We have a saying here at 'wichcraft: Make people happy while being proud of what you do.

We're in the retail food business. Our job is to feed our customers, and our customers are at the core of everything we do. As Director of Technology for a sandwich company spanning 15 locations and three states, it can be easy to forget this simple fact. It's all too easy to get caught up in the daily grind of maintaining servers and networks just so we can keep our business humming along.

When we made the jump to Office 365 earlier this year, we were able to take our existing on-premise servers and move them to the cloud. As a result, we eliminated layers of complexity, and I no longer needed to spend valuable time and resources administering legacy systems. This has allowed me to shift my focus toward new and exciting ways to better serve our guests, like launching a new loyalty platform and implementing tools to help us engage customers through social media.

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Are you customer ready for the NEW Office 2013 & Office 365 cloud services? Jump start your readiness by attending this exclusive premier partner pre-launch event. Register now as space is limited!

The event will be held at the Microsoft Corporate campus, in Redmond, WA, USA. Come discuss both the new technical capabilities of this release as well as partner business opportunities. The event will feature presentations, demonstrations, and ample time for discussion with experts from the Microsoft Office Division and the Microsoft Partner Network.

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Never have we seen such dramatic and tectonic swings in consumer shopping behaviors, preferences and expectations, largely driven by new technologies and form factors. With consumers having increased options for how and when they shop, staying competitive has meant retailers must truly put customers at the heart of their business and seek new ways to create the most value, revenue and loyalty. To adapt, retailers must deliver a modern sales and customer service experience that is personal, seamless and differentiated. And, they must operate with the utmost efficiency.

Read on to find out why retailers are turning to the cloud to tackle these challenges.

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Leading national retailer, jcpenney is deploying Office 365 to more than 177,000 employees. jcpenney has more than 1,000 stores nationwide recently underwent a closely watched reinvention of their business.  The company emerged with a bold statement expressing the desire to reinvent retail and become America's favorite store. By embracing the cloud with Office 365, jcpenney aims to improve customer service and increase information-sharing between team members across all their retail locations and their headquarters.

As a retailer, jcpenney's number one focus is their customers; from the time a customer enters the store to when they leave with their purchase, they strive to deliver a positive experience. With Office 365, employees have the ability to engage with each other seamlessly across locations from any smartphone, PC or other mobile device. This has allowed jcpenney team members to quickly identify a product expert and address customer needs in real-time.

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Tesco, a UK-based grocery and merchandise retailer, has chosen to deploy Office 365 across its workforce. Tesco is the largest private employer in Europe and third-largest retailer in the world.  Tesco has operations in 14 countries which serve millions of customers every week.

 

 

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After switching to Office 365, employees immediately enjoyed having fast and familiar email with increased storage and the ability to share information via SharePoint Online. Moreover, Lync Online has enabled them to instant message and video conference which has allowed the retail stores to provide feedback on visual displays to employees stationed in Oslo.  This alone is reducing travel costs by an estimated 10 to 15 percent.

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The following is a post from Michael Donlan , Vice President of U.S. State and Local Government at Microsoft and originally appeared on the Official Microsoft Blog . As part of a new cloud computing strategy, Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced that the City of Chicago will move 30,000 employees to Office 365 for cloud-based e-mail and productivity. The City will consolidate its three disparate e-mail systems into one Microsoft Office 365 environment in an effort to improve collaboration, enhance...

As the New Year quickly approaches, we wanted to take a moment and thank all of our customers for choosing Office 365 this year!

We are humbled to provide a wide range of customers with familiar, secure, and reliable cloud services.  It's gratifying to be able to help non-profits like Oxfam and Emergency expand the scope of their international initiatives of combatting poverty, providing aid and promoting human rights across the globe ultimately serving more people in need.

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India's Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has chosen Office 365 over Google Apps among others to improve its communication and better work together in the cloud. FICCI, a non-government, not-for-profit organization located in India, describes itself as the voice of India's business and industry. The organization consists of thousands of member companies across various regional chambers of commerce in India. In addition to its headquarters, FICCI has offices in 11 Indian states and 8 countries across the globe.

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Office 365 is Microsoft's cloud-based productivity service that was built for companies of all sizes. While some companies choose to deploy the service on their own, others may need help from a third party. The Office 365 partner programs were created to support these customers with knowledgeable experts.

Below, learn more about the partner programs and resources for current participants and those who are interested. And, finally, watch the video below to hear directly from Office 365 partners about the success they're enjoying as part of the Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Program.

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