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Tuesday, 25 June 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The company is one of the early adopters in the country to have moved to the cloud, with the deployment of Microsoft Office 365 which brings together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online.
Office 365 has provided the company with a simplified and more consolidated platform for employees to conduct their day-to-day operations. Simultaneously, it has helped familiarise the cloud technology towards which corporates across the world are rapidly moving.
Speaking on this initiative, Shanmugam Senthilnathan, COO of the group, stated: “The motto of our rebranding exercise is ‘simple logistics.’ Rebranding was a stage of our company’s evolution along with a necessity to have a cohesive plan to ensure the quantum growth of the organisation. We started off as a small company three decades ago and with our progress there has always been always a need to keep internal structures as uncomplicated as possible.
“Now with our footprint extending across 16 countries, there is a necessity to ensure that we maintain the same level of quality service to every customer. The deployment of Office 365 assisted us in simplifying our internal processes and improving collaboration. It provided us a single and user friendly collaborative tool for voice and data.”
He further added: “Before the deployment of Office 365, our offices in each country had different domains. We realised that the system we had was not a common platform. On the other hand, as the world was moving towards cloud, we identified the need of adopting it within our organisation.
Developing and strengthening the IT platform of the company was one of Senthilnathan’s key initiatives when he took over as COO of the company. “The final aim of any company, naturally, is increasing its market share. But for that you need to have a clear internal strategy. That is where a robust internal IT platform comes into play. The freight segment, which spreads across the globe in different continents, had to be integrated into a single and unified framework.”
“We opted for Office 365 due to three major reasons, first of which was the ease of deployment. The second reason was the collaborative ability it offers and the third was the ultimate benefit it offers as an IT solution. For instance, as the COO, now I find it very easy to communicate with my staff members, wherever they may be. On the other hand, Microsoft is a widely known brand, which everyone is familiar with. That also bolstered our decision to go for Office 365.”
Expo’s IT team worked hand-in-hand with their deployment partners, Millennium Information Technologies (MIT), and the Microsoft team to make the deployment a success. Implementation was crucial, stated Kapila Bandara, Head of IT of Expo Freight, who said that the company resorted to a step-by-step approach when setting out the rollout.
“First we got the basics right. In our organisation, there are clear boundaries determining who does what. Therefore, the implementation of Office 365 or options it offered did not disrupt the flow of information within the organisation. On the other hand, our internal governance structure was ready for this change.” He also commended the support they received from Microsoft from the moment the company embarked upon the deployment.
Imran Vilcassim, Director – Enterprise Business of Microsoft Sri Lanka, said: “Microsoft is extremely happy to have partnered with Expo Freight in its step to move into cloud based services whose activities are spread in 16 countries. For a company like Expo Freight, Microsoft 365 is the perfect solution which will help them consolidate their operations all over the world. The employees of the company are now empowered with large mailboxes which enable them to exchange information with colleagues, partners and customers expediting the daily operations of the companies.”
