Rugby Football Union Deploys Microsoft SharePoint and Yammer for New Intranet Solution Designed by BrightStarr
Rochelle Park, NJ (PRWEB) April 30, 2014 -- The RFU (Rugby Football Union) is the governing body of rugby in England and, with a Rugby World Cup on home soil fast approaching in 2015, they recognised an opportunity to invest in their technology, improve internal communications and support their work in creating a lasting legacy from the tournament.
The RFU has a 550-strong workforce helping to grow rugby within clubs, schools and universities, right the way through to professional level. With its headquarters in the 82,000-seater Twickenham Stadium and a large team operating from geographically dispersed locations around the country, they needed a new robust intranet platform that would bring colleagues, information and resources together in a single digital location.
With a strong understanding of what they wanted to achieve through a new intranet solution, the RFU had to find the right partners to collaborate with on such an ambitious project. After assessing their needs and options, the RFU decided to work with BrightStarr and Microsoft to deploy SharePoint 2013 and Yammer. The final solution of this collaboration can be viewed now on the Microsoft EU website via the Executive Video Case Study. “The initial Customer Immersion Experience gave us a great opportunity to get to know our partners and what they could deliver for us in our project. It was really useful to get round a table and see how the technology would work in our intranet, through an exploration of some realistic working scenarios.” Tom Brewis – RFU Project Manager.
The RFU selected SharePoint 2013 as their trusted platform of choice, and they chose BrightStarr to help them take the out of the box functionality and transform it into a bespoke collaboration solution, specifically tailored to their needs. With their close working relationship with Microsoft, BrightStarr were able to not only carry out effective requirement gathering to discover deep insights, but were also able to match up these requirements to powerful SharePoint capabilities. It was this collaboration that led to the creation of the RFU’s new HR portal, document library and all company news feed, which formed the core of their new intranet solution.
The solution was also created with Enterprise Social tools at its heart, to match the RFU’s culture, which in turn reflects the core values of the sport itself: Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship. The social features of Yammer gave both office and field-based staff new ways to share information with each other. Their intranet used embedded feeds from key Yammer groups to surface social content alongside the more traditional static information. Together with a new internal phonebook, the platform has really supported greater information sharing, collaboration and an increasingly connected workforce. BrightStarr has produced a brand new whitepaper on the productive nature of Corporate Social Networks and how they can deliver real return on investment, which can be downloaded for free here.
Working with the right partners was essential to the success of RFU’s intranet project and gave them the right balance of knowledge, expertise and technology to build ‘RFU Connected,’ an intranet solution fit for purpose. The quality of this solution is what led to the production of an Executive Video Case Study on how project success was achieved through this partnership. “It is incredibly useful to be able to work so closely with Microsoft’s Office and Yammer teams as we implement their technologies for our clients. We gain key insights collaborating with them that guide us in delivering world class solutions time and time again, and this is why BrightStarr is a Microsoft Gold Partner.’ – Will Saville – BrightStarr CEO.
About BrightStarr
BrightStarr understands the digital workplace and builds best of class solutions that increase employee productivity, elevates brands and creates multi-channel revenue opportunities. Our uniqueness is the blend of both creative and technical skills that when combined deliver truly extraordinary digital experiences with the perfect balance of form and factor. We are an award-winning Microsoft Gold partner focused on SharePoint, Office 365, Yammer and Azure, and are regularly singled out for incorporating cutting-edge design and technical excellence into all of our customer engagements. For more information, please visit http://www.brightstarr.com
Matthew Boyd, BrightStarr, http://hub.am/1kpCCFZ, +44 +44 148 323 9240, [email protected]
Share this article