University College London

How a modern platform enabled ongoing flexibility and adaptability to reduce disruption

A pilot project was carried out to test Teams at UCL across 2,500 users to ensure it met the university’s needs and integrated well with existing technology. To establish the requirements of the project and understand the governance involved, a series of workshops were also held by us. Topics covered included voice, devices, video, organizational change management and secure remote working. With most staff at UCL accustomed to using a handset, the shift to making calls on a laptop or tablet was a significant change.

We worked side by side with the UCL change team to ensure staff were well equipped to embrace the new technology and harness its full potential and also worked with their accessibility lead to ensure Teams met the requirements of all users. We used user experience feedback to inform the governance policies that were implemented in order to protect users and give them the most manageable Teams experience. The university didn’t want to restrict the usage and capabilities of Teams but were also keen to ensure it worked for people of different needs, which is why it was imperative we achieved the balance.

We created a SharePoint site to help users better understand the system and its features and made learning available for people to read or watch at a convenient time. Videos were uploaded into Stream channels with the transcript feature enabled to ensure as many people as possible could access the material. Our Adoption and Change Management team also held training sessions in lecture theatres, which were always full.

The UCL team understood the potential of the tool and they were keen to learn more about the possibilities. Users and the project team alike were equally invested in getting the most out of the investment.

Following the successful pilot, the voice component of Teams was integrated with UCL’s existing platform and rolled out to 11,000 staff. Shortly after the initial deployment, the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Fortunately, UCL’s partnership with NTT and the implementation of Teams enabled them to respond quickly to the subsequent lockdown.

As students and employees were confined to their homes, UCL were able to scale up the number of Teams users to 37,000 in a week, reducing disruption and quickly enabling remote work at scale.

The pandemic also required the roll out of their clearing call center to be accelerated, and we provided a test platform for them to assess the solution before building their own instance. The call center is now live, with 100 call center agents ensuring swift responses to prospective students during the busy three-month clearing period between July and September.