March 7, 2026

Summary

A technology consultancy was tasked with delivering Microsoft Modern Work solutions at scale to a diverse, global enterprise client base. These clients, numbering approximately 40 blue-chip organisations, needed to understand, adopt, and realise value from the latest Microsoft technologies, including the Viva suite, Syntex AI, and modern security and compliance platforms. The goal was to move beyond ad-hoc projects to a structured programme that could reliably drive adoption and business outcomes across multiple tenants.

Challenge

The primary challenge was delivering a consistent, high-quality standard of technical enablement and project delivery across dozens of distinct commercial organisations. Each client had unique business requirements, legacy infrastructure, and strategic objectives that required a tailored approach. The delivery model needed to scale efficiently while ensuring every engagement was valuable, creating a clear pathway from initial education in workshops to tangible project outcomes defined in Statements of Work (SOWs).

Objectives

To meet this challenge, a series of objectives were established:

• Deliver official Microsoft curriculum and bespoke consultancy to a high volume of enterprise clients worldwide.
• Systematically translate client business requirements into actionable, clearly-scoped, and accurately-costed SOWs.
• Successfully deploy and drive high adoption rates for key Microsoft technologies, particularly Microsoft Viva and Microsoft Syntex.
• Provide robust commercial governance through the management of high-value tenders and the identification of valuable upsell opportunities.
• Ensure modern security and performance best practices were central to all migration and deployment projects.

Approach and Delivery

A multi-stage approach was designed and executed to guide clients from initial interest to successful implementation.

First, the programme focused on Education and Enablement. Official Microsoft workshops were delivered to audiences ranging from end-users to senior stakeholders. These sessions, often delivered virtually to groups of over 40 participants, covered a wide range of modern work and security topics, including Microsoft Viva, Syntex, Intune, Microsoft Sentinel, and Defender XDR. This built a foundational understanding of the technology’s value proposition and helped identify specific client needs.

Following the workshops, the process moved into Strategic Consultancy. This involved working directly with client stakeholders to capture specific business requirements in detail. This phase was crucial for building trust and ensuring proposed solutions were perfectly aligned with client goals.

This consultative work led directly to Commercial Framing. Comprehensive SOWs were authored, meticulously detailing project scope, deliverables, timelines, and costs. In parallel, larger commercial proposals, including tenders for managed services worth up to �1M annually, were scoped and prepared.

Finally, Project Execution involved leading the technical deployments. This included complex migration projects for Exchange, SharePoint, and Intune, as well as greenfield implementations of the Microsoft Viva suite (Connections, Engage, Topics, and Learning) and Microsoft Syntex. A core focus throughout was on driving user adoption, not just completing a technical checklist.

Technical Implementation

The programme successfully designed and deployed a wide array of modern Microsoft technologies to meet client needs:

• Employee Experience Platform: Deployed the Microsoft Viva suite, including Viva Connections, Engage, Topics, and Learning, to create integrated and engaging employee experiences.
• AI-Powered Content Management: Implemented Microsoft Syntex to apply AI for intelligent content processing and automation.
• Modern Endpoint Management: Led migrations to Microsoft Intune, establishing best practices for secure device and application management.
• Cloud Platform Migrations: Managed and executed migrations of legacy Exchange and SharePoint environments to their modern, cloud-native counterparts.
• Security & Compliance: Provided expert consultancy on Microsoft’s security stack, including Microsoft Sentinel and the Microsoft Defender XDR platform, to enhance client security posture.
• Internal Capability Scaling: To support delivery consistency at a global scale, Microsoft FastTrack courses were designed and delivered to engineers worldwide.

Outcome

The structured programme delivered significant results for both the consultancy and its clients:

• Expert workshops and professional consultancy were successfully delivered to approximately 40 blue-chip organisations.
• A robust commercial pipeline was established, successfully managing tenders valued up to �1M annually and securing significant revenue by upselling solutions worth over �100k per engagement.
• Multiple successful deployments of Microsoft Viva and Syntex were completed, achieving high user adoption rates.
• Legacy infrastructure was modernised through secure and efficient migrations of Exchange, SharePoint, and Intune.
• Technical concepts and business value were communicated effectively to diverse audiences, strengthening client relationships and securing project buy-in.

Risks, Controls and Governance

Operating across a large and diverse client base introduced several risks that required clear governance.

• Risk: Inconsistent delivery quality and messaging across dozens of unique client environments.
• Control: This was mitigated by using official Microsoft workshop curriculum as a standardised baseline for all educational engagements, ensuring a consistent starting point and quality bar.
• Risk: Misalignment between client expectations and project deliverables, leading to scope creep and dissatisfaction.
• Control: The disciplined practice of authoring comprehensive SOWs after a dedicated consultative phase provided a powerful control. It ensured scope, deliverables, timelines, and costs were explicitly defined and agreed upon before work commenced.
• Governance: The formal tender management process for high-value proposals provided essential commercial governance, ensuring that all proposed solutions were not only technically sound but also financially viable and aligned with strategic objectives.

Key Lessons

Several key lessons emerged from this large-scale enablement programme:

• A structured, workshop-led approach is highly effective for educating enterprise clients at scale and efficiently qualifying genuine project opportunities.
• Directly connecting educational workshops to a consultative SOW-authoring process creates a smooth and predictable commercial pipeline, converting interest into scoped projects.
• Focusing on user adoption from the very beginning of the design phase, rather than as an afterthought, is critical for realising the business value of modern work technologies like Microsoft Viva.
• Investing in internal enablement, such as delivering FastTrack training to fellow engineers, is a vital force multiplier for maintaining service consistency and quality within a large, distributed delivery team.

Related Services

• Modern Work Workshops
  Facilitated workshops to improve Microsoft 365 collaboration, productivity, and adoption by aligning scenarios, behaviours, and priorities across teams.
• Viva Workshops
  Interactive Microsoft Viva workshops building understanding of modules, use cases, and adoption considerations for employee experience, communications, learning, and insights.
• Microsoft Intune MDM Migration
  Migrate from legacy mobile device management to Microsoft Intune with staged enrolment, policy validation, and minimal disruption safely.
• Viva Connections
  Viva Connections setup bringing your SharePoint intranet into Microsoft Teams with branded navigation, dashboards, and feeds designed for employee adoption.
• Microsoft 365 E3 to Microsoft 365 E5 Enablement Programme
  Plan and deliver a Microsoft 365 E3 to E5 upgrade, mapping advanced security, compliance and analytics into an enablement backlog.