From zero to intranet in eight weeks: custom-branded SharePoint solution takes off at International Airport

Business Challenges

• Teams rely on email to communicate 
• No centralised platform for internal collaboration
• Difficult to locate documents and corporate updates

Solution

• Developed custom-branded intranet to reflect company culture 
• Hosted on Office 365
• Configured Yammer for enterprise social networking 
• Provisioned project work sites to make teamwork easy
• Added dynamically generated corporate directory  
  

Benefits

• New ability to collaborate in public and private workspaces 
• New ability to collaborate in public and private workspaces
• Reduced reliance on email for communication 
• Project information stored in a central location, not inboxes 

The challenge

As one of Australia’s busiest airports, this company generates over $30 billion in economic activity each year. It employs hundreds of people across areas including marketing, IT, maintenance, construction and operations.  

The airport prides itself on its positive and professional work culture. Its employees have strong job satisfaction and low turnover rates. The company wanted its internal communications to reflect this culture, while also improving opportunities for collaboration. Teams relied on email to work together, which meant information was often lost in inboxes. Employees also struggled to locate documents and other corporate information. 

With almost 500 internal audits taking place each year, the company struggled to: 

The airport needed a custom-branded intranet that: 

• Reflected its culture and values 
• Supported collaborative work 
• Would become a go-to source for company news and updates 
• Could be delivered quickly 

The solution

Antares won the work through a competitive tender process. The airport said it preferred Antares’ pre-configured intranet approach for: 

• Ease of deployment 
• Cost savings
• Extensive functionality – many of the features it required, such as Yammer integration and collaboration workspaces, were included as standards

Antares built on its SharePoint and Office 365 intranet framework to:  

• Provision project work sites – teams can upload and manage documents and discuss projects in a central location
• Configure Yammer and advise on best practices – supporting employees to communicate outside of email  
  Improve corporate directory with OneSearch – improved ability for users to find employees based on skill profiles and locations 

While the technical work took place, a designer created custom SharePoint branding to mirror the company’s culture. The entire project, including graphic design, took eight weeks. 

Result

The intranet went live in January 2017. Users say it is intuitive, well designed and easy to use. Stakeholders are pleased with the quality of work delivered in a short time. 

Antares continues to support the airport as it rolls out intranet enhancements. The next step will be to integrate SharePoint with weather forecasting and flight time systems, as well as internal workflow systems. 

What next?

Imagine deploying a custom-branded SharePoint and Office 365 intranet solution in just a few weeks. With Antares, it’s possible. Our pre-configured intranet frameworks harness years of experience developing intranets for leading Australian businesses. It’s fast, hassle-free and cost effective.