Baringa is a leading global consulting firm serving Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Consultants provide strategic advice to businesses across a number of key industry sectors including energy, utilities and financial services.

Employing around 2000 people, the business has a distinct, people-first culture and has been recognised as a great place to work.

A new global intranet to serve every region

In order to drive ongoing employee engagement and support the delivery of client projects across all three regions, Baringa was looking to create a new global intranet that could help busy consultants stay informed and find the resources they need to get things done and provide the very best advice to clients.

Recognising Content Formula’s expertise and experience in both SharePoint and intranets, the IT team at Baringa engaged us to deliver the new intranet.

Using SharePoint Online plus Lightspeed365 features to deliver the best possible intranet

First, we carried out an extensive discovery exercise, carrying out user and stakeholder interviews across all regions, as well as number of user workshops.

Gaining a good understanding of employee needs and Baringa’s requirements to streamline and globalise work, we recommended the creation of a new global intranet based on SharePoint that also used Lightspeed365 Features to extend the options and branding for the new intranet. We also suggested some custom work to meet Baringa’s particular search requirements.

With the approach greenlighted by the client, we started to build the new intranet.

An attractive and welcoming intranet homepage

The new intranet, branded as Light House, includes several Lightspeed365 features, some of which are deployed on an attractive homepage. These include the Lightspeed365 Welcome feature that provides a personal greeting to each person and a summary of the local weather, helping employees to feel welcome and emphasising the personalisation inherent in the intranet.

The Lightspeed365 News feed feature is then used to deliver a personalised feed of news, mixing both global and regional updates.

A one stop shop for getting things done

A number of Lightspeed365 features on the homepage are also designed to drive efficiency and help employees complete tasks.

The Lightspeed365 app launcher presents a series of prominently placed, convenient links to the critical tools and apps that employees use every day. The Lightspeed365’s People search feature delivers a search box for employees to find colleague profiles, while the Lightspeed365 Card links connects employees to useful “How Do I” pages that explain how to carry out key tasks and processes.

Baringa use Condeco as their desk-booking solution, supporting hybrid work. To enable desk booking directly from the new intranet homepage, we used the Lightspeed Viva Connections connector to leverage Viva Connection’s own links to Condeco. Now employees can view any upcoming desk bookings they have and also make a new booking, right from the homepage, and without having to enter Codneco.

Improving findability to connect employees to experts and resources

Having an excellent search experience to connect employees to the resources and people they need to carry out their work was identified by the client as a key priority.

To support findability, we created a new customised search experience that displays persistent filters unique to Baringa that are always presented to employees, driving a consistent and enhanced search experience.

Employees can narrow down the search, either for people & CVs or collateral, as well as topics based on Baringa’s own enterprise taxonomy, for example by industry sector. With a view to further enhancing the search, more filters are planned for a future release.

Finding people and CVs

Another key requirement for the new intranet was to help consultants find and connect with their peers, in particular locating subject matter experts across different regions.

Baringa has a database of consultant CVs that they wished to access through the employee directory. We modified the Lightspeed365 People directory feature to be able to access CVs both through profiles and within a people search box (accessible via type-ahead) which is also embedded on the intranet homepage. This enhancement to the Lightspeed365 feature reflects our commitment to base the product roadmap on requests from our clients.

We also customised the standard SharePoint search so that people cards returned in the search also include a link to CVs.

Helping employees to get the best out of the new intranet

The Light House intranet has advanced capabilities that are new to employees. We used the Lightspeed365 Page tour feature to walk employees through these new elements, including the use of the vertical SharePoint app bar that means employees can access the new intranet from any SharePoint site.

Additionally, to help employees get used to the new search facility, we also deployed the Lightspeed365 Page tour feature to introduce the new search features for employees accessing it for the first time.

To further support the use of the new intranet we also used the Lightspeed365 Handbook feature to create a comprehensive intranet “help centre” with guides and recordings of webinars.

Supporting distributed content owners to create useful and engaging sites

An intranet is only as good as its content. To enable the network of distributed content owners throughout Baringa to create high value and engaging content, we used the Lightspeed365 Handbook feature to also create a resource site for content owners. This provides access to relevant guides and videos grouped into different themes, all accessed through an intuitive and logically structured landing page.

An intranet that brings Baringa’s regions together and supports employees with their everyday work

Today Light House, the new global Baringa intranet. has launched to all employees. With one single intranet to serve all regions, improved findability to find people and resources, and useful features like the app launcher and integrated desk booking, the intranet is rapidly becoming an essential resource to support everyday work.