Organizational Intranet – DRUPAL INTRANET

Because the organization’s communication and sharing strategy was limited to email, phone calls and network drives, they were constantly experiencing a number of challenges, such as file sizes, branding consistency, saving on emails, advertising on a bulletin board, employment updates, recognizing staff for their good work, organizing projects, managing expectations, facilitating communications and more. 

The solution for this was to build an intranet.

The Marketing and Communications team had less than 6 months to build the intranet, and due to a heavy workload, this was one project that required commitment and dedication around the clock.  The Content Management System (CMS) of choice, despite it’s high learning curve, was Drupal 7 – which had better security features.  

The planning stage involved many meetings between the creative design and development teams.  Establishing the branding identity in the wire-frame mock-ups was one factor, but it was also important to consider what was technically possible and what could considered for a future upgrade.  The intranet also needed to be mobile-friendly, which also would prolong the planning stage.  Coordination between all the departments was also crucial – it was important that every department had their say and that they were included, since all staff would be using the Intranet.

There were features that needed to be implemented, such as a bulletin board, a blog, article writing, recognizing colleagues (through an idea called “Apple Tree”), Executive Board announcements, Event postings, and more.

The biggest features of the Intranet also included chat capability and also a resource section – which included branding guidelines, HR documents and announcements and more.  This was a huge and important step, as it was the way to make the resources available to all staff, without having to use a connection to the organization’s network server.