CFL continues to digitalise its operations

“This project involved migrating a fleet of workstations from Windows 7 to Windows 10,” explains Jean-Jacques Ourtau, Head of CFL’s Digital Workplace unit, “a fleet consisting of nearly 3,000 machines, fairly evenly split between desktops and laptops. This decision was driven, on the one hand, by the need to move to a new operating system and, on the other, by our desire to deploy Office 365 and its associated collaboration and file-sharing tools.”

“This migration is actually part of the digitalisation and mobility development strategy adopted by CFL,” explains Frédéric Perrey, Head of IT Operations at CFL, “a strategy aimed in particular at making information more easily accessible to users, wherever they may be.”
 

Specific challenges

The migration project nevertheless presented a number of specific challenges, including the wide range of sites involved – around sixty in total – and the great diversity of user profiles: office employees and field workers, static and mobile users, as well as industrial and administrative staff. These challenges were compounded by the logistical constraints resulting from varying working hours and the geographical dispersion of the sites.

“We also needed a partner capable of managing the complexity of our application portfolio, which comprised 600 different applications,” emphasises Frédéric Perrey. “The partner also had to complete the deployment of our new environment within six months, while causing as little disruption as possible to users and ensuring the smooth running of our services,” adds Jean-Jacques Ourtau.
 

The optimal balance between cost, expertise and understanding of requirements

“Following a public tender, Proximus NXT presented one of the most competitive financial offers. The approach proposed by Proximus NXT for carrying out the migration also proved to be the best, providing the optimal balance between cost, expertise and understanding of CFL’s requirements,” explains Jean-Jacques Ourtau.

“Given the large number of applications that had to be taken into account, Proximus NXT’s architects worked to establish a common framework for all users,” adds Frédéric Perrey. “They then complemented this core framework with a series of customised solutions, sometimes involving highly advanced configurations.”
Proximus NXT provided CFL not only with a technical team – including a project manager, technical coordinator and technicians – but also with a scheduling manager, whose role proved essential in coordinating all stakeholders in such a complex environment.

As a result, the Proximus NXT team successfully met the required deadlines while maintaining a deployment rate of around twenty machines per day throughout the project. Working closely with CFL’s Digital Workplace team, Proximus NXT provided a turnkey service, from scheduling appointments with users to installing the machines at their workplaces, including the implementation of backup solutions.

“During the migration, each user received a new computer with a performance level at least equivalent to that of their previous device,” says Jean-Jacques Ourteau. “Some users received new equipment, while others were assigned a machine from the existing fleet that had been refurbished by Proximus NXT technicians. To help us manage the change resulting from the move to Windows 10,” he continues,

“Proximus NXT also organised training and coaching sessions for the 3,000 users affected by the migration.”
A strengthened digitalisation strategy

Today, the migration of CFL’s workstations to Windows 10 has enabled the company to put the Digital Workplace concept into practice. CFL now has a more modern and efficient environment, further strengthening its digitalisation strategy.

The benefits provided by the new environment – particularly the collaboration tools and the ability for users to access information across different types of platforms – also enabled CFL to cope with the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.