Microsoft’s Office 365 boosts collaboration and productivity for Kraft Heinz Company

The numbers for Microsoft’s Office 365 continue to impress, as the adoption rate seeks new heights. However, more impressive than the adoption numbers for the cloud-based Office suite are the real-world stories of how effective and productive the services are helping customers to become.

During the Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz company merger resulting in the newly established Kraft Heinz Company, both organizations relied on the services of Microsoft Office 365. At the time, the two companies used the communicative and collaborative capabilities of Office 365 to make sure their employees were up to date with information and remain productive during the transition.

North American CIO of The Kraft Heinz company, Leandro Balbinot speaks to how Microsoft Office 365 helped streamline the merger as well as continues to empower employees.

One of the first steps was to unite the underlying technology that supported both enterprises. Both companies are already used Office 365, so we could give every employee a common Kraft Heinz email address on Day One of the merger, establishing one culture and one identity right away. Speed of decision-making is key for IT, and we were lucky that Office 365 was already in use on both sides. It was helpful to leverage that strong usage and flexibility to make the whole workforce immediately feel comfortable.

The company quickly began using Skype for Business Online to streamline communication and decision-making. During the merger process, we didn’t have the luxury of emailing documents and waiting for everyone’s edits. The ability to check calendar availability, send instant messages, open a video call, share documents, and collaborate on the fly was priceless. Without Office 365, it would have taken months to create a single operating environment, instead of just a few weeks.”

Specifically, Office 365 has enabled the Kraft Heinz company employees to simplify processes, while also observing emerging trends that have allowed the business to engage with its customers and consumers more efficiently. Tools such as Microsoft Power BI help underlie the importance of big data, collecting vast amounts of info and quickly turning it insights and predictive measures for Kraft Heinz.

Perhaps, most importantly, the use of Office 365 during the company transition plays into an ambitious cost-reduction target of $1.5 billion US by 2017. Using Office 365 is enabling Kraft Heinz to run a much leaner business while continue to increase the company’s collaborative efforts on site or in remote locations.

Beyond the activation, subscription and install base numbers, it’s stories such the Kraft Heinz company merger relying on Office 365, that are helping investors see the merit of Microsoft’s transition to the cloud. As big data analysis and employee mobility continue to be a merging intersection in business, Microsoft’s Office 365 appears to be the best single-packaged solution for heavy-hitters in the industry.