Manchester Airports Group (MAG) is the UK's largest group of airports, operating at Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands Airports. Collectively, the Group's catchment area covers 70% of the UK population and operates some of the UK's busiest airports.
“An airport doesn’t run by people sitting behind the same desk all day,” says Nick Woods, Chief Information Officer at MAG. “It is a constant flow of people and information.”
“Our partnership with Microsoft is making our transformation goals a reality – making us a truly state-of-the-art group of airports.”
Nick Woods, Chief Information Officer, Manchester Airports Group
MAG had already made strides in its digitalisation agenda, with a fantastic uptake of Microsoft Teams enabling greater collaboration across the Group. However, the legacy environment remained outdated and the Group wanted to offer greater flexibility and mobility to its employees.
The team wanted to replace laptops and desktops that did not offer the flexibility MAG needed for their office workers or the mobility needed, for their frontline workers. By choosing different options from the Microsoft Surface family of devices, including Microsoft Surface Pro, Microsoft Surface Go and Microsoft Surface Hub, they were able to unlock new levels of productivity across their organisation.
“We saw the rollout of Microsoft Surface Pro as an opportunity to further enhance the user experience,” explains Risk Alkunshalie, Head of Group Technology at MAG. “What’s great is the tight integration between Microsoft Surface devices and the rest of the suite of Microsoft products – like Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, Power Platform and SharePoint; the tools we use every day. It makes the whole user experience incredibly streamlined.”
It isn’t just the users who have benefitted. Being able to fulfil all user requirements from the same family of devices; and by utilising cloud powered devices management tools, such as Microsoft Intune, the MAG Technology team have been empowered to make device management easier and less time-consuming.
Employees across MAG have been enthusiastic about the new devices. Leigh Brennand, Safety and Compliance Manager at MAG says, “User feedback has been fantastic. The Technology team have supported colleagues with training on the fantastic tools that go along with the new Surface devices: the Surface Pen, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Whiteboard and One Note.”
Risk Alkunshalie says the deployment has been a big plus for everyone: “We take our Microsoft Surfaces wherever we go so we are truly mobile, with one primary device.”
The use of Microsoft Teams Phone has also served to simplify the environment and bring greater mobility. Risk Alkunshalie continues to explain, “We use Teams Voice so colleagues can make calls from their device. This has enabled us to eliminate more unnecessary hardware from people’s desks.”
Now the Microsoft Surface devices are also helping to inspire the next generation of airport employees through their use during MAG’s Technology days with local school children. Joanna Jackson, Education Coordinator at MAG, reports that the Surface Go devices enhance engagement and make for an exciting experience.
Manchester Airports Group is now better positioned for the future. Using agile, power-efficient and secure devices, that are tightly integrated with the software tools the business uses every day, has brought many benefits. Not least, adds MAG’s CIO, Nick Woods, in terms of security: “The best-in-class security posture of Microsoft Azure means that we can protect our users, our data and our environment,” he states, “Plus, we can use tools like Microsoft Intune for monitoring end-user devices and Microsoft Sentinel for monitoring network activity.”
Close collaboration with Microsoft and the additional peace of mind that comes from Microsoft Unified Support has underwritten the team’s success. Nick Woods concludes: “All in all, our partnership with Microsoft is making our transformation goals a reality – helping to bring greater flexibility and agility to our operations and making us a truly state-of-the-art group of airports.”
“We take our Microsoft Surfaces wherever we go, so we are truly mobile with one primary device... It makes the whole user experience incredibly streamlined.”
Risk Alkunshalie, Head of Group Technology, Manchester Airports Group
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