Bang & Olufsen moves email into the cloud

Bang & Olufsen said it is saving 82 percent on IT costs by moving email, calendaring, collaboration and communications into the cloud with Microsoft Office 365.

The company wanted to upgrade its email system from the "limitations of Lotus Notes to a less-expensive, easier-to-scale cloud solution". The company now has all its 2,000 employees using Office 365.

"We investigated whether we should continue relying on internal servers or go with a cloud solution. We realised we could save money by going into the cloud," said Ole Damsgaard, senior director of IT and shared service centre at Bang & Olufsen. "It was easy for our employees to start using it right away because they already know tools like Outlook and other Microsoft products."

About 75 percent of Bang & Olufsen's employees work remotely. However the company said Lotus Notes was only accessible to the 150 employees who had company-provided smartphones. The other 1,350 mobile workers were left without access.

With less spending on travel and IT compared with an internally hosted solution Bang & Olufsen says it is saving 82 percent on IT operations by using Office 365.

Damsgaard said "everybody who has a smartphone can very easily access their emails and calendars".

Virgin Atlantic is also considering a move to Office 365, but has dismissed any possibility of moving to its rival Google Apps on data "privacy" grounds.