Streamlining an Energy Company's Digital Workspace to Create a Sustainable and Collaborative Future

Situation

One of the biggest challenges to corporate acquisitions is operating as one cohesive and efficient unit.

A holding company that consists of locally managed sustainable energy businesses partnered with WWT to consolidate and streamline its IT operating models across nine subsidiaries to improve the employee experience, increase productivity, streamline operations and create a unified culture.

When the energy company engaged WWT, each subsidiary operated independently with its own IT team and processes. Many subsidiaries didn't have digital collaboration tools. The ones that did lacked the standardization required for high-performance teamwork and flexible work. But perhaps the biggest source of frustration was around calendaring capabilities. Executives and teams across subsidiaries had no visibility into each other's Microsoft Outlook calendars and availability status. Scheduling a meeting required sending several emails to determine when everyone was available. 

The company's Board of Directors, CEO and CIO recognized the need for modernization, but lacked a clear vision and the IT resources to make it happen. Committed to their employees and operational excellence, they turned to WWT for help identifying and implementing a holistic solution to unify its disparate businesses and enhance the day-to-day workplace experience.

Solution

The energy company needed a neutral partner to help navigate the complexities associated with centralizing IT under a shared services model, consolidating email namespaces under a single Microsoft tenant, building alignment and improving collaboration across subsidiaries. WWT served as the primary partner to provide: 

• Advisory guidance on best practices, roadmap creation and organizational alignment related to corporate M&A.
• End-to-end, in-house strategy development and execution planning services.
• Hands-on engineering support related to IT operations, collaboration, cloud, end-user computing and security.
• A modernized email platform, unified across businesses via Microsoft O365, with deployed collaboration features that included SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Yammer and other O365 applications.
• Experienced Microsoft-certified professionals with advanced specializations.
• Training and adoption services to enable a seamless transition to new technology.
• Documented repeatable processes for onboarding future acquisitions.

By the numbers

The energy company and WWT worked together to design, build and migrate to a unified shared services model with a full suite of collaboration tools to increase agility and support flexible work. This included:

• 17,000 user migrations: Covering capabilities such as identity, cloud, productivity, end-user computing and collaboration, including a Microsoft O365 consolidation from nine tenants to one.
• 10,000 workstations: Installed remotely with Microsoft O365. 
• 16,000 devices: Including smartphones, tablets and laptops that were added as managed devices.
• 10 physical sites migrated across three countries.
• Zero downtime from start to finish.

Outcomes and benefits

Increased organizational agility and business alignment: By creating a centralized model for the digital workspace, the energy company established standardized workflows and toolsets that enable IT staff to operate more efficiently and build systematic KPIs while also empowering employees to collaborate both inside and outside of their business units.

Simplified IT help desk processes: The customer combined its nine subsidiaries' IT help desks into a single support hub to improve the employee experience and streamline processes. What once required multiple phone calls and emails to receive IT support is now satisfied with a single Service Desk ticket.

Created the foundation for flexible work and a strong workplace culture: By deploying digital collaboration, video conferencing and productivity tools, employees can work from anywhere with seamless access to the applications and toolsets they need to do their jobs effectively and feel a part of the team. This was especially important when the company was forced to shift to all-remote work during the pandemic, and it will continue to set the company up for success as hybrid work models evolve. 

Strengthened security across the digital workspace ecosystem: It can be difficult to strike the right balance between standardization and customization when it comes to security in complex umbrella organizations. We helped the customer develop a unified security approach for the digital workspace that can adapt to satisfy subsidiaries' unique needs and situations, as needed.

Areas of expertise

Transformation isn't simply a technology decision. Such undertakings demand the right mix of technology, people, capabilities and areas of expertise that WWT has, including, but not limited to:

• Collaboration
• End-user computing
• Security
• Cloud strategy and optimization
• Cloud migration
• Video conferencing
• Digital workspace strategy
• Enterprise licensing agreements
• Microsoft O365 Tenant Migration
• Hybrid work
• Adoption services
• Change management
• Mergers and acquisitions

How we did it

With more than 30 years of experience helping the world's largest companies and government entities, we've learned that digital transformation and IT modernization thrive in the overlap of: 

Our deep domain expertise cuts across business and technology. And our ability to extensively test solutions and deploy them at scale allows us to both advise and execute to create new realities for our customers. 

Together, here's how we did it with the energy company:

We listened to understand

We met with key stakeholders across the company and its subsidiaries to understand their challenges and the points of friction in employees' workflows. We used this information to create a shared vision for a centralized model, which revolved around the employee experience and building more efficiency into the business. 

We created a plan but recognized when it was time to pivot

Our highly experienced team is used to handling unexpected obstacles during large-scale digital transformations. When the global pandemic hit shortly after project kickoff, it was important to the customer to prioritize its employees – one of the company's six core principles. We quickly pivoted to equip employees with the necessary tools for remote work and adjusted our project plans to minimize disruption to the migration schedule.

We set employees up for success

We developed customized training and communication plans to get employees comfortable using their new technology, maximize usage and ensure the greatest return on investment. 

We built processes to support a bright future

As the energy company continues to grow, it's crucial for future acquisitions to seamlessly fold into the shared services model. We developed and documented repeatable migration processes to efficiently onboard new businesses, drive operational excellence and continue enabling interoperability across subsidiaries for years to come. 

How can we help you?

Those operating in the energy sector are likely familiar with the traditional lag in industry-wide adoption of transformational technology. If you're worried that your company may be falling behind in terms of technological capabilities, we can help.

Our comprehensive services portfolio is designed to help at every stage of digital transformation and the M&A process. From idea to outcome, you won't find another partner who combines strategic consulting expertise with the ability to seamlessly execute complex IT deployments worldwide.

• Combine the insights of a traditional consulting firm with the ability to execute complex infrastructure solutions at scale globally.
• Work collaboratively to find ways technology can improve the employee experience and add value to your organization.
• Cut your testing and migration time from months to weeks, if not days, by leveraging the Advanced Technology Center, WWT's OEM partnerships and our certified experts.
• Accelerate the planning, design and implementation of complex technology investments at scale around the world.