Business case: Omroep Brabant | Media

Omroep Brabant is one of the largest regional broadcasters in the Netherlands. Alongside radio and television, they keep about 760,000 online visitors a day up to date on their province. That puts Omroep Brabant in the national top 10 of online news media.

To keep everything running internally, the broadcaster wanted to rely on a smooth, modern intranet for its 200 employees. Eventually, they found exactly what they were looking for in Involv – Office 365 intranet.

Wanted: an intranet with the right look and feel

Leo Brons is one of the system administrators at Omroep Brabant. His department works in close consultation with the broadcaster's developer and helpdesk. “We had been working with the same intranet for years, but it was gradually becoming outdated. When it turned out that Microsoft was no longer updating this system, we absolutely wanted to move to a modern platform.”

“We already had some experience with SharePoint. A new version came out just then, so we started experimenting with the tool. But it soon became clear that the look and the feel didn't quite match what we were looking for.”

The system administrators went looking for other options and ended up at Involv – Office 365 intranet. “A fellow manager tipped me off about the Involv website. We could request a demo online – very handy. And it was a clear demo, too. But not yet enough to convince us right away.”

A solid platform at a fair price

“During a conference call with one of the Involv consultants, we got to see an extensive live demo. That did convince us – as did the quote, by the way. It has to be said that Involv is a solid platform, at a fair price.”

The team also got access to a testing environment, in which they could explore all the features of Involv – Office 365 intranet themselves. “That was another added value. It mainly helped us to list our wishes clearly. A technical consultant from Involv then aligned the intranet as closely as possible with our needs.”

“The intranet is now a heavily used internal tool. Employees can easily find everyone's birthday, phone numbers, email addresses, internal news, our standards and values, and apps such as Twitter and Facebook. But it's also a kind of knowledge base, with links to all sorts of documentation and other websites.”

Leo Brons – System Administrator, Omroep Brabant

Off-the-shelf, but flexible

Involv – Office 365 intranet is an off-the-shelf platform to which you can add all kinds of apps. “It's as if a layer is placed on top of your own intranet. But under the hood, you can definitely still adjust things too. In that way, Involv is off-the-shelf, but also customer-focused and flexible. We were also able to make clear agreements for additional support. It works with hour packages, in which the time is carefully tracked. It took some getting used to at first, but it's transparent.”

“What I really like about Involv – Office 365 intranet is that we can keep the platform in-house. We're not dependent on others to make changes. And if specific programming is required, we can still rely on the services of the Involv helpdesk. On top of that, the system now stays automatically up to date with all the new features from Microsoft.”

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A smooth start and happy users

Leo put together a brief manual with a colleague from Marketing, to share internally. “As a result, the switch to the new platform went very smoothly. Every employee has read rights, of course, but not everyone has edit rights. The departments involved in what appears on the intranet were quickly on board with the new story.”

Since October 2018, Involv – Office 365 intranet has been fully operational at Omroep Brabant. “The reactions are overwhelmingly positive,” Leo says. “There's always the occasional critical note, but we've had very few complaints since the launch. We made a few small adjustments with support from the Involv consultants, and in the future we can always turn to their helpdesk. Otherwise, we're absolutely happy with the result.”