Intranet transformation journey connects 5,000 employees across Victoria

Bringing together technology, teams and cultures

Acutely aware of the issues, DTP completed an intensive internal discovery and design phase, producing a series of wireframes, design mock-ups, navigation testing, and information architecture (IA) design.

After a tender process, the Department of Transport and Planning appointed Sope to develop a SharePoint Online intranet on Microsoft 365. The goal was to establish a centralised, single source of truth.

With a tight 3-month timeframe for successful project delivery, Sope applied their proven five-stage methodology: Build, Design, Refine, Launch and Hypercare.

During the initial phase, Sope took charge of the intranet design, validating the wireframes as compatible with SharePoint's technical requirements. Alongside this, Sope introduced their SharePoint extension Sprocket 365 into the designs, enhancing the out-of-the-box SharePoint functionality for an additional layer of customisation.
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SharePoint Online Intranet

The DTP intranet is a robust platform consisting of 44 sites and approximately 700 pages.

With a focus on Communication Sites, it allows for better self-service by providing a digital home to share important updates, announcements, resources, policies and knowledge through various mediums like text, links, videos and documents.

The Corporate Policy Hub is central to the solution, addressing challenges faced in past restructures where merging different systems made managing policy documents difficult. 
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“We have a legal obligation to make policies available to employees. And the only platform that we can guarantee everybody's got access to is the Intranet."

^{Krystal - Department of Transport and Planning, Internal Communications}

Powered by Sprocket 365, the Corporate Policy Hub securely stores policy documents in Word format. Changes and versions are tracked directly within the original Word file before being converted to a page on the intranet. Sope ensured DTP’s solution included implementation of a four-level approval process that guarantees compliance and maintains version control for all policy updates.

DTP now has a single reliable source for all their policies. This change, praised by the policy team, has made policy management more precise, transparent and efficient.

Hybrid Content-Management Model

A well-structured governance model played a crucial role in the successful implementation of the DTP intranet, allowing the central intranet team to have better control and oversight of the platform.

This involved adopting a hybrid content management approach. The central intranet team manages the top-level structure of the intranet's content. Meanwhile, content authors from different business areas have specific access to create, edit, and contribute their content.

To support decentralised authorship and maintain a cohesive intranet, it was crucial to train over 140 content authors for the new system. This governance model aimed to offer more freedom to content authors while preserving the integrity of the intranet platform.
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"By empowering these teams to be able to advertise their own events and create their own promotional materials, we're not getting in the way of people being able to talk about the work that they're doing.”

^{Krystal - Department of Transport and Planning, Internal Communications}

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To improve approval processes and support decentralised authorship, Sope integrated Power Automate into the system. This allowed for automated workflows, simplifying approvals, managing content expiration, and ensuring compliance, freshness and relevance of DTP's content.
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“It's a living platform. We've tried to build it so that there's enough automation in there that it doesn't require somebody to spend all day, every day working on it.”

^{Krystal - Department of Transport and Planning, Internal Communications}

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Key Features
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My Apps

Celebrated by users since the launch, the Sprocket 365 ‘My Apps’ feature is available on every user's homepage, offering quick access to applications external to SharePoint. With the option to personalise the dashboard, users can now effortlessly add, arrange and prioritise their displayed apps, creating a tailored application hub of their own.

Global Navigation

The global navigation was created with input from all areas of the business, focusing on core functions. This approach resulted in a mega-menu with various access points to key information, accommodating different user navigation styles. The intranet's branding was consistently applied, showcasing a clean look using the Sprocket Header.. A top-level, user-friendly guide, enhanced with visual cues, directed users smoothly across the platform, establishing a seamless and unified intranet experience
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“The unsung hero of Sprocket for us is the look and feel, that clean consistency, especially having that top navigation across every single page. It doesn't matter where you are on the Intranet, you always know how to find home or that top-level navigation. It provides a very clear visual indicator that this is not just your average SharePoint site, this is the DTP Intranet.”

^{Krystal - Department of Transport and Planning, Internal Communications}

News Hub

Powered by Sprocket 365, the News Hub rolls up news articles from all sites into one central location, bringing together all business updates at DTP. This vital feature ensures that everything is current and up-to-date. An Archive News workflow was also implemented to move older articles to an Archive Site, maintaining organisation and freshness. As a result, only the latest news appears in searches, eliminating the need to sift through older articles.
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Glossary

As part of the solution, a comprehensive glossary was created, containing around 2,500 terms and acronyms. This serves as a helpful reference for staff (especially newcomers) to quickly grasp the specific language used at DTP. Accessible to all, it allows employees to search and explore, simplifying the process of understanding the multiple acronyms used in the department every day.

Power BI Analytics Dashboard

Analytics now extends beyond the standard SharePoint features with custom-built Power BI reporting. The report provides detailed data to track intranet analytics, giving the DTP team even deeper platform insights. While SharePoint's standard analytics provide insights for 30 to 90 days, the Power BI report offers more detailed information on campaign performance and user engagement. This allows the central team to collect a broader range of data for better-informed decision-making.

Change Management

Stakeholder content and change management was a key part of the intranet roll out. This process entailed training hundreds of content authors, equipping them to effectively contribute to the intranet within their specific business areas. The engagement and training of stakeholders aimed to increase adoption and understanding of the new platform, while addressing identified skill gaps. This proved to be a crucial factor in the success of the intranet implementation.

Sope confidently led stakeholders through a series of engaging training sessions and initiatives, which included:

• Five hours of tailored training sessions upskilling content authors
• Bespoke training materials for DTP users, stored in the Corporate Policy Hub, featuring an introduction of the platform, short overview video and user guides
• Intranet governance and guidelines
• Launch activities showcasing the intranet to all DTP employees

Since the launch in June 2023, the DTP intranet has seen a significant uptake. Notable metrics within in the first 60 days include:

• 4,289 unique visits to the intranet
• 9,856 total visits to the new Corporate Policy Hub
• 916 pages and/or news posts
• 160 policies housed in the Corporate Policy Hub
• 326,853 visits in the past 30 days (July-August)