Melinda Steel SRL, the Romanian specialist for steel products, was using an outdated email system on the basis of Microsoft Exchange 2003 and Microsoft Server 2003. The company had long-since outgrown the capabilities of this old system and had opened itself up to potential security risks due to the lack of automatic updates and support.
The core focus of the company is on the commercialisation and distribution of steel products and cutting of strip steel. Its portfolio includes a large and diverse range of metal products.
As the company’s email system had reached its limits, Konica Minolta helped out by setting up an Office 365 mail server as a cloud-based solution – and is also providing a single point of contact for all printing service needs.
MORE THAN JUST A COSMETIC OPERATION
At the start of the process, Melinda realised that simply updating the email system was not enough, because in order to migrate to Exchange Online, the versions of Microsoft Office running on workstations would need to be updated first. However, before this could be done, all Windows operating systems would also need to be updated. As a result, upgrading the legacy systems would prove to be a costly project. External support
was needed.
For this purpose, Melinda turned to a trusted partner that was able to meet the scale of the broader company-wide transformation: as an existing customer of Konica Minolta’s Optimised Print Services (OPS), the company had been impressed by the professionalism and expertise of Konica Minolta’s team.
CHALLENGE
- Melinda Steel needed to comprehensively update its existing email infrastructure and desktop operating systems, as well as its Office Suite software
- The breadth and complexity of this proved prohibitive in terms of cost
„The solution proposed by Konica Minolta met all our business needs and we adopted it very quickly. We appreciated the professionalism of the whole Konica Minolta team and their attention to our specific needs and requests.“
Toth Karoly, Controlling Director, Melinda Steel SRL
When the existing OPS contract was due for renewal, Melinda invited Konica Minolta to also assess their wider IT infrastructure challenge. Konica Minolta impressed the team at Melinda Steel with their holistic solution analysis approach. The agreed proposal included a complete portfolio that combined both managed print and Office 365 services and support, as well as further information management solutions.
A SUBSCRIPTION TO SATISFACTION
With its flexible, cloud-based model, Office 365 seemed to provide an excellent path forward. The solution had already proved its capabilities, as it was already in use by one of the companies within the Melinda Group – although this implementation was limited to 17 users.
Konica Minolta recommended a mix of Office 365 subscriptions (approximately 200 in total), which would cover the scope of user requirements, while avoiding a large initial investment thanks to an affordable and predictable monthly payment model. The subscriptions helped meet the needs of users accessing emails via a web browser, those using other Office applications and downloading emails to Outlook, and those users requiring BI capabilities. The range of subscriptions would also help address the varying degrees of administration rights via the Office 365 console.
Whereas the various companies within the Melinda Group had previously used a variety of disparate email systems, Konica Minolta introduced a single solution that brought the company together like never before. Furthermore, the Office 365 subscription also introduced all the benefits of modern video conferencing powered by Skype for Business. As a solution that can be used across PCs, smartphones or via web browsers, this not only enhanced the company’s ability to collaborate internally and with its customers, but also generated
significant cost savings. ‘The solution proposed by Konica Minolta met all our business needs and we adopted it very quickly,’ explained Melinda Steel SRL’s Controlling Director Toth Karoly. With regard to the cooperation with the Konica Minolta team, he added, ‘We appreciated the professionalism of the whole Konica Minolta team and their attention to our specific needs and requests.’
EEE — EASY, EFFICIENT, EXCELLENT
As well as enhancing the company’s communications, Konica Minolta has also helped Melinda Steel improve its document workflow with the innovative YSoft SafeQ platform solution for document capture and management, as well as user authentication. Seamless integration, support and management were assured for Melinda Steel with a secure and sophisticated process.
For the customer, the ability to source everything from mail services to document workflows and printing solutions from a trusted partner serving as a single point of contact has simplified its IT strategy while significantly increasing efficiency.