<p align="center"><em>eGroup’s Application Services team uses Microsoft’s SharePoint as the corporate information hub; ensures user success by outlining comprehensive adoption plan <em></em></em></p>
<strong>MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – November 19, 2012</strong> – <a href="http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/">eGroup</a>, the Southeast’s leading provider of <a href="http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/services/cloud-services">cloud</a>, <a href="http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/services/application-services">application</a> and<a href="http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/what-we-do/services/end-user-computing"> end-user computing</a> services, today announced the success of its recent supply chain process improvement project at <a href="http://www.dispenserservices.com/">Dispenser Services, Inc.</a> (DSI). DSI services over 25,000 beverage dispensers across 2,500 customer locations in the Southeast.

Due to limitations with DSI’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, the company relied on various manual processes which delayed communication between customers and the field service team regarding the availability of equipment needed at customer sites. The existing system lacked the capability to track detailed movement through the refurbishment workflow, and therefore required staff to enter data manually into ad hoc spreadsheets. As a result, DSI began experiencing heavier call load to service centers, delays in processing and ultimately some unhappy customers.

Based on Microsoft’s SharePoint, eGroup quickly designed, developed and rolled out a central site which embedded the existing service delivery processes into the collaboration platform. Instead of DSI staff having to print 100 page reports each day, eGroup built a dashboard which allowed for easy viewing, as well as provided the capability to perform movement updates from one screen thereby reducing the time to process by more than 50 percent. The new Equipment Movement Tracking (EMT) process enabled a significant cost savings, allowing growth without requiring additional people. Without the new EMT process a new full time position would have been required.

Rick Fowler, Application Consultant, eGroup, said: “At eGroup, we believe each and every SharePoint project is unique to the specific requirements of the business. For example, during the discovery and interview process at DSI, we noticed the large number of emails that were sent and received during a typical request. After doing some fact finding, the pattern of communication was documented and the automatic sending of emails was integrated into the workflow to alert appropriate internal and external contacts of the updated status. This one automated step keeps all constituents coordinated and aware.  Similar email processes were used to send alerts when delays occurred. These alerts improved the company’s SLA performance, thereby improving customer satisfaction. As we believe that SharePoint is about collaboration, we set out to ensure it served as an integral part of DSI’s workflow, not a peripheral added task or added step.”

Over the course of the implementation, eGroup closely interacted with DSI staff performing the process to spot these opportunities for improving the entire plan which magnified the benefits. In addition, eGroup instituted a formal user adoption plan which incorporated best-practices around internal training and communications, content migrations, user support, empowering feedback loops, and user incentives.

Fowler continued: “These types of wins for users are paramount for creating a successful SharePoint site – one that is truly collaborative and integrated into the enterprise. When daily tasks are part of the SharePoint environment, then all of the information becomes more valuable. It becomes a true information hub, as it is intended.”