Global pharmaceutical company modernizes workforce with Office 365 and Avanade

Published on July 11, 2018

Summary

Pharmaceutical companies are looking to heal legacy communication pains and heavy operational headaches. Thankfully, the treatment — a modern workforce supported by the cloud — is a powerful and effective remedy, once prescribed. A leading pharmaceutical company developing, manufacturing and marketing pharmaceuticals in more than 100 countries was in a similar situation, using outdated content management systems that no longer supported their needs. Avanade was entrusted with the task of modernizing the customer’s content management systems for long term utilization and productivity.

Challenge

With 5,000 employees across the globe, anytime, anywhere mobility is key. The company was seeking to create an optimized, market competitive communications platform to improve collaboration among its global business partners and sales teams. Specifically, it wanted to reduce operational costs, while leveraging a platform to deliver worker flexibility and “anytime, anywhere” mobility.

Strategy

The pharmaceutical maker selected Avanade as their partner due to existing relationship and experience in the industry. After working to define its needs and design a solution adhering to best practices and industry standards, Avanade had all they needed to build the best solution for the customer.

Avanade focused on the following three principles and products that would enable a more modernized and mobile workforce for the customer:

  • Modern cloud collaboration: Microsoft Office 365 for SharePoint Online, OneDrive cloud storage, Outlook Online, Skype for Business, and Teams, plus more than 10 interactive Surface Hubs.
  • Cutting-edge security and management: Migration to robust Microsoft Windows 10 and implementing Microsoft Intune management for mobile devices and System Center Configuration Manager.
  • Operational efficiency and stability: Microsoft Azure-hosted infrastructures across Europe, Asia and the U.S., plus shared storage on OneDrive. Change management was a built-in focus during every step of the delivery process, ensuring strong adoption and the fastest return on value possible.

Results

Today, this pharmaceutical company enjoys a healthy, modernized workforce. The cloud communication tools are making it easier and faster to collaborate with business partners, both internally and externally. Proper training ensured executives and end-workers adopted to their new tools, early and with ease.

Meanwhile, mobility management and system upgrades are ensuring a secure and reliable bedrock for “anytime, anywhere” access for internal and external partners. And IT has aligned its costs to industry benchmarks while simplifying ongoing management. The company’s “all in approach” to Microsoft Office 365 and Azure ensures it will continue to grow fluidly as the business does, giving workers the tools needed to thrive and adapt in a modern digital world.

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