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Modern Endpoint Management
TPG
The value in experience
At Eighty20 we take a true partnership approach to the challenges of workplace transformation. We work with more than 30 enterprise customers across the corporate and public sectors and from all sorts of industries and it’s our goal to maximise the benefits of Microsoft technologies for every one of them. But each client can only realise these benefits in a way that’s aligned to their culture, how they operate now and their capacity for taking the next steps towards digital maturity.
It’s only natural that our customers value the technical expertise and problem-solving approach they would expect from any digital consulting company. What will often cement our relationships – and the success of our engagements – is the insights and knowledge we bring from other projects.
As Mark Samuel, Head of Workplace Transformation for TPG Telecom puts it, “working with Eighty20 has given us a big injection of experience. It has accelerated both our transformation towards being a modern workplace as well as our knowledge of what Microsoft technology makes possible. They’ve also opened the door to a much closer engagement with Microsoft giving us better access to their resources and support for best practice.”
A focus on objectives
Drawing on experience is just one of the ways we drive progress and deliver value. Customer objectives are always our north star and this allows us to be faster and more efficient in moving through discovery, assessment, planning, design and delivery phases. By limiting the scope to what is of highest priority to stakeholders, from C-suite to knowledge workers to the frontline, we save time and deliver more value at every step.
We deliberately chose Microsoft as our partner because we believe their solutions are the best on the market for meeting our clients’ objectives. Their commitment to transformation at scale is clear in both the products and support we receive. and that we can offer our client.
The Challenge
The access imperative
While each clients’ objectives may be different, the COVID pandemic has presented all of them with common challenges. A complete switch to remote working overnight was something few were prepared for and ensuring the devices employees needed were both available and compliant was no walk in the park.
There’s no doubt that more advanced adoption of the cloud, collaboration tools and operating systems gave organisations a head start in the new reality. But perhaps the most fundamental ace in the hole was to have a full modern management deployment to fall back on for securing, configuring and distributing devices remotely. And this is exactly what we achieved for TPG Telecom. From understanding the customer’s challenge at the C-Suite level to designing the scope, implementation and deployment, we’ve been there at every step.
The show must go on
When their offices closed during the lockdowns of 2020, TPG were able to deliver devices to people in their homes, bringing the whole organisation benefits and value at a critical time. “Without their devices, our people can’t work,” says Mark. “It’s as simple as that. In the original scope for the modern management project there were three things we wanted to achieve – for our team to be able to set up a device from anywhere, for employees to access their data from everywhere and to improve the tech support experience. It just so happens that all three of these capabilities are vital to have in a pandemic.
The Transformation
A magic wand for ‘onboarding’
With the sudden switch to remote working, TPG were closing offices and working to onboard over 1000 employees to the new reality of remote working. Using Microsoft Endpoint Manager and InTune allowed their existing tech team to pick, pack and ship identical laptop devices with a standard off-the-shelf operating environment at a breakneck pace. And the whole process was designed to minimise disruption to their operation, with each employee able to switch to the same profile on their new device in a matter of minutes.
“In the old days we would have been booking people in to visit our tech team in person and stand by while we moved their data across and configured their device,” says Mark. “Not only would this have taken months longer compared with a modern management approach, it was logistically impossible to perform with the new COVID restrictions in force.”
More time for communication and support
Mark’s conservative estimate of 15 minutes to build and image each device adds up to more than 250 hours of work saved. Not only did this enable TPG to have their remote employees on the tools faster, it also freed up resources needed to support the workforce to make the best of Teams for communication and collaboration.
“Because we didn’t have many people dedicated to doing builds, we could divert people to post-migration support roles,” says Mark. “We were able to run the migration with a lean project team and focus on communications rather than the device building and logistics. It also gave us the capacity to handle customisations for edge cases within the Microsoft 365 OS. With InTune we could implement these exceptions on demand and deliver a far more responsive support service to our customers. And of course, we were able to enhance security using conditional access within 365 without impacting the customer experience.”
The Payoff
From reactive to pro-active
TPG Telecom’s objectives of being able to set up a device from anywhere and for employees to access their data from everywhere were definitely stress tested in 2020/21, thanks to the pandemic. Their third objective of delivering a better customer experience from tech support is also going from strength to strength. And at a time when many are having to add to their tech team head count to keep up with the pace of digital transformation, TPG can make the most of their in-house talent to provide a far more valuable service to their workforce.
”With Modern Management and InTune, we no longer have people building computers and managing updates,” says Mark. “They’re spending minimal time fixing stuff and can help our workforce level up their skills by sharing tips and tricks. That’s way more rewarding for them as a team compared with troubleshooting. They’re also setting up communities of practice so people can help each other when they discover a way to optimise their use. It means our digital capabilities are growing fast without our people having to take chunks of time away from their day-to-day work to upskill. And they can just focus on their work without having to deal with tech headaches.”
“We’ve been able to do all this without having to increase our head count, which is a big cost saving,” he adds. “Leaning on Eighty20 has been vital in bringing our tech team on this journey, giving them the tools, skills and confidence to transition to this new value proposition we offer to internal customers.”
