Microsoft Canada Co.
Employees Foster Strong Sense of Community through Intranet Solution
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Company Overview
Microsoft Corporation, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2000, is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. What began in 1975 with three employees and first-year revenues of US$16,005 has grown into the world's largest software company, with 39,904 employees worldwide and revenues of US$22.96 billion. Microsoft Canada Co. (“Microsoft Canada”), headquartered in Mississauga, Ont., opened its doors fifteen years ago. The company enjoys strong relationships with more than 1,000 solution providers and 15,000 resellers. Hand-in-hand with its distributors, resellers and solution providers, Microsoft Canada provides innovative software solutions to Canadians at home, at school, in their businesses and beyond. Microsoft Canada has offices in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. The company’s latest initiative, Microsoft.NET (pronounced "dot-net"), is a new platform, user experience and set of advanced software services that will make all devices work together and connect seamlessly. Internet-based computing and communications will be easier to use, more personalized, and more productive for businesses and consumers.
Business Challenge
Knowledge Management plays a pivotal role at Microsoft Canada For instance, the company encourages dialogue and research among its consulting service department through an Enterprise Knowledge Management (eKM) solution. This comprehensive document repository and forum divided into knowledge communities such as Messaging, Directory Services and Operating Systems and Electronic Commerce. While Microsoft Canada’s MCS division takes full advantage of eKM, the rest of the company has long relied on intranets to deliver local content. Over the years, however, the number of intranets grew to more than 40. Various product groups, such as marketing and technology, had developed sites tailored to their own members. Other employees grew tired of waiting for someone to post their information to a central site and, instead, figured out a way to create their own intranet sites with their own content. “The confusion was daunting,” recalls Connie Rennie, Microsoft Canada’s Intranet Marketing Manager. “People didn’t know where to find the most recent company information. And if they did happen to find what they were looking for, there was no guarantee that the information was up-to-date. Finally, if they wanted to post content for themselves, they had to know HTML or find someone who did. Something had to be done to ease the frustration.”
Options Explored
Rennie began detailed discussions with Microsoft Canada’s Information Technology Group as well as senior managers and customer units in her bid to design an intranet solution that would satisfy the entire Canadian employee base. There were two main objectives behind the intranet design: it would serve as a productivity and collaboration tool for employees as well as a showcase for Microsoft technology.
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Solution
Microsoft Canada enlisted the help of Canadian eBusiness solution provider Navantis in the design and construction of a professional and powerful intranet solution. Navantis’ Knowledge@Work corporate portal platform targets information and functionality to knowledge workers inside and outside the enterprise. Navantis, a knowledge management solutions leader, also builds e-commerce sites that conform to customers’ individual needs, as well as powerful custom Web applications to help companies better communicate and sell, to partners and consumers. Navantis built Canadaweb solely on Microsoft technology. Today, the back-end is built on Windows 2000 operating system, SQL Server™7.0 and Site Server 3.0. Navantis’ Knowledge@Work corporate portal acts as the bridge to ensure all Microsoft products work together with seamless efficiency. On the front end, users can easily post content developed in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint presentation graphics program or any other applications. The database acts as a repository for all employee information as well as all content.
Deployment Time
Planning and design of Canadaweb began in July 1999. It took less than eight weeks to integrate the Knowledge@Work platform and migrate all existing information from the 40-plus intranets into one unified system. The product was launched with much fanfare in October 1999 at a company-wide meeting. “We wouldn’t have been able to pull a system together so fast with any other technology but Microsoft given the platform’s reliability, scalability, ease of deployment, and powerful development tools,” says John Kvasnic, chief technology officer at Navantis.
Business Benefits
With just one corporate intranet, employees know where to get information that is relevant and up-to-date. More than 8,000 pieces of information have been posted already, with human resources, the executive management and marketing pages attracting the most hits. Canadaweb has facilitated collaboration among Microsoft Canada employees. Project groups can revise or add comments to documents over the intranet. A history icon tracks all document revisions by person, date and time, easing project management considerably. The intranet’s Key Links area provides quick access to Microsoft tools and Web sites. The Canadaweb portal is a single URL that allows users to connect to other productivity tools and applications such as Microsoft Market, Microsoft Expense, Vacation Tracking Tool and more. These tools all have their own URLs but can be easily accessed through Canadaweb so employees do not have to remember multiple URLs and do not have to open new browsers to connect to the tools. Everything is right at their fingertips right on the portal. Users can easily post content to the intranet with the help of an online Wizard. No HTML knowledge is required – just post and go, complete with banner ad, freeform text, or a link to the Web or to a public folder. Once Rennie has reviewed the content, it’s posted to the intranet immediately rather than in the previous 24-hour timeline. Says Rennie: “Everything works in the back end to convert a file from its application to HTML. It’s instantaneous.” Personalization plays a key role on Canadaweb. While users can do standard searches for information based on subject, date or keywords, the intranet engine can push information to the user based on past searches, saving precious time and energy. Navantis’ Knowledge@Work, built with Site Server, uses adaptive learning technology to match user and content for a personalized intranet experience. Other benefits of Canadaweb include The Message Centre Nugget, listing names of other employees currently online for instant chat sessions. Users can view profiles of anyone online, send e-mails, or start a Net meeting, all in real time. Organizational Charts Nugget helps new employees learn who’s who at Microsoft Canada. Web Cam Nugget shows traffic on surrounding highways and streets. And Reception Cam Nugget is aimed at fostering a sense of community by giving intranet users a live view of the Microsoft Canada reception area.
Resulting Value
The site has received more than 350,000 hits since its launch, including numerous visits from Microsoft employees throughout Microsoft’s global community. Dozens of new projects, programs and clubs have been initiated since Canadaweb went live. Future plans call for regular platform upgrades to take advantage of the latest functionality offered by Microsoft technologies. Microsoft Canada plans to share its intranet success with customers with the launch of an intranet CD starter kit, which would include Microsoft Office. “Canadaweb has created a better way for people to work,” says Rennie. “No matter what they’re looking for, it’s the only place they need to look.”
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products or services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information via the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.ca/casestudies
http://www.navantis.com
