Customer Solution Case Study
/ O2 Boosts Collaboration to Cut Travel and Carbon Emissions
“The deployment of unified communications really underpins our drive for a great experience for our people. It is providing users with the flexibility and tools to be more efficient and productive in their jobs. We now plan to roll it out to the remainder of our workforce.”
Andy Roberts, Windows Design and Delivery Lead, O2
Telefónica O2 UK, a leading communication company in the digital world, needed modern collaboration tools including instant messaging and Voice over IP (VoIP). Microsoft proposed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 technology. With integrated telephony, collaboration tools, and presence awareness, employees are working more effectively and the company is planning to reduce travel costs and carbon emissions.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published September 2010
Business Needs
Telefónica O2 UK—a leading communications company for consumers and businesses—is a highly dispersed organisation with 12,000 employees working at sites ranging from Glasgow to Slough. As a company with 21.6 million mobile customers and more than 700,000 fixed broadband customers, the company traditionally used voice and e-mail messaging channels to collaborate with its telephony and data services. They were delivered across two different local area network architectures. In 2009, the company began considering new ways of working as part of a project called Life@Work, which aims to improve communications, reduce travel costs, and cut the carbon footprint of the business.
Sean Devlin, Strategy Architect, Futures and Innovation Team, O2, says: “Our employees were using voice with fixed line and mobile devices and messaging products such as e-mail and Windows SharePoint Services to collaborate internally. This often resulted in document shuffling to agree policies and set targets resulting in delays and endless meetings. Our key objective in seeking a unified communications solution was to provide a better employee experience as well as meet the objectives of our green agenda.”
O2 IT experts joined forces with their colleagues in human resources to scope out the project bearing in mind the needs of home-based workers as well as staff working from the various O2 buildings. John Gaskell, Messaging and Collaboration Architect, O2, says: “It was important that any solution integrated with our standard applications. If we chose to go for instant messaging, the idea was not to replace e-mail messaging but to introduce a complementary product. We wanted to ensure that people had the flexibility to decide on the best form of communication at a particular time—ensuring a good user experience at all times.”
Solution
O2 implemented a unified communications solution based on Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise Edition. The toolset appealed to O2 because it integrates software-powered VoIP, instant messaging, and presence information. By choosing Office Communications Server 2007 and the Active Directory service, the company could add instant messaging, VoIP, and conferencing with Microsoft Office Live Meeting, to the voicemail and other unified messaging features native to its Exchange Server 2007 deployment.
Gaskell says: “We connect in through our Nortel Meridian private branch exchange (PBX) and that allows users to make and receive calls from other devices—we are also looking to integrate this with our other video conferencing solutions such as Tandberg and Cisco. We’re federated with numerous third parties and this really allows presence to go beyond O2. It means that in conference calls we can see if suppliers are available to answer a simple question—we find things happen much more quickly.”
The deployment began as a pilot with around 60 people and has now been extended to more than 3,000 users, taking advantage of the company’s Microsoft Enterprise Agreement for Volume Licensing. Gaskell adds: “The initial challenge we had was one of perception. People saw instant messaging as a home toy, which their children used to talk to their school friends—they didn’t perceive it as a corporate offering. Once people realised how quickly they could get answers to their questions and the benefit of presence awareness they really started to embrace the technology. Using a service such as Office Live Meeting requires a cultural change for our employees and we needed the support of the senior leadership team to achieve this.”
Benefits
O2 is already sending in excess of 850,000 instant messages a month and organising 750 Office Live Meeting sessions with multi-party conferencing. Andy Roberts, Windows Design and Delivery Lead, O2, says: “The deployment of unified communications really underpins our drive for a great experience for our people. It is providing users with the flexibility and tools to be more efficient and productive in their jobs. We now plan to roll it out to the remainder of our workforce.”
•Cutting travel costs. The monthly team meeting at O2 that used to involve travel expenses now takes place with Office Live Meeting. Roberts says: “Employees working from home or offices throughout the United Kingdom operate more efficiently because they’re not on the road travelling to meetings. As a result, we’re predicting that travel costs will significantly reduce over time.”
•Driving sustainable behaviours. The change in communication at O2 is supporting the company’s sustainability agenda. Roberts says: “Making people aware of the reduction in carbon emissions really helps O2, but it will also benefit the environment as well.”
•Deploying the right tools for the job. Giving users the flexibility to switch seamlessly between an instant message and a VoIP call means that O2 staff always have the appropriate collaboration tools they need.
•Enhancing relationships with colleagues. With videoconferencing, colleagues can collaborate more easily on drafting and editing documents, helping improve workflow.
•Engaging with home workers. O2 has employees in offices, retail stores, communications centres, on the road, and working from home. Roberts says: “The technology helps everyone to collaborate better and retain the personal touch, particularly with videoconferencing when we can see each other during meetings.”
•Deploying technology effectively. Due to the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, O2 is experiencing a transformation in how it deploys technologies. Roberts adds: “We’ve gone from a project-to-project mentality to strategic deployment—it has helped us accelerate the rate of change for the benefit of O2.”
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published September 2010