Today's post was written by Lance Criscuolo, President, Zyvex Technologies.
At 50 employees, Zyvex is what some people consider a small company, but our business in advanced materials has connected us with some of the largest corporations in the world. As a leader in molecular nanotechnology, we source and develop some of the strongest materials known to man, incorporating them into lightweight structures - to produce things like a stronger baseball bat, a more fuel-efficient racing boat, or aerospace innovations. Just like the products we design, our team is small but mighty, and resourcefulness is key to our success, which is why we chose Office 365 as our communication and collaboration solution.
As we comparison shopped for solutions that would help our staff connect across four different locations in the U.S., and assist us in closely managing projects and production schedules, we looked at our options in the cloud, including Google Apps and Office 365 - and quickly found there was no comparison between the two.
Even as a smaller company, "one size fits all" doesn't work for us. Some of our employees only need email, while others need more, and with Office 365 we had the option to buy a mix of what we needed - and it feels good to know that we're getting what we're paying for.
Our move to the cloud was easy, and the service was up and running in a short time. Since Office 365 runs in the cloud, updates to our system are done automatically - we don't have to worry about incurring costs for additional hardware, IT staff or licenses. We've reduced our IT budget even further by eliminating the need for an outside service to monitor and maintain our server system.
As far as adoption, our staff welcomed the change. SharePoint Online has helped us share large files much more easily (we used to send email attachments!) and production planners across the country are using it to monitor material inventory levels in real-time, an important step in meeting our production targets more effectively. The instant messaging and web conferencing in Lync Online have reduced the amount of mobile text messaging that people used to rely on, and increased the quality of connections. I can't put a price tag on that, not to mention the time and cost we've avoided by not having to travel - whether it's down the hall or across the country.
With Office 365, our company is winning - we have a set of communication and collaboration tools typically reserved for the "big guys," that are helping us remove obstacles, innovate faster, and ride the cutting edge of our industry.
This post originally appeared on the Office 365 blog here.