Bridal Registry Increases Efficiency by 15 to 20 Percent ...



Overview

Country: Australia

Industry: Retail

Customer Profile

Founded in 2003, The Wedding List Company was the first dedicated bridal registry specialist to open in Australia. The company has its head office and two showrooms in Sydney and another showroom in Perth. It employs seven staff and has 11 PCs.

Business Situation

The Wedding List Company needed to provide remote access to files and folders for staff working in the company’s showrooms. It needed to centralize data storage and improve backup and security.

Solution

The company implemented Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server 2003 and uses Remote Web Workplace and Microsoft Office Outlook® Web Access to give staff access to critical information while working offsite.

Benefits

■ Centralized information storage

■ Seamless remote access

■ Fast and reliable backups

■ More efficient and productive workforce

| | |“We know Small Business Server 2003 will work year after year to save time for the business. It’s not just about the hours we save this year; it’s those we save next year and the year after that.”

George Loiterton, Director of Operations, The Wedding List Company

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| | | |Weddings can be incredibly stressful for couples, and weekends spent trawling department stores |

| | | |compiling the perfect bridal registry can add to the strain. While the Wedding List Company can’t |

| | | |help with the bride’s dress fittings or the groom’s hair, it can make compiling a stylish and |

| | | |individual gift registry simple and enjoyable. With a head office and two showrooms in Sydney and a |

| | | |showroom in Perth, couples can compile their registries in-store or using the company’s comprehensive|

| | | |Web site. Following rapid growth, The Wedding List Company needed a technology solution that would |

| | | |allow staff working at its showrooms to access files and email. It also wanted to centralize document|

| | | |storage and improve backup and security. Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server 2003 has allowed |

| | | |the company to achieve all this and provides a solid foundation for future growth. |

| | | | |

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Situation

Planning a wedding can be a stressful time. With so much to organize, the bridal registry is often the last thing a couple wants to think about, as anyone who’s spent numerous Saturdays traipsing around department stores knows. The Wedding List Company was founded in 2003 by a couple who struggled to find a service that met their needs when planning their own wedding. They decided there must be an easier way to arrange a bridal registry.

The Wedding List Company was the first dedicated bridal registry to open in Australia and remains the largest specialist of its type in the country. It works directly with suppliers such as Alessi, Bodum, Villeroy and Boch, and Wedgewood to supply its clients with a varied range of gift ideas, from exclusive silverware to picnic rugs.

The company has its head office in Alexandria, Sydney. It has two showrooms in Sydney and one in Perth, where couples can view the company’s wide selection of gifts and work with experienced consultants to create a personalized registry. It employs seven staff and has 11 PCs, six at its head office and another five across its showrooms.

Staff use the computers at the company’s showrooms to compile registries for customers and to quickly access product information to answer queries. Head-office staff need to work with and email large graphics files to maintain the Web site.

A unique aspect of The Wedding List Company’s service is its Web site, which allows wedding guests to view the registry and purchase gifts online. Busy couples or those not close to a showroom can even create their registry online. The Web site is built on a Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 database and hosted by WebCentral. The database also allows The Wedding List Company to securely store product information and customer details and is integrated with its purchase order system. This ensures the consistency of data from product selection to purchase.

Because The Wedding List Company started small, its technology environment grew incrementally to accommodate increases in staff numbers and data storage requirements. Computers at the company’s head office were linked through a simple peer-to-peer network. Although each site had a broadband connection, staff at the showrooms were unable to access their email or files.

“The company’s rapid growth meant our basic network was no longer good enough,” says George Loiterton, Director of Operations, The Wedding List Company. “We needed to make business-critical information available to staff working remotely at our showrooms.”

In addition, a lack of centralized data storage meant the company often had multiple versions of the same file, making it difficult for staff to be sure they were using the most up-to-date information. Combined with the lack of remote access, this was costing the company in lost productivity. Backups were time-consuming and difficult to manage, and the company felt it had lost control of its IT environment.

Loiterton realized that installing the right technology could provide business benefits beyond remote access, including centralizing data and file storage, and improving the way the company backed up and secured information. The interface also needed to be simple for staff to use.

Solution

The Wedding List Company investigated several solutions, including a managed email and file solution that involved saving files and accessing email over the Internet. Loiterton compared this offering to the benefits promised by Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server 2003.

“We did the numbers, and the hosted system just didn’t stack up,” says Loiterton. “It would have cost us about twice as much in the first year compared to the cost of installing Small Business Server 2003. There really was no comparison.”

Before he became involved full time with The Wedding List Company, Loiterton worked as a business productivity expert at Microsoft. He phoned some old colleagues and asked for their recommendations on the best partner to work with on a Small Business Server 2003 implementation. The answer came back loud and clear: Correct Solutions.

Founded in 1997, Correct Solutions is located in Sydney and has 11 staff and 18 PCs. The company began working with Small Business Server when it was first released in 1997. It has since made a name for itself as a leader in specialist Small Business Server implementations.

“It was important to us that we got this right the first time around,” says Loiterton. “We needed a partner with extensive experience in Small Business Server 2003 implementations. Our IT environment is too crucial to our business to take risks. The hundreds of Small Business Server implementations Correct Solutions had successfully completed gave us enormous confidence in its abilities.”

Correct Solutions installed Small Business Server 2003 in January 2005. Correct Solutions then trained staff at The Wedding List Company in Remote Web Workplace and Microsoft Office Outlook® Web Access.

Benefits

Remote Access

Small Business Server 2003 gives staff secure and reliable remote access when working from the company’s showrooms. Management and staff also use the remote access solution to work from home outside of business hours or when working offsite.

“Remote access has really turned the way we do business on its head,” says Loiterton. “Giving staff the ability to access email and files while they’re out of the head office has made our operations so much more efficient, productive, and professional.”

“Clients want their questions answered on the spot, not when we can get back to the office and email them the information they require. Now that we can do this, customer satisfaction has increased accordingly,” he adds.

If there is a problem with the system, technicians from Correct Solutions can log on remotely and access the server as if they were on site. This has reduced the number of site visits required and has decreased the company’s support costs.

Efficiency Increased by 15 to 20 Percent

Loiterton estimates that the efficiencies provided by remote access have improved employee productivity by 15 to 20 percent.

“We know Small Business Server 2003 will work year after year to save time for the business,” says Loiterton. “It’s not just about the hours we save this year; it’s those we save next year and the year after that.”

He continues, “Being able to manage costs is paramount for any small business. Knowing we have implemented technology that saves our staff time is very important to us.”

Backups have also been greatly simplified with the new technology. Previously, backups were manually transferred onto CD, a process which took 30 minutes each week. Now, Small Business Server 2003 conducts scheduled overnight backups that require no operator intervention except to ensure that the tapes are in place.

Centralized Data Repository

Creating a central location for storing files and folders has made finding the correct information much easier for staff. Multiple versions of the same file are a thing of the past and better information sharing—even across states—means more knowledgeable staff. Security has also been enhanced as the company can now set permissions allowing or denying employees access to certain folders.

Shared calendaring through the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Professional Edition messaging and collaboration client is also helpful for such a distributed business, making it easy for staff to see who is where and when and to schedule appointments.

The Wedding List Company is also using a Small Business Server Fax client to reduce paperwork and provide a central repository of outbound faxes, an important historical record for legal and compliance purposes.

The new environment has allowed The Wedding List Company to take advantage of centralized antivirus management.

“In our previous environment, different machines had different levels of antivirus on them,” says Loiterton. “There was no easy way of telling what was up to date, which was a real risk for the business. Centralized antivirus management allows us to be proactive about ensuring that all our machines are covered and securing ourselves against potential threats in the environment.”

Cost Savings

Small Business Server 2003 is saving The Wedding List Company significant money.

Loiterton calculated that a managed email and file solution with connectivity to Outlook 2003 and a cap of 200 MB would cost more than A$5,000 over three years. In addition, a solution of this type would have caps on the amount of data storage and data throughput available to users, so The Wedding List Company’s large data requirements meant it would likely incur additional charges.

In comparison, Small Business Server 2003, Outlook 2003, and five additional client access licenses worked out at just under A$2,500 over the same period. Small Business Server 2003 also gives The Wedding List Company peace of mind that, as the business grows, it will scale to handle increases in data and support additional PCs.

“The difference one product can make is just incredible,” says Loiterton. “We’ve gone from decentralized resources and no remote access to a comprehensive and manageable IT environment that provides all this and more.”

Windows Small Business Server 2003

Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 is a powerful advantage for your business success. Improve the security of your data and help your network run dependably. Release new productivity from your desktops while empowering your employees to do more. And connect to your customers like never before.

For more information about Windows Small Business Server 2003, please visit:

sbs

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| |Software and Services

■ Products

− Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Professional Edition

− Microsoft SQL Server 2000

− Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003

■ Technology

− Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access

|Hardware

■ Pentium 4 server, 1 GB RAM

■ Pentium 4 Desktops

Partners

■ Correct Solutions | | | | |

© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Outlook, Windows, and the Windows logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Document published May 2006 | | |

For More Information

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For more information about Correct Solutions products and services, call (612) 8831 8200 or visit the Web site at: .au

For more information about The Wedding List Company products and services, call (612) 9698 4366 or visit the Web site at: .au

“We did the numbers, and the hosted system just didn’t stack up. It would have cost us about twice as much in the first year compared to the cost of installing Small Business Server 2003. There really was no comparison.”

George Loiterton, Director of Operations, The Wedding List Company

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