As Microsoft continues to readjust to changing market trends in computing, mobility and productivity, its Office 365 cloud based office suite has managed to flourish in all three categories. Office 365 has helped drive increases in Microsoft’s commercial cloud revenue year over year and is a huge part of Microsoft’s projected $8 billion dollars annualized run rate.
Much of Office 365 success is due in part to what it offers customers. Over the past couple of years, we’ve reported on countless companies who have either become more cost efficient, productive, secure or mobile using Office 365. Sports apparel designer Dakine has recently joined the list of Office 365 customers who are benefiting from Microsoft’s continued push into cloud-connected productivity.
Dakine specializes in accessories and apparel for action sports. The design company needed new business technologies that matched their increasingly mobile workforce. After all things had been considered, Dakine decided Microsoft Office 365 was the best solution for its multifaceted situation. Beyond addressing its employees need for cloud-based communications and collaborations, Office 365 enabled Dakine to drive productivity while lowering the company’s IT infrastructure costs.
Ironic as it may sound, Nic Richards, the IT manager at Dakine, believes using Office 365 reflects the laid back culture at Dakine.
I wanted to find business productivity solutions that reflect our corporate culture: people are laid back here, but dedicated,” says Richards. “We expect to work when and where we need to—on the slopes, the trails or the beach. We use Microsoft Office 365 cloud-based services to reinforce those values, underlying what makes Dakine’s culture unique.”
The use of Office 365 for Dakine has led to better mobile productivity among employees and interoperable communications with their partners. According to Richards, “We leverage the video and audio conferencing tools of Skype for Business to better collaborate and stay in real-time contact with our teams around the world.”
While productivity can often result in indirect savings for a company, Richards has attributed the use of Office 365 in a direct cost savings for Dakine. Dakine was able to save roughly $100,000 by not having to purchase and maintain both software and hardware for the company’s on-premises Exchange solution. The assist of KAMIND IT also helped Richards and Dakine smoothly execute an inbox migration from former parent company Billabong servers to Exchange Online.
Lastly, using IM capabilities that come with Office 365, Dakine’s customer service employees have been able to boost their customer service output by reducing the average time answer time for customer query by 30 percent. As Dakine continues to make full use of Office 365 for its productivity needs, it should come as no surprise that the company has plans to utilize more of Microsoft’s cloud offerings. Eventually, Dakine would like to incorporate Microsoft’s SharePoint Online to help build stronger relationships with its retailers in the future.
