Willis Towers Watson: Rolling Out Microsoft 365 to 50,000 People Across the World

Overview

A global Microsoft 365 rollout, compliant country by country

Willis Towers Watson (WTW) is a global advisory, broking and solutions company, with colleagues working across many countries and regulatory regimes.

WTW chose Microsoft 365 as the common platform for collaboration, communication and content. At this scale, success depended as much on people and compliance as on technology. Around 50,000 colleagues needed to adopt new ways of working, and every country brought its own rules on where data could be stored and how it could be processed.

Konsolute led change management and adoption across the organisation. We designed structured training plans, sequenced a controlled rollout by geography, and worked with WTW's legal counsel in local jurisdictions and with Microsoft's customer success teams. Together, we made sure data processing and residency arrangements met local legal requirements before each region went live.

The challenge

One platform, many jurisdictions

Rolling out Microsoft 365 to around 50,000 people is a major change programme in any organisation. For a global firm handling sensitive client information, it also raised complex legal questions.

Data protection and residency rules differ from country to country. Some jurisdictions restrict where personal or client data can be stored, others impose conditions on how it is processed or transferred, and employment and works council requirements can affect how new workplace technology is introduced. A single global switch-on was never an option.

Adoption carried its own risk. If colleagues did not understand the new tools or why they mattered, the organisation would pay for Microsoft 365 without realising its benefits.

WTW needed to:

Our approach

Compliance first, then people, region by region

We planned the rollout around jurisdictions rather than technology. Each geography moved only once its legal position was confirmed and its people were ready.

A controlled rollout by geography. Konsolute sequenced the programme region by region. Each wave had defined readiness criteria covering compliance, technical configuration, communications and training. This kept risk contained and allowed lessons from each wave to improve the next.

Working with local legal counsel. For each jurisdiction, we worked with WTW's legal counsel and local advisers to understand the requirements that applied. Questions about data location, cross-border transfer and processing were resolved before rollout, not after.

Working with Microsoft's customer success teams. Konsolute engaged Microsoft's customer success teams to confirm how Microsoft 365 data would be stored and processed for each region. This gave WTW and its counsel clear, evidenced answers about data residency and processing commitments.

Structured training plans. We designed training around roles, regions and the tools each group would use most. Plans combined live sessions, guidance materials and follow-up support, timed to each wave so colleagues learned the tools just before they needed them.

Change management and adoption. Communications explained why the change was happening and what it meant for each team. Local champions helped colleagues with questions and fed back issues, and adoption was tracked after go-live so that support could be focused where it was needed.

Result

A common platform, adopted and compliant worldwide

Microsoft 365 was rolled out to around 50,000 people across WTW's global footprint. Each geography went live on a confirmed legal footing, with data residency and processing arrangements agreed with local counsel and evidenced with Microsoft.

The wave-based approach kept disruption to client work to a minimum and let the programme improve as it progressed. Structured, role-based training meant colleagues arrived on the new platform knowing how to use it.

WTW gained a single, global platform for collaboration and communication, with the compliance groundwork in place to support its continued use across jurisdictions.