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Hotel Chain Chooses Microsoft Over Google Cloud to Increase Productivity by 12 Per Cent

  • Artigo

Companies in many industries, all around the world are taking advantage of immense benefits from cloud computing. Today we hear from Chandris Hotels and Resorts on why Microsoft was the best decision in their move to expand their business and embrace cloud computing!

“ I wasn’t 100 per cent confident with the support services for Google Apps. The technical support information wasn’t clear, and I had to be confident that enquiries would be answered quickly. ”

-- Leonidas Christou, IT Manager at Chandris Hotels and Resorts

Chandris Hotels and Resorts
Chandris Hotels and Resorts, based in Greece, manages five hotels located on the mainland and on the country’s islands. The company offers both luxury accommodation and excellent facilities for business meetings and conferences.

IT Challenges
The company’s email solution was delivered by a local internet service provider, which supplied just 2 gigabytes of capacity per inbox and didn’t adhere to a service-level agreement. On an average day, the IT Manager received around 15 calls from personnel complaining about email messages that hadn’t arrived or hadn’t been delivered to customers. Chandris Hotels and Resorts already had close links with Microsoft, with around 95 per cent of the company’s systems running on its software, and spoke to Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Algosystems about the email challenges.

IT Solution and Benefits
The partner proposed Microsoft Exchange Online, part of Microsoft Office 365, which delivers leading Microsoft software solutions through a cloud-based service. At the same time, Christou also considered Google Apps for Business as a possible cloud-based alternative. “I wasn’t 100 per cent confident with the support services for Google Apps,” says Christou. “The technical support information wasn’t clear, and I had to be confident that enquiries would be answered quickly.” Furthermore, Christou wanted to avoid implementing a solution that would require additional software to integrate with the company’s systems. “It could have reduced the reliability of some of our computers,” he says.

Chandris Hotels and Resorts chose Microsoft Exchange Online, with Christou working closely with Algosystems during the move. According to the IT Manager, the migration was seamless, taking him less than 24 hours to set up 120 email accounts and change the domain name system servers and mail exchanger records.

Today, employees at Chandris Hotels and Resorts have reliable and secure email and up to 25 gigabytes of storage per inbox, which they can access through desktops, the internet, and mobile devices. The majority of personnel are using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Outlook Web Access as their desktop and web-based interfaces, but a growing number are using Windows Phone 7. “With the addition of mobile access, personnel can deliver a better level of service to customers and drive growth,” says Christou.

Chandris Hotels and Resorts has increased sales by 5 per cent because employees can now deliver a better level of service to customers. With constant access to email from multiple locations, they respond around 12 per cent faster to enquiries and work more closely with colleagues. The company has also reduced call costs by around 5 per cent because staff are corresponding more by email.

Read the full story here.

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