Remember what it was like on your first day of work? For many knowledge workers, a new job means endless training sessions, new software to learn, and a huge learning curve as they come up to speed on the company computer system. Complicated processes can spell unnecessary downtime and lost revenue—and they don’t exactly make a good impression on the talent you’ve worked so hard to attract.

A key advantage of Microsoft Office 365 is that it makes it easy to onboard new employees. No longer do IT administrators need to install and configure software on each new employee workstation. Because Office 365 is hosted within Microsoft data centers in the cloud, administrators just go to the “Admin Overview” page and add the new user to their Office 365 subscription. It’s that simple! Employees can then sign onto their account and start working. What’s more, they can do so with minimal training since they’re using productivity software most employees are already familiar with.

Among the companies that have improved their onboarding process with Office 365 is Konica Minolta Business Solutions Denmark a/s, a leading provider of image information products. The company, which relied on Lotus Notes, had been incurring significant monetary and time expenses preparing new workstations for employees. For every new employee, IT staff spent three to five hours installing software and configuring systems. Altogether, the IT department spent about 80 hours a month setting up and troubleshooting local systems.

Not only did these challenges cut into the company’s profitability; they also frustrated employees. “We offer an annual employee satisfaction survey, and our results in the ‘Very Satisfied’ category were not what we wanted them to be—only around 50 percent,” says Sune T. Perlman, IT Manager for Konica Minolta Business Solutions Denmark a/s.

To improve efficiency, Konica Minolta implemented Microsoft Exchange Server for enhanced email access along with Microsoft Office 365 for improved communication, knowledge sharing, and remote accessibility.

With Office 365, new employees simply sign in to their account and begin working. The only training IT staff now offer is a brief, one-hour orientation session on how to set up a new user account. “We used to spend up to five hours setting up each employee’s laptop,” Perlman says. “With Office 365, setup time is down to as little as one hour. The employee simply signs in and everything is ready to use.”

By moving to Office 365, IT administrators have reduced by 80 percent the time they spend configuring and troubleshooting local hardware and software. What’s more, employee satisfaction rates are improving. “Employees are the backbone of our business, and happier employees mean a better, more profitable business,” Perlman says.

To learn more, please check out the full Konica Minolta Business Solutions Denmark case study. Also, please share your experience. Has Office 365 improved the onboarding experience for your organization? If so, how?