StarOffice boosts Office Productivity at Coffee Bean

Store managers in all 38 Singapore outlets use StarOffice.

• The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (S) Pte. Ltd.

Industry

• Food & Beverage

Configuration

• StarOffice5.2


• Productivity Suite PCs with Windows operating systems

Challenges

• Automate submission of sales report and replace physically dispatching


• Look for cheaper alternative to MS office to be deployed to outlets


• Need for compatibility with MS Office

Results

• Cost savings of more than US$18,000 in purchasing licenses


• Storemanagers using Staroffice for both sales reports and to create promotional materials


• Increased productivity at the store

CoffeeBean's management in Singapore wanted to enable its outlets with Word-processing and spreadsheet facilities. There was also a need to share reports between the outlets and the head-office. Although the head-office uses Microsoft Office, the management decided that purchasing licenses for all of its 38 outlets was a costly proposition. It therefore decided to use StarOffice suite as no license fee is required for its usage and also because of its excellent compatibility with Microsoft Office files, allowing documents to be exchanged via e-mail.

Need for basic Office Productity for Outlets
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (S) Pte. Ltd is a popular specialty Cafe Operator with over 750 employees in Singapore and over 3000 staff worldwide.

In its Singapore operations, the constant communications between the outlets and the head-offices created a need for the store managers to have word-processing and spreadsheet facilities at each of its 38 outlets. Before this, sales reports and inventory lists were dispatched physically to each of its outlets.

Coffee Bean's head office was already using Microsoft Office but it hesitated against purchasing full licenses for all its outlets because of the high cost involved. Besides, not all the applications would be fully utilized and the store managers required only basic functionality that allows them to prepare their sales reports and submit them via e-mail, back to their head office.

Coffee Bean goal was to use the Internet as an instant form of communications to share information such as spreadsheet documents and memos electronically rather than distribute them by despatch. This would, in return, boost productivity and efficiency.

The decision to use StarOffice was because no license fee is required for its usage. Its ability to convert MS office files meant that such documents attachments can be sent via e-mail between the outlets and the head office.

"We wanted a cheaper alternative to using Microsoft Office with good compatibility with MS formats. With StarOffice, we not only achieved huge cost savings but also derived the same level of utility at our CoffeeBean outlets." said Vincent C.K. Chang, Group Controller, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (Singapore) Pte Ltd.

After a short briefing to its storemanagers, all of its CoffeeBeans outlets have since been standardized with StarOffice suite. Today, its storemanagers use StarOffice to prepare its spreadsheet sales reports and check inventory lists for its daily operations. These files are submitted electronically as e-mail attachments back to its head office and converted in MS Excel format. Its storemanagers also use StarOffice to prepare and design their own promotional material.

"Our mission is to provide a Total Quality Experience - to customers, team members and community. The use of Star Office provides an opportunity for team members to enhance their computer literacy and enhances the productivity at the Store" said Mr Chang.

In deploying an alternative office suite in all its outlets, CoffeBean estimates that its saved more than US$18, 000 in licenses without comprising application functionality.

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