Cloud Conversion Enables Seamless Global Collaboration

Albemarle maintains leading positions in lithium, bromine, and refining catalysts and powers the potential of companies in many of the world’s largest and most critical industries—from energy and communications to transportation and electronics. Seeking to unify global communications and transition to a more agile, cloud-based solution—with no productivity disruptions—Albemarle partnered with Sparkhound to perform a full Office 365 conversion.

Challenge

A Legacy System Hindered Collaboration and Growth

Acquisitions are a key component of Albemarle’s growth strategy. Traditionally operating with an IT stack consisting of Lotus Notes and WebEx, the IT assimilation process began to pose flexibility and collaboration challenges, as many of the companies being acquired used the cloud and Microsoft services. These challenges led to costly delays and frustrating disruptions.

As a global company, Albemarle needed to modernize and adopt a cloud platform for single sign-on authentication, data sharing, and online meetings. Additionally, the company needed a new email system, robust security to protect intellectual property in emails, and coordination with internal stakeholders and third-party vendors for a smooth digital transformation.

Solution

Cloud Migration and Full Office 365 Conversion

Sparkhound became a seamless extension of Albemarle’s IT team, working collaboratively to implement Office 365’s email, SharePoint, and Skype across global locations.
Together, they migrated 6,000 users and 40 Domino servers to Office 365 in just 30 days, while also meeting EU GDPR requirements by identifying data flow and management protocols.

The cloud conversion introduced a new, seamless method of collaboration, enabling global employees to use Skype for SAP and other training, desktop sharing, and change management procedures.

Transformation

Seamless Global Collaboration

The integration timeline for future acquisitions will be significantly shortened. The cloud conversion enables faster assimilation, improved security, cost savings to protect intellectual property, and seamless global communication.

What Came Out of the Mix?

• Seamless collaboration for global employees
• Faster assimilation, enhanced security, and greater cost savings
• Time to value: Just 30 days to migrate 6,000 global users