Direct Line adopts Microsoft Surface to enable new ways of working

10,000 staff transition to work from home within 48 hours

Direct Line serves millions of customers around the UK, supporting them with more than 14 million insurance policies. Since its launch in 1985, Direct Line’s aim has always been to put the customer first. This began with cutting out the middleman, the forms and the jargon — all revolutionary changes in insurance at the time. 

In 2020, when COVID-19 struck, the business had to quickly decide how it could continue to support its customers and ensure there was no disruption to service or claims work – despite the disruption of lockdown.

Jessie Burrows says, “We decided we would all leave the office within 48 hours and all work from home. In the group, that’s 10,000 people.”

Microsoft Surface Go 2 is loved by staff

Luckily, Direct Line was already exploring how to support its staff with flexible working practices, so it was able to quickly accelerate its existing best practices – which leveraged Microsoft Surface Go 2 devices and a suite of Microsoft 365 tools, including Microsoft Teams.

“We’ve had a good and long partnership with Microsoft,” explains Matthew Poulter, Head of Core Technology at Direct Line. “The primary bundle is a Microsoft Surface Go 2 coupled with a large display to support the large and complex information that our contact centre staff work with.”

The IT team appreciate the ability to remotely manage the devices because it aids security. Plus, the compact form factor of the Microsoft Surface devices and the tight integration with Microsoft productivity tools that staff use on a daily basis are particularly appreciated by Direct Line’s contact centre teams. 

“I love the Microsoft Surface Go 2,” confirms Michelle Barnett, Service Relationship Manager at Direct Line. “I love the fact that it’s small and it’s light and I can unplug it and take it into the office with me or I can unplug it and sit on my sofa on a video call.”

Jessie Burrows agrees, “Having the Microsoft Surface Go 2s and having Microsoft Teams in particular has really helped us because our operation is a national operation. Now, we’re able to get together really quickly and I would say we’re even more productive from that perspective than we were before.”

Opening up greater talent acquisition opportunities

While workforce feedback highlights how Microsoft Surface has helped to improve productivity and wellbeing, the technology is also opening up new talent acquisition opportunities.

“People are really enthused by the fact they can work from home, they can work flexibly,” confirms Jessie Burrows, “and it’s opening up a lot of opportunity for us as a group.” 

Moving to a hybrid working model and increased remote working supports a more accessible workplace. It’s also freeing Direct Line to recruit from a more diverse and geographically distributed workforce and a bigger pool of talent.

Jessie Burrows highlights how the partnership with Microsoft is enabling new ways of working. She concludes, “We don’t want to replicate what we were doing in a pre-COVID environment – we actually want to change the way in which we are working. And all those Microsoft tools that we’re using really enable us to do that.”