Hydro International
Global Intranet Solution
Share internal best practice, industry knowledge and competitor intelligence across divisions and geographical boundaries.
Overview
Hydro International develop innovative solutions for cost-effective stormwater and wastewater management. Headquartered outside of Bristol, UK, Hydro conducts operations worldwide through a combined network of licensees and distributors.
Hydro have grown through acquisitions to become the international organisation they are today. Their organisation is divided into divisions and group functions.
Hydro already had an intranet built on SharePoint Server 2007, hosted on-premises in the UK. Poor information architecture and document management meant that both site navigation and search were ineffective.
To compound the problem, access to the intranet was incredibly slow for US locations; documents that needed to be used regularly could take up to 20 minutes to open.
As a result of these factors, users had resorted to using network drives and email rather than the intranet. This in-turn encouraged widespread duplication of effort and did little to encourage a sense of community between geographically dispersed divisions and group functions.
Business Needs
Services Provided
Relevant Solution
We Provided
Discover
In the knowledge that geographical boundaries had hindered intranet performance with their existing on-premise intranet, Hydro were keen to consider cloud alternatives.
They were already using Microsoft Office 365 service for Exchange Online so SharePoint Online seemed the logical hosting option for their new intranet.
Elaborate
Pythagoras helped Hydro conduct rigorous performance tests from their various locations to ensure and later confirm, that SharePoint Online was capable of meeting their requirements.
Workshops a combination of in-person and remote sessions were also hosted by Pythagoras in order to gain further insight into the project, determining Hydro’s exact needs and desires in their new intranet.
Deploy
Before deployment of the new SharePoint solution got signed off and began being built, Pythagoras created a basic wireframe in order for both sides to get an idea of look and feel of the solution.
Based on this feedback, an interactive prototype was then developed and circulated across all divisions and group functions at Hydro in order to test the effectiveness of the navigation and other core elements of the solution.
Manage
By working closely with IT Administrators, Pythagoras were able to transfer the knowledge in order for Hydro to become self-sufficient in the day-to-day management of the new solution.
Additionally, representatives from the various divisions and groups were given training within the context of their own solution and job roles. These individuals went on to act as SharePoint experts within their respective units, driving adoption and encouraging best practice governance among peers.
Outcome for Client
Following deployment, Hydro benefited from: increased business agility, reduced time wasted searching and duplicating effort, and increased employee engagement.
