17,000+
Users visited the intranet in one month
2:28
Average session duration
199k
User sessions recorded
2 clicks
All employee tools accessible in under 2 clicks
Building an intuitive, collaborative digital workplace accessible from any device requires the right provider. A leading public health company in the medical diagnostics sector discovered this when they partnered with Powell to modernize their intranet.
With over 12,000 employees, many of whom aren’t desk-bound, the medical diagnostics client needed a modern digital workplace to better meet their diverse needs.
About our client
A major French player in public health, specializing in medical diagnostics, our client has been operating for 50 years and now has a presence in over 40 countries. Among their more than 12,000 employees worldwide, approximately 3,000 work in production and development sites.
Challenges
The project originated from an outdated intranet that no longer met current needs. Employee demands had evolved, requiring new tools to manage their workload. Initial discussions revealed employees were using up to 15 unconnected applications daily, none accessible from a single location. They were also overwhelmed by top-down information from various stakeholders, much of which wasn’t relevant to their specific function or location.
A critical requirement was the ability to connect to the intranet from any device, as not all employees had a desktop – a capability their existing intranet lacked. Content creation was also a hurdle, as employees needed to easily create content themselves, without requiring technical HTML knowledge.
Given the company’s size and the numerous stakeholders involved, this digital transformation was a highly visible and ambitious “corporate” subject, making the implementation a high-pressure task. The public health company also faced a tight deadline for the first MVP, aiming to pilot it with 500 people within three months. There were also technical demands to connect the new digital workplace to all existing systems, each with varying degrees of complexity.
“The need for a modern & simplified intranet was evident. Employees were getting a lot of top-down information from different stakeholders, not all relevant to them, depending on their function and location.”
Objectives
Centralized resource access
Enhanced employee connection
Improved information delivery
The primary goal was to create a single, centralized platform that provides employees with access to all the resources they need for their workday, while also fostering a strong sense of belonging. Key objectives included:
- Engaging and optimizing the experience for all key stakeholders.
- Establishing an employee portal as the core of the digital employee experience.
- Simplifying the end-user experience and delivering targeted information to prevent overload.
- Centralizing all employee tools for easy access.
- Building a truly collaborative platform.
- Ensuring accessibility from any device.
- Enabling intuitive content creation without requiring HTML knowledge.
- Driving a digital transformation project to deliver a seamless experience for employees and customers.
Choosing the right provider
The medical diagnostics company chose Powell to guide them on this journey and build a digital workplace that would address all their needs. The decision was driven by several factors:
- Powell aligned with their strategic move towards Microsoft 365 tools, including Microsoft Teams.
- Powell demonstrated deep expertise in the field, offering constantly evolving and up-to-date solutions.
- Powell focused on providing an experience that actively encourages employee usage rather than merely pushing communication.
Implementation process
With Powell selected as the provider, the client also engaged an integrator to help launch the project. The strong relationship and mutual understanding between the project teams on all three sides were crucial to its success.
“We had people in front of us who knew how to adapt to our context, to our needs. There was a human side that made the difference.”
Throughout the build and implementation, employee experience remained a central focus. This was facilitated through workshops where employees provided feedback on their needs and pain points. The final solution was built with these insights in mind.
The client then worked on populating the intranet with content and launched a pilot of the digital workplace three months later. During the pilot, employee feedback was collected to determine how the solution could be deployed long-term across the entire organization. Results two months later were overwhelmingly positive.
Between February and May, a few improvements were made before the global launch to 10,000 employees worldwide. The project’s launch phase concluded at the end of September. In total, the project took a year to deliver a finished product.
Results & impact
The objective was to create an intuitive, truly collaborative digital workplace that offers a simplified end-user experience and avoids information overload. The finished product exceeded expectations.
The platform’s homepage automatically opens when users connect to their workstation, ensuring it’s the first thing they see. Users can then view content that interests them.
A communications slider provides everyone with visibility on the latest company news, internal job postings, company events, organizational changes, social network updates, and more.
‘My Essentials’ gathers company information relevant to all employees. All internal processes and rules provided by different departments are easily discoverable, with information stored and readily accessible.
Users can access their work tools in a dedicated tab, their dashboard, or “work cockpit.” Here, they find tools like Teams, tasks, documents, and links to OneDrive or Yammer. The client successfully achieved their goal of centralizing all employee work tools within a single platform, accessible in fewer than two clicks.
To further connect employees, the client included a cross-functional ‘communities’ space built around Yammer groups. Within these spaces, employees can find content on specific themes, such as public health, where departments with a shared interest can share documents, engage in discussions, and more. Finally, users can personalize content autonomously, choosing what they want to see.
Next steps
Once the intranet was ready, the client embarked on the crucial next step of training the entire workforce. It was important to involve the whole community and establish a system to ensure the platform remained up-to-date and continuously utilized.
Conclusion
The partnership with Powell enabled this leading medical diagnostics company to successfully transform its digital workplace, directly addressing employee needs for accessibility, tailored information, and streamlined collaboration.
