Sydney, Australia – 8, October, 2013 – Today, Microsoft announced that Campari Australia, the Australian subsidiary of Gruppo Campari, a leading supplier in global branded beverages, has moved its sales and marketing staff to HP ElitePad 900 tablets running Windows 8. The company said, as part of its mobility strategy, the move was driven by the needs of its workforce to be productive on the go without the hassle of juggling multiple devices.
The company is also migrating its laptop and desktop PC fleets to Windows 8 to better equip staff with tools capable of enhancing business functionality and efficiency. Being able to use the same platform and applications in the office or on the move will deliver a consistent experience to Campari Australia’s staff, while simplifying IT management and enhancing productivity.
Having entered the Australian market in 2010, the company has quickly grown to over 100 employees with offices in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and became one of the top 10 Australian liquor companies last year. The IT team at Campari Australia were looking for a device solution that provided convenience, portability and was lightweight.
“HP’s Windows 8 Tablet gave us all of the functionality and productivity we needed in one device,” said Loic Herbin, IT Manager APAC, Campari Australia.
“For example, Excel and PowerPoint are used by our team extensively and it was important to have those applications on the same device as opposed to using multiple devices. Similarly, when using their Windows 8 tablets, our sales and marketing teams can rapidly launch applications to access the information they need or easily present material in a visually compelling way. In the end, it was an easy choice from a sales perspective and the perfect choice for our IT team as well. When combined, the productivity functionalities of Windows 8 and the convenience delivered from the HP tablet provide the complete user experience that complement and support the work our sales and marketing teams are doing.”
The company is also looking to develop its own Windows 8 application that will enable sales staff to easily show customers how to make cocktails with a selection of Campari beverages.
“Providing our staff with up-to-date technology ensures we look forward thinking in front of our customers, which is an important aspect of the service and values we aim to deliver,” said Herbin.
To drive the rollout internally, Campari Australia worked with Microsoft to educate a select group of staff around Windows 8’s capabilities, who were then responsible for championing the devices to their individual teams.
“The past 12 months has represented a real change in our IT offerings at Campari Australia. Having staff able to champion the operating system with their peers resulted in rapid uptake, with most staff up and running with Windows 8 within a week. We’ve received some great feedback in the time we’ve been live,” said Herbin.
Prior to Windows 8, Campari Australia had a mixed Windows XP and Windows 7 environment. Herbin said that the improved security in Windows 8 was a critical component of the mobility strategy, which was enabling staff to better manage applications and the services they deliver to customers. The company will be looking to go live with Windows 8.1 as soon as it becomes commercially available.
“Windows 8 is a fantastic operating system and our transition to tablets has been smooth. We can’t wait to see how Windows 8.1 will build on our user experience,” said Herbin.
Campari’s head office team is closely watching the deployment in Australia and is considering Windows 8 as part of its global mobility strategy. China recently went live with Windows 8 running across a collection of Acer devices.