Building a global community of marketers on SharePoint

Cadbury Intranet

Objective and brief

  • Cadbury's existing Global Commercial Gateway intranet site was neglected and slow.
  • With the intranet infrastructure being upgraded to Microsoft SharePoint, it was the perfect opportunity for Content Formula to rethink and relaunch their site.
  • The sales and marketing teams around the world needed a knowledge-sharing hub where they could promote strategy, research and resources.

How objectives were met

  • Discovery meetings were held at all levels in the company, both face-to-face in the UK or over the phone with stakeholders in different time zones, in order to map business objectives to information needs.
  • A formal "communications objectives" document was created for each of the site sections, acting as strategic 'footprints' for the intranet. These would govern all decisions made on content, structure and design, and also establish roles and responsibilities for ongoing maintenance.
  • We redesigned the site structure and layout. Our studio created graphical designs and implemented them into SharePoint. The site skeleton was built, ready for content.
  • Existing content was organised, edited and made "intranet-friendly" by publishing with suitable titles, images and summaries. We also interviewed subject matter experts and wrote new articles and content where required.
 

Key challenges

  • Delivering relevant and unifying internal communications to a culturally diverse, global audience - who had been switched off by the previous site incarnation
  • Keeping the site fresh and relevant to its users on an ongoing basis, after the publicity generated by the initial relaunch faded.

Results

  • Experience and careful planning meant this big global intranet site was a streamlined affair, delivered in 3 months.
  • A recent survey showed that take-up of the Global Commercial Gateway has grown substantially. Users regularly access the site and provide positive feedback. Sign-ups to the fortnightly newsletter have also increased.
  • We are now helping with the ongoing management of the site, researching and publishing fresh internal news and content on an almost daily basis, with the help of community members from around the world.

Client testimonial

With Content Formula's expertise and help, we have completely upgraded the Global Commercial Gateway. It has transformed into a busy portal that brings in users from all over the world, with positive feedback continuing to flow in.

Site owner, Global Commercial, Cadbury