OverviewCountry or Region: UK/GlobalIndustry: Telecommunications

Customer ProfileCable&Wireless Worldwide provides fixed line and mobile telecommunications services to customers in more than 150 countries. Based in London, England, it has approximately 6,500 employees.

Business SituationThe company wanted to standardize its desktop environment and it needed assistance in developing a holistic plan for technology deployment and measuring return on investment.

SolutionCable&Wireless Worldwide used the Microsoft Services Enterprise Strategy Program to define solution requirements, align business and IT stakeholders, and create a detailed deployment roadmap.

Benefits Accelerated deployment life cycle Saved 500 work hours in four months Reached year-one cost savings goal in

four months Developed best practices for future IT

“Our Enterprise Architect helped us connect the technology to the way our people work, and to the business strategy behind the deployment, which has been the key to the success of this project.”

Nick Gill, Program Manager, Cable&Wireless Worldwide

Cable&Wireless Worldwide had a vision to create a more agile and dynamic workforce through a solution that included integrated desktop, collaboration, and unified communications tools. But executives realized that this initiative would involve significant cultural change. To help create an environment for change, as well as deployment plans and success metrics, the company engaged the Microsoft Services Enterprise Strategy Program. This service, together with the support of the wider Microsoft account team, helped Cable&Wireless Worldwide structure the deployment around the central business goal of rapid, widespread user adoption. Now, it has delivered enhanced software tools to more than 5,500 staff members ahead of schedule. As a result of increased productivity, the company has saved 500 work hours and approximately £114,000 (US$178,000) in the first four months of the project.

Developed best practices for future

Communications Firm Uses Strategic Alliance to Speed Deployment, Gain Value Faster

Microsoft ServicesEnterprise Strategy

SituationCable&Wireless Worldwide provides voice, Internet, data, and network hosting services to customers in the business-to-business market. The company’s 6,500 employees are spread across offices globally including the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia.

A history of growth through acquisition resulted in the lack of a unified IT infrastructure at Cable&Wireless Worldwide. Different offices and divisions of the company relied on separate sets of productivity, communication, and line-of-business tools, which made it extremely difficult to share information in a timely way. This challenge was compounded by the company’s highly distributed workforce, which operates across more than a dozen countries.

For most members of the company, email was the tool of choice for collaboration, but this had its limitations. For example, rather than editing a centrally stored version of a spreadsheet, employees sent the document back and forth in email, which inevitably caused delays and introduced opportunities for error. Further, employees had no reliable way of identifying subject matter experts throughout the organization, or determining when a colleague was logged on to the corporate network and available to answer a question.

Without a standardized set of tools, some employees used open-source software to gain real-time collaboration capabilities. However, this made it difficult to establish a uniform desktop experience for employees throughout the company, which executives believed was essential to improving productivity.

Company leaders also wanted to trim travel costs. They saw videoconferencing as a viable way to reduce the need for in-person meetings and sought to enhance the company’s existing communications infrastructure.

The IT team at Cable&Wireless Worldwide had previously attempted to unify the company’s desktop computing environment through an internal initiative called Single Desktop. In fact, the team was successful in standardizing network configurations for groups of employees based on their job role, which led to a reduction in help-desk requests. And both IT and business leaders expressed interest in eventually upgrading software tools. “But we had traditionally made the case for new software from a technology perspective, focusing on IT management improvements,” says Nick Gill, Program Manager at Cable&Wireless Worldwide. “We understood the potential business benefits, but we hadn’t done an adequate job in showing the direct link between enhanced software capabilities and improvements in productivity, teamwork, and ultimately in cost savings.”

Executives were wary of undertaking a companywide deployment of new technologies without a clear demonstration of measurable business value from the investment. Uncertainty about how quickly these tools would be accepted by employees added to their concerns. In recent years, IT-led rollouts resulted in complications and delays. In some cases, employees expressed that they did not feel adequately prepared for the transition to a new way of working.

Key stakeholders at Cable&Wireless Worldwide articulated a vision for a more dynamic and agile workforce. “We wanted to free up people to work in a way that they hadn’t been able to before,” says Kay Winsper, Director of Internal Communications and Engagement at Cable&Wireless Worldwide. “By effectively delivering enhanced software tools, we sought to initiate a step change in the way colleagues communicate and collaborate with each other, with our suppliers, and with our customers.”

26

“Microsoft was instrumental in helping us implement our vision for transitioning to a new way of working—one that will help employees be more productive.”

Kay Winsper, Director of Internal Communications and Engagement,

Cable&Wireless Worldwide

To successfully implement this vision, they knew that they needed to take a different, more holistic approach to change management—one that focused on shared responsibility among corporate leaders, IT staff, and employees in each of the company’s business units.

SolutionIn late 2010, Cable&Wireless Worldwide began evaluating solutions from a number of prominent providers. Executives also considered adopting open-source technologies.

Based on market research and discussions with Microsoft account team representatives and product experts, executives decided that an integrated productivity and collaboration solution based on Microsoft technologies offered significantly more value than alternative solutions. The solution that Cable&Wireless Worldwide chose to implement consists of Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, and Microsoft Lync Server 2010. “While other providers focused on the features of the technology they were offering, it was clear that Microsoft wanted to help us use its integrated software platform to transform our business,” says Gill.

In April 2011, to assist with the development of a business value assessment and deployment roadmap for its incumbent Microsoft solution, Cable&Wireless Worldwide engaged the Microsoft Services Enterprise Strategy Program. Through this program, the company gained access to an Enterprise Architect, an on-site strategist who oversees all planning and deployment activities to ensure that IT projects align with business priorities during every phase of the engagement. “The opportunity to team with an Enterprise Architect who knows the technology inside and out and who has worked with large companies on these kinds of projects gave us tremendous peace of mind,” says Gill.

IT Operations and Architecture AssessmentThe Enterprise Architect from Microsoft, Hugh Steele, coordinated with a team from Microsoft Services Premier Support to provide Cable&Wireless Worldwide with a series of diagnostic assessments of its messaging and collaboration infrastructure. The Premier Support team performed a Risk Assessment Program to identify potential configuration and security issues before the company implemented Microsoft Exchange Server and SharePoint Server. As part of an overall operations management review, the team also created a service map for each of these technologies to help Cable&Wireless Worldwide more clearly document system interdependencies and define ownership for managing each service.

Development of the ‘Working Smarter’ ProgramCable&Wireless Worldwide created two decision-making groups. The first was a Program Steering Board, which was setup to provide input on strategic issues with a specific commitment to supporting the executive sponsor in ensuring the successful delivery of the project.

The second was a Business Change team, which was composed of people from across the company. The Business Change team acted as a conduit for disseminating information to employees and passing their feedback to executives. Steele led information sessions for the Business Change team to help members learn about the various features of the technologies. Members also incorporated his input into developing a communication plan to show employees how these tools could help them improve job performance.

The Program Steering Board came up with the tagline “Working Smarter” to emphasize the overarching vision for the project. “We were embarking on much more than just a technology initiative,” says Winsper. “Microsoft was instrumental in helping us implement

36

our vision for transitioning to a new way of working—one that will help employees be more productive.”

Strategy and Planning—Understanding How People WorkCable&Wireless Worldwide worked with Steele to identify 40 employees from across the organization—in roles ranging from executives to information and process workers—who could serve as a representative sample of the larger company. Over the course of three weeks, Steele interviewed these employees to collect data about what tasks they needed to perform each day, who they interacted with most often, and how they typically collaborated with colleagues and clients.

From this initial assessment, the Business Change team collaborated with Steele to define scenarios for how employees could use solution components to work more efficiently. The company used these scenarios to establish projections for productivity improvements and related operating cost savings over the first 12 months of its investment.

Training Business Change ManagersBy better understanding the way its employees work, Cable&Wireless Worldwide was able to hone the training curriculum—an integral part of its plan for ensuring a smooth rollout. Executives then identified business change managers (BCMs) throughout the company to attend training sessions and share their knowledge with other employees. The Program Steering Board worked with Steele to develop an off-site workshop in November, 2011, which was attended by 80 employees, including senior executives. Throughout the day, BCMs had an opportunity to participate in hands-on demonstrations of some of the enhanced capabilities of Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, and Lync Server 2010. These workshops were designed to illustrate how the technology solution supported the business scenarios that Steele previously helped the company define. For example, BCMs saw how these solutions supported the delivery of the company’s new centralized documentation repository.

“Taking a business-led approach to training made all the difference in engaging our BCMs, who became the champions of the solution throughout the company,” says Winsper. “Because the demonstrations aligned with aspects of their day-to-day jobs, we could see BCMs getting excited about taking what they were learning back into the organization.” Following the off-site forum, BCMs were tasked with circulating training materials and delivering presentations for colleagues similar to the ones they attended. By choosing to involve BCMs from each of the company’s main functions, Cable&Wireless Worldwide enabled a small program team to promote adoption of the solution across the entire business.

Phased DeploymentCable&Wireless Worldwide then began the process of rolling out each component of the solution. In November 2011, the company initiated a pilot deployment of Microsoft Office 2010 to 150 employees. Project managers monitored help-desk activity and distributed surveys to gather user experience data. They used this information to calibrate procedures for a subsequent pilot deployment of the software in January 2012, to an additional 150 employees. After successfully completing the second test rollout, Cable&Wireless Worldwide began deploying Office 2010 to members of each business group. As of early June 2012 more than 4,500 of its employees were using the software.

During this same period, the company delivered Lync 2010 to approximately 5,500 staff in three weeks. Along with Lync 2010, it provided webcams and headsets to 1,500 of these employees to determine how the tools would help reduce the need for in-person meetings.

46

Beginning in May 2012, Cable&Wireless Worldwide started rolling out SharePoint Server 2010 to the company’s 13 BCMs, each of whom oversees a group of four advocates. This population of 52 employees tested the use of Team Sites in SharePoint Server 2010 to manage businesses processes, such as approval for capital expenditures. In June, the company rolled out the My Sites capability in the solution to all employees. In July, it will implement Project Sites in SharePoint Server 2010, and Cable&Wireless Worldwide is scheduled to complete the deployment of its corporate intranet site in September.

BenefitsBy working with the Microsoft Services Enterprise Strategy Program, in concert with the Microsoft account team, Cable&Wireless Worldwide is experiencing the following benefits:

Accelerated Deployment CycleCable&Wireless Worldwide asserts that, without assistance from Microsoft Services, the company would not have made such rapid progress in rolling out three new technologies. In fact, the company estimates that it saved several months of deployment time by working directly with Microsoft. “Our Enterprise Architect helped us connect the technology to the way our people work, and to the business strategy behind the deployment, which has been the key to the success of this project,” says Gill. “He was the glue that helped the business and IT teams work together, so we could turn our vision for a unified collaboration solution into a reality.”

Steele echoes the value of close collaboration with the Cable&Wireless Worldwide team in the rapid delivery of the project. “One of the most significant success factors has been the expert program and peer-to-peer relationship management efforts led by the team from Cable&Wireless Worldwide throughout this project,” says Steele. “This was essential in delivering accelerated return on investment.”

Saved 500 Work Hours Based on internal survey data that has been collected as of May 2012, Cable&Wireless Worldwide employees have saved approximately 500 hours of work by transitioning to productivity tools in Office 2010 and the instant messaging, voice and videoconferencing, and presence awareness capabilities offered through Lync Server 2010. Some of the efficiency gains are three and a half times greater than the productivity savings originally projected during the project planning phase. “The productivity lift we’ve seen has been outstanding,” says Winsper. “And it’s been amplified by the rapid adoption of the technologies.”

Reached Year-One Cost Savings Target in Four Months At the start of the project, the company estimated that it would save £721,750 (US$1.1 million) in operating expenses in the first 12 months. This figure was generated by multiplying assumed time savings per employee and the average cost per worker per hour. By the end of April 2012—just four months after Cable&Wireless Worldwide began rolling out the solution—it had reached this target, a full eight months ahead of schedule. On top of this savings, the company realized an estimated £70,000 (US$108,000) in the first three months of 2012 by reducing travel expenses through the use of Lync 2010.

Developed Best Practices for Future IT Initiatives By working with Microsoft Services to plan and successfully deliver a complex companywide software upgrade project, the IT team at Cable&Wireless Worldwide is better equipped to handle future change management initiatives. For example, the company plans to incorporate methods applied during this deployment project, such as the use of business change managers, to upcoming IT projects. “Technically, we could have

56

implemented the solution,” says Gill “But our people would never have embraced the technology as quickly as they’ve done without help from Microsoft. The guidance that our Enterprise Architect provided has been invaluable and will continue to shape our approach to IT delivery management going forward.”

For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Cable&Wireless Worldwide products and services, call (44) (0) 1908 845000, or visit the website at: www.cw.com

Microsoft ServicesMicrosoft Services is the strategy, consulting, and support organization of Microsoft. We are the architects, consultants, engineers, and support professionals, who with our partners, help customers make the most of their Microsoft technologies.

For more information about Microsoft Services, go to:www.microsoft.com/services

66

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published December 2012

Software and Services Microsoft Services− Microsoft Services Enterprise

Strategy Microsoft Office− Microsoft Office 2010

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft Lync Server 2010− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010