Global engineering and manufacturing group
About the global engineering and manufacturing group
Our client is a listed global engineering and manufacturing group. working in several highly niche and specialist areas. The company employs around 40,000 people in locations around the world, many of whom are frontline staff. The group has a highly complex structure, working across different divisions and regions, while also operating multiple brands. It is also highly acquisitive and regularly needs to onboard new offices and groups.
The challenge: A custom intranet no longer fit for purpose
The group had a custom SharePoint intranet that was no longer fit for purpose and was reaching the end of its life. It was failing to deliver effective communications and personalised experiences to a highly diverse employee base. Content governance, the publishing experience, and search were poor and declining. As a result, adoption and trust in the intranet were rapidly waning.
The client was looking for external guidance on a new intranet solution that would meet the strategic goals of the internal communications team and help employees get things done at multiple levels— global, regional, division/brand, country, and location.
The team not only wanted to articulate an intranet strategy and roadmap to take things forward but also identify a suitable intranet software product and an operating model that would ensure the intranet would be sustainable and successful for years to come.
Solution: Detailed user research reflecting a complex structure and diverse workforce
A combined project group from the communications and IT teams engaged Spark Trajectory to ensure the company's next intranet would tick all the right boxes and deliver a world-class user experience.
After our kick-off process, we undertook an extensive discovery exercise involving user and stakeholder interviews right across the world. We spoke to employees from multiple countries and in different roles— from those on site still wearing hard hats to support functions working in HQ.
We also spoke to multiple stakeholders, including the core intranet team as well as those responsible for processes relating to key user journeys. We also synthesised existing user research carried out by the internal comms team.
We had vast amounts of interview and survey data, which we codified and analysed using our Task Trajectory user journey mapping framework. We used our collaborative environment to support this, as it is optimised around our user research process.
Defining an intranet strategy and operating model
From this data, we produced an outline intranet strategy and roadmap and highly detailed visual representations of key user journeys covering areas such as internal communications, search, IT support, legal and risk, and other core processes. This provided exceptional levels of detail which could be used to align stakeholder views and also design intranet content further down the line.
Given the complexity of the employee base, we also layered recommendations for personalisation across the different user journeys and also within the overall intranet strategy.
Once these had been played back to the team, we then worked on an accompanying governance and operating model, which would help ensure the long-term success of the intranet at both the global and the local level. It also covered specific publishing models to support both internal communications and essential reference content.
Picking the perfect intranet product
With the strategy signed off, we then worked on a draft set of functional and non-functional requirements for the new intranet. Through a number of workshops, these were approved and rated by the core team using the popular MoSCoW framework.
From this, we were able to start work on recommending an intranet product. Using our extensive knowledge of and contacts within the intranet software market, we first identified a long list of eight solutions (including SharePoint Online). Following another workshop, we then used our Spark Trajectory Product Evaluation Matrix to reduce these down to three solutions, where we engaged with vendors to evaluate suitability to the requirements in more detail and get indicative costs.
Outcome: A next-generation intranet that delivers
Finally, we made our recommendations to the client, putting them in a position of strength to finally implement a new intranet that meets employee needs and delivers effective internal communications across a highly complex, global organisation.
We can't wait to see the intranet that is currently being implemented in operation and are confident it will deliver value for years to come.