VMWARE CASE STUDY Atea chose VMware Socialcast to support bold new business targets and connect 6,500 employees across the Nordic region CUSTOMER The implementation of SocialCast supports Atea’s aggressive Atea growth strategy by making sure that their 6,500 employees can easily connect and learn, leveraging not only people skills WEB SITE but the organisation as a whole. It no longer matters which www.atea.com of the seven countries the employees are based or on what INDUSTRY device they chose to work on. Distributor/IT infrastructure Atea is the leading Nordic and Baltic supplier of IT infrastructure with approximately services 6,500 employees. Atea is present in 82 cities in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Atea delivers IT products from leading vendors and assist LOCATION its customers with specialist competencies within IT infrastructure services. Atea had 82 locations in Norway, revenue of approximately NOK 21 billion (USD 3 billion) in 2012 and is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia The Challenge team realized the need to utilize each Headquarter in Oslo, Norway person’s skills and leverage this power Nordic distributor Atea, headquartered across the whole of the organization. in Oslo, Norway, has expanded very KEY CHALLENGES rapidly over recent years. Their policy, “We identifi ed the need for employees • To support the rapid growth until now, has always been to let each to reach out, talk to and learn from of the company spread country manage their own business colleagues, regardless of where they are. across 82 locations within a standard strategic framework. A project manager in Norway may need This has enabled each country to key information that a support person in • To move From a successfully develop and grow, which Denmark can provide expertise on, but decentralised to centralised has been benefi cial for achieving the with the current environment it is di cult business model best possible results in each country. for people to connect. What we needed • To fi nd a tool that could After a tremendously successful was some kind of social communication easily connect all 6,500 journey, the company has now grown tool to help people easily connect, employees into a large business with a revenue of enabling us to leverage all of the power in approximately NOK 21 billion in 2012 and our organisation” says Henrik Arndt. 6,500 employees spread across seven countries. Atea realised that they now The Solution needed a new strategy. “This is a completely different Atea chose Socialcast to support the type of environment “As we decided on a new business company’s aggressive growth plans over compared to the intranets strategy to take us forwards, we also the next few years. Using Socialcast, which companies have realized that the time had come to start Atea’s employees will be able to connect, been struggling with over working as one big company,” says Henrik learn and better leverage the power of all the last couple of decades. Arndt, CIO, Atea. “Our goals for the next of their employees spread across seven Socialcast taps into peoples’ few years are set very high, and we will countries. The implementation started in natural curiosity and need to not be able to reach them unless we start March 2012 and was completed by June communicate in a plain yet supporting each other across borders and 2012. units.” powerful way.” Socialcast by VMware is a social Henrik Arndt, CIO, Atea Their new strategy states that “By 2015, network for business uniting people, Atea will have a turnover of 30 billion information, and applications with its NOK and a profi t of 1,8 billion NOK”. To real-time enterprise activity stream make this possible, the Atea management engine. Socialcast was founded in 2008 VMWARE CASE STUDY and acquired by VMware in 2011. Today, Business Results & Benefi ts “During the implementation customers include some of the largest The implementation of Socialcast has we have had excellent organizations in the world. Simplifi ed, made it possible for Atea’s over 6,500 support from the Socialcast Socialcast integrates functionality employees to reach out and share team. Using best practice found in social media platforms such as information and knowledge across from a large number of Facebook and Twitter with enterprise borders. In all seven countries where Atea implementations meant that security and manageability required by is present, there are many specialists we could avoid any pitfalls in organizations. working within many di erent areas. the process.” Atea started the implementation in Before the implementation of Socialcast, a specialist in Denmark might not even Henrik Arndt, CIO, Atea March 2012 and have now, using very little internal resources, introduced the be aware that a key competence required Socialcast platform in all countries. All to solve a customer issue was residing in 6,500 employees can now use Socialcast Finland. Today, it’s as simple as creating a and initial response has been positive special interest group where people can SOLUTION according to Henrik Arndt: join and share information. At present, just below 250 special interest groups By using Socialcast, a social “This is a completely di erent type of have been created in Socialcast. network for businesses, Atea’s environment compared to the intranets employees will be able to which companies have been struggling Apart from knowledge sharing, Socialcast connect, learn and better with over the last couple of decades. has become an important tool for leverage the power of their Socialcast taps into peoples’ natural both management-to-employee and employee-to-employee communications. 6,500 employees spread curiosity and need to communicate in a plain yet powerful way.” Socialcast is quicker and faster than email across seven countries. and intranets, since it’s possible to create “During the implementation we have had a dialogue and discuss topics rather excellent support from the Socialcast BUSINESS BENEFITS than pushing information out. The fact team. Using best practice from a large • Ability to Knowledge share that the tool is mobile too means that number of implementations meant that employees can interact on the go. across borders we could avoid any pitfalls in the process. Also, the local support from VMware in • Ability to create specialist Looking Ahead groups to capture specifi c the UK and Nordics has been very much Since Socialcast has been such a success knowledge appreciated,” says Henrik Arndt. internally, Atea has now started to • Faster and improved internal elaborate on the idea of making the tool communications semi-open, for instance creating groups for CIO’s or user groups for specifi c VMWARE FOOTPRINT solutions. • VMware Socialcast VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.com Copyright © 2013 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. 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