CloudCaseStudies: KEXP
KEXP is a
non-profit radio station owned and operated by the University of
Washington, offering an eclectic independent music mix. Key
services include not only signal in Seattle, but also a variety of
web content including music, podcast, recorded content, blogs, and
music coverage.
BPOS for KEXP
Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) is the first step in a series of projects designed to help KEXP better serve the community to bring better music understanding to the world.
"BPOS" explains KEXP Computer & Information Systems Manager Cyrus Despres, "allows us to integrate our calendars and other resources better than we ever did before. In fact, we plan to build on top of it with integration to CRM using a common user interface for key fundraising and improvement of our understanding of our audience.
"Through the University," explains Despres, "we were using the IMAP-based email infrastructure that they had built and maintained for a long time along with a variety of existing legacy tools." There was a serious lack of a consistent user interface, account provisioning was purely manual and a nightmare. Calendars and email were managed separately.
In their new BPOS-delivered Microsoft Exchange environment all of this has changed. Despres reports that is now far easier to administer and provision new services for users. "Instead of having to collaborate with three different service providers to deploy email and calendar functions for a new user, I can do that completely by myself in three minutes!"
"Prior to BPOS, users didn't have access or visibility to calendars from smartphones, and didn't have a robust integrated web interface, so there are now benefits for users working away from the office, giving them far greater visibility to their key point of collaboration."
On CloudStrategies
"The people at CloudStrategies are very personable and they have what it takes to help us walk into the new waters of cloud services. They allowed us to make that leap where we would not have been comfortable without their expertise and assistance."
"We've received nothing but shining feedback from our end-users regarding their experience. One of the fears when working with remote assistance is not having that personal touch, but CloudStrategies was able to do that with a business model that saves everyone money."