Irish School of Motoring moves to the cloud while keeping motorists safely on the ground

Trade

This case study was provided by Microsoft.

The Irish School of Motoring (ISM) has moved its shop front presence to the cloud following the successful roll-out of an online management and booking system combining Microsoft Exchange and Office365 mobile applications.

The Drive 365 system is the first of its kind in Europe and will be of enormous benefit to ISM-franchised instructors, ensuring greater efficiency and potential for growing their businesses with the security of knowing they are not missing out on new opportunities.

Using Microsoft Exchange and Office365, franchisees are able to show their availability using the Microsoft Office diary on a specially issued smartphone. This information is open to staff at a call centre where bookings are assigned.

When an enquiry from a new client comes in by text, e-mail or telephone, the call centre staff schedule an appointment with an available franchisee, who is immediately notified by e-mail that a booking has been placed in their diary.

The client then receives the contact details of the franchisee by text message, confirming the date and time for the first lesson. Once the initial booking has been made, the franchisee will take subsequent bookings from the pupil directly.

"This has been not only great for building my business and servicing existing clients, but because of the advances in mobile technology and services such as Microsoft Exchange on Office365 I’m able to communicate and collaborate with greater speed and ease. I’ve seen a significant increase in my ability to meet my pupils’ demands as I can deliver the services and responses to their calls whenever and wherever they need," said ISM franchisee Michael Walsh.

Since launching Drive 365 the ISM and their franchisees have seen a significant increase (over 25%) in their sales happen online.

"We needed to find ways of becoming more efficient and cost effective, not only for our clients but for our franchisees. Cloud computing and smartphones make it easy to access information and lead to more cost-effective and efficient collaboration with our clients and franchisees," said Karl Walsh, managing director, Irish School of Motoring.

Martin Cullen, director of small- and mid-sized partners at Microsoft added: "The Irish School of Motoring has embraced all that the cloud can offer businesses throughout Ireland. In a challenging economic climate, moving to a cloud-based environment with Office365 on Windows Phone has given ISM the ability grow its business, increase productivity and gain efficiencies, while maintaining the same great services, only better."

Read More: Microsoft