The Launch Pad

Maintaining an intranet community for employees working on new product launches

Objective and brief

  • One of our clients wanted to create an intranet for project managers working on New Product Introductions (NPI) across the globe.
  • The aim of the intranet was to provide a platform for NPI processes and project news. Once the site was launched, we were to maintain it and ensure it was kept up-to-date with fresh, exciting content.
  • Traditionally, these project managers did not share ideas between their teams. The challenge was to change this and nurture a vibrant community of NPI project managers.

How objectives were met

  • We worked with our client to develop a ‘communications objectives’ document and strategy for the site, detailing its target audience, goals, key messages and marketing.
  • We maintained a content pipeline that enabled us to plan new content for the site. Monthly conference calls with a core NPI team identified the upcoming hot issues and topics that need to be covered, and we networked with project managers around the world to source potential new articles.
  • We provided editorial support for the project managers, either by writing articles or editing content they sent through. We would then publish this content to the site.
  • We created and sent out regular email newsletters to alert users to new content, and worked with the owners of other relevant intranet communities to cross-publish content and links to drive traffic to the NPI intranet.
 

Key challenges

  • Without regular maintenance, an intranet will become irrelevant to its users; content will become out of date quickly and its overall value to the business will fade.
  • Gaining buy-in and ongoing engagement from community members from different countries and cultures.

Results

  • Sharing best practices became part of the working culture for these project managers.
  • Several NPI best practices that first came to light on the site have become global standards within the client company, and the site drove the change towards having a formal project management department, which used the intranet to communicate upcoming goals and recent successes.
  • Traffic quality metrics, such as time spent on site, number of pages visited and repeat visits, retained high numbers, indicating a loyal and engaged readership.

Client testimonial

Fast and reliable... Very proactive in proposing new ideas to improve the site...innovative and with a focus on our business needs.

Site owner, the Launch Pad