The Challenge
This San Francisco Bay Area Based supportive housing nonprofit works to end homelessness in the SF Bay Area by providing support services, employment training, and quality affordable housing at 14 buildings it owns throughout San Francisco. Persistent connectivity problems with its legacy client-server version of Microsoft Exchange meant staff members’ email periodically stopped working, even internally. Employees also struggled to access shared calendars, making it difficult to manage conference rooms efficiently or even be sure everyone’s schedule was correct.
The Solution
Xantrion suggested its longtime client stop trying to fix the problem and instead migrate to cloud-hosted email using Microsoft Office 365.
The Outcome
The nonprofit’s staff can finally stop wrestling with technology and focus on using it efficiently. Employee requests for email-related tech support fell by 50 percent in the first five months alone and continue to drop. Standardized calendar sharing shows employees only the amount of calendar information appropriate to their job level and role, which streamlines the process of setting up meetings. In addition, the organization has eliminated the cost of upgrading or replacing its in-house email server, a $5,000 savings it can now apply directly to client services.
“I was apprehensive because a previous employer went through an email migration that was rocky, but thanks to Xantrion, the whole process here went much more smoothly,” the CFO says. “Xantrion has been an awesome thought partner in helping us continuously manage IT solutions for efficiency and effectiveness, no question there, and always with a sensitivity and understanding of our limited resources as a non-profit.”
