The client is a geotechnical engineering products company: a leading provider of retaining walls and other geotechnical structures for heavy civil engineering projects across the United States, with more than 45,000 Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls completed since 1971. Its intranet portal had fallen into low usage and irrelevance, and employees could not reliably find the information and processes their daily work depended on. i3solutions designed and implemented a replacement intranet portal on SharePoint and SQL Server, and worked with the company’s IT leadership across the full project lifecycle: process mapping and wireframe diagrams, requirements gathering, product installation, portal configuration, SharePoint development, deployment, and ongoing support. The portal added an interactive online product catalog that product and assembly teams use to coordinate project details, and a custom employee directory that replaced the company’s PDF-based version, both delivered as custom application development with interactive micro-applications built in JavaScript and jQuery. Portal usage and engagement increased, and the JavaScript and jQuery micro-application pattern gives the company a foundation for adding functionality as future needs arise.
Enhancing Employee Engagement and Efficiency
Case Study
Enhancing Employee
Engagement and Efficiency
The Customer
And Their Challenge
The client is a geotechnical engineering products company and a leading provider of retaining walls and other geotechnical structures for heavy civil engineering projects across the United States. Since 1971, the company has completed more than 45,000 Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls using their proprietary retaining wall systems.
The company faced challenges with their existing intranet portal. The portal suffered from low usage and irrelevance, limiting its effectiveness as a communication and collaboration tool.
Employees struggled to find the information and processes they needed for daily operations, and the portal’s outdated design and functionality discouraged engagement.
Seeking a modern, feature-rich intranet solution, the company turned to i3solutions for our expertise in Portals and Collaboration. The goal was to create an intuitive, visually appealing platform that provided easy access to critical information and streamlined workflows. The company required a solution that would not only address existing issues but also foster collaboration and improve overall productivity across departments.
The Solution
A Modern and Engaging Intranet Portal
i3solutions designed and implemented a cutting-edge intranet portal for the company, utilizing SharePoint, SQL Server, JavaScript, and jQuery to deliver a highly functional and user-centric platform. The project began with in-depth process mapping and detailed wireframe diagrams to document the portal’s components and micro-applications, ensuring a seamless and structured design that meets the company’s specific operational needs.
Collaborating closely with the company’s IT leadership, i3solutions managed every aspect of the project lifecycle, including requirements gathering, product installation, portal configuration, custom development, deployment, and ongoing support. This collaborative approach ensured that every feature aligned with the company’s goals, resulting in a solution that delivers both functionality and innovation.
The intranet portal introduced several transformative features, including an interactive online product catalog that streamlines communication and collaboration between product and assembly teams, as well as a custom-built employee directory that replaces the outdated and inefficient PDF-based system. These enhancements simplify day-to-day operations and empower teams to work more efficiently and effectively.
The final product is a visually appealing, intuitive platform tailored to the company’s unique requirements. By integrating advanced technologies and focusing on usability, i3solutions delivered a solution that improves productivity, enhances collaboration, and provides the company with a scalable foundation for future growth.
Technologies
Used in the Solution
SharePoint is used as the core technology due to its robust collaboration features, document management capabilities, and customization options, making it an ideal choice for creating a centralized intranet.
SQL Server provides a reliable and high-performance database for managing large volumes of structured data, ensuring seamless integration with the portal’s functionality.
JavaScript and JQuery were employed to develop interactive micro-applications and enhance user experience, allowing for dynamic and responsive features that met the company’s specific requirements.
These technologies enabled i3solutions to deliver a visually appealing and feature-rich portal that streamlined workflows, improved accessibility, and increased engagement across the organization.
Measurable Benefits
and Business Impact
The implementation of SharePoint has transformed the company’s internal
operations and employee experience, delivering significant measurable benefits:
Enhanced Employee
Productivity
By providing an intuitive and user-friendly platform, employees can quickly access the information and tools they need to perform their roles effectively. Features such as the interactive online product catalog have significantly reduced the time spent by product and assembly teams coordinating project details, accelerating project delivery timelines.
Streamlined HR Processes
The introduction of a custom SharePoint Employee Directory eliminated the need for maintaining and distributing a PDF-based directory, saving hours of manual effort for the HR department each month. This automation has freed HR personnel to focus on strategic initiatives rather than administrative tasks.
Improved Communication
and Collaboration
The new portal’s modern design and functionality have facilitated better communication between departments. Employees now have a centralized platform for sharing updates, accessing critical resources, and collaborating on projects, leading to closer alignment and smoother workflows across teams.
Increased Employee Engagement
and Satisfaction
The visually appealing design, well-organized site taxonomy, and intuitive navigation have been met with positive feedback from employees, who now view the intranet as a valuable tool rather than an outdated resource. This has increased portal usage and engagement, driving its effectiveness as a communication and collaboration hub.
Optimized for Scalability and Future Growth
The flexible architecture of the portal ensures that the company can continue to expand its features and capabilities as the company grows. The use of JavaScript and JQuery for micro-applications provides a foundation for easily integrating additional functionalities as future needs arise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our intranet is barely used. What did i3solutions change for this client?
The company’s portal had low usage and had stopped being relevant to daily work, and its outdated design and functionality discouraged engagement. The replacement portal is built on a well organized site taxonomy and navigation employees can follow, so the information and the day-to-day processes they look for sit where they expect them. Employees now view the intranet as a valuable tool rather than an outdated resource, and portal usage and engagement increased.
What is the intranet portal built on?
SharePoint is the core platform, chosen for its collaboration features, document management capabilities, and customization options. SQL Server holds the structured data behind the portal and keeps performance steady as volumes grow. JavaScript and jQuery power the interactive micro-applications inside the portal.
Can a SharePoint portal take over manual work like a PDF employee directory?
A custom SharePoint employee directory replaced the PDF-based directory the company had been maintaining and distributing, which took that recurring administrative task off the HR department each month. The interactive online product catalog does the same for coordination between product and assembly teams, giving both a shared place to work out project details.
How much of the project did i3solutions handle?
Every phase. Working closely with the company’s IT leadership, i3solutions ran requirements gathering, process mapping and wireframe documentation of the portal’s components and micro-applications, product installation, portal configuration, custom development, deployment, and ongoing support after launch.
If your intranet has slid into the state this company’s was in, low usage, an aging design, and employees who cannot find the processes they need, the problem is usually the structure and the missing day-to-day applications rather than the platform itself. A first conversation covers how your people look for information today and which routine processes still run on documents like a PDF directory or a spreadsheet. You leave with a short list of the portal components and micro-applications worth building first, plus the process maps behind them, which is the documentation your steering committee will need to approve the engagement. Start the conversation
Nobody opens an intranet twice if the first visit did not answer their question, and low usage is usually a structure problem rather than a platform one. A senior SharePoint architect will go through yours and say what would have to change for people to come back.
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