Watch Company Boosts Revenue 20 Percent with Seven Hours Weekly Timesavings

Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 Customer Solution Case Study

“By using Office Accounting 2007, we’re Customer: Mister Watch Online eliminating 7 of the 12 hours we spend each week Web Site: www.misterwatchonline.com Customer Size: 4 employees doing administrative tasks, allowing employees to Country or Region: United States redirect that time to selling.” Industry: Specialty retail Eric Kasper, President, Mister Watch Online Customer Profile Mister Watch Online is an online Mister Watch Online is a small Web-based business with business that sells thousands of designer watches at discount prices. Eric Kasper thousands of customers. The company deployed Microsoft® founded the company in 2003, in Akron, Office Accounting 2007 to take advantage of its integration with Ohio. It has four employees. Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager Software and Services and the PayPal online payment service. Mister Watch Online  Microsoft® Office Professional 2007 − Microsoft Office Accounting has reduced administrative work by seven hours a week, Professional 2007 leading to a 20 percent boost in revenues, and gained the ability − Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 − Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 with to see revenue sources at a glance. Business Contact Manager − Microsoft Office Word 2007 Business Needs However, the staff was collectively Mister Watch Online is a Web-based spending up to 12 hours a week on Hardware business started in 2003 by Eric Kasper of administrative work that detracted from  Two custom-built desktop computers Akron, Ohio. The four-person company quality time with customers. When he  Three IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad portable sells thousands of designer-brand watches started Mister Watch Online, Kasper used computers at discounted prices and prides itself on QuickBooks for financial recordkeeping. outstanding customer service. Although He moved to Microsoft® Office Small most customers place their orders online, Business Accounting 2006 for its improved many phone in their orders or call to check integration with the Microsoft Office on status after placing an order. Providing Outlook® 2003 messaging and customers with stellar, responsive service collaboration client, which Kasper uses and taking advantage of upsell extensively. opportunities are top priorities for Mister For more information about other Watch Online. “Microsoft Office Small Business Microsoft customer successes, please Accounting 2006 gave me integration with visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies other Microsoft Office programs, but I still spent time jumping in and out of programs,” employees, view customer histories and PayPal transactions altogether. “By says Kasper, President of Mister Watch sales records, and record invoices. He is using Office Accounting 2007, we’re Online. “Also, Small Business Accounting also able to store customer order and eliminating 7 of the 12 hours we spend 2006 lacked integration with PayPal and a financial histories in a single database and each week doing administrative tasks, few key features such as list sorting and save all e-mail messages, phone logs, and allowing employees to redirect that time filtering, which would have been useful to reminders in one place. “Office Accounting to selling,” Kasper says. us.” Kasper’s staff spent three hours each 2007 combined with Outlook 2007 with week manually entering PayPal Business Contact Manager gives us full Kasper figures that additional soft transactions and another five hours sorting CRM [customer relationship management] savings come from repeat sales approximately 600 bills for payment. functionality, without the need to use an stemming from more attentive customer expensive, standalone application,” service, not having to hire a new staff “I would rather use those hours to service Kasper says. person, saving time with features such customers and make sales,” Kasper says. “I as one-click export of data to and from was actually considering hiring an extra If a customer sends an e-mail to the Office Word and Office Excel, and person to do many of these administrative company inquiring about an order, the staff avoiding the purchase of an expensive tasks, but no small business owner wants to can look up the customer in Office Outlook CRM system. “We also don’t have to add another salary.” 2007 and automatically retrieve the hire outside developers at $120 an hour customer’s financial information from to integrate separate applications,” he Office Accounting 2007. The employee says. Solution can see the customer’s order history, In mid-2006, Kasper took advantage of an payment history, and any returns, before  20 percent increase in revenues. opportunity to test Microsoft Office replying. Staff members also set reminders By redirecting seven hours each week Accounting Professional 2007 and Microsoft to get back to customers with answers to to selling, Mister Watch Online has Office Professional 2007. “None of us are questions. boosted revenues approximately 12 accountants, but we only needed a little percent. Another 8 percent growth in training for Office Accounting 2007, for the When the company receives bills as revenue has resulted from sending e- PayPal add-in,” Kasper says. “We started Microsoft Office Word documents or a mail mailers weekly instead of monthly; saving time immediately.” Microsoft Office Excel® spreadsheet, using the customizable List feature in employees can add them to a vendor’s Office Accounting 2007 makes it easier Instead of manually entering PayPal account with a single mouse-click, giving to categorize customers. transactions, the staff uses Office Mister Watch Online the ability to keep all Accounting 2007 to automatically invoice records in a single place for easy access.  Quick look at revenue sources. and receive payment using PayPal, Kasper uses the standard and custom eliminating three hours of weekly clerical reporting capabilities of Office time and providing customers with faster Benefits Accounting 2007 to get snapshot views verification and payment. Instead of Through the use of Office Accounting of his business. “I’ve created a report manually sorting 600 invoices each week, 2007, Mister Watch Online has realized that shows me which distribution venues the staff uses the Office Accounting 2007 significant benefits: generate the most sales,” Kasper says. filter feature to sort invoices. “I can now easily see where the money  Seven-hour weekly reduction in is coming from; this helps us fine-tune Employees use Office Accounting 2007 administrative work. Using Office our marketing on a weekly basis.” together with Office Outlook 2007 with Accounting 2007, Mister Watch Online Business Contact Manager in all customer has been able to reduce the five-hour Concludes Kasper, “Office Accounting interactions. Kasper uses Office Outlook weekly bill-paying job to one hour and 2007 has far more functionality than you’d 2007 to create tasks and assign them to eliminate the three-hour task of entering expect in a small business product. It’s

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

Document published November 2006 one of the best accounting solutions I’ve seen on the market.”

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

Document published November 2006