In Fact, There Were a Number of Things About Quickbooks That Colasanti Did Not Like

Microsoft Office System Customer Solution Case Study

Import Firm Enhances Profitability Through Powerful Financial Toolset

Overview “Small Business Accounting 2006 has... [given] me Country: United States the financial tools to really understand my business Industry: Import/Export and where it is going¾and to help me take it there Customer Profile cost-effectively.” Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Miami, Florida, Interatlantic Investments Stefano Colasanti, Chief Executive Officer, Interatlantic Investments and Development and Development (IID) imports specialty food items from Italy and markets them Interatlantic Investments and Development (IID) is a Miami- to large distributors in three states. based importer of specialty food items from Italy. Since its Business Situation founding in 2001, IID has grown to reach retail and food-service To meet twin cost pressures of a weak United States dollar and high fuel markets in three states in the United States and is targeting (shipping) prices, IID needed to maintain three others. Over the same period, however, IID has faced the stringent cost controls over administration and management. twin cost challenges of a weak U.S. dollar and high shipping prices, while operating in a market where margins are already Solution IID deployed an integrated and low. To survive these challenges, IID moved from using comprehensive solution based on QuickBooks for financial administration to using Microsoft® Microsoft® Office Small Business Accounting 2006 and other products in Office Small Business Accounting 2006 along with Microsoft Microsoft Office Small Business Office Outlook® 2003 with Business Contact Manager Update Management Edition 2006. and other programs in Microsoft Office Small Business Benefits Management Edition 2006. Through this move, the business  Administration time savings  Prompt response to partners owner is saving time, cutting costs, and gaining the insight to  Rapid, customized reports develop successful marketing programs and prepare the  Business insight for growth business for future expansion. “Everything I need to Situation In fact, there were a number of things Established in 2001, Interatlantic about QuickBooks that Colasanti did not know about a customer Investments and Development (IID) imports like. is within just a mouse selected Italian food products into retail and “The product seemed to require a lot of food-service markets in the United States. steps just to complete common operations, click or two, and if I The Miami-based business employs four such as exporting a spreadsheet into want to export the people and relies on independent sales Microsoft Office Excel®,” he explains. representatives to sell to large distributors “Even after exporting, the spreadsheet information into a Word in Florida, California, and Nevada. Under would retain a QuickBooks look, with lots of or Excel file, that’s just the brand Gusto in Cucina, IID specializes columns I didn’t use. Moreover, we couldn’t in extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, export a customer list, we couldn’t as easy.” truffles, and an assortment of truffle-based download banking information without Stefano Colasanti, Chief Executive Officer, delicacies. using a specific online service through Interatlantic Investments and Development QuickBooks, and we couldn’t export reports IID targets its more than 20 different formatted the way we wanted them.” products at an upscale market niche that is still somewhat price sensitive. As founder Another problem for Colasanti was that and Chief Executive Officer Stefano QuickBooks had limited contact-information Colasanti explains, competing in such a capability, so for that he relied on the market keeps margins low¾a challenge at Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 messaging any time, but particularly now, as a weak and collaboration client. But this was only a dollar and high fuel prices raise product partial solution, because the two products and shipping costs alike. “Because such had very different user interfaces. “Having costs are beyond our control, we have to to switch between the two environments keep a tight rein over those costs we can dozens of times a day slowed me down control,” he says. and added a lot of stress to my work,” he reports. Maximizing the use of information technology is central to Colasanti’s cost- Solution control strategy. Since founding the In late 2004, Colasanti attended a business, he has relied heavily on demonstration of Microsoft Office Small Microsoft® Office Professional Edition 2003 Business Accounting 2006, Microsoft Office for most administrative tasks, and for Outlook 2003 with Business Contact several years he attempted to manage the Manager Update, and other programs in financials with the help of QuickBooks Microsoft Office Small Business accounting software. He was very Management Edition 2006. “I liked the user comfortable with Microsoft Office but says interface of Small Business Accounting, the his use of QuickBooks, culminating with the integration between it and the other Office 2004 Premier Edition, was primarily programs, the support for online banking because “there really wasn’t much other and customized reporting, and a lot more,” choice.” he says. “I decided right then that I would no longer use QuickBooks.” “[TheEverything Small IBusiness need to Today, Colasanti relies on Small Business Familiar, Intuitive, and Consistent User Accounting and Outlook with Business Interface Accountingknow about 2006a customer user Contact Manager Update to run his In Colasanti’s opinion, the best thing about interfaceis within justis] a a user mouse business. These programs and the others Small Business Accounting is the user in Office Small Business Management interface, for a number of reasons. “It’s the interfaceclick or two, that and almost if I Edition 2006 run on three desktop same Microsoft Office interface I am used everyonewant to export already the computers and one portable computer. The to, and it’s just one interface that I am computers run the Microsoft Windows® XP dealing with, instead of two¾Microsoft knows,information so that into puts a Word us Professional operating system and are Office and QuickBooks,” he explains. “This inor aExcel good file, position that’s just networked with a server running Microsoft easily saves 20 percent of the time I spend Windows Small Business Server 2003 and on administrative and management tasks.” whenas easy.” it’s time to hire Microsoft Exchange Server 2003—both of newStefano Colasanti,staff.” Chief Executive Officer, which are part of Microsoft Windows Server Colasanti considers Small Business Interatlantic Investments and Development System™ integrated server software. Accounting more intuitive and easier to Stefano Colasanti, Chief Executive Officer, work with than QuickBooks. “With Small Interatlantic Investments and Development Within IID, Colasanti and an administrative Business Accounting, there are far fewer assistant are the primary users of Small steps required for transferring documents Business Accounting. The assistant is into and out of the various programs in the responsible for purchase orders, invoices, Office suite,” he reports. “In addition, it’s a and payments and uses program features user interface that almost everyone already that automate the generation of such knows, so that puts us in a good position documents. Colasanti is responsible for when it’s time to hire new staff.” reports, downloading transactions from the For Colasanti, the most valuable aspect of bank, and financial analysis and the Small Business Accounting user strategizing. For the analysis and interface is the Company Home Page. strategizing, he uses the program’s “From a management point of view, it’s a Company Home Page and, in particular, great advantage to be able to see current features supporting financial forecasting; cash flow, inventory, and bank-account tracking of inventory, customers, accounts summary; billable-time tracking and receivable, and sales; and managing cash customer-account reporting; and accounts flow. payable and accounts receivable, all on one screen,” he says. Benefits With Small Business Accounting installed Moreover, through the integration of Small in the business for only a few months, Business Accounting with Outlook 2003 Colasanti discovered significant with Business Contact Manager Update, advantages over QuickBooks, and other Colasanti enjoys equally easy access, on capabilities as well. As a result, he is the same screen, to customer contact saving time and reducing stress, gaining information, customer history, and valuable insight into the business, and customer correspondence. positioning it for expansion. “Everything I need to know about a customer is within just a mouse click or “With Small Business two, and if I want to export the information into a Word or Excel file, that’s just as More Robust Reporting, More Satisfied Accounting, we can easy,” Colasanti points out. “This saves Partners easily show our critical time and helps me to respond more Colasanti finds that using Small Business promptly to customer requests.” Accounting also supports customized distributors which reporting based on the Excel 2003 marketing campaigns For example, Colasanti tells of the time he spreadsheet software more effectively than was on the phone with a prospective QuickBooks. Reporting in Excel allows him work and which customer who wanted a quote. “Because I to create the reports he wants in the don’t….” had inventory, cost and profit, and other formats that his vendors and customers vital data in front of me, I was able to appreciate. For example, Colasanti sends Stefano Colasanti, Chief Executive Officer, generate an accurate quote and send it to customized, biweekly reports to each of Interatlantic Investments and Development him within moments,” Colasanti explains. IID’s European partners, reports that are “Later that day, the customer sent his designed to keep them updated on day-to- order, which I was able to process right day business decisions. away because I had such easy access to current inventory information. In just one “This is a practice that makes the partners day we transformed a request for a quote feel more comfortable doing business with into an order being processed in the us and makes me feel more comfortable warehouse.” with our general strategy,” Colasanti points out. “I live by reports. I thrive on analysis. I Convenient Mobile Access want to know not only what revenues were The integration of Small Business generated by a certain product in a certain Accounting with Outlook 2003 with market in a certain quarter, but why and Business Contact Manager Update how, and what we can learn from this provides Colasanti with easy access to development to make the company more financial information from wherever he may successful.” be working. “Like most people running small import Better still, with Small Business businesses, I travel frequently, so it’s vital Accounting, Colasanti can generate those that when I’m out of the office I have up-to- highly customized reports in minutes date information on products, inventory, instead of hours. “I don’t have to manually customers, suppliers, and other financial customize the reports as I did in essentials,” Colasanti explains. “Because QuickBooks,” he says. “This saves Small Business Accounting is so well probably three hours per week and lightens integrated with Outlook 2003 with Business the stress level, too, giving me more time to Contact Manager Update and Outlook is relax and reflect and think more running in a network with Microsoft strategically on where the business is Exchange Server, I can access my desktop going.” computer remotely and see all such records current within 24 hours. This saves Expanding the Business the time of my having to ask for the One place the business is going is online, information and my staff having to send it.” so part of those three hours saved weekly through the use of Small Business going¾and to help me take it there cost Accounting will go into the development of effectively.” a much-enhanced IID Web site. “Through the site, we will sell directly to consumers at very low margins,” Colasanti says. “We won’t necessarily make much profit from this channel, but it will help to expose the brand to a much wider customer base.”

Such exposure is critical, since Colasanti is now working on expanding the business to reach distributors in Washington, Oregon, and New York. To do this requires maximizing the business’s marketing efforts with current distributors, another area where he sees Small Business Accounting playing a role.

“Joint marketing campaigns can be costly, so we need to use them very strategically and only when we know they are returning value,” Colasanti says. “With Small Business Accounting, we can easily show our distributors which marketing campaigns work and which don’t by measuring sales growth or the lack thereof in the days or weeks following a campaign. That will help us and our distributors to market the products more effectively in general and more cost-effectively in particular.”

And that, adds Colasanti, is the smart way to grow a business whose very survival depends on making the most cost-effective use of all its resources. “There is no way we could maintain the cost control we needed over the long term if we had to continue using QuickBooks,” he says. “I knew this even though for years I had no alternative. But Small Business Accounting has turned out to be that alternative, by giving me the financial tools to really understand my business and where it is For More Information Microsoft Office System For more information about Microsoft The Microsoft Office System is the products and services, call the Microsoft business world’s chosen environment for Sales Information Center at (800) 426- information work, providing the programs, 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft servers, and services that help you Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- succeed by transforming information into 2495. Customers who are deaf or hard- impact. of-hearing can reach Microsoft text For more information about the Microsoft telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) Office System, go to: 892-5234 in the United States or (905) www.microsoft.com/office 568-9641 in Canada. 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 Interatlantic Investments and Development products and services, call 305-285-7883.

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN Software and Services Hardware THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Excel, the  Products  Dell Precision 670 Office logo, Outlook, Windows, and − Microsoft Office Small Business Windows Server System are either Management Edition 2006 registered trademarks or trademarks of − Microsoft Office Small Business Microsoft Corporation in the United States Accounting 2006 and/or other countries. The names of actual − Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with companies and products mentioned herein Business Contact Manager Update may be the trademarks of their respective − Microsoft Windows XP Professional owners. − Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Document published August 2005 − Microsoft Exchange Server 2003