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May 20, 2022

Lithuanian carrier is on track to fully operate within a modern workplace with Microsoft 365

Lithuanian railways company Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (LTG) runs most of the railway networks in the country. To enable remote collaboration and streamlined workflows, it implemented a cloud-first strategy, starting with Microsoft 365. As a result, all office and frontline employees could start collaborating virtually with the new system in less than 12 months.
The company has successfully created a ‘#ModernTeam,’ where each member has a strong sense of accountability and contributes to company's mission.

Lietuvos gelezinkeliai

LTG is one of the 10 biggest carriers in the region, with a goal to be the best. The company undertook a major restructuring to become a truly people-oriented and agile organization that thrives on team spirit. The initiative was named #ModerniKomanda (A Modern Team) and involved a technical overhaul, which started with integrating disparate collaboration and communication tools in the Microsoft 365 cloud.

“Our collaboration practices were far from modern,” begins Mindaugas Rickevičius, Project Manager at LTG. “We relied on face-to-face meetings, e-mails, and phone calls to communicate. It was hard to find time for meetings or keep track of messages being sent back and forth.” The company also kept files on-premises and used a legacy cloud system that didn’t make external sharing easy. “We always needed someone from IT to help with file sharing,“ says Rickevičius.

Developing new routes in communication

To kick off its digital transformation, LTG’s strategy team adopted a comprehensive change management plan. “We saw that Microsoft solutions were the best way to digitize,” explains Marius Staponas, Project Owner and Head of IT at LTG. To support the fundamental change, workshops were offered to the employees of LTG Group, which consists of five companies. The lead of this change was Audrius Martinkus, also known as a Modern Workplace Evangelist.

The company started with a pilot implementation of Microsoft Teams among 300 office employees. “People were used to different tools such as Messenger, WhatsApp, or Viber. In order to change their habits, we had to promote Teams and show how they could use it to its full extent,” says Mikas Lastauskas, Internal Communication Business Partner at LTG.

To encourage uptake of Teams, LTG established a network of internal champions—employees who were proficient with the solution. They trained colleagues in using the new tools. “Every Thursday, we organized a live training session for new users. This was run for two years,” says Rickevičius. “We put a huge emphasis on user adoption, communicating clearly that this change is not scary, but a good one,” adds Staponas. As a result, lots of employees participated in the transformation from day one.

Tracing the path to a collaborative spirit

Today, more than 80 percent of all LTG's employees use Microsoft 365. This number includes virtually all office-based employees as well as more than 70 percent of all frontline workers, the remaining of which are currently being taken onboard.

They have exchanged more than 10 million chat messages and have taken part in 150,000 online meetings. The new, agile communication methods mean employees can easily reach whoever they need—including the top management—to ask questions, exchange ideas, and discuss issues.

“Our people now feel in closer contact equally with their managers and peers, as they always have an option at hand to reach out to each other much faster,” says Lastauskas. The new solution is saving the company about EUR€5 million each year on digitized processes and more efficient communication.

Fortunately for LTG, prior to COVID-19 pandemic, the employees of LTG had already had all the possibilities to use Teams and many of the office workers had already transferred to remote collaboration tools. “LTG Group continuously strives to react and adapt to all changes, so adopting Teams allowed reaching the goals much faster. “With Teams, we were ready right on time. When the lockdown began, we could send 3,000 people to work from home overnight,” says Rickevičius.

Cloud-based collaboration also improved employees’ productivity by enabling people to work from anywhere, anytime. “People love that they can work on the same files at once and track changes in a document,” says Rickevičius. In addition, Microsoft Teams simplified meeting scheduling and management. ”Previously, we had to think about office space or room availability. Now, if I need to meet with a hundred people from my department, I can do it right away by going online,” says Rickevičius.

LTG managers also use Teams Live Events to keep employees updated. “We stream quarterly results meetings, celebrate success, run hackathons, and organize external events,” says Lastauskas. “The biggest event included more than 2,500 live participants, it was impossible before.”

Moving forward, the company strategists are exploring more opportunities with Microsoft cloud services and expanding the use of Power BI and Power Apps. “We plan to enable citizen developers to build applications and automate repetitive tasks to boost our efficiency,” explains Rickevičius. “Our goal is now to make this success story last.”

“If I need to meet with a hundred people from my department, I can do it right away by going online.”

Mindaugas Rickevičius, Project Manager, “Lietuvos geležinkeliai“ (LTG)

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