Competitiveness went virtual, closing its offices and decommissioning its infrastructure. Since then, it has been running its global business using Google Apps, WebEx, and a dozen other Web-based tools. The multiplicity of passwords and user interfaces, poor integration, and inconsistent levels of functionality were subtly undermining its ability to conduct business effectively. The company implemented the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services and can now access the majority of services it needs from one provider, with a single sign-on, and provide better integration between online and offline applications to help ensure that its employees can work more effectively than ever.

1. Microsoft Online Services
Customer Solution Case Study
Streamlining Operations and Improving
Effectiveness with Microsoft Online Services
®
Overview “You want the interaction with the tools you need to
Country or Region: Spain
Industry: Consulting
do your work to feel frictionless—and when we had a
dozen tools and passwords and user interfaces it was
Customer Profile
Competitiveness works with clusters of
not frictionless at all..”
companies, local, and state governments Emiliano Duch, CEO, Competitiveness
to increase the competitiveness of the
cluster. The company works with clients In 2007, the Spanish consulting firm Competitiveness went virtual,
around the world and operates virtually,
with no physical offices of its own. closing its offices and decommissioning its infrastructure. Since
then, it has been running its global business using Google Apps,
Business Situation
Competitiveness employees were relying WebEx, and a dozen other Web-based tools. While Competitiveness
on Google Apps and a dozen other online was comfortable with the idea of working online, the multiplicity of
services. Compatibility issues and the need
to remember so many distinct passwords passwords and user interfaces, poor integration, and inconsistent
and manage so many distinct user levels of functionality were subtly undermining its ability to conduct
interfaces were compromising employee
effectiveness. business effectively. Competitiveness turned to the Centro de
Innovación en Productividad for help, and CIP introduced it to the
Solution
Competitiveness executives conferred with Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services.
the Centro de Innovación en Productividad, Competitiveness can now access the majority of services it needs
where they discovered the Business
Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft from one provider, with a single sign-on, and better integration
Online Services. between online and offline applications, ensure that its employees
Benefits can work more effectively than ever.
Single sign-on to required applications
Greater inter-application integration
Consistent user interface and conventions
Improved efficiency

2. Situation evolving companies in Catalonia to improve
Competitiveness provides consulting services productivity through better use of technology.
that helps clusters of companies become When CIP showed Competitiveness the
more competitive in the global marketplace. Business Productivity Online Suite from
It has 25 full time employees and, at any Microsoft Online Services, the end of the
given time, 25 or more customer trainees struggle appeared to be in sight.
working all over the world. While
Competitiveness is officially based in Solution
Barcelona, the company operates virtually. It The Business Productivity Online Suite from
has no formal office space. In fact, since Microsoft Online Services enables
2007, Competitiveness has operated entirely Competitiveness to gain access to a range of
online and relied on cloud-based applications integrated, enterprise-class services without
and infrastructure from Google and other having to procure or maintain an in-house
service providers. infrastructure for those services. Microsoft
Online Services enables access to
“We also used to use Competitiveness was comfortable with the collaboration tools and shared workspaces,
idea of working online, but the company’s workflow, desktop and mobile e-mail,
Google Talk to do needs had given rise to a complex mixture of calendaring and contacts, instant messaging,
meetings, but we could services. On any given day, its 50 users presence, audio/video conferencing, and
worked with Google Apps, SugarCRM, WebEx, Web conferencing. Yet because the
not use it to have MindSalt, SurveyMonkey, BeamYourScreen, applications supporting these services—
meetings with multiple and more. In all, Competitiveness was relying including Microsoft SharePoint® Online,
on more than a dozen application and service Microsoft Exchange Online, Office Live
people, so the Business providers. That meant more than a dozen Meeting, and Microsoft Office
Productivity Online Suite user interfaces and more than a dozen Communications Online—run on servers
passwords for each employee to remember residing in a state-of-the-art Microsoft data
will really help us with and re-enter on a daily basis. The Google center, neither Competitiveness nor CIP
group interactions.” applications tended to be somewhat basic in needs to invest in on-premises infrastructure
their functionally, too, so Competitiveness to take advantage of these services.
Emiliano Duch, CEO, Competitiveness
employees typically ran the Microsoft Office
suite of productivity tools on their laptops and Microsoft hosts and maintains the servers
used those whenever preparing final docs with its own staff of hardware and software
and presentations for clients. Given the experts, supplies patches and security
difficulties of saving those documents in updates in real time, and guarantees 99.9
Google Docs without formatting issues, they percent uptime with a financially-backed SLA,
had to resort to a different cloud-based so Competitiveness employees always have
repository accessed through yet another access to the latest, most up-to-date versions
application. of the applications to which they subscribe.
CIP can provide Competitiveness with
After a year and a half of struggling to make support, training, and other value-added
online applications work, Competitiveness services to enable the company to make the
executives approached the Centro de most of this online solution.
Innovación en Productividad (CIP) in
Manresa, Spain, which works closely with

3. CIP and the Business Productivity Online more difficult for employees to work optimally
Suite offers still other advantages. Instead of in a virtual environment.
having to purchase separate server and client
licenses for infrastructure components such A Streamlined Online Experience
as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server or By itself, the Business Productivity Online
Microsoft Exchange Server, Competitiveness Suite from Microsoft Online Services provides
can, though CIP, simply subscribe to the many of the features and functions that
applications its users need on a per-user, per- Competitiveness had been relying on multiple
month basis. This eliminates up-front providers to deliver—and it provides access to
licensing costs and enables Competitiveness all these services with a single password and
to cover the nominal expense of accessing a consistent user interface. Employees can
these services using its operational rather continue to use the Microsoft Office
than capital budget. CIP enables applications on their laptops and save their
Competitiveness to provide its users with documents and presentations to a
access to the entire Business Productivity SharePoint Online workspace in the cloud.
Online Suite for one low monthly fee. If a user
“We can easily share were to need access to only one service— “The degree of integration among these
files without worrying Microsoft Exchange Online, for example—CIP applications is one of the most valuable
could set up the service so that that user aspects of the Business Productivity Online
about the format could access just that service, and at an even Suite,” says Duch. “We can easily share files
becoming corrupted lower monthly fee to Competitiveness. The without worrying about the format becoming
choice belongs to Competitiveness. corrupted because we saved it online. That
because we saved it saves a lot of headaches and rework.
online. That saves a lot Benefits
For Competitiveness, the Business “The other aspect is the ease with which we
of headaches and Productivity Online Suite has proven to be an can choose to work online or offline,” Duch
rework.” ideal solution. CIP set up accounts and goes on to say. “If our users were trying to
migrated the company’s users from their use Google Apps before, they could only do it
Emiliano Duch, CEO, Competitiveness older online applications in a matter of while online. They could not use these
weeks. Now, the only online services applications while they were on a plane or
Competitiveness relies on aside from the unable to get a good connection. That’s one
Business Productivity Online Suite are its of the other reasons why our users chose to
online banking and customer relationship run Microsoft Office on their laptops—so they
management (CRM) solutions. The could be productive while offline. The
functionality delivered by the online services Microsoft online and offline applications
formerly used by Competitiveness complement each other, so they can create
consultants are now supported by Microsoft offline and save online when they get a
Online Services and the Business Productivity chance to reconnect. In this way, the
Online Suite. The net results include a more Microsoft Office applications on the laptop
streamlined online experience, greater and the Microsoft Online Services in the
flexibility and security for developing project- cloud work very well together.”
specific communities of interest, and what
Emiliano Duch, CEO of Competitiveness, calls Group interactions are similarly streamlined.
a decrease in the “friction” that had made it “To call an online meeting before, someone

4. had to go into WebEx, enter the password, set closed system and we can control who has
up the meeting, and send an e-mail to all the access.”
participants. They’d have to open the e-mail
message and click on the link to join. Now, Today, the idea of “online” is synonymous
using Office Live Meeting, all of that is done with “open,” says Duch, but for a business
automatically. We also used to use Google like Competitiveness, the idea of “online” and
Talk to do meetings, but we could not use it “closed” is more important. “That’s actually
to have meetings with multiple people, so the something that’s difficult to find in many of
Business Productivity Online Suite will really the online systems that are out there,” Duch
help us with group interactions. We want continues, “particularly in systems that
online meetings to be easy, as though we originated as free services and became fee-
were sitting in the same room—even when based services after the fact. Google, Skype,
we’re not.” and others—they all began as free consumer-
Business-class Flexibility and Security oriented services and then they tried to
For Duch, the Business Productivity Online become professional. But you’re still sharing
“If our users were trying Suite also offers levels of flexibility and the same infrastructure with the free
to use Google Apps security that he found missing from other services. The services in the Business
online services. Competitiveness works on Productivity Online Suite started as
before, they could only many projects simultaneously. Many of its enterprise-class services for individual
do it while online. . . . projects involve training local businesspeople companies, with a lot of attention paid to
to run their operations in new ways, so these privacy and security, and then they moved
The Microsoft online and trainees need access to the same online online. For Competitiveness, that’s a real
offline applications tools and collaboration spaces that advantage. With the Business Productivity
Competitiveness consultants use. At the Online Suite, we gain the flexibility and
complement each other, same time, Competitiveness needs to scalability benefits of being online, but we
so they can create maintain control over its intellectual assets also gain the privacy and security benefits
and needs to set up its project spaces with that an offline system would ensure.”
offline and save online different levels of security and user access.
when they get a chance Eliminating Friction, Increasing
“We’re building intranets for our consultants Effectiveness
to reconnect.” and selected groups of participants” explains For the consultants and executives at
Emiliano Duchy, CEO, Competitiveness Duch, “but we want them to be closed. These Competitiveness, the need to enter a dozen
are essentially communities of interest, but different passwords on a daily basis and to
we don’t want them to be linked with any navigate a dozen distinct user interfaces
others. The problem with using an online were problems less of productivity and more
service such as LinkedIn or Face book to do of operating efficiency. “We want our people
this is that once you join a community to be at ease working online,” says Duch. “We
everyone knows who you have as friends. We want them to feel as comfortable interacting
want the opposite: we want our clients to with people online as they would be meeting
understand that it’s an advantage to be in face to face, even if the people they’re
our network, that being in our network they interacting with are on opposite sides of the
can get updated information about things world.”
that will be useful for them, and that that
information is not available to everyone. It’s a

5. For More Information Ultimately, that is the problem that the Microsoft Online Services
For more information about Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft Online Services is a business-class
products and services, call the Microsoft Microsoft Online Services is helping communications and collaboration software
Sales Information Center at (800) Competiveness to overcome. The goal of offering delivered as a subscription service,
426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft ease of computing was impossible to achieve hosted by Microsoft, and sold with partners.
Canada Information Centre at (877) when Competitiveness consultants were These services help make it easier for
568-2495. Customers who are deaf or using multiple online applications and having customers to rapidly and cost-effectively
hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text to disrupt their work by dealing with multiple access the most up-to-date technologies, and
telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) passwords or adjusting to inconsistent user are designed for rapid deployment to provide
892-5234 in the United States or (905) interfaces. customers with streamlined communications,
568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 simplified management, and business-class
United States and Canada, please contact “Every delay compromises this goal,” says reliability and security.
your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access Duch. “So every distraction that you can
information using the World Wide Web, go remove becomes critical. You want the For IT staff, Microsoft Online Services helps
to: www.microsoft.com interaction with the tools you need to do your reduce the burden of performing routine IT
work to feel frictionless—and when we had a management tasks such as installation,
For more information about Centro de dozen tools and passwords and user provisioning, ongoing maintenance, patches,
Innovación en Productividad products and interfaces it was not frictionless at all. That’s updates, and upgrades, making it possible for
services, call +34 93 877 2100 or visit the why the level of integration we gain through them to spend more time on initiatives that
Web site at: www.productivitycenter.org the Business Productivity Online Suite and move the business forward. These services
Microsoft Online Services is important. It will are backed by strong SLAs and are designed
For more information about help us operate far more effectively as an to meet the regulatory compliance and
Competitiveness products and services, online organization.” reliability needs of enterprise customers. On
call +34 669 86 55 00 or visit the Web site a technical level, the services boast the
at: www.competitiveness.com sophistication and reliability that customers
expect from Microsoft, which continues to
invest heavily in building data centers to
support these services.
For more information, visit:
www.microsoft.com/online
Software and Services Microsoft Office Communications Online
Microsoft Online Services Office Live Meeting
Microsoft Exchange Online
Microsoft SharePoint Online
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published March 2009