Malaysian Organizations Save Costs, Boost Productivity With Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Solutions

Crystal Edge and Zepto Consulting credit Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 productivity suite for helping them save cost and improve productivity.

Kuala Lumpur, 9 May 2012 - Driven by the pressures of today’s rapid pace of business and ever-changing market landscapes, exacerbated further by the “always-on”, “instant response” expectations of a mobile digital lifestyle, Malaysian organizations and businesses are flocking to Cloud Computing for its advantages to scale on demand and achieve greater productivity.

In doing so, marketing services firm Crystal Edge Sdn. Bhd. (“Crystal Edge”) and consulting firm Zepto Consulting Sdn. Bhd. (“Zepto Consulting”) have realized very real and tangible benefits, with a demonstrated cost savings of up to 40 percent and increased productivity by up to 35 percent, when they chose Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity suite Office 365.

A growing need for Cloud-powered solutions in Malaysia

Crystal Edge has become a premier marketing services company with a regional office in Singapore and customers throughout the Asia-Pacific region from a variety of industries since its inception in 1994. However, it also faces similar issues in coordination, communication and collaboration. Meetings—internal, external, overseas, and domestic—are a way of life at the company, which supports customers on all aspects of marketing services. “We’re an agency, so clients don’t come to us – we travel to them,” said Jaime Chong, Director of Operations & Special Projects for Crystal Edge.

A single event can require up to 20 meetings to plan and carry out. The company also used email and phone calls to collaborate, but these methods were not flexible enough, especially for employees who attend meetings from outside the office—and long-distance bills could be high. As it was, employees had to come into the office to access documents stored on company servers, or rely on colleagues to email them the files.

The company wanted to cut costs, especially around online event capabilities, such as webinars, for customers. The custom solutions Crystal Edge looked at cost around RM21,500 (US$7,000.00) per event, which was too expensive for them.

Likewise, Zepto Consulting’s rapid growth from its founding in 2010 with just three people into a thriving consulting start-up of 10 has brought with it challenges in file sharing, version control, and maintaining documentation. Its work in the development of software, web and mobile applications as well as embedded systems, mean that “Documentation is very important to our business,” according to Jabez Gan, Project Director at Zepto Consulting. “Unfortunately, we have had problems with losing files and not being able to locate the latest versions,” he continued.

Besides needing a way to protect and easily share files, Zepto also needed better, faster remote access. The company’s previous solution was too slow for employees to reliably access files from home or a client site, so most staff members didn’t even try. Not having fast, immediate access to files often got in the way of Zepto’s goal to provide excellent customer service. The company didn’t have enough support for its frequently mobile workers, who enjoyed the flexibility of working at home, client sites, or coffee shops.

Like most small businesses, Zepto was also looking for ways to reduce costs. With the large amount of money Zepto spent on travel each month, the company was intrigued with the idea of virtual conferencing. The company realized that a cloud-based service could offer the file sharing, fast remote access, and virtual conferencing Zepto was looking for. The right solution would also need to fit into the start-up’s budget.


Improved IT ROI through the Cloud

Despite their different organizational sizes and complexities, tenure of operation, and industries, all three organizations found themselves choosing Microsoft’s Office 365 Cloud-based productivity suite to address their needs.

Powered by trusted Microsoft technology, Office 365 comes with a 99% uptime guarantee, antivirus and anti-spam solutions for 24/7 email protection, and enterprise-grade reliability and disaster recovery capabilities – features that many organizations typically find themselves purchasing and managing separately.

For Crystal Edge, the killer feature of the Office 365 productivity suite was Lync Online; which the company used to reduce the number of in-person meetings that its employees once spent time and money traveling to, for substantial cost savings. The company also now served customers outside its traditional territory by using voice and video conferencing—which cost less than long-distance phone calls.

Crystal Edge is now also able to offer affordable new online-event services using Lync Online, such as customizing webinars for customers. Anyone can attend these webinars using the Lync Attendee client, a free download that can be used by external users. Chong summed, “Lync Online costs one third the price of custom solutions for providing online events to our customers, saving us nearly RM40,000 (US$13,000.00) annually. Now we can move forward with what is the fastest-growing segment of our business.”

For Zepto Consulting, the route to Cloud Computing was clear to them: “Zepto is young and passionate, and we embrace new technologies,” Gan said. “That’s why we’re using Office 365. We’d rather work smart than hard, and Office 365 helps us use our time more efficiently.”

Overall, Gan estimates Office 365 has improved the company’s bottom line by about 10%, giving employees more productive hours and reducing operational costs for the company as a whole. Additionally, Zepto Consulting loved that Office 365 was available month-to-month with no contract, which allowed the company to pay only for the services employees were using. Plus, as the company rapidly expanded, Office 365 could easily match and support its growth.


Increased productivity through better communication and collaboration

Returns on IT investment hasn’t been the only major benefit that Crystal Edge and Zepto Consulting have discovered jumping on to the Cloud through Office 365.

Crystal Edge has been using Microsoft Lync Online for close to a year now in combination with SharePoint Online, choosing these services because they worked with the company’s existing Microsoft Office applications and allowed the employees to enjoy robust online conferencing, team collaboration sites, and most importantly, to have anywhere-access to their documents and files; which allowed employees to share and edit these documents on-the-go, with version control and automatic data backups.

The company uses Lync Online to provide audio and video conferencing, instant messaging, and web conferencing through the Microsoft Lync 2010 desktop application. To conduct meetings with clients, employees can also use voice and video conferencing capabilities from any location with a standard Internet connection while users who were away from a computer could still participate in audio conferences using standard telephone. Staff inside or outside the office can conduct their online project-meeting agendas and presentations to clients and colleagues, including audio, video, screen sharing, and a virtual whiteboard for sharing a meeting agenda or action items.

With unified conferencing, users can collaborate, share information, and coordinate their efforts in real time, so there is no duplication of documentation. Using these features, employees can attend meetings from wherever they are: typically, some users will be at home, some at the office, and their clients are often in Sydney, Hong Kong, or somewhere in India.

With these capabilities, Crystal Edge reduced the number of in-person meetings and employees no longer needed to come into the office to access documents stored on company servers, or rely on colleagues to email them the files. “We can save 15 hours per week with Lync Online because our staff can attend meetings from anywhere,” declared Chong and explaining that the company now uses such Office 365 features to save almost RM40,000 (US$13,000) annually.

Zepto Consulting is also beginning to realize gains in the form of time and thousands of ringgit each year through Lync Online. Gan estimates that the company can move 25% of meetings to Lync Online, saving up to RM36,000 (US$12,000) annually in travel expenses alone. Reducing travel also frees up a total of 50 hours of productive time, company-wide, for the company’s engineers each month. “Our employees are now able to do a lot more with hours that would otherwise be spent traveling,” Gan said.

Included with Office 365 is Sharepoint Online, which Crystal Edge uses to build team sites for document sharing and collaboration, including Document Workspaces and Meeting Workspaces, to help manage particular projects or work items. The company can also manage and store their marketing proposals for collaboration, plus project meeting notes and client contact information, so everyone has the latest information and can offer the personalized service that Crystal Edge has become known for. These features and any document libraries are accessible to employees and partners online through a password-protected portal.

Staff can access, share, and edit files during meetings, or when they’re away from the office. With version control, the company gains accuracy in their documents, to better serve clients. Chong commented, “Our staff once had to be in the office to open certain documents. With SharePoint Online, they will be able to access files from anywhere our business takes them. Now, our file-sharing capabilities are aligned with our business: fast-paced, responsive, and global.”

For Zepto Consulting, their team members frequently work from home, at client sites, or even from the corner coffee shop. Through SharePoint Online, easily and quickly gives them the support they need to work away from the office, with remote access to customer documentation, plus version control to ensure they’re always working on the latest document. “All we have to do is log in and start working,” said Gan. “SharePoint Online gives us constant access to our documents, and that means we can quickly respond to customers, no matter where we are.”

Enhanced efficiencies and capabilities

Besides communication and collaboration capabilities, Office 365 offers other important functionalities.

Zepto Consulting’s team members count on Exchange Online to access their files, email, contacts, and calendars from nearly any mobile device. Whether employees carry Windows Phone 7, iPhones, Androids, and BlackBerries, they can respond to clients even when they’re away from their computers. Now that the company offers better, faster remote access, Gan said that the entire staff is now taking advantage of mobile computing to get work done from anywhere.

Office 365’s 99.9% uptime guarantee also meant that Zepto Consulting was no longer vulnerable to server crashes and slow remote file sharing. With this, Zepto Consulting’s employees are better able to meet deadlines, sometimes making the difference between profit and loss on a job. “It’s very expensive for a small company to waste time,” Gan said, “Office 365 helps us make more of every working hour.”

“Yes, we’ll save a significant amount of time,” chimes in Fauzi, “But the real benefit is being able to work together more efficiently and productively. Our vision is to be a world-class social security organization that provides the best savings programs for our citizens. Without a doubt, Office 365 is helping us achieve that.”