BPO American answers the call for a highly secure, easy to deploy Windows experience with Windows 365 Cloud PCs
When a customer calls BPO American, starts a web chat, or initiates an email conversation, they’re instantly connected to one of 215 US-based agents. Although these agents are located across the country, they share one thing in common: they work from home. “Ninety percent of our company is remote workers,” says Christy Gosnell, Director of IT at BPO American. The agents answer calls for companies that have outsourced their contact center capabilities to BPO American, which means that agents not only represent multiple businesses, but they also interact with a vast amount of highly sensitive data. “We deal with HIPAA information, credit cards, and a lot of other personal information,” explains Gosnell.
BPO American has a duty to keep that information safe. The company engaged ScanSource and IMS Solutions Group to help find a way to maintain flexibility for remote workers while keeping customer information in a highly secure environment. “We must meet the strictest levels of security,” says Ken Wills, President of BPO American. “The way we did that was by choosing Windows 365 and Microsoft 365 Business Premium to create a Cloud PC experience that helps safeguard information on remote agents’ desktops.” In the process, BPO American also reduced the time it takes to onboard new agents, streamlined internal communications, and benefited from a predictable pricing model. “Transitioning to Windows 365 and Microsoft 365 made our lives and the lives of our agents a lot easier,” says Gosnell.
Transitioning to Windows 365 and Microsoft 365 made our lives and the lives of our agents a lot easier.
— Christy Gosnell: Director of IT, BPO American
Simplifying management while boosting security
Remote agents have been a part of BPO American’s business for years, well before COVID-19 normalized working from home. “We were ahead of the curve when it comes to remote work,” says Wills, who describes the company’s early use of Remote Desktop Protocol prior to the year 2020 as a turning point for the business. As its business grew, BPO American began to explore more modern virtualization options. “We were really excited to see the new Microsoft technologies that were coming into play,” says Wills. Ultimately, BPO American needed a way to keep IT management simple and eliminate the need to ship hardware to remote agents.
Speaking of BPO American’s goals for Windows 365, Brandon Myers, Chief Executive Officer of IMS Solutions Group, recalls how rapid deployment and ease of management were high on the list. “Their metric was ‘Can I have a user ready to go in less than an hour?’ Today, that’s happening. Three years ago, it would take them a week,” he says. “Windows 365 gives a single location to access all of your data.” The simplicity of managing Windows 365 was a major factor in BPO American’s decision to embrace the new solution. “The move to Windows 365 has propelled us forward,” says Wills. “We now have a one-stop shop where agents can access everything they need, and that information doesn’t leave the environment.”
Before agents had Windows 365 Cloud PCs, keeping customer data off their personal desktops was an ongoing concern. “We use Windows 365 to enhance security and create peace of mind for our customers,” says Wills. “We explain to them that with this cloud solution, agents can’t copy and paste, take screenshots, or screen record.” For Gosnell, part of the value of Windows 365 is that it creates a standard environment for all agents, making management simpler. “We know that what an agent has on their desktop is what we put on there,” she says. “They can’t download things or put a virus on a Cloud PC. It makes the experience much better for everyone.” Gosnell uses Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to run reports and help troubleshoot issues for remote agents more easily. “Windows 365 makes the technical management side of my job so much easier,” she says. Adds Scott Watkins, Azure Solutions Architect at ScanSource, “Windows 365 fulfills BPO American’s need for a highly secure remote desktop that’s familiar to its remote agents, has a predictable cost, and can be easily managed with Microsoft Intune. It uses security from Azure Active Directory, and Microsoft 365 Business Premium rounds out the package with additional information protection and compliance capabilities.”
Windows 365 fulfills BPO American’s need for a highly secure remote desktop that’s familiar to its remote agents, has a predictable cost, and can be easily managed with Microsoft Intune.
— Scott Watkins: Azure Solutions Architect, ScanSource
Onboarding new agents in a fraction of the time
When it comes to onboarding new agents, Gosnell remembers the days before Windows 365 as particularly time-consuming. “Previously, onboarding was cumbersome and required lots of infrastructure,” she says. “Adding a group of new users could take a full day, but with Windows 365, it’s now seamless. I recently added 20 new users in less than an hour.” Today, the process of onboarding a new agent amounts to a simple download. “They don’t need anything except the Remote Desktop application,” says Gosnell. “They just sign in, and they’re ready to go.”
And agents can now access training content easily from their highly secure Windows 365 Cloud PC environment. “With Windows 365 Cloud PC, we can use Microsoft tools like OneDrive to its fullest extent,” says Gosnell, who notes that training videos are stored in OneDrive and SharePoint repositories that can be easily accessed, without compromising security, from a Cloud PC. “We use the new solution combined with other Microsoft tools to make that part of the onboarding and orientation process much smoother.”
Adding a group of new users could take a full day, but with Windows 365, it’s now seamless. I recently added 20 new users in less than an hour.
— Christy Gosnell: Director of IT, BPO American
Meeting customer demands and boosting its tech culture
BPO American is also using Windows 365 to lower costs and create a more predictable pricing model for its business. “Customers aren’t locked into a traditional long-term capital investment with Windows 365,” says Myers. “They can take on costs on a per-employee basis and scale up or down as necessary.” For a business in the contact center industry, the ability to scale in response to customer demands is a big win. “It was important for them to be able to spin up secure desktops quickly and react to business needs,” says Watkins. “That can be done effortlessly with Windows 365.” For Wills, moving to the cloud is inherently cost-effective. “When you examine Windows 365 and what it brings to the table, the cost is much lower than if you created the same level of security on-premises,” he says.
And by moving to Windows 365, BPO American strengthened its existing culture. “A big piece of our mission has always been using state-of-the-art technology,” says Wills. “Windows 365 fits that perfectly.” Not only that, but the confidence gained with Windows 365 is helping BPO American win new customers. “We can assure customers that our security is where it needs to be, which allows us to bring on new customers that we might not have been able to win over without Windows 365,” he says. “It’s a huge factor in how we plan to expand our business going forward.”
Find out more about BPO American on Facebook and LinkedIn.
We can assure customers that our security is where it needs to be, which allows us to bring on new customers that we might not have been able to win over without Windows 365.
— Ken Wills: President, BPO American
Source: Microsoft
Microsoft Customer Story-BPO American answers the call for a highly secure, easy to deploy Windows experience with Windows 365 Cloud PCs
