Increasing productivity and version controlling online in real-time have made the new intranet a hit inside a marketing company Loyalty NZ with two branches.
- Industry: Marketing
- Country: New Zealand
- Company Size: under 250 users
Starting Point – a useless intranet in a marketing company where collaboration is a key: “We had a stale intranet, which lacked excitement and was causing us to lose productivity,” tells Paula Keene, CTO of Loyalty NZ. “Employees were reluctant to use it and would find alternative paths for communication. It was inefficient and didn’t integrate with other toolsets, such as Skype and Office 365.”
Loyalty NZ specializes in the intelligent use of big data to help businesses know more about what their customers want and how they can best deliver it. It is best known for the Fly Buys program, which has over two million members across 70% of New Zealand households. LAB360, the company’s specialist data analytics and insights business, helps companies use data to finesse business strategy and get outstanding results.
Solution – a cloud-based solution to foster online collaboration: Loyalty NZ has been moving systematically to a more cloud-based infrastructure which involves migrating to Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint as well as revamping its aging intranet to foster closer online collaboration.
After a comprehensive evaluation, the company chose Fujitsu, global certified Valo Partner, to build Valo as their new Digital Workplace. Managing work is easier and the solution provides a rich social platform with an intuitive and engaging user experience.
Benefits – a new center for internal communications: Valo Intranet offers a rich platform for all Loyalty NZ’s communication needs. The Valo Digital Workplace makes managing work easier while providing a rich social platform for employees. It is the center of all internal communication, teamwork and provides all the features Loyalty NZ needs – along with an intuitive and engaging user experience.
From 65 competing intranet solutions, Valo was the only solution to meet all the needs
The company designed a two-fold process to ascertain precisely what it wanted a new intranet to deliver and to rigorously assess the technical options available on the market. Initially, it identified 65 competing solutions that supported the deployment of SharePoint Online, which is then narrowed down to six for a more comprehensive evaluation based on several key criteria.
“We locked in the stakeholder requirements, including mobility, intuitive collaboration, single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and social media integration,” adds Keene and continues with why Valo Partner Fujitsu NZ was selected: “In-country support was also incredibly important to us, so we wanted a partner with local presence and global reach.”
A customizable hub for collaboration in six weeks
“Each business unit had an established spokesperson to feed into the analysis and development of the intranet. We then leaned on Fujitsu to do the heavy lifting when it came to investigating and deploying the new platform,” continues Keene. “There was a considerable amount of functionality that we had already built and wanted to hold on to, such as specific workflows, single sign-on as well as HR and financial systems. Fujitsu and Valo were confident they could migrate and integrate all these into the new solution.”
After six weeks, the new intranet was fully deployed and integrated, supporting 130 users across two sites in Auckland and Wellington. It provides a branded portal, based on SharePoint, which enables employees to share information, communicate and update social media via their desktop or using a tailored mobile app. News publishing, blogging, templates, alerts, and events are just some of the features now available at the touch of a button.
We are a marketing organization so having the social media and collaboration aspect was really important. That was a key element of what Fujitsu and Valo delivered.
Performance, productivity, and panache
Loyalty NZ has been immediately impressed with the performance and functionality provided by the new Valo Intranet. Project documents, which once were stored locally, making collective editing a chore, are now all available online in real-time. This increases productivity and reduces the need for version control. Meanwhile, its simplicity and ease of use have made it a hit with employees.
This is a completely new intranet and yet we needed no training because it is all so intuitive. No matter where I am, I can use my phone to review documents or even book flights; everything is accessible.
“In addition, we have built extensive document libraries that connect to our file-server data, so everyone can retrieve the information they need whenever they need it. Valo Intranet is also reducing the burden on the IT team and fresh up internal resources. Whereas the old intranet needed constant attention, this solution simply gets on with the job: “We don’t have to feed and water the OS as it is all taken care of by Valo, therefore the administration involved has disappeared entirely,” remarks Keene.
Loyalty NZ is delighted with this next stage in its evolution as a company, which has made it more productive. It is now undertaking discovery workshops to see how data is used and how it can be more effectively and securely shared to further evolve the platform.
“Put simply, rubbish technology impacts on our employees’ daily lives, so why would we tolerate sub-standard tools? Fujitsu has given us the right tools to do our jobs and has created a positive change in our culture,” concludes Keene. “It has enabled us to become properly collaborative and we are really excited to see where this digital transformation leads us.”
This customer case is originally posted on Fujitsu New Zealand’s website.
***
Are you interested to become one of the over a million happy Valo users? Book a demo with us and we’ll show how you can have an intuitive intranet that goes where ever you go.
