Carvajal switches its 20,000 employees to Office 365

Laurent Giret

Carvajal, a multinational company specialized in office furniture, packaging and educational software has chosen to migrate to Office 365 in 2015 to streamline its technology environment. In a new guest post on the Office Blog, Carvajal Corporate IT Director Jaime Parra Mutis explains how the company which operates in 15 countries in North and South America is leveraging the Microsoft cloud to improve productivity across its many business divisions.

A few years ago, the company chose to move its 20,000 employees to Google Apps as its previous range of on-premises software didn’t make it easy to coordinate meetings and make its workforce more connected. While Google Apps allowed the company to reduce IT costs and simplify its communications systems, Parra Mutis shared that this was still not ideal:

We soon found that employees had to take extra steps to accomplish their work. This was due to the lack of integration between our Google solutions and our Microsoft systems, particularly Microsoft Office, which employees depend on for daily productivity. For example, employees encountered issues when they tried to publish documents because their formatting didn’t stay consistent, and they struggled to find ways to collaborate efficiently.

In 2015, the company decided to switch to Office 365, and the migration was accomplished with the help of Microsoft Services Premier Support. “The best part is that everything interoperates in a way that supports connected teamwork,” shared Mutis, who also explained that Carvajal employees now use SharePoint Online, Yammer, Office 365 groups and Skype for Business to better collaborate and stay productive from any device.

Mutis added:

There are plenty of reasons why we’re pleased that we adopted Office 365, most of which relate to companywide collaboration and efficiency. Our IT staff members are as happy with Office 365 as their colleagues. For example, they spend far less time now on hardware and software administration, focusing instead on new projects that support the business. The company also benefits from having more secure data in an environment that complies with important international standards.

Microsoft’s Office 365 definitely seems to enjoy some momentum as other big companies such as Atkins and even Facebook have also embraced the cloud productivity suite over the last few months. Additionally, a recent study from Deutsche Band also revealed that Google Apps for Work was currently losing market share to Office 365.