How does Microsoft stay focused on engaging customers, showcasing the latest examples of empowering technology and creating unforgettable experiences? They trust Atos to enhance the visitor experience at the EBC, through its expert management of technology operations and infrastructure.
The challenge
- The EBC in Redmond, Washington, have over 20,000 visitors each year from around the world including CEOs and CTOs of multi-national corporations, high-level civil authorities, heads of state, and global nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders. The EBC hosts over 1350 multi-day client briefing engagements and several largescale global executive summits and partner outreach events every year.
- Managing a busy customer experience program and executive briefing center takes a team of dedicated resources who can work flexibly in the background, manage state-of-the-art audio and video systems, implement and maintain new technology demonstrations, create and deploy original digital content and signage, and provide “white glove” hands-on support when requested by executive clients. Microsoft requires a comprehensive, scalable and flexible approach to manage the day-to-day operations of the EBC.
- Amid the height of the pandemic, the shift to virtual briefings became imperative due to COVID-19, prompting a swift adaptation from in-person contact to remote engagement. This transition introduced novel challenges for both presenters and attendees, accompanied by uncertainty regarding the future of in-person gatherings. As businesses gradually reopened and travel resumed, this transformation extended into a hybrid format, combining in-person experiences with remote engagement through Teams, marking a significant evolution from the initial virtualonly setup.
The solution
Microsoft turned to Atos as its trusted partner to maintain and support the IT operations and infrastructure of the EBC. As a global company with over 105,000 employees operating in 69 countries, Atos understands the importance of enhancing the visitor experience for people from around the world. Atos supports the infrastructure of the EBC by:
- Helping to manage the infrastructure and technology budget
- Coordinating with technology vendors
- Making technology recommendations for lifecycle management
- Providing audio and video installation and support
- Delivering briefing support for attendees and presenters
- Developing digital signage
- Managing the content management system (CMS).
Atos is creating on-site, hybrid, and remote support plans for different scenarios that meet evolving social distancing rules and helping to re-prioritize the EBC infrastructure and technology budget to support the future of meetings.
Atos helps Microsoft:
- Through a technically skilled and committed team that supports technology operations
- Focus on the content and strategy for customer engagements and relationship-building with visitors and decision makers
- Simplify its hardware, content and service-provider landscape
- Get faster, more customized services for unique executive engagement needs
- Continually improve and refresh demonstration technologies using both Microsoft and partner solutions to showcase innovation
- Establish a harmonized, strategic approach to technology lifecycle management in a fast-changing client engagement environment
- Realize cost savings by recycling and reusing demonstration technology infrastructure and content
- Secure customer-engagement infrastructure and facilities, protecting both customer data and confidentiality
- Ensure that each visitor to the EBC has a meaningful, memorable and executive-level experience.