The Barbados Workers Union Cooperative Credit Union has increased the speed of response to queries from its hundreds of members. This more efficient service was noticeable from last July, when the credit union switched its email service to Microsoft Office 365, Exchange Online.

The credit union’s IT Manager, Antonio Arthur said, “It (Exchange Online) allows staff to respond to issues and emails on the go, which leads to faster and more efficient service. The scalability of the solution has also supported the growth and expansion of the organization.”

Before making the switch, the financial institution had several storage and usability problems with its former service. These forced Mr. Alleyne to search for a long-term solution.

After extensive research, which included reading several reviews and discussing Microsoft’s Exchange Online with colleagues who were already using the platform, he recommended the product and the credit union bought some 66 licences.

J.P Marshall Associates, which guides, designs and supports ‘standardised‘ computer network solutions to businesses, played an important role in the implementation process.

Mr. Alleyne said, “The migration was completed in one weekend, with no noticeable downtime and minimal disruption. It is also very easy to maintain and configure.”

In addition, he said the size of the mailboxes is much larger than what the credit union could have otherwise provided.

The financial institution has close to 44 staff members on the email at its two offices – the main office at Fairchild Street, Bridgetown and its Speightstown branch located in the north of the island. The technology is also logged onto the mobile devices of more than 20 employees.

“One of the main benefits of Exchange Online is that it is very easy to maintain, and the support from both Microsoft and J.P. Marshall is very good,” Mr. Alleyne said.

“We have been using the platform for almost a year now and we have had very few issues. On the rare occasions that we have had to contact either J.P. Marshall or Microsoft for support, the response time and level of support has been fantastic,” he added.

Among its features, Exchange Online provides users with an In-Place Archive, so they can keep all their important data in one place. They can also access their email, calendar, and contacts on all major browsers and across devices.

In addition, it has advanced capabilities that protect information, which lends high quality security and reliability characteristics that are important considerations for financial institutions choosing an email package.