BRACKNELL, UK - With the new Panasonic TOUGHBOOK and Windows 10 Pro, Centrica has taken its tradition of service excellence to the next level - the cloud - and transformed the working lives of 29,000 employees around the world. Now employees use modern applications on connected devices to improve customer service and efficiency.

Centrica is a global energy and services company with a 200-year history. A brand of Centrica, British Gas has services extend from energy and power distribution to maintaining the 1,500 gas lamps that still exist in London today. The company has worked closely with Panasonic for 20 years to keep its technology on the leading edge and maintain top-notch customer service.

That's why Centrica migrated from Windows 7 to Windows 10 Pro and upgraded their British Gas field engineers to TOUGHBOOK devices. With the cloud-based productivity apps of Microsoft 365 at their fingertips, field engineers can now easily access product information, process quotes, and use Microsoft Teams to collaborate with remote peers to troubleshoot problems. Microsoft Teams also speeds communication across the organization. "If you're running a business that's quick, fast changing, dynamic, you want to get information out to your teams quickly and efficiently, while saving money and your impact on the environment, then Microsoft Teams is absolutely the platform," says Ian Stone, Senior Field Development Partner at British Gas.

The TOUGHBOOK replaces the stacks of product leaflets that engineers used to carry in their trucks. Instead, they use the TOUGHBOOK to show customers a product solution from the online library, process a quote on the spot, and send it to the customer's home computer. If approved, the engineer can install the product immediately, saving a trip. "Before, you were up to your knees in paperwork. Leaflets for this, leaflets for that. Now, it's the touch of a button. You can access it within seconds. You can even show the customer pictures or videos," says David Coward, Service Repair Engineer at British Gas.

Centrica also plans to use Windows 10 Autopilot to make device deployment more efficient. Panasonic will be able to ship a device to an engineer who needs one without having to preload the software. When the engineer turns on the device, it will connect automatically to the Microsoft cloud and download the necessary apps. "Windows 10 Autopilot is going to be really exciting as it's going to streamline the way that we can deploy new devices to our field workers," says Joanne Rose, Head of Mobile User Computing at Centrica.

Another advantage of Microsoft 365 is enhanced security. "Our collaboration tools and the new tools that Microsoft 365 has brought in are all cloud-based, and that means we're not storing customer data on engineers' devices," says Rose. This not only makes customer data more accessible to field engineers, but also enhances its security.

"Our latest digital transformation has been global, and we've transformed the working lives of our 29,000 employees right across Centrica," says Rose.

A video detailing the story can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBOh2eMiz1E.

Press Contact:

Kiri O'Leary

The Amber Group

kiri@ambergroup.net

+44 (0)118 949 7737

About Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development of diverse electronics technologies and solutions for customers in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, and B2B businesses. The company, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018, has expanded globally and now operates 582 subsidiaries and 87 associated companies worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of Euro 62.5 billion for the year ended March 31, 2019. Committed to pursuing new value through innovation across divisional lines, the company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world for its customers. To learn more about Panasonic: https://www.panasonic.com/global

Panasonic Mobile Solutions Business

Panasonic Mobile Solutions Business is a Business Unit of Panasonic System Communications Company Europe (PSCEU). Headquartered in Wiesbaden (Germany), Mobile Solutions Business helps mobile workers improve productivity with its range of Toughbook rugged notebooks, business tablets and handhelds. As European market leaders, Panasonic had a 45% revenue share of sales of rugged and durable notebooks and tablets in 2019 (VDC Research, March 2020).

Source: RealWire

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