The City of Victoria is the local government organization that provides programs and services for the 85,000 citizens of Victoria proper, the capital city of British Columbia, Canada.
Challenge
An intranet is a private website for employees to easily access important company information and increase communication within an organization.
When the City of Victoria moved to a WordPress-based intranet site four years ago, the project team heard loud and clear what staff used the existing intranet for – locating the staff directory and other functional tools.
They knew that staff also wanted to use the intranet in the future to:
- know what other departments are doing.
- feel more connected to their colleagues.
However, the City’s WordPress intranet wasn’t meeting these needs and wasn’t functioning correctly. The site wasn’t engaging in design or functionality, and City staff weren’t using it to seek information. The City was losing the opportunity for people to feel connected to other parts of their organization. They also couldn’t use it to share organization-wide messaging.
The WordPress platform doesn’t offer many opportunities for employee engagement despite being the industry standard platform for building public websites. It also doesn’t provide adequate connectivity with the City’s file management system build in SharePoint.
Strategically we are laying the foundation for where we’re going to take the intranet in the coming years.
Heather Follis, Continuous Improvement Advisor, City of Victoria
Solution
Heather Follis, Continuous Improvement Advisor at the City, took on the role of Project Lead for the intranet refresh.
The City knew they wanted to move their intranet to Microsoft SharePoint Online, a modern web-based collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office and other modern workplace tools.
Having the intranet and the file management system build in SharePoint streamlines processes and unlocks new communication functionality. For example, Communication sites can allow departments to publish content internally or across the entire organization.
For the intranet refresh project, Heather liaised with Regroove to:
- determine the City’s requirements,
- determine which type of site would work,
- build the initial intranet structure, and,
- forklift content from WordPress to SharePoint.
Regroove handed the keys to the intranet over to Heather so she could work with the site before the launch. Their team were ready to assist before, during, and after the launch to answer questions, work through bugs, and troubleshooting as needed.
I liked how patient [the staff at Regroove] was. They were really good with working with me, making information and the process accessible to me in plain language.
Heather Follis, Continuous Improvement Advisor, City of Victoria
Outcome and Benefits
Heather can now easily manage intranet content herself without needing to know code or asking the IT Department for help. Microsoft designed the SharePoint content editor for information workers to use intuitively add, edit, and organize content.
It’s been a big help to me. I don’t have any type of development experience, yet it is simple for me to use. I can build new pages, move sections, and drag content around.
Heather Follis, Continuous Improvement Advisor, City of Victoria
Moving the intranet to SharePoint sets the foundation for really cool improvements planned for next year.
The City looks forward to having their team enhancing the site in-house, and exploring the engagement tools that SharePoint offers to increase collaboration and productivity.
This solution was built using:
- Microsoft SharePoint Online
- Microsoft Teams for project communication