Case study

Conducting an intranet audit

The Situation:

I was asked by a global professional services firm to conduct an intranet audit. Their old intranet was no longer fit for purpose and they wanted to understand what platform to replace it with.

Their workforce was based across multiple global locations and were growing rapidly through merger and acquisition, so they needed a tool that would help them communicate more effectively. 

The task:

To advise my client on the best tool, I needed to understand the organisation, how it currently communicated, what people need from an intranet and internal communication to be able to do their job effectively, and what the current IT roadmap was.

The action:

I spent two days a week on site in London conducting desk research, a survey, focus groups, and interviews.

The survey was translated into three languages to make it accessible to all employees. Interviews were conducted with leadership, key stakeholders and representatives from offices all around the world.

I also spent time with the IT team. It was important that I understood their IT roadmap so that anything I suggested would be complementary.

I then conducted external research into the different platforms available at that time.

The result:

I created a comprehensive report of my findings and recommendations which was presented to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and his team.

In addition to recommending a platform, I also provided guidance on creating a clear purpose for the intranet, setting objectives, measurement and intranet best practice. I then broke my final section into phases.

The first phase looked at what actions needed to be taken before a new intranet could be implemented such as improving the Active Directory and hiring an intranet product manager to oversee the roll out.

The second phase looked at reviewing all content on the existing site and suggesting various functionality that was needed based on my findings as well as any specific team requirements.

Phase 3 looked at the role of the internal communication team in supporting the intranet, processes and ways of working.

The CMO said: “With very little steer, Helen navigated our company (over 6,500 employees in more than 80 countries), spoke to many, many stakeholders and delivered a report that I consider the best business case (inc internal and external research findings, recommendations and a roadmap) I have encountered in recent times. Helen’s work fully met the brief and delivered on time whilst being a pleasure to deal with. I look forward to working with Helen again in the future.”

 

“With very little steer, Helen navigated our company (over 6,500 employees in more than 80 countries), spoke to many, many stakeholders and delivered a report that I consider the best business case (inc internal and external research findings, recommendations and a roadmap) I have encountered in recent times. Helen’s work fully met the brief and delivered on time whilst being a pleasure to deal with. I look forward to working with Helen again in the future.”

Project CMO