Case Study: The Walsh Group achieves anywhere access and reduced IT costs with Microsoft Office 365

Construction Firm Improves Anywhere Access, Reduces IT Costs with Cloud Solution

The Walsh Group, a Chicago-based general contractor with more than 5,000 engineers and tradespeople working on roughly 150 job sites, struggled to keep its dispersed workforce current on software and to provide reliable mobile and offline access while a small IT team managed on-premises Exchange, SharePoint and Lync with single points of failure. Field staff often lacked company email and had to travel or return to trailers to access project documents, so the firm sought a cost-effective, scalable way to improve mobility, disaster recovery and reduce upgrade overhead.

Walsh moved to Microsoft Office 365—deploying Office 365 ProPlus, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online—and used Click-to-Run and SkyDrive Pro to simplify installs and enable offline sync. The shift provided anywhere access, streamlined future deployments, and cut IT administration and infrastructure costs, enabled broader email for field workers, and generated substantial savings (including an estimated $2.3M/year by avoiding phone hardware and reduced travel), while improving collaboration across job sites.

The Walsh Group

Patrick Wirtz

Innovation Manager