UK mobile network provider harnessing Microsoft Teams to enable collaboration across locations
Toby Ingleton |
UK mobile network Three is turning to Microsoft to help realise its digital transformation ambitions.
One of the UK’s fastest growing networks, Three covers more than 97% of the population and was the first network to deliver unlimited data and provide 4G at no extra cost.
“To continue delivering a high-quality, reliable mobile experience to our customers while innovating across our services, we needed to make significant changes to our business, including rebuilding our entire IT infrastructure,” said Jon Kandiah, chief information officer for Three.
Three has offices in Maidenhead, Glasgow and Reading, as well as more than 300 retail stores and offshore offices in New Zealand. The company needed to ensure its staff are well connected and had an agile approach.
To achieve this, the company chose Microsoft Office 365.
“We introduced Microsoft Teams, the chat-based workspace in Office 365, and the concept of circles – groups of five to nine people working in virtual teams across the company,” said Kandiah. “Each circle uses Microsoft Teams as a hub for virtual teamwork. Today, employees across all our locations work together more efficiently using Microsoft Teams in conjunction with Microsoft Planner. We use Microsoft Teams to make our teams more productive, and we use Planner to streamline each circle’s projects.”
Three’s employees are now better connected across all locations, using customisable workspaces to enable greater organisational agility.
“Microsoft Teams works across devices, including mobile phones, so all employees can participate in conversations anytime, anywhere,” said Kandiah. “We started by creating circles within our People Team – which includes employees from our human resources, property and facilities departments – and assigning quarterly outcomes to each circle. These circles collaborate to improve organisational agility, and the glue that keeps them all working together productively is Microsoft Teams.”
The use of Office 365 services has also proliferated among Three’s staff.
“Microsoft SharePoint Online team sites, OneNote notebooks and Power BI dashboards are built into each Microsoft Teams workspace, so people intuitively use them,” explained Kandiah. “It’s a totally different approach to rolling out technology – what used to be an IT-driven exercise is now happening more organically, and we are seeing the dividends in improved productivity.”
Third party products are no longer required by Three’s staff, as Microsoft’s interoperable suite of productivity tools are available to use. Kandiah also said that the advanced security of Office 365 and Microsoft Azure Active Directory helps bring peace of mind.
“Three has an ambitious, transformational plan to deliver what our customers need,” he added. “With empowered, agile and connected employees, we are well on our way to achieving our goal.”