Case Study AOK

Unternehmenslogo der AOK Niedersachsen

AOK Intranet

With around 3 million insured people, AOK is the largest health insurance company in Lower Saxony.
It is characterized by its excellent service, a dense branch network and consultation services available via the Internet or by telephone.

To support its employees in their daily activities and provide them with access to important documents and information, AOK previously used an intranet system based on Microsoft SharePoint 2013. Over time, the AOK’s requirements changed, and the implementation of a new and modern intranet was envisaged.

AOK’s goal was to migrate its SharePoint 2013-based intranet without any changes to SharePoint 2019. However, it was not intended to be an intranet in the classic sense, but also to function as a knowledge management system. The aim was to make the accumulated employee know-how available to them for their daily activities, for example when talking to customers. Together with the Alight project team, the constraints of the design and structure for the intranet were redefined during various requirement-capturing workshops. This led to the realization that the new intranet would be developed on the basis of SharePoint 2019 modern instead of the classic version in order to better reflect these requirements.

“The decision for the implementation of SharePoint modern has already proven itself because we can react much more flexibly to internal adaptations and better depict requirements. Alight’s competent consultation was decisive here, and we are very pleased to have a future-oriented intranet.”

Doris Lungenstraß
Marketingleiterin AOK Niedersachsen

AOK’s intranet was very convoluted and hierarchical in structure. It consisted of a collection of web pages with many underlying pages. However, a modern and cloud-enabled solution would envision a flat structure with many groupings of websites and no sub-pages. Consequently, an on-premises solution with a new structure was implemented in this case, and it was nevertheless – like the new intranet – completely cloud-compatible in order for it to be well positioned for a later switch to the cloud, if required.

The intranet was then divided into three main areas. The first area represented the mapping of the organizational structure. The second main area was a thematic area. All relevant information about the company, insurance, benefits, and other information was stored there. The third and last main area was the collaboration area for the active exchange between employees.

During the development of the intranet, many different additional modules were developed. These included a dedicated mega menu, a web part for changing page properties, a search center, centrally defined and customizable favorites, and quick links, as well as many other modules. Based on this, AOK’s intranet was constructed step by step. The AOK news sections were divided into global news, regional news, and local news, all of which could be displayed on the start page.

Since My Site, a page in which employees could present themselves, was only available in the classic version of SharePoint 2019, a separate profile page was developed for this purpose, thus giving AOK employees the opportunity to present their profiles with a modern “look and feel”.
In addition to the development of the new intranet, there were also other additional tasks. One of these tasks was the establishment of the SharePoint 2019 farm in the test and production environment. Another task was the migration of almost all of the page content from the previous intranet into the new intranet, even though the structures had changed completely. Specially created scripts were used for this purpose. Furthermore, an area was added (navigator knowledge) that supported the employees by providing conversation guidelines during customer calls.

In summary, the AOK intranet was successfully implemented thanks to very good and agile collaboration in the project. Future tasks will include the continuous development and support of the intranet.

As the first major project after the central implementation of a new cooperate identity, the AOK Lower Saxony’s implemented intranet can now shine in its new green color.

AOK Lower Saxony

AOK is the largest public health insurance company in Lower Saxony, and its headquarters are located in Hanover, Germany. It provides healthcare for around 3 million insured people across the country. Spanning the area from the North Sea to the Harz Mountains, the health insurance provider has over 100 branch locations and around 6,800 employees. AOK relies on innovative concepts and digital solutions to ensure high-quality care for its insured customers.

Alight Consulting GmbH

The Alight Consulting GmbH company enables your IT to realize sustainable solutions for employees, customers, prospects and partners in the area of Microsoft SharePoint. To achieve this goal, our consultants provide you with their high level of technical know-how and their experience from projects in the field of large and medium-sized companies.