Two Degrees

The Challenge

Two Degrees is one of the fastest growing professional services firms in the U.S., and provides accounting and financial staffing solutions to Fortune 500 companies. To help stay competitive, Two Degrees created an IT roadmap that provided for separate upgrades to its email, messaging (IM and chat), and web meeting systems. The company also wanted to improve data recovery and privacy practices, while creating a system that would improve collaboration. The solution needed to provide clients with the utmost privacy and security while offering consultants the most effective tools for operating in a global environment.

Our Approach

To reach both its own goals as well as its customers', Two Degrees and Slalom decided Microsoft’s BPOS online services offered the best solution in one package. Both companies felt Microsoft technology would:

• Take advantage of Slalom’s experience and partnerships with Microsoft
• Be faster to deploy, since the platform and relationships were already established
• Provide a lower total cost of ownership
• Achieve a zero-downtime deployment by using an iterative migration strategy

The Results

By hosting shared services in the Microsoft Cloud, Two Degrees upgraded to a stable communication and collaboration environment employees can rely on with great up-time, predictable monthly costs, and no maintenance windows. The IT department no longer manages it on a daily basis, and has refocused on other important projects. IT has also been freed from planning and installing upgrades and service packs. Two Degrees now has an expert Microsoft support team available 24-7 to respond to any needs that may arise. And with the rapid, successful implementation of its collaborative messaging solutions, the geographic challenges of operating business from afar have been reduced, resulting in enhanced productivity.