Italian Businesses Improve Information-Sharing, Bolster Productivity, Reduce IT Costs With Cloud-Based Microsoft Office 365

REDMOND, Wash., April 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Eight companies and public agencies have joined an increasing number of Italian customers that have adopted Microsoft Office 365 to foster greater collaboration and communication, enhance productivity and realize efficiencies afforded by cloud-based services, Microsoft Corp. announced today.

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Office 365 brings together the latest in productivity from Microsoft — Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online — in a continuously updated, cloud-based service available as a predictable subscription. Since its June 2011 introduction, companies and municipalities in Italy have signed up and begun using the service, and many report dramatic increases in productivity and reductions in IT operating costs.

Eight comparatively diverse Italian-based companies have made the same decision to adopt Office 365 to help them overcome business challenges:

• The ASL (Public Health Unity) of the Municipality of Naples serves approximately 1 million citizens in 11 healthcare districts. With its eight hospitals, 9,500 employees and 2,500 physicians distributed across 140 service locations, the ASL faced a complex challenge of connecting a geographically diverse workforce.  

"It was essential for us to invest in a communication system that would connect all our locations and permit rapid exchange of documents," said Fulvio Di Trapani, head of information services for the Naples 1 Public Health Unit. "Microsoft Office 365 frees us from managing technologies so we can concentrate on providing services."

• Artsana Group, an international leader in health, childcare and beauty, selected Office 365 primarily to simplify its infrastructure and cut IT costs.

"Our previous email system was expensive in terms of the time and resources we dedicated to it," said Paolo Sassi, group IT director at Artsana.

• The regional public service center Provice of Lecco CST (Centro Servizi Territoriale) wanted to update and standardize communication and collaboration technologies for the municipalities in its jurisdiction. Fabio Annoni, chief information officer, said CST chose Office 365 to provide email access and shared calendars to all employees at any time or place. "This solution will save more than 150,000 euros a year in total IT costs."
• Italy's public insurer, CONSAP SpA, wanted a cloud-based messaging solution to enhance employee productivity and reduce costs. With its previous messaging platform, CONSAP did not have global address-list capabilities that could be shared among users. The deployment of a cloud-based messaging solution from Microsoft helped eliminate challenges for employees who had to keep track of each employee's email address, phone number and location by hand and set up meetings manually.
• GTS Logistics has seen its level of customer service improve markedly with Exchange Online, which the company credits with drastically reducing the volume of help desk inquiries required by its previous application.

"Better information-sharing has increased our productivity by 10 percent," GTS CIO Giuseppe Tritto said. "And adopting Exchange Online has saved the 60,000 euros it would have cost to implement a new messaging infrastructure."

• Fabio Salvotti, chief information officer at Leroy Merlin, chose Office 365 to provide unified email and communications for the company's internal services and shops.

"The Microsoft cloud solution has given us a totally reliable and redundant system for managing communications among employees, customers and suppliers," Salvotti said. "It also keeps us up to date with the latest features without adding new infrastructure."

• Lombardini Holding SpA, a leading Italian distributor with more than 400 stores, 5,000 employees and 60 million bills to manage annually, based its choice of Microsoft and the cloud on three needs: reducing operating costs, simplifying systems management and integrating easily with existing IT assets.

IT infrastructure Manager Sergio Gerosa said, "Office 365's flexibility has given our employees a solution that is safe, dependable and versatile enough to address all their needs."

• Metropolitana Milanese SpA, Italy's leading designer of urban structures, credits the Office 365 platform with significantly improving its interoffice collaboration.

"The Microsoft solution enables rapid and robust information-sharing among our facilities and with employees at remote locations," IT Director Nicola Rivezzi said. "We expect it to dramatically reduce our travel costs and allow us to evolve technologically."

Throughout Italy and the rest of the world, businesses with vastly different missions and operating requirements are choosing Office 365 to enable their employees and customers to work together in the cloud. Among companies of global scale, more than 40 percent of the Interbrand list of top 100 brands use Office 365 or related cloud-based productivity services from Microsoft. At the same time, more than 90 percent of Microsoft's customers employ fewer than 50 people, a strong indicator that the application is right for businesses of all sizes.

More information on these customers is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight Newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.