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When Equinor was faced with a large-scale hardware replacement, Sopra Steria provided the solution. By upgrading existing devices with Sopra Steria's proprietary solution, they can save time, reduce costs and lower environmental impact.
Equinor is working to replace over 35,000 devices in Norway, Europe and the US. Traditionally, such replacements involve significant costs, long downtime and a high environmental footprint. After talking to Sopra Steria, the company chose a different path: giving new life to existing units.
At the time this was written, 11,000 machines had already been upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11.
“Early in the project, the plan was to reuse 20 percent of the machines and buy the rest new. Now it can be up to 60 percent reuse instead. It is very good both from a financial and a resource and environmental perspective”, says project manager Amanda Asp at Sopra Steria Norway.
From idea to scalable solution
At the heart of the project is the RightExperience Enrolment Primer, developed by Sopra Steria. The solution enables provisioning and migrating existing Windows devices to a modern, cloud-based platform in minutes.
“Normally, reinstalling and upgrading a client can take up to an hour. With Enrolment Primer, we're talking about two to three minutes. In this way, the solution is suitable for businesses facing major digital transformations – or that need rapid recovery of clients”, says Svein Bråthen at Sopra Steria Norway.
The idea behind the solution arose late one evening a few years ago.
“A light came on for me, so I made a prototype to see if this could work – and it did! From there, the work began on industrialising the solution and testing it thoroughly, so that it would be robust enough for large businesses”, says Bråthen.
Photo: Svein Bråthen and Amanda Asp, both Sopra Steria Norway.
Reuse rather than replace
The solution is based on well-known technological principles - but the combination and automation make it unique. Sopra Steria has already processed close to 100,000 units through Enrolment Primer.
Laptops are often replaced after three years, as the warranty period expires. Enrolment Primer makes it easy to extend the lifespan by several years, says Bråthen.
“This is not just about efficiency. When machines can be used for longer, both costs and environmental impact are reduced. It provides value on several levels,” says Bråthen.
Close dialogue and quick decisions
The project was carried out in the first half of 2025 by a small team from Sopra Steria and Equinor, split between Stavanger and Oslo. 13 different client types were tested and validated along the way.
“We set a clear plan for progress, dialogue and reporting before we started. It gave us a good framework, while also giving us flexibility when needed,” says Amanda Asp.
She highlights the collaborative climate as crucial:
“The communication between our technicians and Equinor was very good. There were short decision-making paths and a mature customer who wanted to find solutions,” she says.
The project was completed with full testing by all clients at Equinor, and each unit functioned as it should.
“This shows what we can achieve when we combine innovation, close collaboration and a willingness to try new solutions”, says Asp.
This is what Sopra Steria does for Equinor
- Delivers the proprietary RightExperience Enrolment Primer solution for rapid upgrading and provisioning of laptops.
- Enables reuse of existing hardware instead of replacing it.
- Reduces upgrade time from up to one hour to 2-3 minutes per device thanks to automation.
- Contributes to lower costs, less downtime and a reduced environmental footprint.
Technology
RightExperience Enrolment Primer is a complete tool that simplifies Windows device onboarding, supporting both new setups, migration from SCCM/Intune, and integration with Microsoft Intune. The tools provide businesses with a fast and secure way to upgrade existing clients, without time-consuming and costly reinstallation or hardware replacement. The result is a fast, smooth, and cost-effective transition to a modern digital workspace.