Swedish Red Cross Expects to Save 20% in Overall Costs with Microsoft Online Services

Companies of all sizes, all around the world are making the move to cloud computing in order to take advantage of the immense benefits that it has to offer.  In today’s post we hear from the Swedish Red Cross on why Microsoft was the best decision for their business in their move off Lotus Notes and how it expects to save 20% in overall costs by deploying Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services!

“Our staff and volunteers are using Microsoft Online Services to increase the efficacy of our humanitarian projects through reliable communications that build cohesive, productive field operations.” Joakim Pettersson-Winter Chief Technology Officer, Swedish Red Cross Swedish Red Cross

Created in 1865, the Swedish Red Cross (SRC) is one of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement's oldest national societies. SRC is the biggest humanitarian voluntary organization in Sweden, with approximately 500 employees, 250,000 members, and 40,000 volunteers who contribute their spare time to improve conditions for other people. 

IT Challenges
The humanitarian services provided by SRC are made possible by a network of staff and volunteers who rely on up-to-date messaging technology to coordinate projects and mobilize crisis response. However, the organization’s Lotus Notes e-mail service was only available to staff, and it did not provide the level of reliability or mobility that SRC needed to maximize organizational productivity.

“Our employees frequently work out of the office, yet the Lotus Notes Web mail client wasn’t popular,” adds Jim Terneborg, Infrastructure Technician at the Swedish Red Cross. “There are about 1,200 volunteers who are heavily involved in the organization who would benefit from a reliable, standardized SRC-sanctioned e-mail service instead of making do with their own e-mail service providers.”

IT Solution & Benefits
SRC chose Microsoft Online Services, gaining hosted communication and collaboration services that bring volunteers into the organization through Active Directory Domain Services. Now staff and volunteers can use the same tools to build more cohesive field operations with e-mail and instant messaging services that offer mobile access to information. While SRC placed a high priority on upgrading its e-mail service, the organization saw great potential in Office Communications Online for its instant messaging capabilities and Live Meeting for its potential to reduce travel and hotel costs while enabling collaboration among staff and volunteers in different locations.

“Microsoft Online Services fulfilled our goal to standardize on Microsoft technology. It was the most cost-effective and reliable solution, and it offered cross-platform collaboration technologies that would be helpful to people in the field,” says Pettersson-Winter. “Now staff can access a rich Web mail client using their mobile phones running the Windows Mobile 6 operating system. And they can keep their data current on all devices using ActiveSync technology to synchronize information with their personal computers.”

SRC is also seeing benefits of improved productivity and efficiency as staff members and volunteers can manage their e-mail, calendaring, and meeting schedules using the same SRC domain name, lending a more professional air to the organization’s communications. Staff can easily switch to instant messaging whether they are working in the office with their PC, or on the road with their portable computer or mobile phone. And thanks to the familiar interface of Microsoft productivity solutions, people are using them more readily.  On top of this, SRC no longer pays SEK 250,000 (U.S.$35,000) annually for “push” e-mail services. Since launch, Web mail and instant messaging usage has increased by 50 percent and expects to reduce overall costs by 20% in the next five years.

Instead of different e-mail solutions for almost every volunteer out there, says Pettersson-Winter, now we have a single platform and a single administrative portal to provision new users. For very little effort and cost, IT is using Online Services to improve communication and collaboration services so that our staff and volunteers can better achieve our mission.”

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