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

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

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

5. For More Information Microsoft Online Services is important. It will Microsoft Online Services
For more information about Microsoft help us operate far more effectively as an Microsoft Online Services is a business-class
products and services, call the Microsoft online organization.” communications and collaboration software
Sales Information Center at (800) 426- offering delivered as a subscription service,
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft hosted by Microsoft, and sold with partners.
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- These services help make it easier for
2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of- customers to rapidly and cost-effectively
hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone access the most up-to-date technologies, and
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in are designed for rapid deployment to provide
the United States or (905) 568-9641 in customers with streamlined communications,
Canada. Outside the 50 United States and simplified management, and business-class
Canada, please contact your local reliability and security.
Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to: For IT staff, Microsoft Online Services helps
www.microsoft.com reduce the burden of performing routine IT
management tasks such as installation,
For more information about Centro de provisioning, ongoing maintenance, patches,
Innovación en Productividad products and updates, and upgrades, making it possible for
services, call +34 93 877 2100 or visit the them to spend more time on initiatives that
Web site at: www.productivitycenter.org move the business forward. These services
are backed by strong SLAs and are designed
For more information about to meet the regulatory compliance and
Competitiveness products and services, 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