Steljes Round Table report

1. locations. The value of that session goes up A new global intranet based on Microsoft
greatly for all parties involved. We’re now able to SharePoint replaced hundreds of file servers
work a lot more effectively with global partners worldwide, resulting in capital and operational
than we could before, and I feel more confident expense savings. SharePoint was made available
in offering solutions to talk to people around the both internally and externally over the internet,
world,” said Martyn. with Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway
used to add additional protection, providing the
“I don’t think I have meetings with more than ability to assess a particular access request based
three people when one of them isn’t on the on the user, the device, geo-location, and the
phone,” he said. “The goal long term is to get content requested. Ismayeel said: “We’ve gone
this type of collaboration technology rolled dongle-less, so staff can use a non-corporate
out across the business. As you would expect, laptop, with SSL for secure data delivery, and
we use Microsoft Lync, which allows us to do two-factor authentication.”
video conferencing, audio conferencing, see
presence of people, share apps and data. The Over the intranet, lots of people can collaborate
SMART Boards make a good endpoint for those on editing the same document at the same
conversations and are soon to be fully integrated time, some of them using desktop PCs running
with Lync.” Microsoft Office, others using the web interface
and some using iPads. Microsoft Lync is used
Aviva for instant messaging, audio and video calling
and desktop sharing, which means there is a
Aviva is the world’s sixth largest insurance
standard communications infrastructure, and it’s
company providing customers with insurance,
possible to see whether somebody is present at
savings and investment products. It is the UK’s
any time, so that team members know whether
largest insurer and one of Europe’s leading
someone is available to talk.
providers of life and general insurance.
The company now also issues iPhones and
At our roundtable, Ismayeel Syed from Disruptive
iPads, at the discretion of the business unit
Vision and chief technical architect for global
and line manager, so they can truly work from
services at Aviva, told the story of Aviva’s
anywhere. Ismayeel explains: “We previously
journey towards enabling flexible working and
saw a shift from desktops to laptops. Now, with
collaboration as part of the Group CEO’s vision
thousands of iOS users, laptops stay Kensington-
of One Aviva. The goal being to unify a highly
locked at the office – few take them home.”
federated enterprise, with autonomous business
Clearly, the definition of what a mobile device
units, and disjointed communications and IT
is has changed as the iPad has seized the
infrastructure, while achieving demonstrable
public’s imagination.
productivity and agility improvements. “We felt
you couldn’t get productivity and agility without
With workers increasingly mobile, the company
mobility,” said Ismayeel.
is implementing hot desking, with lockers
provided for people to store their belongings
The project was guided by the principle that
when they go home. In some cases, an office
everyone should have access to communications
space reduction ratio of 1.5:1 has been
services, everywhere, and easily. “We couldn’t
achieved. “The challenge is: when people are
say we were building video conferencing for
not in the office, do they become a passive
the executives but not for the call centre,” said
consumer of the data being shared?” said
Ismayeel. “We built everything for everyone.
Ismayeel. “What happens if Visio is being used
Helping to maintain a healthy work/life balance
on the SMART Board in the meeting room, but
for its workforce is a priority for Aviva and we
I can’t interact with it because I don’t have an
wanted to make sure it continued or improved.”
interactive whiteboard at home?”
FLEXIBLE WORKING REPORT 9

2. Aviva uses Bridgit conferencing software from Conclusion
SMART to enable remote attendees equipped
From our roundtable, it seems flexible working is
with iPads to interact, through finger or stylus
neither a myth nor a reality in many companies
movements, with content being shared on the
today. With some notable exceptions (including
SMART Board in the meeting room. “Now you
Microsoft and Aviva), it’s a work in progress,
can walk into a meeting room you’ve scheduled
as companies try to work out the cultural and
in Outlook, use Active Directory to authenticate,
technology changes that will enable their
connect the SMART Board to your document
people to work effectively wherever they are,
library in SharePoint, write on the board and
and without compromising on collaboration.
have an audio-visual session in Microsoft Lync.
The technologies are available, though, and the
At the end of the meeting, the documents
discussions at our roundtables show there is a
can be saved to PDF and stored in SharePoint
lot of interest in this area. With the opportunity
automatically, or emailed to all attendees directly
to increase agility and resilience, attract and
from the board. There’s a short time to ramp up
retain the best talent, increase productivity and
a meeting and we can quickly close down the
collaboration, and cut costs, flexible working
room for the next meeting, all without losing
clearly has much to offer.
any materials or spending time writing up notes
at the end” explains Ismayeel.
Employees are asked to complete their
SharePoint intranet profiles with rich information
including skills, interests and languages spoken,
which can enable the company to quickly
create new collaborative project teams. This
approach has allowed Aviva to find employees
with the right software development skills
required to create several rapidly-prototyped,
mini-applications or “applets”. One such applet,
which provides an alternative way to display
flood risk, was built by a 15-strong development
team drawn from India, Poland, Hungary and
the UK who collaborated using the Sketchflow
prototyping software on SMART Boards. Built
within four working days, spread over two
weeks, the app combines data from various
sources and “mashes” it against Google Maps,
offering a visual representation of the financial
exposure caused by particular adverse weather
events in different UK locations. The app is a
powerful business tool prototype, but is also
an impressive demonstration of what can be
achieved using collaboration technologies and
distributed teams.
10 FLEXIBLE WORKING REPORT

3. FLEXIBLE WORKING REPORT 11