How a cloud-based employee portal transforms collaboration

Tackling communication challenges

When a major home and garden retailer with 64 national stores offering over 100,000 products wanted to improve communication across all of its locations, it needed to create a functional, branded and user-friendly employee portal, as well as a complete digital workplace environment.

The aim was to create an easy-to-use solution to improve communication between the head office and its network of stores across the country. Employees needed a way to share files securely and conveniently. Individual departments, branches and the head office also needed their own collaborative spaces. The company also needed a space for shift workers to effectively share information.

Project objectives also included:

• Improve employee communication through an enterprise social network
• Implement a workplace chat solution to improve collaboration
• Implement a mobile version of each solution
• Launch microsites for each store and department

Creating a unified digital workplace solution with M365

After gathering requirements from key departments, SoftwareOne presented a digital workplace solution based on Microsoft 365 services. At the heart of the solution was a SharePoint-based employee portal to house company news, organisational information, files and documents, collaboration resources, etc. The portal was configured in line with the company's brand.

Other features included Yammer for internal communication and Stream for video sharing. Microsoft Teams replaced a legacy solution used for cross-company communications. A communication plan was created to gather information on project requirements through workshops with key stakeholders. KPIs were set for the project and for user adoption of the new functionality.

Finally, SoftwareOne consultants trained management and provided additional materials and guidance. In addition, a select group of solution ambassadors was trained, who in turn shared their knowledge across the organisation.