Case Study

Elastic Team spirit
takes BT project to new heights

A huge website migration

As BT set to launch their new brand, there was a lot of new content needed for the 350 web pages they were migrating across to their new platform.

Speaking to Digital’s Programme Manager, Scott Kiehl, he explained how this was a huge, one-off project: “This wasn’t something any of our busy internal teams had the capacity for, so our partnership with Distributed came along at just the right time – this was the perfect project for an Elastic Team.

”As content is a non-core component of what we offer, our team needed to find high-calibre candidates in a short period of time. Fortunately, global freelance talent enjoys working as part of the Elastic Team, and it seemed people were just waiting to join.

Expert teams built with speed

“I’ve never seen teams move that quickly. It was incredibly impressive,” says Scott.
“From our first engagement, the Distributed team were straight on it. Interviews were booked in, and within three weeks we had a full team up and running.”

Scott explained that some of the traditional suppliers they’ve previously worked with just couldn’t provide the quality they needed: “What set the Distributed team apart was that I really felt they had our best interests at heart.
“They were extremely capable and willing to pull out all the stops to provide the best possible outcome
for the project.”

Scott Kiehl

IT Director

Bumps along the way

Like many fast-paced projects, it had incredibly tight deadlines and experienced multiple challenges along the way, one of which was losing an entire dev sprint due to the team being in war-torn Ukraine.

“We were building on sand,” explains Scott. “The first release of components was being deployed as we were weeks from going live.” “It was an interesting experiment in agile process development because everything we did was new territory. It was only through the agility and flexibility of the Elastic Team that the right results were delivered.”

“The team put a lot of time and effort into the project and went above and beyond to hit the deadline.”

Teamwork makes the dream work

Scott was keen to talk about the team spirit the Elastic Team showed throughout the project: “Everyone was really all-in on making it successful.”

“It was organised chaos at points with curveballs coming left, right, and centre and the Elastic Team handled it like pros. There was a real feeling of team spirit and that people would do whatever it took to get things over the line.”

The variety of skills the Elastic Team showed allowed BT to move a lot quicker as they could rely on key individuals to cover a lot of different bases.

“A game-changer was how multi-faceted the team’s skills were. We had Content Strategists that could write
copy and Copywriters that were also great with imagery. These sideline roles made a big difference in the
speed with which we could get things done, and to such a high standard.”

The project at a glance

elastic team members

services

delivery

output

Looking to the future

After a rush to the finish line, BT kept some of the Elastic Team on to help work through the backlog of non-critical pages. Because of how well they integrated with the existing team, it’s easy for the Elastic Team to pick up the overspill from BT’s internal employees and help them keep on top of their new website.

When asked if they would use Elastic Teams again,
Scott didn’t hesitate:

“Absolutely, without a doubt.”

Scott Kiehl

IT Director