Telstra uses Microsoft solutions to improve collaboration

Australian telecommunications provider Telstra is using Microsoft Teams and Power Apps to improve internal collaboration, empower staff and transform the customer experience.

The firm implemented Microsoft 365 in 2018 as part of its efforts to provide its field teams with the tools to serve customers and stay connected with each other. Using Power Apps, they built an ‘issue and opportunity resolution system’ called TIDE, allowing employees to create a thread based around issues reported by customers. Other employees could keep tabs on the issue and its resolution status and, after seeing its success, started creating other apps themselves to address their needs. 

To take this further, the company established a team of developers to embed these apps in two master apps called Team Leader Plus and Technician Plus, to give employees role-specific support through the Microsoft Power Platform. It also gives field technicians extra knowledge about customer history so they can more effectively resolve issues. 

Telstra also began using Teams to enhance internal communication. Start-of-the-week video meetings replaced calls and saw employees engage much more. The solution also helped close the distance between the firm’s remote field technicians so that they could celebrate wins and discuss issues together more easily. 

By integrating Team Leader Plus and Technician Plus into Teams, the firm’s employees were then able to “look up all their administrative data, do all their daily tasks, and view their reports from within Teams,” Richard French, principal for field digitisation, told Microsoft. 

“I’d encourage any company interested in increasing collaboration and communication while reducing costs to take a serious look at Microsoft Teams and the Microsoft Power Platform,” said French. “At the end of the day, what we have now is great, because it was created by employees invested in solving these problems for their co-workers.”