Managing director Erwin Schreurs explains what prompted the move to the cloud: "Our on-premises servers were end-of-life again. That happened every 5 to 6 years and each time we wondered whether we should still invest in new servers. Until recently, we always chose to do so. But this time we asked advice from VanRoey. That's how we started looking at Microsoft 365. For our e-mails, we were already working through Office 365, so we already knew the product. And then VanRoey worked out 2 proposals. One as we are used to, a re-invest of our servers and one what it would mean if we took everything to the cloud via Microsoft 365."

Advantages cloud

The move to the cloud had many advantages for Buromas. Erwin Schreurs lists them: "It is a future-proof technology that requires little maintenance. Moreover, the cost of Microsoft 365 was lower than the investment and maintenance of the servers here on-premises. And the cost is also predictable. It's a monthly fee that basically stays the same. And we don't have a fluctuating investment cost. What was also an important factor for us was the advantage towards system and data security. It becomes increasingly difficult and expensive if you have to do that yourself every time and invest in that yourself. Now we benefit from the knowledge of Microsoft itself and of VanRoey, which can now also monitor our system more easily.

As an added benefit, we have a better overview of our unstructured data. After 30 years, the number of files that were on our file servers had grown enormously. Now that we have also moved to the Cloud with that, it was a lot easier to find and use them. Especially now in corona times, it has been an advantage that we could work on the move and still be able to access our unstructured data." Thanks to the move to Microsoft 365 it also gave Buromas a number of communication tools. So the choice was quickly made.

Smooth migration through punishing engineer

The migration to the cloud went smoothly. Erwin Schreurs did not expect this: "We were a bit worried about this migration. We felt it was a big technological step. We feared a learning curve among employees and unavailability during the migration. But everything turned out fine. Our employees were able to work continuously. And there was hardly any learning curve. Afterwards, the system also turned out to do what was promised. So that went quasi perfectly."

"Moreover, we were impressed by the engineer who came to carry out the migration. He was extremely knowledgeable not only about Microsoft's cloud, but also about the process of performing a migration. At no point did anything go wrong or anything happen that wasn't supposed to happen. And small ad hoc issues on issues we had not thought of beforehand were solved immediately. Not only was his level of knowledge extremely high, the way he communicated with us and with all staff was top notch. That really struck me in a positive sense. How calm and composed and controlled he handled it. That was really a success story," Erwin recalls.

Useful features in these strange times

Now that the migration is behind them, Erwin and his staff can start using Microsoft 365 in full force. "The nice thing about the migration is that what worked before still works now. Just a lot easier. And a lot of potential functionality has been added that we can now explore at our own pace. I'm thinking of SharePoint, for example. Teams is well established by now.

Now, since that corona crisis, we even use it when we communicate with each other while sitting in the same room. We used to sit next to each other to look at the same screen. Now everyone stays behind their own desk, even though we are physically sitting sometimes only 3 metres apart. We also use Teams with external partners. And even with partners who don't have Teams themselves, but who can communicate with us through our Teams."

Years of cooperation with VanRoey

Buromas has been counting on VanRoey for their system maintenance for 15 years. Before that, they were also customers, but more in the purchase of hardware and software. Erwin explains why they chose us: "VanRoey is a local company, just like us. Balen falls just in the province of Antwerp, but actually we are also Limburgers. And that gave a connection. We gave VanRoey a chance and it always went well. There was never any reason to look for another partner. We only had three technicians in that 15-year period. In fact, one of them is now our account manager. He knows Buromas inside out.

What also strikes me, with my background in the IT world, is that at VanRoey they are not only techies, but also think along with the company. With what Buromas is and how we work. In the IT world, it is not common for people to be both good IT specialists and also able to empathise with the business itself and the needs we have as entrepreneurs. VanRoey makes that combination work."

"We are a smaller company and we don't have the capabilities to build out an IT service with all the competences we need. That is simply not feasible for us. In that respect, VanRoey is a good partner because of that easy accessibility and communication. VanRoey is a professional company, but they are not a mastodon where we are a number. When I call, they know who we are. I notice that they follow technology and evolutions well. They also use the products they sell internally in the company themselves. They are more of a partner for us than a supplier of hardware or software," concludes the business manager.