MEWS SYSTEMS: migrating from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365

MEWS SYSTEMS is a successful Czech company whose hotel management solution is used worldwide. Founded in 2013, they’ve got over 400 employees and after surviving the pandemic, they’re growing fast again. MEWS goes all in on cloud: their customer facing hotel platform is fully cloud based and same goes for their internal systems wherever possible. When the pandemic hit, they downsized and looked for savings while also setting themselves up for the rebound they expected.

Switching from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365

MEWS had been using Google Workspace, but kept running into a problem: anything beyond basic features meant buying third party apps and services (add ons they gradually picked up). “We got several of these specialized solutions, but they have three big problems: they’re expensive, complicated, and inflexible. That’s why we started looking for something more integrated,” says Jan Tauš, MEWS SYSTEMS CIO.

Consolidating multiple vendors into the Microsoft 365 environment

Their Google contract was ending, and MEWS was already paying serious money for other tools like Slack. “We realized we’d save on licensing alone by moving to Microsoft 365. On top of that, we needed to lock down endpoint security with all the attacks happening. ARTEX showed us that Microsoft 365 had a component for every area we wanted to improve,” adds Jan Tauš.

Another reason for moving was that they already knew Microsoft tech well. All their client facing services run on Microsoft Azure, and lots of employees were already using Power BI or Microsoft Office. “For about 70% of our users we were paying for both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Looks wasteful, but people in finance need spreadsheet features that Google Sheets just doesn’t have – unlike Excel,” Jan Tauš explains.

Microsoft 365 E5 as a comprehensive platform for security and modern work

After analyzing everything thoroughly, MEWS decided on the Microsoft 365 E5 subscription. Yeah, it’s the most expensive option, but the combination of capabilities and technologies made it the obvious choice for them. In practice, moving to Microsoft 365 beat all their initial expectations.

“From the originally planned EUR 150,000 savings per year, the figure in 2022 will be close to half a million because of the increase in users and the expansion of toolsets we’d otherwise have to pay for,”

adds Jan Tauš, MEWS SYSTEMS CIO. From an IT perspective, Microsoft 365 E5 also solved issues that were either impossible to fix before or would’ve needed major time and money investment. But the real win for MEWS is how flexible the Microsoft 365 platform is, which really showed during COVID when they had to react fast to a completely new situation.

“What Microsoft 365 offers is unmatched by any other platform in the world. The only question is whether the level of the individual features it covers works for us. And the answer is we haven’t run into anything yet where someone seriously suggested buying a specialized tool. What’s included in the suite we’re paying for is enough,”

says Jan Tauš.

“Beyond the savings you can quantify, moving to Microsoft 365 brought one huge advantage: we’re operating in a proactive mode now. We no longer spend our time firefighting and onboarding people into tons of different platforms and applications, which is all we used to do. Now we can look for ways to help the business even more. That’s the real benefit of our Microsoft 365 transition, even if you can’t put a price tag on everything,”

concludes Jan Tauš, CIO of MEWS SYSTEMS.

Key benefits for MEWS SYSTEMS from adopting Microsoft 365 E5

A complete, solid platform for work and for securing company data, identities, and the IT environment.

Flexible licensing that adapts quickly when headcount changes, whether they’re growing or shrinking.

Automated endpoint management that freed up IT to focus on supporting the business instead of routine user support.

Dynamics NAV and Navision migration

Find out why Artex IS, with years of experience and deep understanding of customer needs, is the right partner for your migration from Dynamics NAV / Navision to Dynamics 365. You’ll learn: