Silversands guides Optivo to build a better SharePoint intranet

Optivo is one of the largest affordable housing providers in the UK, with over 45,000 homes and 90,000 tenants across London. Optivo invests heavily in neighbourhood community programmes, helping its residents with training, careers advice, financial and digital inclusion so they can develop their potential and live their best lives.

Technology used :

SharePoint Online

What were the challenges?

Existing ‘Connect’ intranet was inflexible, difficult to update, and presented a poor user experience
The Optivo SharePoint lacked experience in intranet design.

What was the solution?

Silversands proposed our ‘Modern SharePoint Intranet Envisioning’ accelerator process to guide and advise Optivo on the development of a replacement intranet, OptiNet.
Silversands knowledge and experience was passed to Optivo through several interactive workshops and follow-up sessions
The Optivo comms team developed the new OptiNet intranet, using the knowledge gained from the workshops.

What were the results?

The resulting intranet is easier to navigate better to search and more attractive to the users
The content admins find the site easier to manage and update
Optivo is very happy with the end result and found the Silversands input invaluable

Like most organisations, Optivo uses an intranet to communicate with its staff. Known as Connect, the original Optivo intranet was built on SharePoint 2013.

In 2017, following an organisational merger, SharePoint Online services began to be integrated into the intranet. This hybrid SharePoint on-premises/online intranet continued to be used for many years but there were several issues.

Essentially, the intranet was not suited to Optivo’s requirements, so in 2020, and as part of a wider strategic vision for collaboration and comms across the organisation, the comms team decided to re-think the entire solution. They looked at several options, including some non-Microsoft solutions, but ultimately decided that SharePoint Online would be the most appropriate path.

Background

Various sites and information were not joined up
Searching for content was very difficult
Navigation and usability were poor
Updating the site was difficult, time-consuming and inflexible
It was not possible to make full use of the power of SharePoint Online and the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Since the comms team did not have a wide experience in intranet design, they determined that external assistance would be desirable. Optivo already had a relationship with Silversands and so we were asked for our advice.

the solution

To support Optivo’s requirement and based on their existing skills and knowledge, we suggested our Modern SharePoint Intranet Envisioning accelerator would be the best option.

This is a self-contained offering, designed to provide organisations like Optivo with knowledge, advice and guidance, which can feed into a solution development using internal resources. It is an archetypal example of the ‘teach them to fish’ principle.

The accelerator process primarily encompasses several workshops, covering the various topics that are relevant to an intranet design.

In each workshop, the Silversands consultant helped to uncover the key requirements, provided advice based on their years of SharePoint experience, and demonstrated configuration and solution development practices to illustrate and reinforce the topics.

After each workshop, the Optivo team would go away to develop their new intranet, based on the discussions and information provided by the Silversands consultant. If they needed further help with the development, they would make use of a support contract to speak to a consultant or developer.

At the end of the process, the team had gained enough knowledge to successfully develop and deliver the new Optivo intranet, OptiNet.

solution

Our Modern SharePoint Envisioning Accelerator was recommended
Search
Personalisation
Site architecture
Uncovering the key requirements
Demonstrating configuration and solution development practices
Summary/wrap-up and Q&A.

What did the client say?

The time spent with James was invaluable in helping us to pull together our vision and plan for the intranet redevelopment. After those sessions, we had a lot more clarity about what we were going to do, how we were going to do it and the best way to do it.

Tom Key, Digital Services Manager

the results

Before the project started, the Optivo comms team had limited knowledge and experience of intranet design and the envisioning process was invaluable in helping them to understand how to design and build an effective intranet on SharePoint Online.

The comms team surveyed the users both before and after the project, and the results clearly show a significant improvement has been achieved.

Since the most important aspect of any intranet is how the users engage with it, the OptiNet project can clearly be counted as a success. Furthermore, the comms team has gained valuable knowledge and experience to support ongoing development and improvements.

We’re really happy with how the project went and we’re looking forward to enhancing it even more with Silversands’ help to take advantage of the capabilities of SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365.

Tom Key, Digital Services Manager, Optivo

what were the benefits

It is much easier and more flexible to update content
Search is improved and is available across the whole site
Navigation is improved
The look & feel of the site is more attractive to the users
The intranet is more intuitive for both users and content admins.

check out the optivo video!

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