Clifton Trends Private: Airtel Puts Data at Apparel Maker’s Fingertips With Office 365 Solution

Clifton Trends manufactures fusion wear, one of the fastest growing segments of the thriving apparel industry [in India]. Riding this trend means collaborating with traveling executives, a vast network of distributors, retailers and suppliers. This needed more than email so it turned to Bharti Airtel to implement Microsoft Office 365. The resulting increase in productivity comes from access to information be it inventory, financial, customer data, or order status on any device. It can make the most of growing opportunities.

Communication and Data Access Are ‘The Fabric’ of Apparel Manufacturing. Based in Tiripur, India, Clifton Trends sells clothing via a website and outlet stores throughout the subcontinent. Since the company was founded in 2010, its emphasis on high quality and low prices has paid off. Buyers in the 19-to-35-year-old age set have eagerly snapped up both the forward-style threads and great deals, and sales have grown by upward of 30 percent.

 

With half of its 25 employees traveling, and partners and customers located throughout India, Clifton needed a reliable platform for communicating and collaborating, which was done chiefly by email and teleconference. The original system—Microsoft Office 2007 running a range of smartphones including BlackBerry—was not doing the job. 

 

“There were a lot of communication ups and downs,” said Sridhar Srinivasan, Chief Manager of Operations, who oversees IT. This posed a significant problem, because the company worked with a vast network of partners, including distributors dealing with retailers and suppliers overseeing materials procurement and production, across six states.

 

Srinivasan adds that access to key business information, such as inventory and financial data, customer information, and order status, was hindered by having data stored on individual clients. This put sales at risk.

 

Airtel Outfits Clifton Trends with Office 365 Solution. After considering various telecom operators and packages, Clifton chose Bharti Airtel, which it had worked with before, to implement Office 365. Clifton was confident in the operator’s ability to provide excellent services at competitive prices, and wanted to take advantage of Airtel’s broad geographic reach.  

 

The implementation was done in 15 days with no server downtime, and involved collaboration between Airtel and two Clifton Trends employees, including Srinivasan.

Deployment Labeled a Success. Right away, the solution made a noticeable difference for Clifton Trends. Within a month, Srinivasan noticed an increase in productivity related to more reliable communication and access. Employees could retrieve data using their handheld devices, on the spot, from any location, helping them to close deals faster.

 

Mobile Productivity That Fits to a Tee. Office 365 supports Clifton Trends’ “need it yesterday” business model with anytime, anywhere access. The newest versions of Office applications let employees communicate, collaborate, and gain better insight into their data while on the go. They can use Office on more devices and take advantage of Office on Demand to stream a full-featured version of Office on any Internet-connected PC running Windows 7 or Windows 8.

 

Before the solution, teleconferencing was employees’ chief way of collaborating. Now Lync offers a turnkey alternative. HD video conferencing and screen sharing put customers, partners and sales materials front and center.

 

Simplified IT with Easy Setup and Management. For Clifton, IT needs to be simple so that sales can progress as fast as possible. Office 365 keeps it so. Airtel administers email remotely, relieving Clifton of this work. Automatic updates provide the latest tools without work interruptions. Malware and spam protection, and a financially backed 99.9% uptime guarantee, safeguard the infrastructure. Lastly, continuous data backup and geo-redundant servers help ensure accessibility in the event of data center failure or data loss, deletion, or corruption. 

 

Srinivasan notes that simple IT keeps costs down. “More time savings, more productivity—that’s cost savings,” he said.

 

Big IT on a Small-Business Budget. Clifton Trends faced a critical need for enterprise-grade email, but did not have an enterprise-size IT budget. Thanks to Airtel and Office 365, it got the solution it needed at an affordable monthly subscription rate, with no upfront infrastructure costs.