Joseph Rowntree

JRF is an endowed foundation based in York with approximately 650 employees. As a not-for-profit social policy ThinkTank, it is focussed ultimately on ‘inspiring social change’ through its UK-wide research. To ensure this valuable information was effectively collated and communicated across the organisation, the management team realised that a new staff intranet was required to improve engagement and collaboration.

Talking about the implementation, Daniel Clarkson, the Project Manager at JRF explains;

“The main objective was to implement a solid platform to improve our internal communications and document management to ensure our teams were efficiently connected and sharing information easily but in a controlled manner. We wanted a solution that would allow for flexible administration and developments in the future as our requirements matured and changed.”

JRF are now using the latest version of Microsoft SharePoint, selected to replace the existing SharePoint 2003 intranet as it:

• Provided a fresh, modern style that was easy to update.
• Improved usability and search, encouraging user adoption.
• Provided greater security so that content could be delivered flexibly.
• Offered a solid platform for future development.

Talking about the project, Dan reveals;

“All of the consultants were highly knowledgeable, freely offering advice on infrastructure and technical deployment, process design and business change support. They had a friendly approach which made asking questions easy when it came to solving content management issues and helping us post-implementation with any support we required. Having the consultants work on-site was also great for knowledge transfer to our team, meaning we are now far more self-sufficient.”