The customer | Fluxys
Fluxys is a natural gas infrastructure company that manages the natural gas transmission and storage infrastructure in Belgium.
The challenge | Implementing new ways of working
As a modern company, Fluxys invests in hardware and software to boost the productivity of its employees. It is increasingly moving towards a digital workplace, going beyond the pure implementation of solutions like Microsoft 365.
Jerôme Van Der Meerschen, Digital Workplace Manager at Fluxys, wants to prepare the organization for entirely new ways of working. Ultimately, the success of the efforts and investments will come down to the end users. They have to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills. That is where the Xylos Digital Coaches come in.
The process | The end-users’ point of view
Fluxys’ employees interact with their Digital Coaches on a daily basis. They have a variety of touchpoints available: email, Teams chat messages, and face-to-face interactions. Regular exchanges are proving to be a very useful habit. Questions have evolved from being limited to classic software tools, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, to applications like Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive. These latter tools are proving to be pillars for an effective, modern way of working. People at Fluxys are highly motivated to get it right.
Thanks to an information campaign, the threshold for Fluxys’ employees to contact the coaches was very low. “Our people have already made it a habit to contact the Digital Coaches whenever they need to know something,” says Jérôme.
The Digital Coaches hold weekly Inspire Sessions in French, Dutch and English, as Fluxys also has offices in Germany, Switzerland, France and the UK. During these short sessions, they engage their audience and show them new techniques and tools in Microsoft 365. For example, they’ve taught Fluxys’ employees how to collaborate on SharePoint files, how to keep their inbox under control, how to extract data in Excel and transform it with Power Query, and how to use the latest functionalities and mobile applications.
The coaches make participants think about how they approach their daily tasks, and how they can improve the way they work. We often find that session attendees tend to be ‘stuck’ in their old ways and don’t realize that they could save a lot of time by using new techniques. After an Inspire Session, participants can contact the Digital Coach for a one-on-one session on how to integrate these techniques into their individual work routines.
The video platform OASE is another powerful tool in Fluxys’ User Adoption plan. Employees use our video learning platform to quickly find the answer to their questions through short, clear tutorials in their own language, without interrupting their workflow.
The result | Personalized Microsoft 365 support
With a return on investment of around 100%, Digital Coaching delivers much better results than standard training. “Of course, we haven’t completely eliminated our usual training,” explains Jérôme Van Der Meerschen, “but the coaches can now advise us on which training courses in our portfolio are useful for specific end users.” A personalized needs assessment and assistance in putting new information into practice also improves the efficiency of the company’s normal training sessions.
When most Fluxys employees had to work from home during the lockdown, the demand for collaboration tools skyrocketed, and the value of the Digital Coaches became even more apparent. The coaches proactively contacted all employees personally, offering help and advice on working remotely. With webinars and tailor-made videos on OASE, they ensured everyone was on board with the new way of working.
The number of employees seeking advice from the Xylos Digital Coaches continues to grow. They’re usually looking for an alternative to overflowing mailboxes or a way to easily share and use files on multiple devices. The Digital Coaches present a solution that meets their needs and provide a connection between technical teams and end users. The Microsoft 365 suite includes all the applications people need to communicate and collaborate efficiently. Digital Coaching makes sure employees choose the right tools and learn how to use them. To Jérôme Van Der Meerschen’s delight, the use of Teams for communication and collaboration has increased exponentially.
“I have access to the team’s reporting tools and can follow up on all their activities,” says Jérôme. “The statistics are useful to see which applications people have questions about, or which Inspire Sessions our employees are most interested in.”
