Migrating 8500 users to Teams: SoftwareOne’s continued partnership with South32

For businesses across the globe, staying connected is more important than ever. Finding a way to bridge the gap between an increasingly hybrid workforce, far-flung remote sites and cumbersome legacy systems is definitely a balancing act.

SoftwareOne understands that for a functional communications platform to be effective, it needs to be streamlined, centralised and easy to use, regardless of where we are.

By working alongside our customers to design and implement Microsoft Teams Voice as their choice of telephony, we can combine various features like chat, calling, virtual meetings, document collaboration, and integrations with other tools.

This all-in-one solution allows customers to effectively communicate and collaborate with their staff, as well as external stakeholders such as clients, partners, and subcontractors.

In this example, we look at the progress of SoftwareOne’s work with helping South32 bring together 8500 people using Microsoft Teams Voice.

Consolidating South32’s communications with Microsoft Teams

Headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, South32 is a global mining and metals company producing much needed commodities that are used in many aspects of modern life.

With mining sites across 6 countries and 3 global regions, South32 were keen to consolidate their expansive communications network and migrate from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams Calling. This change would enable them to standardise and simplify their calling system across multiple sites, strengthening the connection between their 8500 users

This adoption of Teams is part of a wider transition to Microsoft products and services, with contracts between South32 and SoftwareOne totalling $3m in 2022, and a further $2m over 2023/2024. The TCV for this project alone came in at $1.8m.

Finding a global solution

After being awarded the tender for the migration project in July 2022, SoftwareOne began its discovery phase for this complex project in late 2022.

With constantly evolving and expanding operations, South32’s voice and communications systems included many legacy systems in areas with poor infrastructure and connectivity. To ensure reliable connectivity between extremely remote sites and metropolitan headquarters, Microsoft Teams would remove the need for high-latency on-premises systems and replace them with cloud based comms.

Working alongside Audio Codes and Microsoft to implement these changes on a global scale, SoftwareOne began the Teams deployment at South32’s Perth headquarters, then moving on to remote mining sites and other regional headquarters.

Although this specific Microsoft Teams solution was developed for South32’s existing mining sites, it was designed to easily scale and be deployed at any future sites.

Microsoft Teams - a centralised platform that works anywhere, anytime

Designing a stable and effective communications network across remote sites across the globe is vital for any commodities business – it’s also extremely complex.

It requires integration of legacy and modern systems, global scale user buy-in, adaptability for travelling personnel, and a standardised format that allows anybody to use it anywhere, anytime with ease.

To do this, SoftwareOne partnered with Audio Codes and Microsoft to establish a fully cloud based system via Microsoft Teams. This gave South32 access to a centralised online platform for communications, as well as advanced, high-definition voice technology for all users, no matter where they are in the world.

A uniform communications platform that streamlines mining operations

Thanks to the partnership between SoftwareOne, Microsoft and Audio Codes, South32 can now enjoy the following benefits from their newly established Microsoft Teams network:

• No need for local Skype infrastructure, making communication more streamlined, centralised.
• Standardised platform offers a uniform communication system across multiple locations, allowing for easier collaboration.
• Staff can work from home and maintain strong connections with colleagues across different offices, sites and regions.
• A phone system that can be used anywhere at any time, ensuring staff can communicate with each other no matter their location.
• Greater agility and connectivity for users who are frequently moving between mining sites and offices.
• No more need for constant on-boarding when staff members move from site to site, as they can use the standardised system in Microsoft Teams.
Enhances and levels the user experience for all staff, regardless of their location, providing a consistent and consolidated platform to all who use it.

A partnership that continues to grow

After successfully implementing Microsoft Teams across South32’s global network of mining sites and offices, SoftwareOne has begun to look to the future. This includes future proofing existing operations in countries with poor internet access and legacy infrastructure.

SoftwareOne is currently supporting South32 as they attempt to create a fully unified global business and move more and more vital resources to Azure.

As projects such as this grow, so will the ongoing partnership between the two companies. This strengthening of the relationship between South32 and SoftwareOne has already paved the way for continued work as the modernisation of their systems continues.