Microsoft Office 365Customer Solution Case Study

Manufacturer Realizes Vision of One Global Company with Cloud-Based Business Tools

OverviewCountry or Region: DenmarkIndustry: Manufacturing

Customer ProfileHeadquartered near Copenhagen, Denmark, the VELUX Group offers a range of roof windows and skylights, sun screening, roller shutters, installation solutions, and products for remote control.

Business SituationThe VELUX Group wanted to eliminate duplicate administrative functions and enable better global collaboration.

SolutionToday, associates are communicating and collaborating seamlessly to streamline global operations and boost regional business using Microsoft Office 365.

Benefits Cost-effective, easy cloud computing Global brand, local presence On-the-road access to information Improved teamwork and individual

innovation

“To ensure the VELUX Group products resonate in local markets, global collaboration is critical. By using Office 365 with mobile access to data and web conferencing, we’re able to optimize global and local initiatives.”

Peter Bang, Chief Financial Officer, the VELUX Group

The VELUX Group has a global presence in the building materials industry, producing innovative skylight and roof window products for local markets. The company is streamlining global communication and collaboration and reducing expensive duplicate business functions to save money and reinvest in product innovation and improved local customer service. That’s because staff use Microsoft Office 365 to work together seamlessly and boost support for regional and local sales representatives and global support teams. Today, the VELUX Group runs more efficient, cohesive global administrative business functions while retaining a vital presence in local markets to sell more products.

The VELUX Group represents one of the strongest brands in the global building materials sector and its products are sold in most parts of the world. After 70 years of expansion, the VELUX Group has manufacturing companies that function as local operations in 11 countries and sales companies in just fewer than 40 countries. However, today the VELUX Group faces the challenge of streamlining duplicate administrative offices.

“We have a vision called ‘One VELUX’ that’s all about creating a more efficient, cohesive global business infrastructure,” says Chief Financial Officer Peter Bang. “Competition is growing, customers are more coordinated across continents and keep asking more of us. We need to allocate our resources to provide strong local sales presence instead of spending them on duplicate administration. We need to operate more efficiently, reduce costs, and reinvest those savings into building better products at low prices. And in order to do so, we need our employees to be able to communicate and collaborate with each other.”

However, the VELUX Group wasn’t providing up-to-date IT for its employees to connect around the world. “The best way to support collaboration across borders is by introducing the right tools,” says Sofie Irgens, Head of IT Business Management at the VELUX Group. “We couldn’t achieve our goal for One VELUX until we updated our business productivity software.”

Cost-Effective, Easy Cloud ComputingThe VELUX Group is taking advantage of the cost-effective power of cloud computing to provide the tools it needs to streamline global operations and deliver responsive support for local sales and

manufacturing resources. It chose Microsoft Office 365, which combines the familiar Office desktop suite with online communication and collaboration services. “Office 365 is enterprise ready, easy to administer, and easy to use,” says Irgens. “Plus, we are saving up to 5 million Danish krone [US$915,000] annually in hardware and licensing costs. This money can be reinvested in improving our manufacturing process and in product innovation.”

The VELUX Group worked with IT partner Accenture and Microsoft Services Consulting to migrate more than 5,500 employees to Office 365 over six weekends, completing the migration in December 2013. “It was a great three-way partnership,” says Irgens. “Our overall Lync migration took two months. Twenty days into the migration, we exceeded the number of PC-to-PC voice call minutes logged by our previous VOIP system by approximately 50 percent—and we had been on that system for almost 5 years.”

Global Brand, Local PresenceToday, the VELUX Group is building a connected organization that achieves a collaborative synergy between global business functions and local service delivery. “We are driving our global brand

“Instead of offices working in isolation around the world, we’re using Lync Online to bring local finance experts together. We’re sharing presentations and discussing ideas using the whiteboard, resulting in a more efficient global financial organization.”

Peter Bang, Chief Financial Officer, the VELUX Group

through more efficient, consolidated business functions,” says Bang. “At the same time, we are maintaining a strong local sales presence to provide product and services that resonate with customers in different countries. That’s because employees from the field to head office can communicate anywhere anytime with the cloud collaboration technology we get with Office 365.”

The VELUX Group replaced duplicate local financial offices with a global financial organization, boosting efficiency while providing direct insight into regional financial markets to optimize manufacturing output and customer sales. “Instead of running finance centrally from headquarters, we have regional finance managers located around the world,” says Bang. “We get the best of both worlds—streamlined global operations informed by local knowledge—because it takes just a few clicks to initiate a web conference and bring everyone together.”

On-the-Road Access to Information VELUX sales representatives are more productive while traveling because it’s fast and easy to connect back to their local offices for sales and customer information in the few minutes that they have between calls. “Sales reps can visit more architects, dealers, and installers and be more prepared when they get there because they use Office 365 to instant message with colleagues at the office using their smartphones,” says Irgens.

Sales representatives carry a smartphone, a laptop for working with sales figures from the company’s customer relationship management (CRM) solution, and tablets for presentations. The VELUX Group is considering deploying Office 365-enabled

Windows 8 devices. “Helping our sales reps to be fully productive on the road enhances our local service. They could use one device to upload CRM data, work with Office applications, and deliver stellar customer presentations,” says Irgens.

VELUX employees don’t even need their laptops to stay productive away from the office. “Last weekend when I visited my parents, I got an email about an urgent IT issue. I borrowed my dad’s computer and all I needed was the browser to do the work required to solve the problem. With Office 365, it’s amazing how productive I can be using someone else’s device,” says Irgens.

Improved Teamwork and Individual Innovation According to Bang, the VELUX Group is hoping to see virtual teamwork and individual innovation on a scale never achieved before as more and more people use Office 365 to collaborate online. Individuals will be able to use social features to share their ideas with anyone in the company, driving product and manufacturing process innovation to help the company become more competitive. It will no longer matter where VELUX employees reside: everyone can stay abreast of departmental or project news through team site notifications in their inbox, increasing a sense of corporate pride around providing products that improve customers’ living environments.

“To stay competitive, we need to become One VELUX,” concludes Irgens. “We chose Office 365 to help our employees streamline global operations and drive local business activities to optimize sales around the world.”

“Office 365 ProPlus helps to achieve a better work-life balance for our employees. They can install the latest Office programs on up to five devices, including personal PCs at home, and sync their work between them.”

Sofie Irgens, Head of IT Business Management, the VELUX Group

The Technologies InvolvedThe VELUX Group licensed the Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise E4 Plan so employees can download Office 365 ProPlus, the familiar Office desktop suite, on more than five devices and work productively with synced files on all of them. Everyone is using Office Online for browser-based access to Office applications and Microsoft Exchange Online for email and calendaring. Staff use Lync Online to connect via web conferencing and instant messaging. People can share ideas and collaborate using Microsoft SharePoint Online.

Microsoft Office 365The new Office provides anywhere access to your familiar Office applications—plus email, calendar, video conferencing, and your most current documents—on almost any device, from PCs to smartphones to tablets.

For more information about Microsoft Office 365, go to:www.office365.com

For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. 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 Accenture services, visit the website at:www.accenture.com

For more information about the VELUX Group products and services, visit the website at:www.velux.com

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

Document published May 2014

Software and Services Microsoft Office 365− Microsoft Exchange Online− Microsoft Lync Online− Microsoft Office Online− Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus− Microsoft SharePoint Online

Services− Microsoft Services Consulting

Partners Accenture