Social Intranet with Microsoft 365

The development of a global intranet for the WAGNER Group was an important step in improving both communication as well as collaboration between the various international locations, thus creating a company-wide entity.

A homogeneous intranet, based on a uniform technology and structure was the WAGNER Group’s goal. Under the umbrella of a corporate identity, all employees should be given worldwide access to information. The social intranet based on Office365 provides a common base with which the employees have access to all of the relevant information and a simplified internal communication tool via Yammer. The main focus is on search functions, news feeds, document libraries and communities for the individual teams. A modern and intuitive design creates a clear structure and the mobile connection to the intranet makes access available all of the time. An easy and fast exchange of information can now take place globally. Thanks to the excellent interaction of the interdisciplinary teams, a pilot was able to be made available within a few weeks and the project was able to be implemented within two months. Afterwards, it was rolled out to the other locations. Taking into consideration the extensive change management, the introduction of the new intranet became a very successful project. The results are sustainable.

“The global intranet opened up a new dimension of collaboration for the WAGNER Group! We were happy to have found a business partnership with Alight, who not only helped us with the technical development of this state-of-the-art intranet but who also understood the corporate culture and the diversity of internal requirements and translated them into a convincing solution.”

Lisa Wenderoth
Projektleitung

The WAGNER Group placed great importance on an intuitive homepage that is divided into the two areas of Activity Stream and Corporate News. The Activity Stream is intended to provide employees with a faster overview of information and to make simple, multi-site interaction possible. The Corporate News and the Office News, on the other hand, provide company-wide news and information targeted to a specific location. The intranet is split into five areas. Consisting of general information about Wagner “We@Wagner”, divisions, locations, team pages, and employee profiles. These pages then branch out into company information, workspaces, news, policies and social features. The intranet offers both management and employees all of the necessary information at a glance. Project pages, as well as team pages, promote cooperation and predefined guidelines are now available as a collection to the employees.

The mega menu ensures an easy navigation, which summarizes the most important topics into three main points and allows for further options. The access is granted by linking the local active directories to the Azure active directory via a single sign-on. To ensure that worldwide, employees could quickly find their way around the intranet, the so-called “Intranet Help” with tutorials and tips on using the various features was made available to them. To facilitate global collaboration, the main menu is available in German, English, and Chinese. Using the implementation of a responsive design, the menu is also easily able to be used on the go. A simplified search function, which also displays contents from Yammer, rounds off the successful project.

“The corporate-wide intranet that we implemented, with Alight’s support, within a short period of time, using flexible cooperation and on a budget, will permanently change the way WAGNER Group operates. All levels and divisions benefited right after the launch from the results of the project.”

Markus Moßmann
Group Vice President IT