City of Langford Goes Paperless
Microsoft® SharePoint® transforms how City employees find and use information
MISSISSAUGA, ON - July 13, 2005 - Microsoft Canada Co. today announced that British Columbia's City of Langford has deployed several Microsoft technologies to help improve their internal productivity and increase the quality of documents they produce. Working with Microsoft technology partner Habañero Consulting Group, the City of Langford developed a solution based on Microsoft® SharePoint® Portal Server that has transformed how City employees find and use information.
"With SharePoint not only can our staff work more effectively together, but the speed of file searching is incredible compared with our old document management system - and it's easy to use," said Mike Palmer, Information Systems Administrator, City of Langford. "Technology should always make sense for the end-user, and our employees light up when they discover all the tools and benefits with SharePoint."
Working with more than 170,000 city documents, and close to 2 million pages of text, the City of Langford had problems dealing with the volume of information they needed to process. This was compounded by an increase in internal team sizes, which were not effectively collaborating. While exploring various document management solutions, the City of Langford looked at options including Laserfiche, but found it was not cost effective. In the end, SharePoint cost three times less, and offered much more than document management.
"We were looking for software that offered simplicity for our staff - not to further bog them down with hours of training," said Palmer. "The intuitiveness of SharePoint, and its likeness to other familiar Office products, was the solution we were looking for."
In addition to being a collaborative portal solution that connects people, remote teams, and information, with a search engine that is extremely scalable and fast, SharePoint delivered easy integration with Langford's existing Live Communications Server® 2003, Exchange Server® 2003, and Outlook® 2003, as well as a document scanning program.
"The great things we are hearing from the City of Langford are exciting, but not uncommon," said Mike Bulmer, Product Manager, Microsoft Office System, Microsoft Canada. "With the ease of integration and the familiarity that Office 2003 offers, our partners and customers are increasingly seeing its value."
About Microsoft Canada
Established in 1985, Microsoft Canada Co. is the Canadian subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq "MSFT") the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. Microsoft Canada provides nationwide sales, marketing, consulting and local support services in both French and English. Headquartered in Mississauga, Microsoft Canada has 10 regional offices across the country dedicated to empowering people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. For more information on Microsoft Canada, please visit www.microsoft.ca
About City of Langford
Incorporated on December 8th, 1992 and located on the southern end of Vancouver Island, the City of Langford is a young and growing community of 20,000 residents in 2002. It offers a variety of business opportunities, affordable housing and a wide range of services and amenities. Langford is within easy access of the rest of the Greater Victoria metropolitan area. For more information on City of Langford, please visit http://district.langford.bc.ca/
About Habanero Consulting Group
Habañero is a leading, privately held, western Canadian IT consulting company that creates customized solutions using the Internet and related technologies. The company is focused on developing long-term partnerships by offering a unique and practical integration of business analysis, strategic planning, and creative and technical services. Habañero provides complete, enterprise-wide, e-business solutions to clients such as A&W Canada; Bentall Capital; British Columbia Transmission Corporation; Coast Capital Savings; Credential Financial Inc.; ICBC; Intrawest; Norske Canada; Mountain Equipment Co-op; Phillips, Hager & North; and Terasen.
©2005 Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft, Office, and SharePoint are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
