoft Office 365 ticked all the boxes for us and has given me peace of mind about maintaining business continuity. Since the migration, we haven’t lost a single customer email.” Shiva Kumar, IT Director, Snow+Rock Group

UK-based winter sports retailer Snow+Rock Group wanted to replace its physical communications infrastructure with a cloud-based solution to reduce operational risk and save time and money. It chose Microsoft Exchange Online, the email component of Microsoft Office 365, and migrated the system in three phases for 300 users. The cloud-based system is ensuring business continuity, avoiding external consultancy costs, and giving the IT Director peace of mind.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published May 2013 Business Needs Solution when some users had already Snow+Rock Group is best known as a Snow+Rock worked with Program migrated to Exchange Online. The skiing and mountaineering clothing and Framework—a Microsoft Cloud transition was exceptionally smooth. equipment retailer in the British Isles. Accelerate Partner—to migrate its Many users left on Friday and returned The Guildford-based group includes the physical Exchange Server to Microsoft on Monday to the new email cycle specialist CycleSurgery and the Office 365 using the Exchange Online environment and didn’t notice the sportswear brand Runners Need. It has component. difference.” 35 retail outlets, with an annual turnover of around £70 million (US$107 Kumar attended the Cloud Expo event million). in London before making the decision. Benefits He says: “I became convinced that the Snow+Rock experienced an easy Maintaining efficient, cost-effective Microsoft Office 365 online service migration from an on-premises communications was becoming a major with guaranteed uptime was what we communications system to the cloud challenge for Snow+Rock Group IT needed, and that Program Framework using Microsoft Office 365. Business Director Shiva Kumar. Each of the three had the people to help us implement continuity has been assured and the brands had an individual domain name it across the group.” company has avoided the significant linked into a single server at head office costs of hiring a Microsoft Exchange running Microsoft Exchange Server. Program Framework produced a expert. It has dispensed with its third- project plan for a staged move to the party provider for spam filtering. “We needed a fresh approach to reduce cloud for 300 users, starting with the the risk and cost of any two smaller brands—Runners Need  Office 365 gives Snow+Rock communications failure,” says Kumar. and CycleSurgery. Snow+Rock was peace of mind about business “We wanted to automate backup moved last and the migration took a continuity. Kumar says: “Microsoft procedures and reduce downtime year from the first trial. Office 365 ticked all the boxes for us during software upgrades. Like many and has given me peace of mind companies, we were physically backing Lawrie Siteman, Director of Cloud about maintaining business up the server every night and took Services, Program Framework, says: continuity. Since the migration, we responsibility for activities such as “The task was to migrate the brands haven’t lost a single customer restoring deleted emails. A large part of one at a time to Office 365, linking all email.” the IT budget went on fixing physical three brands with a shared address.  Solution helps leading retailer issues with the hardware, running We decided to use full Exchange avoid unnecessary costs and stick disaster recovery exercises, and so on.” Online accounts for head office users to tight budget. If Snow+Rock had and the cost-effective Kiosk Exchange continued with its on-premises Kumar was aware of the risks around licences for the stores, because those Exchange Server platform, Kumar dependence on a single server and users don’t require as many would have needed to recruit a wanted to avoid the cost of recruiting a components or large mailboxes.” technician with expertise in specialist IT technician. He says: “Our Microsoft Exchange. “We’ve avoided worldwide operations relied on one Program Framework used the that cost by migrating to Microsoft server. If something happened to that Microsoft built-in migration tool with Office 365,” he says. “Our in-house box, group communications would have the Windows PowerShell command- IT technicians have been freed to come to a stop until brought back using line interface to simplify the transition. focus on higher-value work because standard recovery procedures. We also Shared folders were closed down at there’s no longer any need to had to buy a spam filter from a third- the on-premises site and recreated as handle tasks such as daily backups,” party provider.” document libraries on the Snow+Rock says Kumar. on-premises SharePoint Server  Microsoft Forefront Online collaboration platform. Siteman says: Protection for Exchange replaces “We overcame issues including third-party spam filter at no extra reserving the shared room resources cost. Snow+Rock no longer requires on the on-premises Exchange Server a third-party spam filtering service

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published May 2013 because it’s using Forefront Online service support facility is good if we implement what we needed—was Protection for Exchange Server. need help.” important to me as a client. If we Kumar says: “Microsoft Forefront  Program Framework provides have further requirements in the Online Protection for Exchange does partner support. Kumar says: “The future, we will definitely call the spam filtering just as well as a level of service that Program Program Framework again.” specialised service. And the Microsoft Framework provided—and its efforts to understand and

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published May 2013