Having moved from using Skype to Microsoft Teams in early 2020 Valmet was keen to use the collaboration tool as their default for daily activities, chats, and team communication across the business. However, they soon discovered that the governance process for setting up new groups and SharePoint sites at scale was both time-consuming and costly. Then they heard about Valo Teamwork.
- Industry: Technology
- Country: Global, headquarters in Finland
- Company Size: 5,001 – 20,000 users
Starting Point:
Valmet is the leading global developer and supplier of technologies, automation, and services for the pulp, paper, and energy industries with over 14,000 employees from white collars to field workers. Globally distributed in over 100 locations in 30 countries they span to every time zone.
Early in 2020 Valmet moved from using Skype to Microsoft Teams. Although the organization were excited at the possibilities and options it would give them as their default collaboration tool, with over 14,000 employees across the business and globe, Teams governance was an issue.
Each time a Valmet employee wanted to set up a new Teams group or SharePoint site a ticket was generated to Valmet’s Microsoft Partner Valtti (ex. Blue Meteorite) who then set it up manually. After, they emailed Valmet’s team to let them know that the ticket had been fulfilled. This process took from a couple of hours to a couple of days, depending on which part of the globe the request came from.
Not only was the process time consuming, with several manual steps, but as the process was outsourced, each ticket also represented a fee to Valmet.
Solution:
Valmet’s Valo Partner, Valtti Kumppanit Oy, recommended Valo Teamwork for automated governance possibilities and its potential to save time and money.
Built on Microsoft Teams, or on top of SharePoint, Valo Teamwork automates many of the manual steps an IT department has traditionally needed to take to follow strict security and other governance rules. For end-user, it allows all Microsoft 365 collaboration tools to be viewed and accessed via a single dashboard.
With over 14,000 licensed Microsoft 365 users across the organization, the potential for large numbers of new group and site requests was significant for Valmet.
Benefits:
- Automated governance saves time and money
- Valo Teamwork dashboard displays all groups and sites in one place
- Automation means 24/7 service for global users
Smoother user experience regardless of time zone
As Valmet’s IT partner, Valtti Kumppanit Oy, is based in Finland colleagues in other time zones, wanting Teams groups or SharePoint sites, had to wait longer for their requests to be set up; as tickets were only handled only during Finnish office hours.
However, since introducing Valo Teamwork, which automates this process, Teams groups or SharePoint sites can be set up within minutes. This makes the user experience so much quicker and smoother.
Valo Teamwork doesn’t care which time zone you place your order from, you’ll get your Teams group within minutes. The automated solution makes the user experience much smoother and leaner.
Change from manual to automated governance leads to increased efficiency
Valmet’s change from having to manually request new Teams groups and SharePoint sites via their partner to the automated group and site creation has also led to increased efficiency.
Although it used to take approximately six minutes to process each ticket, multiplied by the 1,400 Teams group tickets generated by Valmet during 2020 (600 since the company adopted Valo Teamwork in the fall), this amounted to a considerable amount of time and money.
However, the one-off fee associated with Valo Teamwork means that Valmet staff can generate unlimited group and site requests without incurring extra costs. In addition, automated governance makes the process much faster as the groups and sites can be up and running within minutes.
After we implemented Valo Teamwork, there was a huge drop in extra manual labour. We can now focus on the actual work, and there is no longer a backlog of tickets.
Easy access to collaboration tools via Valo Teamwork’s dashboard
All Microsoft 365 collaboration tools can be viewed and accessed on a single dashboard within Valo Teamwork.
This means Valmet employees can now see all the Teams groups and SharePoint sites they have access to in one place. In addition, they are able to request new ones that will be generated automatically.
Valo Teamwork is fully customizable. Therefore Valmet deliberately specified a paired down version of the dashboard, focussing on the needs of end-users and use cases.
Valo Teamwork’s automated governance means requests can now be fulfilled 24/7, wherever employees are based.
Valmet has also been using Valo Intranet since 2017, and back then they shared their story from switching On-Premises to cloud.
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Does your organization love using Microsoft Teams but find that governance can slow things down? Why not bring a little Valo Teamwork love into your life?
Get in touch, book a demo and we’ll show you how automated governance can save you time and money.
