Unisys adopts Microsoft Teams to streamline calling and collaboration, saving $1 million

Hamshaw and his consultants partnered with Unisys Corporate Security and Infrastructure Office (CSIO) to drive a transformation strategy, which incorporated best practices from the unified communications as a service (UCaaS) consulting services they regularly provide to clients. The joint team initiated the project with an assessment of both UCaaS platforms to outline existing capabilities, align desired outcomes, and identify potential cost savings. Because Unisys already used Microsoft 365 for email, document storage, and a variety of other processes, choosing to consolidate on Microsoft Teams as a comprehensive collaboration and communication platform was a clear way to eliminate the redundancy of different technologies across the organization, reduce costs, and better enable employee productivity.

The rollout of Teams across the company was completed on time and went very smoothly, according to Hamshaw. He notes that Unisys successfully moved 17,000 employees to Teams in only six months. Today, 98 percent of company employees use Teams as their sole collaboration and communication platform. “The move to Teams represents a significant change in how our people work,” says Hamshaw. “Impromptu collaboration is easier, associates are saving time by not having to switch between applications, and we’re saving on costs by consolidating two platforms to one.”

In addition, Hamshaw notes that a consolidated platform keeps business moving forward. “Having Teams Phone as part of Microsoft Teams just means that we have everything all in one place, the chats, the collaboration, and the voice as well.  Sometimes there’s situations where the voice element might be integral to part of an engagement that we’re in, so having voice as part of that solution just makes it easier for people to get in touch with our clients and our colleagues alike."

Saving $1 million and boosting productivity by consolidating on Teams

Srini Chaganti, Vice President of Corporate Security and Infrastructure Office at Unisys, was part of a cross-departmental group chosen to evaluate Teams as a potential replacement for Zoom. “It was a natural choice with our existing investment in the Microsoft 365 suite, offering seamless integration and support opportunities using a single pane of glass approach.” 

“We looked at the capabilities of Zoom and Teams side by side and didn’t feel we were losing anything,” continues Chaganti. “In addition, by eliminating duplicate capabilities and moving exclusively to Teams, we were able to save roughly $1 million a year.” 

Beyond simply improving cost efficiency, the move to Microsoft Teams was aligned with the company’s strategic vision. “At Unisys, we want to ensure that the technology we select provides a cost-effective platform to let us grow the business and enables the agility we need to address future challenges,” explains Vasu Iyer, Planning, Engagement, and Transformation Lead for the Solution Innovation organization at Unisys. “We chose Teams because collaboration is critical to how we accomplish our vision.” In analyzing employee productivity, Iyer noted that there were some fundamental challenges to point solutions like Zoom. For instance, when employees sought to use Zoom for video and voice calls, the tool didn’t sync with employees’ Outlook calendars to provide accurate presence capabilities. This made spontaneously launching collaboration sessions difficult and even led to employee frustration “We had a situation where someone’s presence could be available in Zoom, but they were, in fact, busy,” says Iyer. “Two different platforms made it hard to tell who was available and who wasn’t.” 

In addition to improving collaboration and communication for employees, Microsoft Teams also delivered new functionalities that Unisys employees found improved their ability to stay productive. “We knew that Teams offered a great chat, meeting, and voice experience,” says Hamshaw. “But we’re also excited to take advantage of additional functionalities like Microsoft Whiteboard and Microsoft Power Platform to help us further simplify how we collaborate.”

A successful implementation starts with collaboration

As part of its strategy to ensure a successful rollout, the Unisys deployment team zeroed in on four focus areas of organizational change management: gamification, tech trailblazers, executive support, and a dedicated training portal. “We made a conscious decision early on to have one dedicated place for people to access everything,” says Hamshaw of the training portal. “We created a SharePoint site and pinned it in Teams, complete with bespoke training materials. When you opened Teams, it was there in the sidebar. It all was very clear and easy to access.” 

One critical element to helping encourage employee adoption was the use of Microsoft technology Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) to foster peer-to-peer dialogue, support, and knowledge sharing. Known as “tech trailblazers,” an internal audience of early technology adopters used the Microsoft Platform as a peer discussion environment that served as a more informal alternative to the dedicated training portal. Hamshaw says, “Viva Engage played a big role in our Teams deployment. Some people prefer to ask their peers for IT support, and the platform provided an instant community for them to do that.” Hamshaw also emphasizes the importance of executive engagement, noting that Unisys executives found it easy to engage with Teams. They helped drive company-wide adoption of Teams by switching over early to the new platform, encouraging the rest of the organization to follow suit. And, to reinforce knowledge about the new platform, the team organized fun and engaging quizzes in the training portal. The multipronged approach helped make the Teams rollout successful with key audiences throughout the company.

More spontaneous meetings and effective external collaboration in Teams

When implementing new technology to propel the company’s future, Iyer cites the importance of ensuring that external partners and customers are closely considered as part of the experience. Iyer notes that when it came to Microsoft Teams, the majority of partners and customers were already aware of Teams and some were experienced users, making it easy to jump into collaborative meetings on the fly. “I’m working with an external partner now who also uses Teams, which makes it a lot easier to collaborate and share documents in a highly secure manner,” he says.

Another key consideration for Unisys executives in adopting Teams was the ability to conduct live events for senior leadership meetings. “The ability to easily and confidently conduct those meetings is important. That’s a new capability compared to our previous solution,” says Movesian. Part of the enhanced value that Teams brought to Unisys is a host of Teams-specific features, including Whiteboard, Microsoft Power Platform, and various add-ins. “Teams added functionality that we’re only starting to take advantage of as an organization.” 

One of the most gratifying aspects of the Teams implementation, according to Hamshaw, was the warm reception that the technology has received from the employees who use it every day. In addition to a successful rollout, employee sentiment regarding Teams has been overwhelmingly positive.

Jennifer Bazela, Vice President of CSIO Business Transformation and Strategic Programs at Unisys, notes that employee feedback remains a key part of the Unisys culture. On that score, Teams has received considerable appreciation. “We focused this project on a 360-degree experience,” says Bazela. “We made sure people understood that Teams is way more than a conference and meeting tool, and a lot of feedback on our annual associate satisfaction survey showed appreciation for it and for our new, more consolidated way of working. Ultimately, when our employees are happier and can more easily get their work done, it translates to a better experience for our clients, as well.”

Find out more about Unisys on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.