Irdeto: 7 steps toward international cooperation

Irdeto does not take unnecessary risks. A security software company that protects 5 billion devices worldwide from cyber attacks and malware is only satisfied with solutions that have been checked, double-checked, and checked again.

Peter Oggel is the Chief Technology Officer of Irdeto. In this position, he is responsible, among other things, for the implementation of collaboration tools. “That was pretty frustrating,” he says. “We’ve been looking for a good solution for years.” At the beginning of 2018, the organization had doubts about how to implement the integral communication strategy. “We spent a lot of time solving the problems we experienced with Skype for Business. It was hard to set up a meeting. The quality was low and the ease of use was insufficient. That tool made the employees very unhappy.”

Peter Oggel, CTO and SVP Technology Operations at Irdeto

The consequence?

“Collaboration stopped. And you can’t afford that, especially in our business.”

Irdeto creates security software for pay TV, video entertainment, games, connected transport, connected health and the IoT industry. It has about 1,000 employees worldwide. The headquarters are in Hoofddorp, but Irdeto also has offices in Beijing and San Francisco. In order to be able to follow the developments in the market, speed and intensive cooperation are required. Technical hiccups are needed like a hole in the head. In his search for help, Oggel stumbled upon Duppal, and in particular its founder, Sven Lagerweij. “He convinced me to divide the process into seven steps. The proposal suited Irdeto perfectly. We make decisions on the basis of decisive arguments.”

Step 1. Investigation into needs

Peter: “Sven first identified the needs of end users. Employees from all layers of the organization were interviewed and we sent out a questionnaire. Duppal also made a sharp analysis of the old situation. This showed that the existing collaboration environment lacked quality and did not exactly excel in ease of use.”

Step 2. Functional design

Peter: “Based on the results, a new functional design was created. This included the technical specifications, the costs, the security issues and the KPIs. You must be able to set the settings of such a tool in such a way that the privacy of employees is not at risk.”

Step 3. The strategy

Peter: “To get things done in a complex organization, you need the commitment of management. Duppal drew up a strategic document, which not only incorporated the elements mentioned above, but which described in detail what approach would yield the best results. The conditions and moments for a Go or No Go were also specified.”

Step 4. Selection of resources

Peter: “The analysis phase clearly showed that our employees needed a tool that would always do the job and would be easy to use. We had to turn frustration into happiness. We asked suppliers to provide quotes based on our conditions and required functionalities. For example, the solution also had to answer the question of how we should furnish our meeting rooms. We have chosen two solutions from the quotations, with which we have entered a test phase. Sven had suggested this because you want to be sure that you are making the right choice and have a tool that meets all requirements and supports the work processes.”

Step 5. Implementation of the tool

Peter: “One of the solutions we tested was Zoom. The employees fell in love with it almost immediately. The name echoed around the departments. People made videos or wrote about it. They rated the tool a 9 out of 10. In short, they couldn’t wait to start working with it. After a month, we decided to buy Zoom via Duppal. Duppal would take care of the implementation. There is a technical side to such a process, but also a behavioral component. Different groups of end users should be able to work with it. However for us, safety was also an important theme. Privacy must be guaranteed.”

Step 6. Adoption program

Peter: “In addition to strategy, adoption is Duppal’s strong point. I’m really impressed by that. They trained end users, helpdesk staff and the super users in a group-specific way. That was a big hit. The adoption program was set up very well. Everyone was taken into account. Some employees know the possibilities better than others, but everyone learned new things at the training sessions. After the workshops, everyone was able to use Zoom and the barriers that stood in the way of good cooperation had been removed. Our marketing department, in consultation with Duppal, launched an internal communication campaign to draw extra attention to Zoom. The launch was really great. There was a tremendously positive vibe, and there still is.”

“The launch was really great. There was a tremendously positive vibe, and there still is.”

Step 7. Monitoring usage

Peter: “All the people in our organization who work from their desktops have switched to Zoom. On average we have 8,500 meetings per month, worldwide. We’re going sky high. Satisfaction is close to 99%. So we can certainly call it a resounding success. We closely monitor usage. In the Covid 19 crisis, I received plenty of questions about Zoom. People were worried. They wanted to know about security and how Zoom handled our data. Together with Duppal, we reviewed the settings and made sure that safety met our standards.”

The right route

Duppal’s 7-step model, with accountability in each phase, was the right route for Irdeto. The decisions that the management had to make were always substantiated with arguments. “Because we were careful, we got the commitment we needed,” Peter reflects. “We chose the combination Zoom-Duppal on the basis of thorough research into the needs of end users. We still benefit from the insights we gained. All our employees have embraced the tool. Instead of complaints, I now get compliments. Internationally, the cooperation is going great. I’m proud of that. It’s incredibly enjoyable when you achieve what you have in mind together.”

Would you like to know more about how to optimize your collaboration tools for a seamless hybrid working environment?