Consolidating on a single platform

Chen shares that the video technology landscape at his organization was crowded before the company consolidated on Stream. “We had solutions from different vendors and wanted to consolidate onto a single, enterprise-wide video platform that would reduce our spend.” Stream stood out for its interoperability with the rest of the Microsoft 365 platform, something EY employees appreciated because it reduced the learning curve associated with a new tool. “Stream works with the rest of the Microsoft 365 tool set and is intuitive to use,” says John Moore, Enterprise Architect at EY Technology. “We can now provide a consistent experience and meet people where they’re already working.” According to Moore, that consistent experience is particularly felt in Microsoft Teams. “The interoperability between Teams and Stream is really valuable,” he says. “Recording meetings is a streamlined process, and there’s no extra effort involved in sharing recordings with the people who need them.”

For Will Day, EY Global Communications and Engagement Channels Leader, the move to Stream has helped simplify videos and demystify the process of creating and sharing. “The ability to host a video in one place and then link to it or embed code in other Microsoft 365 applications rather than having to duplicate videos has been a game-changer in terms of efficiency,” he says. He adds that consolidating on the Microsoft 365 platform also helps from an analytics perspective, ensuring that the company has up-to-date and holistic insights. To complete the transition to Stream (on SharePoint), the EY IT team used the Stream Migration tool to simplify moving 85,000 videos from Stream (Classic) to the new platform.

Today, employees use Stream to embed videos in Outlook, Viva Engage, and Teams messages. Additionally, Stream uses Microsoft Entra ID for simplified identity and access management. “We don’t need to manage a separate directory of who you can share with - you just search Microsoft Entra ID, and all the groups are already there,” says Moore. “It makes sharing in a highly secure manner very simple.”

Building a more connected global workplace with Stream (on SharePoint)

The EY vision for making videos more prominent at the company relies on employees like Lee Reed, Global Product Manager at EY Technology for Microsoft Productivity and Teams Apps, who use Stream to build personal brands and add momentum to their careers.

Prior to the launch of Stream, Reed was already a devotee of videos, particularly as a medium to help answer IT questions or offer advice for colleagues who are interested in getting the most out of the productivity applications they use daily. However, when Stream was introduced in 2019, Reed found a whole new dimension to creating videos for his global network of colleagues. “I’m able to do some really unique things with Stream,” he says. For example, Reed uses Stream to create a personal library of engaging how-to videos on his SharePoint site, categorized using metadata, that have gained traction across the company. “I use Stream to answer questions and share my knowledge with the broadest possible audience,” says Reed. “Creating videos with Stream affords me the opportunity to stretch my creative muscles, socialize my ideas and knowledge, and collaborate across all of the organization.” Reed’s videos can be easily shared across the business because Stream is highly interoperable with the rest of the Microsoft 365 productivity apps where EY employees do most of their work, which gives the new tool an edge over previous solutions. “In the past, Stream videos felt disassociated from our daily flow of work.  Now, using Stream on SharePoint, my videos are more quickly and easily shared and curated,” Reed remembers.

Reed shares that he has been approached to participate in a Microsoft conference and was featured on the EY Technology home page as a result of his efforts. “Creating videos with Stream helped me get recognized as someone who provides value to the organization,” he says. “At such a large, distributed organization, standing out can be difficult without the right tools to amplify your message.”

Day says that Stream is an ideal match. “We have 400,000 incredibly smart people and so many subject matter professionals in a wide variety of fields and creating Stream videos is a great way to bring their stories to life.” In the past, learning more about an upcoming technology rollout, for example, might have required employees to read through a PDF, or at best, view a lengthy recorded meeting demonstrating the new technology. “Replacing those types of communications with quick, informative Stream videos has been a game-changer,” says Day. “It’s so easy to digest that information and bring it to life in a video, and we’ve had a lot of positive feedback from employees who prefer engaging with corporate updates this way.”

EY Leaders also use Stream to create dialogues with employees who might otherwise never connect with executive leadership. “Stream is a great way to share leadership messages,” says Day, noting that it’s especially important for leaders to boost their visibility in large organizations. Chen agrees, sharing that a recent holiday message from the company’s CEO received more than 100,000 views. “Videos are such a great way to communicate at scale,” he says. In another example of how EY employees use videos to add a sense of connection, Chen relays an anecdote about an EY manager in Australia who uses Stream to create a monthly interview series showcasing the work of individual colleagues. “That particular leader uses Stream to celebrate and communicate with employees and posts those interviews on Viva Engage to amplify their reach,” he says.

For Day, embracing Stream cuts right to the heart of the EY mission to build a better working world. “The best example we can set for customers and prospective clients is to use leading-edge technology ourselves,” he says. “We definitely count Stream in that category. Our collaborative working style and the tools we use to support that serve as a proof of concept for customers.”