Business Case: H.-Hart Hospital Lier

H.-Hartziekenhuis Lier is a general hospital with regional appeal, offering a wide range of specialised medical, medico-technical and outpatient services under the motto “a heart for care”. About a thousand people – doctors, nurses, cleaners, cooks, pharmacists and others – are committed to advanced care every day.

Last year, the hospital made the move to a new intranet. High on their list of requirements: a way to link Zenya (formerly iProva), their document management system, to the new intranet. Together with Infoland, the Involv team turned this desire into reality – taking H.-Hartziekenhuis Lier from a very limited intranet (without an integrated search function) to a user-friendly platform with an overarching search function across both the intranet and Zenya. A premiere!

It is about time for a new intranet

“There was a clear demand from colleagues for a user-friendly platform. They wanted to be able to collaborate with each other, send out documents and share them in a simpler way,” says Johan Engels, responsible for Zenya within H.-Hartziekenhuis Lier. “At that time, we didn't really have an intranet. At least none that we could actively work with,” concurs Erik Van Tricht, team leader of System Administration.

The hospital had been working with Infoland's document management system for about two years. “When we were rolling out the document management system, we found out that we needed an overarching search function between the intranet and Zenya. Our search results from the old intranet were very variable – one minute the system was searching only within Zenya, the next only within the intranet. That made searching confusing and, in a way, time-consuming.”

An intranet based on SharePoint Online

“This is exactly why it was so important for us to have an intranet where we could link to Zenya,” Erik says. “Searching for the right documentation should be done in a fast and, most importantly, easy way – ideally from within the new intranet.” Cognit, a Belgian IT software company specialised in SharePoint and Office 365, came up with the solution.

“After analysing their request, we proposed an intranet based on SharePoint Online,” says Tom Van Rousselt, Cognit's project manager. “We started with a general, more off-the-shelf form of intranet – Involv – and then tuned and configured it to the needs of H.-Hartziekenhuis Lier.”

“Our preference fell on Cognit's proposal,” Erik explains. “Not only do we like working with the other Microsoft Office programs, but we also knew that SharePoint Online would be more user-friendly. Thankfully, Cognit not only knew how to build an intranet that met all of our needs, they also made the link between the Involv intranet and Zenya.”

“The intranet is now a big, clear entrance hall.”

Johan Engels – responsible for Zenya, H.-Hartziekenhuis Lier

Both search results in Involv and Zenya

The result of this link is an overarching search function across Involv/SharePoint Online and Zenya. “Now when we look for something, the system automatically searches within Zenya and the intranet,” Erik says. “We are not required to do a general search. If you know where the documents are, you can go directly to Zenya through a shortcut.”

Johan is also enthusiastic about the new intranet: “The user-friendly aspect was very important to us. The Involv team and Infoland managed to set up a system that fits our needs perfectly. The intranet is now a big, clear entrance hall where you enter and can immediately switch between different programs thanks to helpful shortcuts. And thanks to the search function, you find your documents in a user-friendly and fast way, without having to click through to Zenya.”

“The link we created between Zenya and Involv is tailored to H.-Hartziekenhuis Lier. However, at Infoland's request, we also created a more generic link that they can offer to their customers,” says Tom. “The fact that Infoland took the step of converting the link between Zenya and SharePoint Online into a kind of add-on package only shows that they are as enthusiastic about the end result as we are,” adds Erik.

“I really recommend it – not only for companies in healthcare, but for any organisation where large groups of people want to share information and documents with each other.”

Erik Van Tricht – team leader System Administration, H.-Hartziekenhuis Lier

Possibly another collaboration in the future

The hospital has been using the new intranet since February 2018, and the experience has been very positive. “We came from almost nothing and ended up with a very user-friendly platform, adapted to our needs,” says Johan. “After the positive experiences with the overarching search function, we would like to extend this to some kind of overarching document management system between Zenya and Involv/SharePoint Online,” says Erik. “But that's a possible next step – a new project we're working through now.”