Employee Experience 2.0 - Leading Innovation BOBST Life Program for 5'000 Employees

Initial Situation and Solution Benefit Customer Statements CEO Talk

Headquartered in Mex, Switzerland, BOBST operates various sites around the world. The company prioritizes the use of a simple, high-performance collaboration platform and the option for employees to work together independent of location. This led BOBST to transition to the cloud and Microsoft 365 (in particular Microsoft Teams), which is used as a central integrated collaboration platform.

BOBST is a leading global supplier of systems and services for substrate processing, printing and treatments for labels, flexible materials, folding boxes and corrugated cardboard. Founded in 1890 by Joseph Bobst in Lausanne, the company is now active across more than 50 countries. BOBST has 19 production sites in 11 countries and employs over 5'600 employees worldwide.

Initial Situation

Up to that point, internal collaboration had been laborious, as documents were mainly stored in a nested folder structure on an on-premises file server. This made it impossible for teams to work on documents at the same time, meaning tasks took much longer than necessary. Collaboration with external partners was primarily handled via Citrix. The user experience was unsatisfactory due to the complicated authentication process along with performance and stability issues. To overcome these particular challenges and improve internal communication across the various locations, the company decided to switch to Microsoft Teams. In addition to modern file storage, the move from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams also played a key role in this new type of collaboration.

Solution

To increase productivity and make internal and external collaboration more flexible, the company decided to move to the cloud. Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams in particular will serve as a centralized, integrated collaboration platform. This allows employees to access the resources they need at any time, from anywhere and from any device, and to attend meetings virtually.

The company’s network was not designed to work with cloud applications, so the network had to be upgraded before M365 could be rolled out across the entire organization. In addition to the technical additions and upgrades, isolutions supported BOBST with the creation of its collaboration governance. The company employs a large number of employees who need to work with the new tools. A solid change management concept was therefore of great importance. A communication and training concept was developed and pilot groups were defined as part of various workshops. These groups tested the tools in advance and adjustments were made in a feedback loop. This ensured the highest possible level of user adoption.

employees

M365 for 31 branch offices in more than 20 countries

increase in efficiency and transparency

Benefit

As part of the Microsoft 365 implementation, more than 5'000 employees around the world were trained in the new working methods and nine new tools.
Microsoft 365 was successfully rolled out in 31 offices in more than 20 countries.
Simplified collaboration and communication via Microsoft 365 led to a significant increase in productivity.
Working with Microsoft Teams has increased knowledge sharing and transparency.
Holding virtual meetings in Teams also eliminates the majority of business trips, thereby saving on travel costs.
The new technology makes it possible to work from anywhere and from any device.

Stéphane Mader

Head of Group Marketing & Communication | BOBST Group AG

«At BOBST, we have set out to shape the future of the packaging world by actively driving the industry transformation. To do so, we are committed to fully digitalizing and transforming our company. Our partner isolutions is supporting us on this journey by creating an attractive digital workplace and empowering our employees to embrace the new way of working. This new way of working needs an adapted toolset, enhanced skillset, and a new mindset.»