How to Launch an Intranet Quickly - Creospark
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How to Launch an Intranet Quickly
Contents
Launch the intranet of your dreams, fast 3
5 simple steps to getting your intranet running within a week 5
Step 1: Decide on governance & include people 6
responsible for the intranet
Step 2: Plan which features & information 8
architecture you’ll need
Step 3: Migrate the needed content & tailor it to 10
look like you
Step 4: Make sure User Adoption & Digital Adoption 11
are up to speed
Step 5: Rapidly deploy & roll out your intranet 13
Preparation checklist: Key decision to make before launching 14
Case Study: The Wates Group 15
Your next step: Valo for Teams 18
Launch the
intranet of your
dreams, fast
Launching an intranet, or upgrading your old
company intranet, can feel overwhelming - and
that’s without the added complication of having
to implement one quickly. The rapid change on
having employees work remotely and internal
communication needing to be up to date fast has
made us create this handy guide to help you!
We know that digital leaders, who have a good
intranet platform in place, have had success in
maintaining business continuity even in crisis
situations. Yet to some it hasn’t been so easy.
Many are still using traditional trickle-down
communications methods, like email and, in
some consumer-facing companies, noticeboards
to communicate with their colleagues.
3
Clearly as working remotely is becoming the
new normal and in most places already is,
companies need to improve their internal
communications. For some this will be about
making better use of their existing intranets’
collaboration and ideation tools.
However, for many, it will be about starting
and accelerating their digital transformation
program, and as a first step - installing
an intelligent and modern intranet to
aid communication amongst their newly
distributed workforce.
An intranet is a front door to your digital
workplace. It has evolved from a simple
document management platform to a
solution that can improve communication
and collaboration between colleagues. And
having all of this in the comfort of your
communication tool of the day, Microsoft
Teams.
So, getting the basics right at the start
will be the difference between success and
failure of launching a successful intranet.
4
5 simple steps to getting
your intranet running
within a week
A perfect intranet doesn’t only empower your workforce, it will encourage
collaboration and improve employee engagement, which is essential for
maintaining healthy distributed teams.
Intranets are constantly evolving and the principles for a fast launch are the
same as those followed for longer projects, just condensed! The good news
is there’s never been a better time to launch an intranet fit for the future than
now!
The main thing is to launch the basic intranet product with the functional-
ities your organization requires and if needed, adapt it later on. We’ll help
you with everything from getting stakeholder buy-in, to who to invite on the
steering group, right through to getting your users excited about onboarding
and adoption.
5
5
5 simple
simple steps
steps to
to getting
getting your
your intranet
intranet running
running within
within a
a week
week
Step 1
Decide on governance & include
people responsible for the intranet
Who’s going to own the intranet in your company? Deciding who owns the
intranet platform is your number one priority and all foundation for successful
governance.
Gather together the heads of departments and get senior managements’
buy-in as a new intranet will mean undergoing some change management
or an adjustment in the workplace culture, so for example budget can’t be
undermined. Then, set up a steering group, that primarily includes IT, internal
comms, and an employee engagement rep.
Once you get the green light, then look at your end users’ needs and if
needed, consult a representative from each area of workforce to find out
what issues they need to address.
Adoption and user engagement are the key measures in how successful your
intranet will be, so don’t overlook them!
Read an interview of Meghan Strant, a Change Management Specialist about the
“why’s & how’s”: Change Management in Microsoft 365 is all about the people, not
the tech.
6
5 simple steps to getting your intranet running within a week
The next step is to nominate content editors. Smaller companies with less
than 2,000 users should look at content editors from Marcomms and IT
departments. Larger organizations will need more content editors to keep
information up to date with one or two overall editors.
If your workforce is spread out globally then look at separate hubs for each
sub-company or side branch especially if there are language differences
within the company. This way the content will resemble and be relevant to
the users who will read it and what’s best.
Valo Intranet’s multilingual feature
auto-translates your original publication to
spread the news in 20+ different languages.
7
5 simple steps to getting your intranet running within a week
Step 2
Plan which features & information
architecture you’ll need
As you are doing all this at a faster pace than usual, it’s important to separate
essential features and add-ons from non-essential ones.
Think about whether you need a mobile app, social features, news carousel,
ideation tools for sharing ideas, people finder directory, multilingual or event
hub for webinars?
With Valo, more features and add-ons can always be added
down the line and you’re not stuck with the ones you choose
initially!
Our Valo Partners can advise you which features you’ll need
straight away, and which you can add on at a later date.
8
5 simple steps to getting your intranet running within a week
When it comes to the perfect information architecture, also known as “where
should all the information go?” we’ve done the thinking for you.
Intranet information architecture is described to be the content structure
and framework of an intranet, meaning the relationship between catego-
rized and labeled content in relation to other content.
On top of the normal page templates Valo Intranet offers, there are simple,
easy to use additional templates that’s particularly useful when time is of the
essence, such as the Crisis Management template.
Read 10 more best practices for planning your intranet information architec-
ture from this blog post!
Valo Intranet is a ready to go solution built on top of
SharePoint and Office 365 that integrates seamlessly
to Microsoft Teams.
As an in-a-box solution, it has a ready-made information
architecture structure that you can use straight away.
9
5 simple steps to getting your intranet running within a week
Step 3
Migrate the needed content & tailor
it to look like you
Your users will instantly need to feel at home within your portal. An intranet
is a journey, not a destination.
If you have content to migrate, don’t move it all at once, as this will slow your
deployment down. Just pick out what it important now - essential company
information, policies, human resources documents. You can revisit what
content to migrate at a later date. In fact, this might even be an opportunity
to start from scratch with fresh content!
Having populated your intranet with your content and branded your intranet
to match the company brand, you may want to give it a name. This helps give
it a more personal feel for users and adds personality and purpose to your
intranet platform.
It creates a sense of ownership so rather than telling people to “check on the
intranet”, it’s far more appealing to be told, “look on Edi”, for example.
105 simple steps to getting your intranet running within a week
Step 4
Make sure User Adoption & Digital
Adoption are up to speed
Your new intranet will be the “central office” so staff needs to start using it
asap. If your employees are working from home, the chances are they’ll be
missing the daily coffee machine chats.
So why not use your intranet to bring a bit of lightheartedness back into their
lives? You could run competitions to keep staff engaged. Regarding your
new intranet’s functionality, there will inevitably be things you can improve.
Poll your colleagues for feedback, and if it’s relevant, act upon it when things
settle down.
For more help on improving user adoption watch one of our webinars on
How to boost intranet adoption for your end users.
While having the Valo Intranet in your use, there’s an Admin
Toolpack that will focus on user adoption, content, and analytics
around them to improve your communications.
115 simple steps to getting your intranet running within a week
Digital Adoption
The other side of User Adoption is Digital Adoption, meaning training your
staff and implementing the workflows behind the tools and apps in your
digital workplace.
It’s important to get the users to implement the tools into their daily rituals
from the start and keep the processes in line and up to date in a digital
workplace.
Building an ambassador network is
a great bottom-up strategy. This helps the
organization to figure out what works, what
doesn’t and how to move forward. These
ambassadors can also hold “Ask Me Anything”
-sessions and such, which are a cost-effective
way to improve user adoption.
The 20/80 rule applies here as well.
20 percent of the success of the project is
about technique, 80 percent of the success of
this project is about adoption.
Maarten Eekels,
Chief Digital Officer and Managing Partner at Portiva,
Microsoft Regional Director and MVP
Read what else Maarten has to say about adoption: What is digital adoption
& How to do it.
125 simple steps to getting your intranet running within a week
Step 5
Rapidly deploy & roll out your
intranet
Launch your site! It’s okay not to have everything perfect right from the
start. Remember, an intranet is a living organism. It will evolve and will be
constantly iterated along the way.
It’s best to start small and get some features and structures in place right
away, which you can and should always expand on later. This is the best way
to get instant results!
Once the intranet is launched, encourage your colleagues to download the
mobile app. Their mobiles are always on their reach so it’s the perfect way
you can send important messages or up to date news directly to the app,
which are pretty hard to miss!
Valo Intranet is fast to deploy - and cost-effective. Whereas
previously, it could take an IT and communications team
between six and 12 months to launch an intranet, with Valo,
customers can have their new intranet up and running in just
one week and inside Microsoft Teams!
135 simple steps to getting your intranet running within a week
Preparation checklist:
Key decision to make
before launching
Take a look before starting your intranet planning and launch process!
This is where you start the whole intranet deployment process to ensure its
success.
Governance
Who’s going to own the intranet in your company?
Information architecture & Features
Where’s all the information going go? What features are needed
now and in the future?
Content migration & Branding
What to content should you migrate, and when, if any? Does this
visual look of the intranet represent our brand?
User Adoption & Digital Adoption
Do you and your users know which tools to use for what type of
comms? Have the users been trained properly?
Launch & use the mobile app
It’s launch day! Have you asked your team to download the mobile
app so they can get news and documents on the go?
14Case Study:
The Wates Group
+ Industry: Construction, Development and Property Services
+ Country: UK
+ Company Size: 1,001 – 5,000 users
A current Valo customer The Wates Group needed a new intranet platform
to help its staff collaborate more effectively. Because their former intranet
was outdated, staff were using unmanaged social apps as a way to collab-
orate and communicate. In addition, their reliance on email as a communi-
cation tool resulted in excess email traffic and was proving to be an
ineffective way to connect.
155 simple
Case steps
Study: ThetoWates
getting your intranet running within a week
Group
Wates wanted their new intranet to leverage their investment in Office 365
and SharePoint and to keep up to date in a changing Microsoft landscape to
deliver new innovative functionality.
They wanted an easy to configure product without the need for an extensive
project. As a large percentage of Wates’ staff work in a distributed way, it
was vital they still felt part of the group. Therefore, they wanted a mobile app
to allow users to check on the latest news and access documents on the go.
The Wates Group worked with an UK Valo Premium Partner company Pythag-
oras, who suggested that Valo Intranet was the best choice for their needs.
As an in-a-box product, it requires very little time to be operational and is
built on Office 365 and SharePoint platforms.
We’ve been very happy by
the introduction of Valo Intranet. It’s
completely changed the way we as
a business communicate with each
other. It’s made everything much
more visible, transparent and fun!
Nicola Savage
Communications and Marketing Director at
The Wates Group
165 simple
Case Study:
steps
ThetoWates
getting
Group
your intranet running within a week
To help engage staff, Wates ran a competition to name the new intranet. The
name “Edi” was chosen, providing a personality for their “Employee Digital
Interface”.
Wates was keen to encourage enthusiasm for the new intranet early on so
they shared the anticipated benefits of Edi and Yammer. They set up training
sessions and put out a video walk through to increase engagement.
Read the full Case Study The Wates Group: Valo’s modern intranet trans-
forms internal comms for construction company.
175 simple steps to getting your intranet running within a week
Your next step:
Valo for Teams
In a world where teams are remote, or distributed, Microsoft Teams has
become the heart of digital workplaces.
However, it is vital to have one central place containing all the informa-
tion from news to documents. Intranet is the online gateway for your orga-
nization, helping you to keep your employees connected, informed, and
engaged.
Valo turns Teams into a full-blown
corporate communications tool
By launching an intranet, like the Valo Intranet, that is inte-
grated directly into your Microsoft Teams environment, you
offer your staff the tools they need to work efficiently right at
where they spend most of their days anyway.
Learn more valointranet.com
about Valo for Microsoft Teams
18Fall in with your
digital workplace
Build a better way to
communicate
Valo Intranet is easy to use, beautiful to look at and ensures your
employees stay engaged with helpful information.
valointranet.com
Microsoft Teams
@ValoIntranetPowered By
About Creospark
Creospark is the only Valo Premium Partner in Canada and a Microsoft Gold Partner.
Creospark’s goal is to transform your workplace into an enthusiastic environment for your
people to work better, faster, and smarter. We hold Microsoft Gold competencies in Small &
Midmarket Cloud Solutions as well as competencies in Identity, Security, Collaboration, Content
Services and Messaging.
We pride ourselves in being one of the few partners in Canada who have Microsoft Most
Valuable Professionals (MVPs). We believe that in the ever-changing digital environment, it is
extremely important to harness the power of the cloud.
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