Customer stories

Bell Canada

Canada’s largest Telecommunications company ensures secure file sharing and collaboration–anywhere, anytime. Bell Canada enables mobile access to high-volume, confidential files with OpenText™ Tempo™ Box

Challenges

  • Unsecure, inconvenient, expensive file sharing methods
  • Lack of document transparency, audit trail
  • Paper and boxes hauled to critical meetings

Results

  • Full ROI within two months

  • Reliable, secure file sharing and synchronization

  • Mobile access to files via preferred devices

Story

Many customers come to Bell Canada for freedom to be mobile while connecting to people and content via secure means. Within the enterprise of more than 55,000 employees, the same accessibility and safeguard of business content is imperative, but proved elusive for Bell Canada’s regulatory affairs and legal departments.

Telecommunications towers

We are 100 percent satisfied with Tempo Box. We’re extremely happy about the savings that it generated for us. And, Tempo Box does what we need it to do. It’s stable. It’s secure.

Alex Valcelli
IT Manager, Bell Canada

Among other responsibilities, Bell Canada’s regulatory affairs department must file almost every day with the Canadian Radio Television Commission (CRTC). Documents that must be filed are Applications, Responses to interrogatories, comments, etc. Compiling all these documents within the collaborating groups was a big task. “We have to make sure we have the latest version. Email is not the best way to share documents in need of editing. With several people collaborating, we never knew which was the latest version,” explains Sonia Diaz-Sotomayor, Associate Director for Regulatory Affairs Information Services at Bell Canada. Less electronic means complicated other regulation efforts as well, especially when executives attended important meetings or hearings. “We were going with stacks of binders and boxes of paper,” Diaz notes. The outdated methods could complicate storage for later retrieval and create hassles during travel to and from hearings.

Bell Canada’s legal department experienced similar frustrations: attending hearings with boxes in tow, emailing multiple files, and trying other file sharing solutions. Like its counterparts in the regulatory affairs department, Bell Canada legal professionals placed security as its top priority for the exchange of documents which—like any corporate office— range from “generic to supersensitive,” as described by Alex Valcelli, IT manager within the IS/IT group for Bell Canada’s legal department. “Day-to-day usage contains mostly general, low-sensitivity information that we need to share with other legal firms,” he notes. “When there is litigation, we need to exchange confidential information that pertains to the case.”

In either circumstance—public or confidential information—there is a lot of it. The legal team used to email material, but the files grew beyond email capacity. “We went through a transition with assistants zipping and splitting all these files, but it was an absolute mess,” Valcelli recalls. “There was no control. There was no audit trail: Did they receive it, could they open it? There was no way of knowing.”

The legal and regulatory affairs departments tried other methods. FTP file access was secure, but slow and confusing for users. Web-based file hosting services lacked security. The legal group also placed large amounts of data on secure hard drives and shipped them to contacts. “But, it cost us a fortune,” Valcelli says. “We often paid high fees to ship one secure drive. It was insane.”

Bell Canada initially accepted the costs as “the price you pay” for security; however, the regulatory affairs and legal departments were ready to find a more convenient, affordable way to exchange sensitive files.

Tempo Box allows our professionals to use whatever device they want. So wherever they are, they can access their files, which gives everyone a huge sense of liberty.

Alex Valcelli
IT Manager, Bell Canada

‘No-brainer’ secure file sharing and synchronization

The regulatory affairs and legal departments at Bell Canada installed Tempo Box, Express Edition in 2012, working closely with the OpenText support team. Secure file sharing and synchronization from OpenText offers Bell Canada employees the freedom to easily share, sync and access protected corporate information from anywhere—all with a lightning fast return on investment for the solution. Diaz, Valcelli and others at Bell Canada use words like “awesome” and “fantastic” to describe both the OpenText technology and OpenText support team.

The decision to install Tempo Box was influenced by Bell Canada’s established relationship with OpenText. “We have worked with OpenText for so many years, we know the pedigree of the company,” Valcelli says. The regulatory affairs and legal groups at Bell Canada have used OpenText™ Content Server (formerly Livelink) as an ECM platform for more than 14 years. Members of the groups also use OpenText™ Document Management, eDOCS Edition. “Obviously, we believe in OpenText,” Diaz says. “When we saw Tempo Box in action, we thought, ‘This is a no-brainer. We need this.’ We had to find a solution that filled the gap between email and cloud solutions. Tempo Box is the perfect fit. Bell Canada could have used Dropbox™ and other solutions to fill their needs but chose OpenText for their ability to leverage secure internal servers, and their high level of service, support and dedication to customer satisfaction.”

While another edition of Tempo Box includes integration with Content Server, Bell Canada preferred to keep the technologies separate. Tempo Box, Express Edition is a self-contained environment that can be used without a previously existing content management system or alongside other content repositories.

Mobile ‘liberty’

Tempo Box enables Bell Canada’s employees to collaborate with team members and external business partners using a variety of preferred mobile devices. “Tempo Box allows our professionals to use whatever device they want. So wherever they are, they can access their files, which gives everyone a huge sense of liberty,” Valcelli says. Within his group, close to 90 percent of legal professionals use Apple® iPad® tablets to view files. “Users love accessing eDOCS data anywhere. They just grab the file at the office, drop it into Tempo Box and use mobile devices or personal computers to share and maintain an audit trail so they know who accesses files and when,” Valcelli says. Internal and external contacts access files through assigned IDs and logins.

Some employees within the regulatory affairs department also access files through mobile devices. Soon after installing Tempo Box, Diaz sent her boss to an oral hearing with all necessary documentation available through an iPad.

Eliminating the luggage of extra paper and boxes proved even more advantageous later, when the executive made a trip to Inuvik, Canada, one of the most remote regions in the world. “It is so far and the plane to get there was so small,” Diaz notes. Her boss didn’t have to carry boxes of file folders as heavy, dead weight. “Also, from our end, we could add more files to his case to be synchronized and he would get it right away. The distance is not an issue.”

Bell Canada could have used Dropbox and other solutions to fill their needs but chose OpenText for their ability to leverage secure internal servers, and their high level of service, support and dedication to customer satisfaction.

Sonia Diaz-Sotomayor
Associate Director for Regulatory Affairs Information Services, Bell Canada

Other regulatory professionals working at the office via desktop computers or out of the office through the secure browser site have easier access to documents and other material. Information and filings for the CRTC are managed in one place; employees work in sync and easily maintain version control.

‘Unbelievable’ speed

First-time users are often surprised by the convenience of Tempo Box. “A lawyer approached me because she needed to send files too big for email and her Dropbox was frozen,” Diaz recalls. After breathing a sigh of relief that the confidential material wasn’t yet saved to the unsecure file hosting service, Diaz walked the lawyer through simple steps to upload documents to Tempo Box and email a link to another lawyer staying at a hotel. “By the time we finished the conversation, the lawyer at the other end had downloaded the file. My co-worker said, ‘Really? That’s it? Why didn’t I come see you before?’ ”

Tempo Box speed still surprises Diaz who says uploading files are so fast, it’s almost unbelievable. “I synchronized 300 documents last week and it only took three minutes,” she notes. “I thought maybe there was something wrong. But, we checked, and everything was there. No problem.”

‘Perfect fit’

User adoption is largely positive, Valcelli notes, saying those who are technically inclined love it. Others require some training and time to adapt to a new way of working. “I’ve been in IT for many, many years and I have never seen such a great product as OpenText Tempo Box,” Valcelli says. Furthermore, he knew Tempo Box would be a “good product for a perfect fit” at Bell Canada, an assurance that helped during installation, which was delayed by some complexities in the structure of the enterprise’s dual firewall system, managed by an outsourced IT provider. “There was no doubt in the product from day one,” Valcelli says. “It is thanks to the entire OpenText support team that we got through implementation challenges and now Tempo Box is working like a charm.”

Diaz and Valcelli view OpenText support team members as information experts; a tight relationship spans all OpenText products used at Bell Canada. “If anything happens, we contact OpenText support and we have super-competent, knowledgeable people that have the answer,” Valcelli says. Diaz agrees, adding, “OpenText has the tools to help its end users properly and efficiently.”

Trusted convenience and control with cost-savings

Bell Canada achieved full return on investment in Tempo Box within its first two months of deployment, according to Valcelli. “Once we had avoided shipping just two hard drives via previous methods, we paid off everything for Tempo Box—implementation, licensing, administration—everything,” he says. The company already had the necessary hardware in place.

Rapid ROI with impressive cost-savings influences overall contentment with the system. “We are 100 percent satisfied with Tempo Box,” Valcelli says. “We’re extremely happy about the savings that it generated for us. And, Tempo Box does what we need it to do. It’s stable. It’s secure.”

Diaz concurs, noting security is top priority for Tempo Box as well. “When we saw Tempo Box working, we saw everything we were looking for—a single, secure repository that is reliable and accessible everywhere,” she says. “We trust Tempo Box—we really have a product that we can count on.”

When we saw Tempo Box working, we saw everything we were looking for—a single, secure repository that is reliable and accessible everywhere. We trust Tempo Box—we really have a product that we can count on.

Sonia Diaz-Sotomayor
Associate Director for Regulatory Affairs Information Services, Bell Canada

This focus on safeguarding information leads to another type of security for managers and other Bell Canada professionals. “We sleep securely at night and we feel very at ease with the fact that Tempo Box is working the way it is and that the people are getting the files they need,” Valcelli says. “Tempo Box gives us huge freedom without having to worry about security.”

Since Tempo Box is fast and easy-to-use, it eases document collaboration for Bell Canada employees and contacts outside the company. Compared to methods requiring shipment, turnaround is shortened from three days to three hours, Valcelli estimates. Uploading and sharing “piles” of documents can be done within minutes.

Convenience impacts productivity and timeliness for business tasks, according to Valcelli: “It’s really handy to collaborate, wherever you are,” he notes. “You can do it, as opposed to putting it off until the next day. That, in itself, is a huge savings in time and effort.”

From its success and lessons learned, Diaz and Valcelli are championing the deployment of Tempo Box across all business units at Bell Canada. For now, whether they are in Montreal or Inuvik, regulatory affairs and legal professionals know they have a secure, easy way to access, synchronize and control information.

About Bell Canada

As Canada’s largest communications company, Bell Canada provides consumers, businesses and organizations of all sizes with a variety of communication solutions, from wireless connectivity to satellite TV, home phone and internet access. For more information, visit www.bell.ca.