"Continual improvement is one of the essential goals of quality management," cites Clyde Pearch, President of Eagle Group USA, Inc. Pearch knows a lot about quality—his Troy, Michigan–based consulting and training firm specializes in total quality management systems, including International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards, tools that help organizations become more efficient and effective. "We help businesses improve their processes, their systems, and the effectiveness of their employees," Pearch continues. "This lets them deliver better products and services, in a manner that is more dependable and environmentally sound."

Recently, Pearch dramatically improved the performance of his own company with the implementation of Microsoft Small Business Server. Within weeks of the full rollout of the network, Eagle Group was already seeing productivity gains equivalent to one full-time employee and more collaboration than ever in its virtual office environment.

Because Pearch believes that ISO standards benefit all sorts of organizations, Eagle Group applies quality management principles to its own organization. Pearch explains, "We feel that you can’t provide consulting and training in quality standards unless you practice what you preach. To that end, we’ve registered our company to the quality standard ISO 9001 and to the environmental standard ISO 14001."

Pearch points out, "Our organization sells time. Scheduling is our most mission-critical application." As Eagle Group grew, maintaining its business calendar and scheduling employees’ time on paper became unwieldy. Pearch continues, "We spent a lot of time updating, changing, and discussing the schedule. It wasted time, requiring two employees—sometimes three or four—all talking about the same topic." Communicating schedule information was further complicated because Eagle Group operates in part as a virtual office, with most employees working at home offices when they’re not at remote sites. Pearch summarizes, "We needed to make our schedule interactive and fully accessible by all employees in real time, independent of geographic location or time of day."

Eagle Group had no network connecting its PCs, and Pearch knew that connectivity would be key to a shared scheduling system. "It was natural to think about Microsoft when we started to think about our network needs. We had seen Small Business Server in use in some of our clients’ organizations. What triggered my decision though, was seeing Microsoft Outlook®." Specifically, a demonstration of the Outlook messaging and collaboration client and Exchange Server by the Berkley, Michigan–based Center for Computer Resources, Inc. (CCR) illustrated how Eagle Group’s scheduling needs could be satisfied. Pearch selected CCR to implement a network based on Small Business Server. "CCR did the best job of listening to what we were trying to do. It focuses on small businesses like ours and gave us great personal attention."

CCR was very familiar with Small Business Server and knew that the best solution for connecting people working at home and on the road with the home office would be a virtual private network (VPN). Small Business Server’s support of VPN technology allows users to access the network from anywhere, anytime, over the Internet, with complete security. Eagle Group connected its Small Business Server to the Internet with a T1 line, resulting in plenty of bandwidth. For Pearch this solution was ideal, "I’m not a computer geek, but I can log-in from anywhere. Out of our 14 employees, up to 6 people work in the office and usually only 3 of those show up on any given day. Our employees absolutely love being able to work from home. One salesperson refused to work from home until the network was in place because he depended on having his contact information at his fingertips. After using the network from home, he told me that he is in heaven. Now, when we talk on the phone, we can both get to information we need at the same time. He said he is so much more efficient and better able to communicate and access data."

Pearch embraced CCR’s recommendation of Small Business Server because it allowed a customized scheduling solution without requiring custom programming. "I wanted packaged software that could be tailored to support our specific requirements. It’s worked out perfectly." Part of the reason it has worked out so well is careful planning and implementation. "Being ISO registered, we already had some good disciplines and procedures, and that translated readily into a computerized schedule. We already had codes set up for our activities and courses, so we just embedded those codes into our activity category listings. We created our own rules for using the system and we created our own combination of Outlook schedules. They are linked such that you can plug something into our operations calendar, and it drills it right into your personal calendar." Adding its own online help, Eagle Group integrated instructions and key information such as consultant qualifications with the calendar system. Pearch elaborates, "We created a folder in Outlook called Hints and Guidelines. You can see within a couple of clicks who’s qualified to do what, then you look at the calendar to see if that person is available. It’s slick!"

One of the key reasons Pearch selected Small Business Server was his firm’s familiarity with Microsoft software. He points out, "We were using Microsoft Office before our network was in place. We used it to develop a complete software suite for quality and environmental management systems that we call our Quick Start™ system. It is really a set of templates—Microsoft Word documents and forms, Microsoft Excel workbooks, and Microsoft Access databases—that we use to help clients apply a particular ISO standard." Pearch and other Eagle Group employees have seen their network foster new collaboration in the use of Microsoft Office documents. Pearch relates, "The network definitely increases the usefulness of Office applications, no question about it."

Eagle Group is organized into functional teams, which use network folders to organize and share data. "For example, we store Word templates for doing proposals in a shared file folder accessible to all of our salespeople. The sales team periodically reviews those templates, changing and enhancing them based on our market and business needs. Having a single shared copy ensures that everybody starts with the correct version. The same applies to our Quick Start suite. We used to publish a new version twice a year on CD. Now with our VPN, we can keep it current and accessible in real time from any location."

Because Eagle Group employees can connect to the network from anywhere, they can always get the most up-to-date information. Before, a Microsoft Access report would be printed and faxed; now, employees can view the live data and run the report when they need it. Network access is also making the firm’s use of the Microsoft PowerPoint® presentation graphics program more efficient, as Pearch describes: "We are converting our slide presentations and courses from overheads to computer-based delivery using projection units. Now, you can pull down the latest training course, drop it on your laptop’s hard drive, take it to the client site, and then discard it when you are finished. The next time you need it, you just pull down the latest copy. We have more than 50 courses, so that simplifies things a lot."

While improving the overall quality of business systems takes thought and deliberation, it doesn’t necessarily take a long time. With careful planning, good support from CCR, and solid software, Eagle Group was able to implement its network quickly and reliably. "The biggest unexpected benefit was that we were quickly able to platform our system. And it worked!" shares Pearch. "I didn’t have the startup pains that I see a lot of our clients having with new systems. We ordered the system in late March, had it working off-line in April, and one day in May we trained our entire staff and took it live that same day. The software didn’t give us any heartaches or hiccups that prevented us from getting to our goal. That was key for me, because I can’t afford to bring my people in whenever I want to. They sit in a room together only two or three times a year—that’s it. We were successful because of the quality of the software and of the planning that CCR and our firm put into it."

Being in the business of helping his clients improve their organizations, Pearch particularly appreciates how Small Business Server helps his business simplify procedures and gain new efficiencies. Eagle Group employees use Small Business Server Fax Services to fax from their desktops, saving valuable time. E-mail now arrives instantly, without employees having to dial out.

Good information management is another important quality management principle, and the network supports this as well. "I like that all of our stuff is now backed up automatically," Pearch notes, "because we promote and preach regular data backups to our clients."

Also in keeping with the fundamentals of quality management systems, Eagle Group has streamlined its workflow and at the same time reduced opportunity for error. Pearch emphasizes, "We don’t spend six months researching a new course—we need to create it and bring it to market. We put together a cross-functional team for each course that we develop and use a very disciplined approach to make sure that the course’s objectives, content, and materials are all consistent with what we know is needed for success." For Eagle Group employees to work together effectively from multiple locations, communication must be immediate and collaboration must be seamless. Pearch points out, "Microsoft Outlook and the whole Small Business Server–based network complements that need. Our timeliness to market has been part of our continuing success."

Pearch sees his customers as sharing in the benefits: "We can be more responsive with e-mail. We are providing clients with buckets of background information that we didn’t formerly have available to them. I envision providing clients with logon privileges such that they can get onto our network and directly access our courses." Pearch summarizes his experience with Small Business Server, "My overall satisfaction is very high. Small Business Server is very complementary to our business strategy—it’s loaded with the kinds of tools that our business uses, and it wasn’t cost prohibitive to get into the game. We got productivity out of it very quickly, and frankly, for a business like ours, that’s how it’s got to be."