When Engie – Global Energy Management introduced new Office 365 applications such as SharePoint, Yammer and Skype for Business, employees immediately started asking the technical department lots of practical questions. n order to help them quickly and efficiently, the energy company deployed three Flying Doctors from Xylos to provide first aid for Office 365 and help make the best possible use of Microsoft Office. The Flying Doctors are part of Engie-GEM’s phased plan to increase productivity and place more focus on the customer.

Power hour on Friday

Engie-GEM started with a pilot project lasting two months in a single Office-greedy department. It organised individual sessions with the Flying Doctors to answer pressing questions and observe how employees were using certain tools.

‘Then we held some group sessions too. We even had weekly ones for Power Pivot, for example. It seemed that everyone had a need for this,’ says Stefan Stas. These group sessions are still being held today, and every Friday Engie-GEM organises a Power Hour session: training for issues such as ‘Outlook: how do I keep my inbox under control?’ The team then bundles all the information learned on Yammer, so that everyone has access to it.

Further expansion into other departments

Following the pilot phase, the project was quickly extended into other departments. ‘This was purely down to word-of-mouth advertising between the various departments and one man who created lots of faith amongst us: Pierre Jassin from Xylos,’ says Stas.

Engie-GEM put together a team of key users to lead this expansion to the other departments along the right lines. This team includes specialists from various domains, such as Excel for example. They act as intermediaries for the Flying Doctors, and Engie-GEM is keeping this group together as a kind of expertise cell

Happy employees

“De flying doctors hebben ons echt een boost gegeven”, vertelt Stas. ‘The IT department didn’t always have a very positive image, but this project has really proved a turning point, and the new system from Xylos has been the major factor. The pressure on the IT department has been reduced dramatically and our colleagues are very happy about it. They can keep learning from the experienced coaches all the time.’

An employee satisfaction survey has confirmed this positive feeling with very clear results. The Flying Doctors have been able to resolve 98% of problems and questions, and 94% of employees think the quality of their coaching has been good to very good.

Coach to expert

In its search for Office integration partners, Stefan Stas mainly found technical profiles. But he felt he also had to focus on learning and coaching. He thinks the methods used by the coaches are particularly important.

Stefan Stas: ‘The Flying Doctors share their knowledge in such a way that the employees themselves become experts. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much working energy this coaching has provided. We also hear that other large business units within Engie are curious to find out more, so we’ll eventually be able to expand this even further and share best practices with our satellite offices too.’