To continue to grow and increase productivity on a worldwide scale, global manufacturer Henkel AG wanted to empower its 47,000 employees in 75 countries to deliver information on any device, anywhere, at any time. A digital workplace based on this vision would increase productivity and innovation, enabling better data-driven decisions.

An obvious first step in achieving this vision was migrating from Microsoft Office 2003 and an aging Lotus Notes infrastructure to Microsoft Office 365.

Henkel addressed these issues by turning to Avanade, a global business technology solutions, cloud, and managed services provider. Avanade supported Henkel with every aspect of its migration to Office 365 ProPlus, from envisioning and confirming the business case through devising and implementing the migration plan, preparing employees to use the new software, and providing continuous technical support.

The Business Case—and the Team
The Avanade-supported business case demonstrated that the implementation costs for Office 365 would not exceed the costs of upgrading an on-premises solution. Henkel would also benefit from reduced operating costs, increased features and capabilities (e.g. cloud storage for anywhere/anytime data access), and optimal support.

Henkel used Avanade to migrate its 47,000 employees in 75 countries to Office 365 quickly and effectively, setting the company on its journey to a digital workplace that will deliver increased productivity, faster innovation, and better data-driven decision making.

Beats Anticipated Time to Migrate by Two Months - Henkel measures the success by the speed and accuracy. The project was delivered in 13 months, two months faster than previously anticipated.

Shifts Culture, Reinvents Productivity, with 50 Percent Lync Adoption - Henkel regards the strong and rapid user acceptance of Office 365 as another measure of the project’s success. Everyone expected employees to use Office 365 email, but within a few months, almost half of them were also using Lync Online.

Gains Cloud Platform to Support Their Digital Workplace - Henkel now has a modern, unified communications and collaboration cloud platform that sets it on a journey toward their digital workplace vision, delivering innovative and highly productive ways of working.