Intranet Modernization to improve Digital Employee Experience

Overview

Netwoven developed a complete, modernized corporate intranet using the Microsoft 365 platform and Viva technologies to provide customer’s associates with an engaging, informative, and highly functional digital employee experience. Custom SPFx extensions , including web parts, application customizers, and adaptive cards, were developed to provide associates with a personalized experience throughout the portal, allowing them to interact with data from other systems without leaving the intranet. A full information architecture plan was assessed and implemented to facilitate an improved search and navigational experience as well as to promote a well-organized structure for their sites and contents.

Challenges

• Customer’s intranet was on the Jive platform and the most common complaint from our associates was that it was extremely difficult to find relevant and up-to-date contents.
• Searching the intranet would provide results that were outdated or irrelevant, and browsing through sites was a tedious chore.
• Tribal knowledge was rampant throughout the organization and even finding out which of the many applications to use often required hunting down a person with the appropriate know-how.
• Hybrid employees and geographically dispersed work forces lead to associates feeling disconnected.

The Solution

Netwoven migrated all of the relevant content from their Jive intranet to a SharePoint Online-based portal and custom-developed extensions and applications to ensure that all desired functionality would be available. This included a custom org chart, alert banners, people finder, and multiple adaptive cards that integrated with 3^rd party systems such as ServiceNow and Workday. In order to deliver the best experience with regard to search, navigation, and content findability, Netwoven worked with multiple stakeholders and business units to plan an information architecture that was based on best practices and practical, real-world experience with how associates browse and search for content. Multiple facets of the Microsoft Viva platform, including Viva Connections and Viva Engage, were deployed to facilitate employee engagement and to enhance the digital employee experience.

Outcomes

The new intranet was deployed successfully and customer was very pleased with the outcome. Employee feedback has been very positive and engagement is at an all-time high through the Viva Engage platform. The company saved over $200k annually in Jive licensing and has seen significantly reduced employee frustration with finding contents.

Business Impact

Knowledge sharing and discovery is an integral part of most information workers’ days, and time spent searching for knowledge is time that could be spent doing work that provides more value to the company and satisfaction to the employee. By significantly reducing time spent searching for content and navigating between systems, the modern intranet allows employees to focus more time utilizing their high-valued, which in turn results in higher satisfaction.