From two outdated, out-of-sync intranets to one central platform: ‘Charlie'.
How building-materials distributor Lecot brought 700 employees across 75 locations together on one Microsoft-based intranet with Involv.
Charles Lecot founded Lecot in 1888. Today, this distributor of building materials has grown into an organisation with 75 locations in Belgium and the Netherlands, where a total of 700 employees work – among them 100 representatives.
In 2021, Lecot contacted Involv to implement a new intranet. The goal was to gather all information in one central location and to improve communication and interaction between employees.
Challenges
Lecot faced significant challenges prior to the implementation of the Involv intranet. Until recently, they used two different, highly outdated and user-unfriendly intranets. The biggest problem was that these were primarily used as a place to store documents. There was no option to use the intranet as a communication channel to share announcements or newsletters, or to enable interaction between employees.
On top of that, Lecot's two outdated intranets were not synchronised.
“One intranet was being updated while the other wasn't, resulting in different information on both platforms. This caused a lot of confusion and inefficiency. It was a chaotic situation that urgently required one central platform.”
Cindy MaesLearning & Development Specialist, Lecot
Cindy MaesSolutions
At Lecot, there was an urgent need for a solution that would address these problems and improve efficiency. One of the five pillars of Visio 2025, Lecot's strategic plan, is to simplify processes and systems. Combined with the increasing need for digitisation, this created an urgent need – and ultimately Involv proved to be the suitable partner.
It was important that the new intranet was built on Microsoft, as Microsoft 365 applications were already used throughout the organisation and the internal learning platform also relied on it.
“The newly implemented intranet is fully tailored to the needs of the organisation. It is user-friendly and provides employees with a central location where they can find important information and communicate with each other. Additionally, it is fully mobile-friendly, so employees can access the information they need anytime and anywhere. The intranet has resulted in increased efficiency and one central location for all important communications.”
Launch
At the launch, a contest was held among colleagues to come up with a name for the new platform. The only requirement was that the name had to be easy to pronounce in both Dutch and French. Ultimately, the name “Charlie” was chosen – a reference to the original founder, Charles Lecot. The creator of the name was rewarded with a bongo voucher and made a video explaining the name and its meaning, which became the very first post on Charlie.
The launch was further supported by teasers via email and internal announcements posted at various locations throughout Lecot's buildings.
Current situation
Today, Lecot's intranet is an active and versatile tool within the company. Each week, different departments – HR, marketing, IT and more – post around three news articles. The most commonly used functionalities include quick links, news articles and new-hire components.
After a year of using Involv, there is a significant improvement in efficiency and user experience – and still room to grow. News articles sometimes receive a limited number of likes, and the company hopes to increase this. Lecot therefore continues to invest in the Involv intranet as a way to engage employees and encourage them to actively share ideas, feedback and collaboration.
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