In today’s fast-paced business environment, solving organizational challenges effectively requires not only understanding the problems but also leveraging existing technology to create impactful solutions. As a digital transformation firm that is customer-centric and looks to solve problems in a sustainable way, we often recommend to our clients to utilize the company’s current tech stack to address inefficiencies and enhance productivity. Recently, we partnered with a civil engineering firm facing significant collaboration and information management issues across its nine locations. By deploying a tailored Microsoft SharePoint intranet solution, we aimed to streamline their processes, improve accessibility to crucial information, and foster better collaboration among their teams. This case study illustrates our problem-solving approach and the transformative results achieved through this strategic implementation.
Problem
A growing civil engineering firm with nine locations across different regions in the U.S. faced significant challenges in collaboration and information sharing. Key issues included:
Inefficient Collaboration: Teams struggled with communication and collaboration across different locations, leading to document duplication, project delays and inefficiencies.
Accessibility of HR Forms and Information: Employees had to continually reach out to the HR department for forms and receive information that is specific to a specific state. The HR Department was comprised of only one employee.
Timely Submission of Timesheets: The firm required timesheets to be submitted weekly using their Project Management platform. They continually experienced delays in timesheet submissions, which had a direct impact to weekly financial forecasts by the Finance team.
Knowledge Sharing: There was no centralized way to access information about the expertise and skills of professionals across the firm, leading to underutilization of available talent.
The Solution: Looking inwardly at your Tech Stack
Digital transformation is not merely about adopting new technologies; it is about systematically evaluating and addressing organizational challenges to drive efficiency and innovation. This philosophy involves a thorough analysis of existing problems and leveraging the tools already available within the organization’s tech stack. Often, businesses do not need new tools but rather a deeper understanding and better utilization of their current resources. Microsoft exemplifies this approach with its comprehensive suite of tools, including SharePoint, Teams, and Power Automate, which provide versatile solutions for a wide range of business needs. By effectively utilizing these tools, organizations can achieve significant improvements without the need for additional investments, ensuring a more strategic and cost-effective transformation.
To address these challenges, we proposed and implemented a comprehensive intranet solution using Microsoft SharePoint. This solution aimed to enhance collaboration, streamline HR processes, improve timesheet management, notify staff in all office locations of important upcoming events, directives, provide a central repository for all contracts, teaming agreements, and MNDAs that are required for all engagements, and facilitate knowledge sharing across the firm’s nine locations.
Our Approach
Needs Assessment and Planning:
Conducted a series of detailed workshops with stakeholders from various departments to understand their specific requirements and pain points.
Mapped out the existing workflows and identified areas for improvement.
Design & Customization
Designed a user-friendly intranet layout that catered to the firm’s branding and organizational structure. (Tip: Microsoft has pre-defined templates that you can leverage as a starting point.)
Customized SharePoint templates to include necessary features such as document libraries, HR portals, external links, calendar, and a skills database.
Collaboration Tools
Implemented SharePoint Team Sites for project collaboration, allowing teams to share documents, track project milestones, and communicate seamlessly.
Integrated Microsoft Teams for real-time communication and collaboration.
HR Portal
Automated workflows for common HR processes like leave requests and performance reviews.
Timesheet Management
Integrated with the firm’s existing payroll system to ensure accurate and timely payroll processing.
Knowledge Sharing
Enabled tagging and categorization of skills to facilitate easy discovery of expertise across the firm.
Results
The implementation of the SharePoint-based intranet solution yielded significant improvements across the firm’s operations:
Enhanced Collaboration: Teams reported improved communication and collaboration, leading to more efficient project execution and reduced delays. Project sheets, were a big hit! Project Sheets were one-pager project summaries that allowed the team to quickly access project information that were used during the proposal development process.
Centralized HR Information: Employees could easily access HR documents and forms, reducing the administrative burden on HR staff and improving compliance with HR policies.
Streamlined Timesheet Submission: Making the firm's timesheet link available via a QuickLink on the platform, while an extremely simply solution was revolutionary. Making the platform easily accessible significantly improved compliance with the timesheet submission and financial forecasting processes.
Improved Knowledge Sharing: The skills database enabled better utilization of in-house expertise, fostering cross-functional collaboration and reducing the need for external hiring.
Phase 2: Mega Menu and Department-Specific Pages
Following the successful initial implementation, Phase 2 focused on enhancing navigation and the creation of department specific pages.
Mega Menu Implementation:
Designed and implemented a mega menu in SharePoint to provide intuitive and comprehensive navigation across the intranet.
Organized links to various sections, making it easier for users to find relevant information and resources quickly.
Department-Specific Pages:
Developed dedicated pages for each department, tailored to their specific needs and workflows.
Included relevant document libraries, task lists, and communication tools to streamline departmental operations.
Driving user adoption was crucial to the success of the SharePoint intranet implementation. We collaborated closely with the internal IT team to set the SharePoint site as the default homepage on employees' browsers, ensuring it became the central hub for daily activities. To address cybersecurity concerns and foster a culture of secure practices, we integrated cybersecurity training into the intranet and linked completion of these trainings to employee incentives. Additionally, we provided a series of self-paced training videos on the platform, allowing employees to learn at their own pace and become proficient with the new tools. This multi-faceted approach ensured that employees were not only compelled to use the new intranet but were also equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to maximize its benefits. To measure success, we actively monitored utilization through the integrated page analytics
In conclusion, the SharePoint-based intranet solution successfully addressed the firm’s challenges, leading to increased productivity, streamlined processes, and enhanced utilization of talent across the organization. This case study demonstrates the power of Microsoft SharePoint technology in transforming internal operations and fostering a collaborative and efficient work environment. #microsoft #digitaltransformation #processimprovement #sharepoint #shortpoint #intranet #employees #engagement #collaboration #implementation #govtech #onpointe #govtechtrends #programcontrols #cx #organizationalchange #changeagent #civilengineering #leadership #innovation #dashboard #storytelling #data #customerservice
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