Northwestel is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bell Canada Enterprises. As a telecom provider, it serves 121,000 people living and working in 96 communities spread out over an operating area that covers about one third of Canada's land mass.

# Northwestel

## With a modern workplace assessment and recommendations by Invero, Northwestel implemented a whole new way to work and collaborate with Microsoft Office 365.

### Regions of Operation:  Nunavut, the Northwest Teritories, Yukon, northern British Columbia and Alberta

### Number of Employees:  550

### Offices:  Iqaluit, NU, Yellowknife, NT and Whitehorse, YT

#### THE CHALLENGE

## Equipping Northwestel’s Workforce for the New Normal

Most distinctly, Northwestel needed a digital solution that would allow them to:

- Firstly, utilize the full value of their investment in Microsoft Office 365
- Secondly, get Microsoft Teams for the entire company in about 2 weeks to keep the business running during COVID-19
- Thirdly, support the voice, video, chat and collaboration terms of their staff with standard tools and processes
- Then, enable their 550 employees in scattered regions to work remotely
- Finally, lessen technological and behavioural impacts, as the company was heavily using Skype for Business

#### THE SOLUTION

## Creating a Microsoft 365 Modern Workplace Roadmap

##### Our Approach

- First and foremost, factor in the people and the technology in the organizational change management strategy.
- Next, implement the plan to get employees operating efficiently in Teams, SharePoint Online and OneDrive.
- After that, put in place best security practices and sound governance along the way.
- Lastly, revamp internal communication methods leveraging modern tools such as SharePoint, Teams and Yammer.

##### Technology Used

- Microsoft Office 365
- SharePoint Online
- Teams
- OneDrive
- Yammer

#### THE RESULTS

## Modern Business Operations for Enhanced Productivity

### Significantly improved ROI on Microsoft

Now, Northwestel **maximizes the value of the investments** they make in their Office 365 licensing. Thus, they improved operating abilities while continuing to provide vital services to remote areas during hard times.

### Improved collaboration and communication

Thus, employees **broke down information silos** between departments thanks to shared repositories and group chats. Additionally, user feedback was positive on the quality of Teams and the change management approach.

##### Ken Todd

###### Director of IT, Northwestel

Northwestel values our partnership with Invero, and the experience and expertise they are bringing to our deployment of Office 365.

## Delivering Digital Optimization Services and Practical Solutions

To fulfill this digital initiative, Northwestel mandated Invero to:

- First, conduct a modern workplace assessment with a strategy and tips for implementation
- Second, execute Office 365 security and governance best practices
- Then, set a SharePoint and Teams governance plan
- After that, develop an internal communications plan and platform to allow people to share information on internal channels from a centralized location
- Lastly, build a proof of concept environment to verify the approach with a subset of users