Industry: Financial services
Number of employees (worldwide): c.6,000 Number of locations/offices (worldwide): 82 offices in 30 countries
Key Quotes:
Thanks to T-Mobile, our UK consultants have access to their email anytime from anywhere, ensuring that they can respond to client requests within minutes when needed.
John Harris, European Networking and Telephony Buyer, Watson Wyatt
Company Background
T-Mobile provides Watson Wyatt, a global human capital and financial management consultancy, with a complete UK mobile communications solution.
Watson Wyatt is a leading consultancy, specialising in people management and financial issues. The firm's global services include: managing the cost and effectiveness of employee benefit programmes; developing attraction, retention and reward strategies; advising pension plan sponsors and other institutions on optimal investment strategies; providing strategic and financial advice to insurance and financial services companies; and delivering related technology, outsourcing and data services. With over 6,000 associates in 30 countries, Watson Wyatt is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
In the UK, Watson Wyatt employs roughly 2,500 people and its headquarters are in London.
The Challenge
When Watson Wyatt started looking for a new mobile communications provider, it wanted to provide a complete voice and mobile data service to its consultants who operate out of nine offices, located across the UK. The nature of its business means that many Watson Wyatt consultants frequently spend time out of the office visiting locally-based and international clients.
It was vital that we selected an operator we could trust to deliver a mobile service, both nationally and internationally. Our international reach is one of the cornerstones of our business, so the ability to access email seamlessly across continents is of huge benefit to us and our customers, says John Harris, European Networking and Telephony Buyer, Watson Wyatt
The Solution
Watson Wyatt needed new devices for over 600 staff and it invested in 500 BlackBerry devices from T-Mobile. It also purchased 200 other phones and web'n'walk HSDPA laptop cards from T-Mobile for all of its varying voice and mobile data needs.
As an international company working across the globe, we needed a range of robust, cost effective and reliable devices. T-Mobile worked closely with us to ensure that our mobile and network technologies matched our unique business needs, comments Harris.
The Benefits
Smarter working practices
The use of BlackBerry from T-Mobile has enabled Watson Wyatt's consultants to access their email whilst on the road, increasing productivity and efficiency.
The use of BlackBerry has improved our efficiency, both in terms of email access and speed of response to client queries. This increase in responsiveness has led to huge improvement in our client relationships. Our customers really appreciate the increased level of service this technology can facilitate. In this sense, these solutions quickly pay for themselves and I believe they are crucial to our success as a business, says Harris.
Increased collaboration
Like any consultancy, Watson Wyatt's business relies not only on its relationship with its clients, but also on its ability for consultants, who may be located at offices across the world, to work seamlessly together as part of integrated multidisciplinary teams.
Watson Wyatt required a mobile communications strategy, which enables teams to work together effectively. Whereas in the past everyone may have used different devices, a standardised solution has helped to increase collaboration.
At Watson Wyatt we believe that the best solutions are developed by working together and our multidisciplinary approach sets us apart from our competitors. Our mobile devices have played an important role in facilitating this multidisciplinary approach because they have helped teams, who may be located across different time zones, to work more closely together, says Harris.
Readily available technical and customer service support Rapid, efficient, first-class support from T-Mobile ensures that any issues are quickly resolved and there are no losses in productivity.
Cost and perceived quality of service were two of our key driving factors for originally choosing T-Mobile, and we have been very pleased in both respects. We have dealt with a number of different phone and network suppliers over the years but we believe that T-Mobile is undoubtedly the best.
Innovative technology workshops
Watson Wyatt frequently meet with T-Mobile to discuss new technology options as Harris explains: What I've found of particular use are the workshops, where we visit T-Mobile to trial new products and discuss new technologies. It's a very worthwhile and productive exercise for us as it is always good to know what's new in the marketplace, and how this could potentially benefit our company.
The Future
Following the success of the mobile communications solutions Watson Wyatt has implemented from T-Mobile, it is currently trialing the new T-Mobile web'n'walk laptop card.
HSDPA technology provides access to data on the move at up to broadband speeds (1.8Mbps). This would enable Watson Wyatt's consultants to access crucial information from their laptops at far greater speeds, further enhancing their responsiveness and overall performance.
We are continuously looking at how we can improve our service delivery to our customers and mobile broadband laptop cards could be our next investment. We are customer centric so any future mobile innovations that that will help us deliver on the high levels of client service that we are renowned for, we will certainly consider, Harris concludes.
Watson Wyatt: Building stronger relationships through mobile communications
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