Microsoft Office 365 Customer Solution Case Study

			Microsoft Office 365 Customer Solution Case Study
			Car Dealer Attributes Projected $3 Million Sales Gain to its Use of Microsoft Office 365

Overview Country or Region: United States Industry: Retail—Automobile dealers Customer Profile Murdock Hyundai operates three automotive dealerships in Utah—in Orem, Logan, and Salt Lake City. It is part of the Murdock Auto Group, founded in 1982. Business Situation Murdock Hyundai saw problems with its email, phone system, website, and PCs that hindered sales. It made a technology upgrade its prime initiative for 2012. Solution With the help of solution provider RyanTech, the dealership adopted Microsoft Office 365, Windows Intune, Windows phones, and a phone system based on the Microsoft .NET Framework. Benefits Increases revenues by 35 percent Spends 50 percent less time on email Responds to customers 200 percent faster Reduces PC replacement costs by 50 percent			“Office 365 more than paid for itself with our first additional sale. Don’t tell Microsoft this, but I wouldn’t hesitate to pay twice as much for what we’re getting.” K. Blake Murdock, General Manager, Murdock Hyundai
			Murdock Hyundai had a bottom-line goal for its top initiative of 2012: boost sales by upgrading its technology. With the help of technology provider RyanTech, the dealership adopted the Microsoft Office 365 and Windows Intune cloud-based services, plus Windows phones and other Microsoft technologies. Murdock Hyundai salespeople now spend half the time on email that they did before, redirecting the 30 minutes they save each day to increased time with customers and training from Hyundai. They respond 200 percent faster to customer inquiries from the dealership’s website than they could before. And the dealership reduced its PC replacement costs by half. Murdock Hyundai increased sales by 35 percent in the first quarter of 2012 and attributes one-third of the gain to its use of Microsoft technologies. It expects those technologies to add at least $3 million toward its annual sales growth.

Situation

Automobiles, with scores of sensors, electronic displays, and wireless connectivity, often seem like computers on wheels. And it’s not just automakers that have adopted new technologies—so have auto dealers, although their paths to success have sometimes been uneven.

“Solving the technology concerns would have the greatest impact on sales of any single effort we could undertake, so it would be our leading initiative for 2012.” K. Blake Murdock, General Manager Murdock Hyundai

Consider Murdock Hyundai, which owns and operates three Hyundai auto dealership locations in Utah. For K. Blake Murdock, General Manager of the dealership, selling cars now means embracing the web. Murdock Hyundai shifted half of its advertising budget from newspapers and television to online media, which increased its sales. It advertises its discounts online and offers those discounts to every customer who comes into the dealership. And it adopted Internet and other technologies to boost sales. By 2011, however, it was clear to Murdock and his colleagues that increased competition required them to continue these efforts, rather than be satisfied with past successes.
Customer inquiries from the dealership’s website come via the email system, making that system essential to Murdock’s success. But the dealership relied on an unreliable Linux email system that was more problem than solution, according to Murdock. Calendar notices were incompatible with the mobile phones that salespeople used, making it difficult to make and keep appointments with customers. Spam filled inboxes and legitimate email frequently ended up in junk folders. Outages were common. Customer email could show up in a salesperson’s inbox two days after the customer had purchased a car from a competitor.
The dealership’s telephone system is equally essential, of course. But its voice over IP (VoIP) telephone system was also an issue, sometimes dropping calls, sometimes losing customers placed on hold. Outages, a frequent occurrence, lasted anywhere from 15 minutes to five hours. The dealership increased VoIP capacity several times to try to solve the problem, to no avail.
The unprecedented immediacy of the Internet made it crucial for Murdock Hyundai to be able to post and update discounts and special offers as quickly as possible; any delay could throw a customer’s business to a competitor. But it could take several days for the dealership to work with its website vendor to make relatively simple changes.
The dealership’s PCs were also hindering productivity. The 70 PCs spread across the three locations were relatively new—Murdock Hyundai replaced them on two-year cycles—but they were littered with spyware and viruses that slowed them down and sometimes stopped them entirely. At any one time, several computers were at an IT support vendor to clear the offending software.
“At the end of 2011, our executive team made a decision,” says Murdock. “Solving the technology concerns would have the greatest impact on sales of any single effort we could undertake, so it would be our leading initiative for 2012.”
Solution

To help it implement that initiative, Murdock Hyundai engaged RyanTech, a Utah-based technology services provider serving the automotive industry and a Microsoft Partner Network member with multiple Gold and Silver competencies and Cloud Champion status. “RyanTech knew the technology, and they knew our business,” says Murdock. “We were so impressed with their service that we eventually turned over our entire IT system to them to manage.”

With the PCs now functioning optimally, RyanTech and Murdock Hyundai were ready to resolve the dealership’s email problems. Murdock liked the idea of an outsourced service that mooted the need for on-premise email servers and that made email available through any Internet connection, but he didn’t want to replicate the poor performance of the Linux-based vendor. RyanTech recommended Microsoft Office 365, a set of collaboration and productivity tools delivered as a cloud service that brings together Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online.

To address the reliability issues with the phone system, RyanTech and Murdock Hyundai replaced it with a VoIP system from 3CX, another Microsoft Partner Network member. They paired the private branch exchange (PBX) software, based on the Microsoft .NET Framework, with programmable handsets from Yealink (and covered most of the cost of the handsets by selling the previous phone equipment on eBay).

Murdock Hyundai intends to adopt Windows 8 slates to revolutionize the sales and service process for customers. Murdock envisions salespeople using Windows 8 slates—tablets running the Windows 8 operating system—on the lot with customers, to make on-the-spot vehicle presentations, product comparisons, and trade-in appraisals—and then to dock the slates back in the showroom to enter order and financing information.

Murdock Hyundai uses Microsoft technologies to decrease costs and to boost revenues, productivity, and customer service.

Murdock Hyundai launched its technology initiative as the single most important action it could take to increase revenues. The dealership achieved this goal in fewer than three months.

Improved customer service is the other key contributor to increased revenues, and Murdock attributes much of this gain to the dealership’s use of Microsoft technologies, too. For example, it used to take 30 minutes for the dealership to respond to email inquiries from customers; now, the response time is down to just 10 minutes. Customer inquiries are no longer misdirected to junk folders, and their phone calls are no longer dropped by the phone system. Customers hear a live receptionist or other staff person whenever they call during business hours, rather than a voice-mail system.

Murdock Hyundai uses Microsoft technologies not only to boost revenues but also to reduce expenses. For example, the dealership recently relocated its flagship showroom to another site. It would likely have replaced 30 PCs during that transition—but because it used Windows Intune to manage and update those PCs, they operated as well as they had when they were new. No replacements were needed.

Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of our most trusted communications and collaboration products—Microsoft SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online—with the latest version of our Office desktop suite and companion web applications for businesses of all sizes.