Corporate Intranet for Employee Self Service and Productivity
Business Problem:
Due to rapid growth within their organization, and a critical need to improve communication and access to information, a global provider of remote access, VPN, and security solutions for the enterprise market defined an initiative to design and implement a corporate Intranet Portal, to provide their employees with access to key data, information, business systems and automated processes. The goals of this initiative were twofold:
To improve productivity by enabling employee self service and access to all necessary, and authorized, corporate information and systems.
To aggregate all necessary data, information systems, and communication processes (e-mail, instant messaging, and collaboration) to end users in a personalized format, based on their role and function within the organization.
To develop a user friendly presentation and graphical format that would enhance user productivity and acceptance.
Through an analysis and requirements phase, the client recognized that many of the underlying systems and processes deemed critical to the success of this initiative were not yet developed or implemented. Analysis determined that the majority of the system requirements centered on document management, workflow automation, task management and collaboration. The client already utilized Lotus Domino and Notes as their messaging platform. A recommendation was proposed by RESolutions Consulting, an IBM Premier Partner and provider of E-business solutions, to leverage the workflow, communication, and collaboration features of Domino to provide an application platform and infrastructure for the Intranet Portal. Additional software tools, including IBM WebSphere Portal, would be integrated to provide personalization, customization, and graphical presentation capabilities based on system and business requirements.
Solution:
RESolutions worked with the client to design and implement a corporate Intranet and Portal platform, leveraging the integrated functionality of IBM WebSphere Portal Express and Lotus Domino. System functionality included access to the following information and applications, personalized for departmental or role based access:
- Marketing
- Product demonstrations
- Product information
- Market research
- Competitive information
- Press releases
- Calendars
- Collateral library
- RFP center
- Team communication tools
- Human Resources
- Access to corporate policies and procedures
- Access to websites for employee interests: 401(k), Healthcare, Payroll (ADP)
- Employee survey capability
- Corporate announcements
- Employee directory
- Finance
- Access to Expense Report Manager
- Secure area to share financial information with the Executive Team
- Ancillary company and financial information
- Security
- Customer service security alerts
- Authentication for remote e-mail
- Customer Service
- Links to commonly used URL’s
- Custom lists
- Project Management
- Non standard requests
- Entry forms
- Automated workflows
- Reports
Return on Investment (ROI):
The Intranet Portal platform now acts as the gateway to information and applications throughout the enterprise. It has facilitated and simplified the process of integrating and accessing disparate business applications and improved how employees manage and share mission-critical data, services and applications. Key benefits to the organization have included:
- Delivery of a single, browser based, point of access for end-users that provides customized and integrated access to key applications, content, and people, based on the users role and/or function within the organization.
- Improved collaboration and automation of workflow, communication, and business processes.
- Integrated, web-enabled access to enterprise systems and applications through a single sign-on strategy.
- Improved content management, personalization, and comprehensive searching capabilities.
