Roll-out of M365 simplifies Collaboration internally and with all Partners
Migros has more than 2 million cooperative members along with 10 regional cooperatives. And with more than 60 companies in the Migros Group, it is the largest private employer in Switzerland. The Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB) is the service provider of the Migros Group. It coordinates the activities of the Group and sets out its strategy. It is also responsible for covering the needs of the affiliated cooperatives using a system of combined purchasing and production, and by establishing, acquiring and taking a participatory interest in business enterprises of all kinds.
Initial situation
A few years ago, the Migros-Genossenschaftsbund launched the «New Working World» project, which comprised three areas of action:
- HR (promotion of flexible work models, a culture of trust and personal responsibility)
- Facility management (creation of shared workplaces, new work zones as well as meeting and rest areas)
- IT (infrastructure)
For its IT environment, the MGB wanted to give its employees as much flexibility, mobility and efficiency as possible in their work.
It was very important for the company to be able to deploy an IT solution that would ensure continuity. Migros tool landscape was shaped largely by Microsoft even prior to the project, as evidenced, for example, by the use of Microsoft Skype. The MGB’s new focus was to find a stable, updated collaborative solution. The decision was ultimately made to switch to Microsoft 365 with Teams in order to make use of state-of-the-art, cloud-based solutions.
isolutions had the chance to assist the MGB with the roll-out of Microsoft 365 and the creation and implementation of its Microsoft 365 collaboration governance. isolutions also helped to build a community within Migros featuring approximately 500 Microsoft 365 champions and to train them.
Solution
After settling on an Microsoft 365 environment, a collaboration governance model, accompanying training documents and a training portal for pilot stage employee groups were all prepared during the initial phase. The pilot stage saw the organization of training for 10 groups comprising around 150 employees, all of whom received close support and intensive training over the course of eight months. This was important above all to determine the structure of the training and communication concept for the final roll-out. During this process, it was essential to build up an Microsoft 365 champions community, so that they would lead the way when implementing the new collaborative working model within the organization. The experience of isolutions in building, developing and overseeing communities of this kind was instrumental in quickly gaining a high level of acceptance for the undertaking. Following a successful pilot phase, isolutions continued to support the MGB in its communication and training process in the form of workshops, with an aim to ensure maximum user adoption.
Benefits
- The cloud solutions make collaboration with other Migros companies and external partners easier – including on an international level.
- Employees benefit from being able to take a mobile, flexible approach to work.
- Increased employee satisfaction.
- Scalability within the Migros Group (industries and cooperatives).
- A standardized collaborative solution led to an increase in efficiency in collaboration.