Microsoft Office 365Customer Solution Case Study

French TV Group Moves Its Email Solution to the Cloud

OverviewCountry or Region: FranceIndustry: Media

Customer ProfileArte France is a popular television channel based in France which produces arts and cultural programming for French and German audiences, as well as for viewers in a growing number of countries.

Business SituationThe company had been using an antiquated email system that needed continual repairs, and was not reliable. It was also incompatible with mobile devices.

SolutionWith Microsoft Office 365, Arte France has a familiar, reliable email solution that works well across desktop, laptop, and mobile devices.

Benefits More reliable communication Accessible across devices Better use of IT resources

The feedback on Office 365 was very positive. It is practical and user-friendly, it works; it is simple.

Robert Eusèbe, Chief Information Systems and Digital Resources Officer, Arte France

Founded in 1992, Arte France is a cultural television channel that focuses on programming about the arts and culture. Based near Paris, Arte France broadcasts throughout France and in Germany, and also operates a radio station. Many of Arte France's programs are available in other countries via cable. The company's 450 French employees worked hard to create and broadcast leading-edge programming, yet struggled with an unreliable and outdated email solution that need continual updates.

Microsoft Office 365, with its cloud-based Microsoft Exchange email solution, gave Arte France employees a familiar, professional, and reliable platform for all of their communication needs, both internally and with its offices in Germany.

SituationArte France is a cultural television channel that launched in 1992 as a new network in France focused on cultural and arts programming. Based in Issy-les-Moulineaux, south of Paris, Arte France broadcasts throughout France as well as in Germany, and also operates a radio station. Many of Arte France's programs are broadcast around the world, including Canada, Portugal, and Israel, and many of its programs are translated into English and shown in Australia.

Yet the company's 450 employees struggled with a legacy email system that dated from the 1990s. The system was slow and unreliable, and could not be accessed remotely or on mobile devices. Updating the email system had also become expensive, and by 2007, the company was exploring options for a new email system.

"Our email solution was no longer as dynamic as in the past,” says Robert Eusèbe, Chief Information Systems and Digital Resources Officer for Arte France. "We quickly understood that our existing infrastructure was not up to meeting our expanding communications needs.”

The company needed a professional, familiar, cloud-based IT solution to deploy across all its offices. It needed an email solution that would enable employees to communicate easily and intuitively with each other, whether they were in the office or on mobile devices in the field. And it needed a familiar interface that employees could learn quickly, as well as an IT solution that could scale with the company's ambitious plans for its programming growth in the future.

SolutionThe IT department at Arte France decided it had to stop trying to repair an ever more expensive and unreliable email system. It needed a system that was familiar and reliable, and accessible on the mobile devices increasingly being used by its employees. Arte France examined several cloud-based solutions, and selected Microsoft Office 365, which offers a professional and flexible email solution in Microsoft Exchange. Office 365 would offer Arte France familiar Microsoft Office applications in its email solution, as well offer calendaring, collaboration, and communication solutions, hosted in the cloud.

“What struck us right away with Office 365 was its comprehensive functionality and its user friendliness, and how well it integrated with our internal administrative tools,” says Robert Eusèbe. In addition, employees were already familiar with the Microsoft Outlook interface, so they could quickly learn and adopt it.

Arte France also needed a solution that could grow and scale with changing business needs, without straining its IT department. “Office 365 helped us to reduce IT’s operating expenses. This mattered to us, because we have an enormous number of internal projects to manage, and there are just seven of us on the IT operations team,” says Eusèbe.

Finally, Office 365 enabled employees to use email from any device, anywhere. "With Office 365, our employees can avail themselves of their professional applications from any device," says Eusèbe. “We absolutely had to have a tool that gives access to maximum email data, even when no Internet connection is available."

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 The deployment has been smooth and employees are pleased, says Eusèbe. "The feedback on Office 365 was very positive. It is practical and user-friendly; it works, it is simple." 

Arte France employees can now rely on receiving and sending emails quickly, reliably, and from anywhere they need to be--on any device.

BenefitsWith Office 365, employees of Arte France will dramatically improve internal communications, regardless of where they are or what computer or mobile device they use. They can rely on a secure, cloud-based solution that will help protect their business-critical emails. And the company will save money with a single IT solution in the cloud, which can easily scale with the company's future goals.

More Reliable, Familiar CommunicationUsing Office 365 Exchange Online, Arte France employees can use the familiar, reliable Microsoft solution they already know and trust. The company can stop paying for expensive repairs to its outdated legacy email system, and rely on the Microsoft Exchange cloud-based solution, with its 99.9 percent guaranteed uptime. Employees can send and receive important emails quickly and professionally.

Accessible Email Solution across Mobile DevicesArte France employees are increasingly using mobile devices in the field and will be able to access their business emails easily

from any mobile device. There will be no more unnecessary delays for employees needing to come onsite to send or receive emails.

 

Efficient Use of IT ResourcesWith the Microsoft 99.9 percent uptime guarantee, and the security of the cloud, the small Arte France IT staff no longer has to try to troubleshoot or repair an expensive, outdated an antiquated email system. Office 365 is scalable, and offers a single IT solution for all of Arte France's communication needs.

In converting to Microsoft Exchange Online, Arte France can enable its employees to easily communicate as they continue to create and launch important cultural television programming across Europe. They can communicate easily and professionally, from wherever they are, saving the company money and IT resource time.

Microsoft Office 365Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of our most trusted communications and collaboration products—Microsoft SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online—with the latest version of our Office desktop suite and companion web applications for businesses of all sizes.

Office 365 helps save time and money, and it frees up valued resources. Simple to use and easy to administer, it is financially backed by a service level agreement guaranteeing 99 percent reliability. Office

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Arte France products and services, visit the website at: http://www.arte.tv/fr/arte-the-channel-engl/2197470.html

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published March 2013

Hardware Microsoft Office 365

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For more information about Microsoft Office 365, go to:www.office365.com

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