Getting the gist of ECM

A content-management overhaul allowed supply-chain specialist Gist to improve its internal communications and promote wider use of the corporate intranet and internet sites among its employees.

By Andrew Caramba-Coker

Gist is a leading supply-chain specialist with an annual turnover of £293.2m. It works with customers including Marks & Spencers and British Airways – offering end-to- end supply chain solutions across the globe – and moves £10bn of merchandise every year. Communication is therefore an essential business tool in ensuring that the company meets its promise to its customers, of getting the right things to the right place at the right time.

Gist recognises that its people are essential in maintaining this success and uses the experience and knowledge of its employees across the organisation to ensure that its customers are receiving the expertise and service they require.

Communication difficulties
Sharing this internal knowledge is crucialto our success, but it is not something that is easily achievable in a company that employs 7,500 people at peak times of the year, has 35 operating sites across four countries and operates a fleet of over 1,000 vehicles.

We were using various forms of communication, including the intranet, internet, shared drives, extranet and e-mail, to share information across the organisation. Information was also being created, saved and stored in an ad hoc manner with no real content ownership and there was no simple method in place for searching across shared drives. For example, the intranet had historically grown with the company, with pages added as and when the need arose. With no policy in place to oversee the growth of this network, Gist found itself with an intranet that had no owner responsible for the content it displayed. Furthermore, each revision to the site needed to be made by personnel with a high level of HTML knowledge, which bottle-necked updates and resulted in the need to hire personnel solely for the purpose of intranet maintenance.

With such key business processes relying on effective internal communications, it became clear that the current intranet, and subsequently the internet, needed a complete overhaul. Once this was done, we would look to increase employees’ use of the intranet and reduce their reliance on e-mail and shared drives as their main forms of communication.

The project team
The IT and communications departments worked together to achieve board-level buy-in on the proposal for a new intranet and website. The communications department had conducted an internal survey of all Gist managers three months previously, which highlighted that their prime concern was the need to improve electronic communications. With such pertinent and timely research, along with the cooperation and funding of the IT and marketing departments, senior directors gave the go ahead to investigate costs and solutions.

A team was put together to manage the project from inception to implementation. The team comprised of four main members including a full-time communications manager to drive the quality of the design of the intranet, with support from the communications director to oversee the content. In addition, a full-time IT developer and a part-time project manager were also employed to supervise the key business and IT needs involved. Finally, a design agency was sourced and worked closely with the team over the entire duration of the project to create the look and feel of the intranet.

We recognised that a major issue with the previous system was the complete lack of ownership of content. This had been a major business concern as not only was the intranet unstructured and content hard to find, when information was duplicated it was impossible to trace which of the versions was most accurate or recent and who had uploaded the content.

To remedy this, a key innovation for Gist was the creation of the role of content champions. One of these was assigned to each department and location within Gist – for example, HR, safety and supply management. Where content was duplicated, a decision was made to pass it to a single content champion. Where content was relevant to multiple departments, content champions were able to work together to amalgamate it and ensure that all pertinent information was included without incurring contradictions or duplication.

Crucially, the content champions were working within the departments for which they were creating content. This would be key when choosing which content-management vendor to work with. As users of the system – in terms of producing, uploading and using the information – they were able to highlight the practical requirements needed from a content-management system (CMS). This complemented the identified IT and key business requirements.

Identifying the best solution
The project team, in conjunction with its content champions, needed to identify which CMS would best suit its requirements. Initial research was conducted by listening to the recommendations of analyst groups – Butler and Gartner among others. These highlighted the main CMS providers.

Three finalists were shortlisted. We attended vendor workshops in which we were able to listen to existing customers and see the technology in action. This was followed up with a pilot project, where all three vendors were invited in for half a day and the technology was tried out according to criteria set by us. We needed to ensure that the document-management system could create and store an electronic paper trail, giving information on who authorised, uploaded and revised the content.

In addition, we needed evidence that information could be quickly and easily published and that the same platform could be used for internet and intranet functionality. Finally, the pilot project gave the content champions a chance to play with the software to ensure that the functions each vendor promised were easy to use and navigate. Stellent Universal Content Management was finally chosen as the technology most suited to our requirements.

The implementation
It took approximately six months to set up the intranet. This short deployment time was due to the accessible nature of the technology that was chosen and a well organised project plan. It was recognised that the lack of any structure to the existing content meant that we needed to start from scratch and rebuild the entire CMS. In addition, all the content needed to be reviewed, amended and uploaded. Finally, we took this opportunity to re-brand the intranet and website to fit with corporate images and messages.

The project team listened to the decisions made by a content-management steering group formed by representatives from all areas of the business. This gave them the priorities, scope and timescale for the project.

Our IT developers and the external design team attended a three to four-day course, where they learnt how to integrate the CMS with the website and intranet page templates. This course was designed to give Gist the freedom and control to manage the implementation of the CMS and would provide it with the knowledge to re-brand each site whenever it wished. The external design team found the training invaluable as it allowed them to understand the limitations of the template system in advance of undertaking design work.

The design agency then worked closely with our communication manager to brand the intranet. Simultaneously, the content champions reviewed all the information currently held on the intranet and decided what to keep and what was no longer relevant. They then went back to their departments and discussed what additional information was needed. Each content owner was then given a couple of hours of in-house training by the IT team , which enabled them to spread the knowledge they had learnt at the offsite training session and, therefore, the responsibility for uploading content.

The technology
The CMS allows for content to be uploaded in whatever form is most suitable and integrates with Microsoft Office programmes to keep the creation and distribution of information very simple. For example, if an internal job application form is put onto the HR section of the intranet, then it is most suitable for it to be created and uploaded as a Word document. Where a PDF or HTML page is most appropriate, the system can convert any document created in an Office programme into the necessary format.

An approval process is built into the system to ensure that no information can be uploaded without the permission of the assigned content champion. They are given the chance to review all information, which will then be automatically uploaded once approval has been given. This streamlines the uploading process, allows us to keep control of all information that is on the intranet or website and keeps a record of all amendments and approval procedures that the document has been through.

The testing phase
Once the design templates were finalised and the templates integrated with the back end CMS, the revised content was uploaded by the appropriate content champions. Gist put the system through a comprehensive four-stage test procedure including a review of the system’s performance. This was absolutely vital to ensure that any issues that needed to be addressed were flagged up and resolved before official launch. For example, a user test enabled the project team to see how the information was retrieved and used by employees. The IT team built a prototype of the system using flat HTML pages in the concept template. The team could then see how easy the proposed design was to navigate. This was essential to ensure that information was easily accessible and the intranet was simple enough to encourage employees to use it.

The intranet was designed, tested and deployed by January 2004. From this point on, the corporate internet site was developed using the same methods and the same team. Intranet content was adapted and added to where necessary to ensure consistency of message both internally and externally. The design of the pages stuck to the brand guidelines but was very different in look to that of the intranet, in order to reflect the variations in internal and external communications.

The launch
The project team needed to encourage use of the intranet once it was launched and planned well in advance exactly how it would achieve this. It made the decision to postpone the launch of the completed intranet by six weeks, in order to avoid the busy, operational Christmas period.

It was felt that the new intranet would go unnoticed during Gist’s busiest season in the year, when it increases the number of temporary employees by 50 per cent annually. Moreover, any basic training that was required, or even queries, might be overlooked. Ultimately, significant investment in the new technology would be wasted if the team was not able to shift the communication culture away from e-mail and onto the intranet.

A launch plan was devised in order to create a degree of excitement and anticipation about the intranet.

Three days before the official launch, screen grabs of the new site were projected onto the walls of the main receptions.

This prompted speculation over the capabilities of the site, which was capitalised upon by deploying manned terminals in all staff canteens, where employees could try out the new intranet and have their questions answered. On the day of the launch itself, a leaflet was dropped on every desk summarising all the basic information employees needed to know about the new site. Everyone’s homepage was defaulted to the new intranet simultaneously. Importantly, the same log-in details used by employees to access their computers were automatically applied to the intranet.

This meant that the site was incredibly easy to access as a double log-in requirement had been avoided.

The cost benefits
The content-management platform that we had chosen enabled us to deploy both systems on the same platform and use the same content across the intranet and internet sites, where needed. This capability is central to the benefits of the system. The work needed to create and update content is not duplicated and the problem of conflicting information found in the previous system is now eliminated. Ultimately, by having one central repository for information we were also able to deploy the internet in a relatively short timeframe of just three months.

Another major benefit has been the ability to reduce the substantial costs associated with the cost of maintaining the previous intranet. We previously employed an array of web agencies that charged for each alteration we wished to make to content. This cost has now become redundant, and in addition data storage costs have been reduced by more than 20 per cent. This has been made possible due to one centralised storage repository for all information, plus the ability for content to be easily uploaded by employees who do not need specialised HTML knowledge. The associated cost of paying for staff time to administer the sites has been eliminated and training costs have been kept at a minimum due to the easy to navigate sites and the simple nature of uploading content.

Improving the brand
Another key benefit, although non-tangible, is the significant improvement to our brand image. In the past it had taken up to two days for changes to the sites to become active. By bringing this capability in-house, this has now been reduced to as little as two minutes. Not only does this promote Gist as a dynamic, fast-moving company, it is also crucial in the logistics business, where safety is of paramount importance.

At Gist, the safety of our people is of utmost importance so it is essential that safety guidelines and changes to policy can reach employees as quickly as possible. As soon as changes to safety guidelines have been made, they can be instantly uploaded and programmed to automatically replace the older versions on the intranet. When a new version of a safety document is uploaded, an instant message is sent to all subscribers for whom this document is relevant, telling them to download the latest guidelines.

An overriding benefit for Gist is the fact that all information uploaded onto the intranet or website now has a clear, tracked, dated history of who uploaded the document, who authorised it and what revisions have been made to that document. In addition, whenever revisions are made to an existing document the CMS automatically updates all versions of that document present on the system. This eradicates the issues Gist had previously faced with contradictory information. Through the creation of content champions, we have mirrored the electronic ownership of content within our departmental structure.

Finally, the universal platform approach has given us complete agility for future purchasing, as the system is highly scalable and can be easily integrated with other technologies should the need arise. We are now taking advantage of this scalability and are in the process of developing a portal that will work on the same platform.

The challenges we faced
Deciding to completely overhaul a CMS was not without its issues. One of the biggest challenges we faced was that we didn’t realise how varied our content was. After the initial site was constructed, we recognised (during one of the testing phases) that scalability was impaired. Different departments had different quality images, which were different byte sizes. Gist’s programming of the system allows all images to be uploaded, whatever their screen resolution or file size. This would have quickly overstretched the capacity of the intranet as it grew and also meant that some employees with less advanced computers would have difficulty uploading the pages. We overcame this problem by altering the boundaries for image uploading. Rules were created that automatically resized any image over 70K before it was uploaded.

The CMS also imposes style guides on all new content in order to maintain a consistent look on the sites, without requiring further input from web designers. This ability was a strong benefit for us, although during testing it was found to cause issues in a few circumstances – for example, all landscape images were automatically converted into portrait images. In order to keep the pages looking presentable, we went back to these rules and programmed them to make exceptions in instances where a landscape image was preferable.

These minor issues demonstrate the absolute necessity of testing the system multiple times and of choosing a CMS that is flexible enough to be adapted to the needs of the user.

The advantages of experience
We found that achieving buy-in from the board level at the very start of the project was crucial in order to raise awareness and champion the benefits to the wider reaches of the company – beyond the communication and IT departments that were directly involved in the project. Once this had been achieved, we benefited from including people on the team who had direct, previous experience in implementing a similar system and complemented this knowledge with external consultants.

We budgeted for three weeks of technical consultancy during the creation of the intranet and three days during the development of the internet. This allowed us to take advantage of the high-level knowledge of professionals who were able to quickly highlight areas of the proposed deployment that were not feasible, or areas that had been overlooked. In addition, they were able to put usin contact with previous customers who could give the team an insight into how they had implemented similar projects.

This investment in consulting services saved Gist time and money by resolving problems before the testing phase.

It was felt that the intranet needed a killer application in order to ensure that employees began to regularly use the system. Using the previous experience of a member of the project team it was decided to launch a ‘Famous for five days’ section on the intranet. This spotlights an internal employee from any level of the company and proved highly successful in motivating employees to check out the intranet. In addition, a global phone book with information on every Gist employee also proved a strong hook to generate use of the intranet.

A success story
In short the new CMS has proved a great success. It has reduced the cost of data storage and external web-design agencies and it has completely eliminated IT’s involvement in the conversion and uploading of information – and reduced the time it takes to do so from two days to two minutes. In addition it has reduced the time spent by employees searching for the information they require to do their jobs. Importantly, it has given every piece of information an owner and eliminated the confusions and errors that were occurring through contradictory and duplicated information. Perhaps most significantly it has been a major factor in developing employee knowledge across the organisation, maintaining our safety record and ensuring an inclusive and friendly working environment. The bottom line to all these improvements is that Gist can continue to build on its reputation as a leading supply-chain-solution supplier by delivering on its promises to customers.

Andrew Caramba-Coker is a senior project manager at Gist.