10th January 2023
We worked with Perspicuity, a multi award-winning UK Microsoft Gold Deployment Partner, to create a more colleague-connected experience with an engaging SharePoint intranet. Read our customer story below.
Time for Change:
Proudly holding ‘Open’ in the name, Open GI has very collaborative relationships with both employees and customers. This forward-thinking organisation promotes transparency and actively works on maintaining a close relationship with employees. It became apparent through feedback that the existing intranet was causing not only a poor experience for employees, but a headache for IT who were struggling to manage and update this highly custom solution. Over time, this intranet became stale and unused, causing multiple collaboration issues.
Being an organisation where innovation sits at the core, Open GI embarked on finding a solution that was modern, easy to pick up and made use of their existing Microsoft 365 licences.
The Goals:
- Retire existing custom intranet solution
- Utilise existing M365 licences
- Reset and relaunch effective internal communications
The Outcomes:
- Highly engaged workforce driven by the intranet
- Reduction in mass email and the associated low level of responses
- Continual development of solutions driven by colleague ideas
The Perspicuity Solution:
Open GI had a very clear vision for what the next version of the intranet would look like. From functionality to layouts, with the support from their Perspicuity Success Manager, Percy Intranet provided the canvas and framework for Open GI to create an intranet that would be easy to maintain, keep pace with its innovative environment and introduce new voices and perspectives.
The Strategy:
Throughout the planning and development of the intranet, Perspicuity and Open GI closely collaborated in a series of workshops that involved multiple stakeholders from across the business. From the beginning, internal comms had active involvement, providing Perspicuity key insight into Open GI’s culture and ways of working. This approach, paired with Open GI’s vision, enabled the craft of an intranet which truly felt part of the organisation.
As part of the workshops, ‘Content Author Training’ provided the team at Open GI the skills and insights into publishing engaging content to keep the intranet fresh whilst providing a highly-personalised experience. At go-live, Open GI hosted a ‘comms festival’, formally launching the intranet to its 500+ employees which included guided / tutorial style content ensuring users could easily navigate the intranet alongside delivering messaging around the capabilities and purpose of the intranet. This festival ended up being the catalyst that drove high engagement and cemented trust with employees that this intranet was more than just documents and news, it was a space to connect and collaborate with meaning.
The Outcomes:
Since launch, the content authors have taken the reins of the intranet and introduced a highly interactive content strategy that’s driven colleagues to the intranet. It’s become self-sufficient and reduced the amount of mass emails being issued within the organisation. With high engagement of the intranet across all departments, it’s inspired new ways of working. With the introduction of Power Automate to automate manual processes internally and thanks to Viva Connections, Percy is now embedded within Microsoft Teams.
“After a thorough tendering process where we looked at a number of different companies to deliver our new intranet solution, Perspicuity came out on top from both a requirement and cost perspective. From day one, they have been engaging and willing to help on any matters, fully listening to our requirements and delivering a solution that has ticked the boxes. They also happily supported us within our Comms Festival during the launch, to ensure maximum engagement across the business at such a crucial time. We very much look forward to further developing our SharePoint intranet in partnership with the company.”
Nick Sturdy, Internal Communications Executive
