Intranet Development to Formalize Work Processes and Nurture Corporate Culture
Customer
The Customer is a North American manufacturing company that produces car keys and keys for locks and padlocks.
Challenge
The Customer didn’t have a centralized hub for all the company’s content, which manifested in ineffective document management and employee collaboration. Also, the Customer needed to formalize the company’s internal processes, which would make it easy for employees to learn and follow them. The Customer wanted to handle all these challenges with the help of an intranet. What’s more, the Customer needed an intranet with a range of social features to make it engaging for the employees and facilitate employee communication.
Solution
The Customer chose SharePoint Online as a basis for their corporate intranet and turned to ScienceSoft, an experienced SharePoint intranet developer, for assistance in intranet implementation.
To clarify the project scope, ScienceSoft’s team provided the Customer with detailed questionnaires. To elicit technical intranet requirements, our team analyzed the results of the questionnaires and discussed them with the Customer. Having gathered all the required information, ScienceSoft’s team built an intranet in conformity with the Customer’s needs. The focal elements of the intranet included:
Process map
The section contained the main process map that showed all business processes of the company, including production, supply management, maintenance, industrial safety, HR, and IT, and provided access to specific maps of these processes. For example, the production process map consisted of the following blocks: planning, production, process inspection, production release and quality control.
To facilitate process mapping, our team developed a custom builder. With the builder, the Customer’s dedicated employees can combine, frame and connect blocks with the lines according to the preset rules. What’s more, the system behind the builder analyzed the rules and recommended compatible blocks for connecting.
Document management
The company operated various types of documents like policies and technical specifications. To streamline document management, our team created an approval workflow using Microsoft Power Automate. With the help of the workflow, a document owner can send a document for review and two-step approval – by Quality Manager and Managing Director, which accelerated document-driven business processes.
Quick links
To enable easy access to the company’s key information, our team implemented quick links to process maps, documents, projects and policies. They also created a quick link to Microsoft Teams, which facilitated employee communication and collaboration.
Social features and branding
To increase employee engagement, our team implemented a number of social features for the intranet: news, events, surveys, idea sharing and birthdays. Next, our team introduced branded intranet design to make the intranet’s look and feel consistent with the company’s website and maintain the consistency of the company’s digital environment. The branded intranet also helped the Customer promote corporate culture, values and goals among employees.
Results
The Customer got a branded intranet with balanced business and social features that helped design, formalize and use business workflows with process map management, accelerate document approval, improve collaboration, raise employee engagement and nurture the corporate culture. Now, the employees can easily access the company’s content, create and edit process maps, track and share their opinions on the company’s news and events, and suggest ideas on the company’s business and social life.
Technologies and Tools
SharePoint Online, SharePoint Framework (SPFx), Microsoft Power Automate, JavaScript.
