Anglian Water creates the workplace of the future with Microsoft Surface

Anglian Water is a water company operating in the East of England. It serves more than six million customers with water and sewerage services. Like many businesses, it rapidly transitioned many office-based staff to working from home in response to COVID-19. After six months, when it became clear that working from home would be a long-term response, the management team at Anglian Water reached out to colleagues to see how the new arrangements were working and to ensure that they had everything they needed to work well.

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How can we do things better?

“We found that around 700 of our people had started to struggle with the kit they were using,” reports James Wood, Project Manager at Anglian Water. “It might have been ok in the short term – but to support them in the longer term we asked ourselves ‘how can we do things better?’.”

Anglian Water’s IT services team began to explore how they could better support their colleagues’ home working and hybrid working arrangements.

“The Microsoft Surface Laptops stood out as a secure, professional, highly functional device that would enable our colleagues to work from home, stay in touch and work together effectively,” explains Dave Martin, Chief Technology Officer at Anglian Water.

Better tools for remote and hybrid working

The deployment of new Microsoft Surface Laptops was very well received by staff. In particular, the touchscreen functionality has helped drive creative new ways of working and sharing. Furthermore, device security and updates can be managed remotely via Microsoft Intune, strengthening the company’s security posture.

A follow-up employee engagement survey showed an eight-point improvement in the key areas of data and technology. “That means we have a happier workforce; they’ve got the right tools for the job and they can continue to deliver great customer service,” says James Wood, Project Manager at Anglian Water.

“It’s really enjoyable to use the touch screen feature,” agrees Megan Blackwell, Laboratory Sampler at Anglian Water. “It means I can be a lot more creative about coming up with new ideas and sharing those ideas.”

A new world of flexible working

The IT services team are now keen to continue to drive further improvements. One such improvement has been the creation of meeting rooms for hybrid working using Microsoft Surface Hubs. These powerful interactive whiteboards with 4K camera and wide-angle lens, far-field microphones with Microsoft Teams-certified mic array and 20-point multi-touch are ideal for hybrid collaboration – making it easier to collaborate and bringing teams together.

“We didn’t stop with the laptops,” enthuses James Wood. “The Microsoft Surface Hubs combine with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 more broadly to help to create digital collaboration spaces for our teams onsite and at home.”

The support delivered by Microsoft under Anglian Water’s Unified Support contract has underpinned the organisation’s realisation of its ambitions, giving access to technology-specific, in-depth support and resources to proactively manage IT health.

“Microsoft is the partner we’ve chosen to help us to create the workplace of the future,” states Dave Martin. “Whether that’s our Surface devices, using Microsoft Azure data analytics for smart metering, or using Microsoft Power Platform to put power in the hands of our colleagues to create the apps they need to complete their day-to-day work – it’s a holistic approach and these are the tools of the new world of work.”