Seamless integration boosts Sompo’s cloud-first strategy

· 20 December 2021 · 3 minute read

The challenge

The Sompo Holdings Group (Sompo Group) is a leading multi-line global insurer for individuals and for businesses of all sizes. The company can trace its origins to 1888 and today has a network of offices across 29 countries around the world with over 48,000 employees.

In early 2021, the Sompo Group’s Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, Sompo Holdings Asia (Sompo Asia), was ready to invest in digitally transforming its office environment to enable hot-desking and remote working, and to reduce operational costs.

“We were looking to switch to hot-desking working style, which requires our teams to be able to make calls from anywhere. Prior to the pandemic, each team member had their own physical phone on their desk, and initially we were looking to upgrade our mobile phone bills as our teams began working remotely,” said Thangamani Muthurajan - Regional IT Manager at Sompo Asia.

“But Telstra Singapore got in touch with us. We discovered there was an opportunity to move forward with our cloud-first strategy by building cloud-based voice services into our existing communications tools, which could be accessed via our laptops and mobile devices.”

Solution

The professional services arm of Telstra, Telstra Purple, implemented Telstra Calling for Microsoft Teams (TCMT) across the Sompo Asia business. With TCMT, each user is assigned a phone number integrated into their existing Microsoft Teams platform, providing them with a unified communications experience that leverages Telstra’s global network solutions.

“Our users were already equipped and familiar with the Microsoft Teams platform, so the integration of TCMT was seamless – there was little training required which enabled a higher uptake,” explained Thangamani.

In addition to TCMT, Sompo Asia has access to Telstra Connect, a self-service portal that provides insights into the operations of the solution including tracking calling patterns, dialled numbers and destinations, and the ability to download reports on the past 13 months.

The portal also allows the company to raise incidents, submit requests to change a product or service, and to view planned maintenance events for easier remote administration and simplified billing.

“The combination of TCMT and Telstra Connect aligns to our digital transformation strategy. We have been undertaking renovations to create an open concept building. In the future, our teams will be hot-desking when they are in the office and will need a calling option that can be as mobile as they are,” Thangamani continued.  

As part of the process, Telstra:

  • Aligned with Sompo Asia’s cloud-first strategy, removing the need for additional infrastructure on premise
  • Implemented Telstra Calling for Microsoft Teams, enabling Sompo Asia team members to make calls directly from their laptop or mobile device
  • Provided access to the Telstra Connect self-service platform for simplified billing and IT administration

Outcome

The Telstra team delivered a smooth integration of Telstra Calling for Microsoft Teams across the Sompo Asia business within a four-week period to meet the company’s renovation deadlines.

“TCMT modernised our workplace and unified our collaboration experience. As a result, we’ve experienced 27 per cent cost savings on our calling plan compared to our previous provider and enabled our teams to work from anywhere,” concluded Thangamani.

  • Reduced calling costs by 27 per cent – compared to previous provider
  • Modernised the workforce – providing access to remote calling for all users
  • Created a seamless end to end solution – solutioned and implemented by Telstra

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