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The organisation encompasses 25 independent schools and academies across the UK, with a workforce of around 4,500 staff and 18,000 students. Around half the staff are dedicated to teaching and the other half are in support roles, such as catering and cleaning. Central support functions, such as finance, legal, and marketing, also play a crucial role in maintaining the intranet.
Given the unique mix of intranet users, including a large proportion of employees who may not spend much time in front of a computer, the organisation needed an intranet that catered to both light and heavy users. Mobile access and an app were also essential to engage colleagues who had never had access in this way before.
To address these needs, the client’s communications team worked with ClearBox to define intranet requirements and to select an intranet platform. The work, led by ClearBox’s Suzie Robinson, aimed to rapidly find the right intranet product and vendor for the client without demanding too much time from stakeholders.
The client faced an urgent need for a new intranet platform when a key supplier went out of business. The previous intranet, based on Moodle, was breaking down without support, necessitating a quick decision. The intranet was a core internal communications channel and served as a crucial policy repository, but the old system was cumbersome and difficult to update so there were plenty of opportunities for a new solution.
Some schools had resorted to creating their own Google Sites due to the outdated intranet, causing a split between local and trust-wide information. Additionally, with Microsoft Teams and SharePoint team sites in the mix, there were thousands of document files scattered across different platforms, adding to the frustration.
One team member noted, “The old intranet was difficult to update. Some individuals and schools would create their own Google Sites just to be able to get what they wanted online.”
The challenge was to bridge this gap with a new intranet that could manage both local school information and centralised content, while respecting both Microsoft and Google environments. This dual compatibility is a less common requirement and needed careful consideration to ensure seamless functionality across the entire group. The goal was to implement a hub-and-spoke model, allowing individual schools to publish and manage their own content while being part of the larger organisation.
The project team looked to ClearBox for external guidance to avoid being limited in their view of what an intranet could do. ClearBox’s independence and expertise in the market were crucial factors in their selection.
Faced with the need to make a swift decision, the team chose ClearBox’s Express Strategy Service. Its focused workshops proved to be the ideal approach to bring stakeholders together and agree the way forward. The sessions facilitated a shared understanding of the necessary changes to improve operations and helped identify the desired capabilities and non-functional requirements of the platform.
“The client faced the common digital workplace challenge of managing multiple systems and locations for vital information and services. ClearBox helped formulate a strategy that articulated the benefits of a new intranet, securing senior leadership buy-in for the business case at the same time,” said Suzie Robinson.
The workshops also helped ClearBox uncover longer-term strategic factors that hadn’t previously been considered. The consolidation of digital services and the possibility of opening the intranet to potentially 10,000 additional users, in the form of students, went beyond the initial list of requirements the client had anticipated.
Using our extensive knowledge of the market place based on years of research for our Intranet and EXP report [LINK], ClearBox presented a long list of eight potential solutions. This included standalone cloud-based intranet systems, SharePoint intranet in-a-box products, and employee mobile apps. From these, ClearBox recommended four solutions based on stakeholder expectations and specific product capabilities.
“We didn’t have to learn the market. ClearBox just brought all that knowledge to us and said, you don’t need to worry about these tens and tens of others. These four will suit you,” explained a member of the client’s comms team.
Ultimately, the recommended intranet solution came in below budget expectations. It can manage document files in both SharePoint and Google, ensuring no school is disenfranchised. The new platform will allow teams to continue using their preferred document collaboration tools within a unified experience.
The intranet will also serve as a navigation hub for the multitude of systems in use, helping colleagues find their way across the digital workplace on both desktop and mobile.
“If we had done all this research by ourselves, we would probably still be looking, because there are so many intranet products out there,” noted a member of the project team.
“Our independence and comprehensive knowledge of the market made ClearBox the right choice for the client. Our structured process, from initial requirements gathering to final vendor selection, ensured that the organisation could make an informed decision and implement a new intranet that met the diverse needs of its schools and staff,” explained Suzie.
ClearBox’s ability to address unique challenges, such as managing both Microsoft and Google environments and planning for future expansion to include students, school boards, and other local schools, was also critical.
“ClearBox’s independence was really what made us work with them, and their models and processes were outstanding.,” concluded the client.
