How Clafis uses their social intranet to organize an accessible Microsoft 365 landscape for everyone

Branch: Business
Staff: 450
Workspace since: 2019

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In October of this year, we had a conversation with Paul Goedhart. Paul works as an ICT specialist at Clafis Ingenieus. Clafis is a nationally operating engineering firm with over 450 employees. In addition to the office in Groningen, where we spoke to Paul, Clafis has six other branches throughout the Netherlands. Clafis is now among the top 17 engineering firms in the Netherlands.

Since October 1, 2019, Clafis has been using a social intranet with Microsoft 365 integration. The intranet, named Bert, is named after Clafis' founder: Bert Jonker.

We spoke with Paul, among other things, about Clafis' choice for a social intranet, the role that the link with Microsoft 365 plays within it, and how 'Bert' stimulates online collaboration and improves internal connection within the organization.

Looking for a real collaborative platform

“Before Clafis joined Embrace, it already had an intranet, but that was just a very static intranet. In terms of content, it was fairly well filled and already had a number of interactive components here and there. '

“But we were looking for a real collaborative platform. A platform that makes it possible to give projects a place. A platform, preferably, that makes it possible to communicate widely and to work together online. From top down to bottom up. Just go in all directions,” says Paul.

Clafis is family C

“We have so many offices, seven in total. We always say: Clafis is 'family C' and we are one together. Then we think you should also stimulate that online. Offline, we were already doing very well. Among other things, by organizing events, such as expertise sessions, quarterly meetings and drinks. But how can you also achieve that connection online? Because that's what we wanted. At the time that we asked ourselves that question, the term “social intranet” began to be heard in the market. '

“At that time, Clafis started investigating. And that investigation subsequently showed that the platform (Embrace Workspace, ed.) not only suited our technical needs, but certainly also social ones: bringing people into contact with each other. '

“Ask your questions. It gives you something.”

“And the platform offered users the opportunity to ask each other questions,” Paul continues. “The following is such a typical example that highlights the power of Embrace:”

“Someone is asking a question on the intranet about 'megging' (measuring the resistance that insulation offers to electrical current, ed.). This resulted in eight responses from people distributed throughout the organization. Reactions from others, for example, who are also interested in that topic or who are also curious about the answer. And of course, among those answers, there is also the best answer. This is then marked as the “best answer” by the questioner. '

“Should someone search for 'meggeren' in the future, they will find this question, the responses and the best answer via the intranet. I think we can highlight this even better: Ask your questions. It gives you something. '

“After all, you may wonder how long it would have taken the questioner differently to get to the right person and the right answer.”

A label for everyone, a label for the internal organization

Clafis' social intranet will be set up in the first quarter of 2021 according to the multi-label principle. This means that various organizational units get a personalized place on the intranet. At Clafis, this will be divided according to groups.

“At first glance, it may seem logical to do this classification based on the seven locations, but you really have to assign it based on groups. That is the simplest thing. Then you just know that, for example, you have the commercial heart or everyone in HR. '

“There will be one label for everyone, for all locations. Here you will find the general information. And then there is a separate label for the internal organization. It's more intended for reference works. '

“For example, if you're joining us as an engineer and you need a car, you'd like to know which cars to choose from and where you can then arrange it. But when it comes to the underlying agreements with the leasing companies, you don't necessarily need to know that, but that commercial person or the HR department does. '

Project groups and project codes

“Even before Clafis joined Embrace, she used Microsoft SharePoint. At that time, it was not widely worn and was not widely used. So we had to improve its use. Then we “pasted” 'Bert' over SharePoint with the Microsoft 365 connection. Everything you now do in groups is written down underwater directly into SharePoint. '

“To process and store project documents, Clafis has set up a number of processes and work instructions. In short, this means that for all customer projects, a project group must be created in “Bert”. The name of the project group consists of a project number and project name. When creating the project group, a folder structure is automatically created. '

“Following the processes and securing the work instructions ensures uniformity and traceability in the archiving of files and documents. An additional advantage is that we thus meet the quality objectives for the ISO certification. '

“And because such a project group is SharePoint underwater, it all ends up neatly in SharePoint and also becomes available via OneDrive. You can connect it back to your laptop via OneDrive. So all the folders you see here on my laptop are actually groups on 'Bert'. '

Introduction to Microsoft Teams put forward on the roadmap

On the Clafis intranet, all employees have access to the “Work Smarter” page. A knowledge base page that Paul has created that answers FAQs about Microsoft 365. “Because how do you explain to a colleague how to use Teams, for example?”

Clafis had been wanting to launch Microsoft Teams on a large scale within the organization for some time. This introduction had been given a nice spot on the roadmap.

“At the end of the first quarter, this would be introduced within the organization. Due to corona and the associated switch to working from home en masse, this was forced to be brought forward,” says Paul.

The ultimate knowledge base with Teams FAQs

“We then used Embrace's knowledge base feature to create a “Work Smarter” menu. It is filled with all kinds of items about OneDrive and therefore about Microsoft Teams, among others. '

“Within this knowledge base, we didn't want to use too much text, but rather short videos. The only disadvantage of short videos is that you have to restart them over and over again. That is why we chose to work with gifs. These play all the time. For example, gifs that show how to set a background in Teams. And this has been done for all the basic actions needed to make good use of Microsoft Teams.”

In order to arrive at this knowledge base, a top 50 of actions was established in advance. After all, teams can do a lot, but it is important to make a distinction between them.

“We may find our way within Teams, but not everyone is equally digitally skilled. You have to take that into account. In this way, the knowledge base helps everyone, regardless of the amount of digital knowledge they have. '

“Not everyone is equally digitally savvy, you have to take that into account.”

How OneDrive helps ensure continuity

Another topic that will be covered on the “Work Smarter” page is Microsoft OneDrive. “We use the entire Microsoft pallet. There are so many functions in it. The best thing about Microsoft OneDrive, for example, is that you can run backups continuously. My laptop works fine at the moment, but if it crashes, there are very important things on it. '

Continuity is very important at Clafis. If your laptop breaks down, we'll make sure you have a new laptop within two hours. Thanks to the OneDrive backup, it is then possible to quickly restore all your documents.

Paul summarizes the above briefly: “Very concretely: we have a knowledge base to promote Microsoft 365. We are going to add more and more to that. So that's what we call “Working Smarter”. It only contains short videos with an explanation. We think it works better, even as a reference book. It's actually a manual, but in an abbreviated form. '

'I think that really guides the use of 'Bert' and that's one of the reasons why the use of our intranet is growing so much. The “Working Smarter” knowledge base with Microsoft 365 on one side and starting and recording projects on the other.”

Busy timeline

When a Clafist logs in, he or she ends up on a personal home page. At the center of this home page is the timeline or newsfeed, as we also call it. This is where all messages that are relevant to you come together: from the general group (the organization) and from the groups you are a member of.

“A lot just happens on the 'Bert' timeline. Some may find it a little too much, but that has come to be understood. This is actually very similar to using email. Maybe you're just in a lot of groups. That is a choice. You can also choose to participate in fewer groups. '

“Clafis has always been a very social organization and such a platform only reinforces that.”

'The challenge for us at the moment is the formation of expertise groups within the intranet. For example, you have BIM specialists. They work together with the Building Information Model. There are twenty people in that group and an additional ten people who find that topic interesting. They recently had an event together. Super cool. Clafis has always been a very social organization and such a platform actually only reinforces that. '

The Microsoft landscape has become more accessible

“With the arrival of 'Bert', the underlying Microsoft landscape has become more accessible. Before that, SharePoint Online was already used, but by a very select group. “Because we started using Bert, the entire Microsoft landscape and all integrations have become accessible without becoming more complex. For the average user, that is. '

“If you are the engineer who has to use very heavy documents, you can do that via your BERT SharePoint. If you are the management assistant who also needs to get to that document, you can easily do that via 'Bert'. '

“To do this, Clafis used a customized project for SharePoint. That was, as it were, SharePoint with blocks. With 'Bert' as a gateway, everyone can now get started with it. By linking the projects to the intranet, they have also become more accessible to everyone. Whether you're new here or have been working for a while, you can find everything. We have simply taken a very big step in that: Making it more accessible to the average user.

Tip from Paul: Think about the period after going live

Towards the end of our conversation, Paul has another tip for organizations that may consider Embrace's social intranet in combination with Microsoft 365 integration.

“Look, the drug works. You want to unburden people, that's also Clafis' idea. That will certainly work with the social intranet. Tooling is also possible. But the most important thing is that you think about the period after going live. Then, as an organization, you must carry and execute the product. Create a roadmap and decide what you want to do. It's better to be too ambitious than just see where the ship is stranded. '