A Greek MSP leads the way by empowering employees with Azure skills

Office Line is the leading Managed Services Provider (MSP) for Microsoft Azure in Greece, Cyprus, and Malta. It enables organizations to transform their business by helping them migrate to the cloud. “We have been around for 25 years, receiving multiple awards, for migrating more than 200,000 users to Microsoft 365,” says Vassilis Papoulias, the COO at Office Line. The company’s four focus areas are Modern Work solutions, Azure migration, data solutions and services, and security. 

Office Line’s key differentiator is its expertise with cloud migration, and its Cloud Migration Factory is its crown jewel. “We gained a competitive advantage when we invested in acquiring skills, knowledge, and experience in cloud technologies early on,” says Vassilis Papoulias.

When the market started getting more mature, Office Line decided to come up with internal tools to make the cloud migration onboarding process more flexible, agile, and secure. “That is how the Cloud Migration Factory was born,” explains Panagiotis Kouris, the CEO at Office Line “We decided to automate the pre-migration phase—the assessment, discovery, and building of the financial case.”

Helping employees flourish

Office Line has been a star Microsoft partner for 20 years, even earning the Partner of the Year title for the last four years. It was also three years ago that the company decided to take advantage of Microsoft’s training and skilling initiatives. Office Line wanted to empower its employees with skills that enable them to make the most of Azure and other technologies. The team believed that having these skills would help the company accelerate the cloud migration process for its customers. 

“Firstly, we wanted to increase our operational capacity by upskilling our technical teams to better manage demanding projects,” remembers Petros Livanios, the Technology Advisory Lead at Office Line. “Secondly, we wanted to boost our employee satisfaction by giving them the opportunity to work on cutting-edge tech projects. Finally, we wanted to give them a competitive advantage in their careers.” 

Today, more than 70 percent of Office Line employees have at least one certification. “With Microsoft's training and skilling initiatives, not only do our employees gain a competitive advantage but it also enables us to become one of the few partners in the world with advanced specializations on Microsoft Cloud, helping us grow and move more satisfied customers to the cloud,” adds Vassilis Papoulias.

The opportunity to develop skills for teams from all backgrounds also helped retain and attract Office Line talent. “We really care about continuous learning and development, and our employees are so keen on embracing the benefits provided by Microsoft. They feel happier because we help them grow and reward their success,” adds Georgia Zogka, the People and Culture Manager at Office Line.

Bearing fruit

Investing in talent has paid off, helping the company reach a 257% year-on-year growth in Azure Consumed Services, the revenue associated with Azure usage, for the first half of 2022.

Today, Office Line has a Gold Security Competency and a Microsoft Cloud Partner Program (MCPP) Security designation. It is also one of few organizations in the world to receive seven Advanced Specializations on Microsoft Cloud. “To obtain these specializations, you need to have an established practice acquired from Microsoft's training and skilling initiatives knowledge, and you need to have implemented the practice with three customers showing proven results. This is then audited by a third party,” explains Vassilis Papoulias. 

“Microsoft’s advanced training programs were definitely a success for us. Because of changes like these, we keep growing,” affirms Vassilis Papoulias. “As we compete with bigger companies, we rely more on our knowledge and proven experience leveraging Microsoft's Skills Initiatives to stay ahead of the competition.” 

As the team grows stronger, Office Line plans to expand access to learning resources. “We strongly believe in the power of knowledge. We see a huge opportunity to democratize the learning process together with Microsoft. I strongly encourage companies to invest in the development of their people—it is the best investment they can make,” concludes Panagiotis Kouris.

“My prediction is that our teams will continue to be willing to learn and benefit from Microsoft’s tools. I think the future holds a lot of pleasant surprises,” adds Georgia Zogka.