Overview
British American Tobacco partners with ARO to deliver a revolutionary Microsoft Power Platform solution to go beyond their asset management expectations.
Background
British American Tobacco (BAT) is a global leader in the tobacco industry, known for its diverse product portfolio, commitment to reduced-risk products, sustainability, and corporate responsibility. BAT operates in over 180 countries, including traditional and next-gen tobacco products. They focus on innovation, sustainability, regulatory compliance, and corporate responsibility. BAT’s vision is to create “A Better Tomorrow” by offering safer alternatives while adapting to evolving consumer preferences.
BAT has been a customer of ARO since 1999, where we have supported them with their connectivity, hosted, teams, telephony and AV/VC services to enhance collaboration across their organisation. As technology develops, we continue to assist them with an extensive range of services.
The Challenge
BAT was looking for an asset management platform to meet business process expectations that their existing platforms did not. Using its current ITSM platform, the business could manage its IT support functions but was unable to quickly deploy an asset management solution that met its needs, resulting in using less reliable tools such as shared Excel sheets to manage a large-scale asset requirement.
Successful Deployment Throughout the UK
To support BAT in achieving their goal, an initial engagement was launched to upgrade the existing asset solutions within the UK. Collaborating closely with the UK team overseeing this transition, we implemented a system that closely aligned with their specific needs. Given the significant size of the stakeholder group and the influential VIPs affected, it was imperative to ensure a smooth go-live experience, which necessitated thorough pre-go-live testing on both ends.
The Solution
Centralised and Structured Data
Utilising Dataverse as the asset database allows easy ingest of this data to business data warehousing or direct query from tools such as PowerBI. Further having a strong data column setup means the team no longer must contend with poor data entry practises and are able to group, categorise, and configure their data.
Automated End User Journey
Several manual interactions have now been systemised, removing workload from asset engineers, and ensuring consistency of experience for end users. Standard engagements seeking confirmation from end users at asset allocation or collection are triggered, sending communication at the correct intervals, and raising escalations to the team when negative responses are received, or no response is received at all.
Accountability & Traceability
Both out-of-the-box and custom data auditing processes have been implemented. This provides great insight into the asset data that was not possible against a flat data structure such as Excel. Asset manager users can review an asset’s history, seeing which users had ownership and when, allowing them to make insights into when a device may have been damaged. The team are also able to see key events against a timeline, giving visibility over system automated communications or when key notes, or minor faults, have been raised.
Reliable, Protected, Backed Up Data
Utilising Dataverse also provides data reliability- data fields are restricted to elevated user groups where appropriate; no user has the ability to intentionally or accidentally bulk delete the database, and integrity of data in each column is governed through data types.
Microsoft also provide off-the-shelf backup and restore functionality, allowing BAT to make the most of SaaS benefits.
Power Platform Benefits
Providing asset management through a modern browser-based tool allowed easy adoption for Asset Engineers. Having a system that is built upon the existing strong Office 365 estate also brought benefit as user identities, MFA, conditional access, and other security policies are applied as standard.
In harnessing the cutting-edge capabilities of the Power Platform, we integrated custom commands and sophisticated approval flows, elevating the user experience and operational efficiency. Our innovative approach included leveraging virtual Azure Active Directory (AAD) tables, which allowed for seamless integration with existing identity management systems. This advanced feature set not only optimised asset management but also ensured that our solutions remained at the forefront of technological innovation, delivering a robust and future-proof infrastructure.
Streamlined Data Entry and Bulk Manipulation
To further drive efficiency improvement, several features have been developed to enable the team of Asset Engineers to achieve more. The team are able to use a barcode scanner and bulk upload new assets on delivery or at a stock check for validation in system. Also provided are carefully considered bulk edit tools that allow the team to perform common bulk edit activities without diminishing the protection around preventing data damage.
Supporting Asset Management Globally
After achieving success in the UK, stakeholders throughout BAT with similar needs in various other markets have been presented with the solution and encouraged to participate in its ongoing improvement. By incorporating their input, the project has made it feasible to deploy the modified solution in multiple markets at a significantly reduced cost. This approach also guarantees uniformity across these markets and simplifies the process of data aggregation.
Client Testimonials
From Graham Billings: “Transformation is a fitting description for what has been delivered with this solution. High expectations have been exceeded and the resulting improvement such that it is inconceivable to consider reverting to our previous way of working. We have a tool to manage our IT assets through the full lifecycle, with automation assisting IT tasks and keeping our users informed. The development journey had its challenges and it was at these times in particular I was thankful we partnered with ARO for the exercise.”
From Gerardo Gonzalez: “This tool will fill a gap in the Asset Life-Cycle Management process, saving time and providing accuracy on the records, not only supporting IT processes but also Financial processes, allowing for better planning and budget allocation.”
