Biogen: Transitioning from SharePoint to Unily to unlock employee experience
Biogen’s pre-existing digital workplace was a custom-built SharePoint 2010 intranet. Although the intranet was designed to increase employee collaboration and be a hub for all content, information, and research, employees seldom used it. After many years with minimal updates and little governance, the intranet ended up containing hundreds of pages with irrelevant and outdated content, no ability to effectively search, and collaboration was non-existent.
Biogen needed a solution that would enable true enterprise corporate communications and act as a one-stop-shop for all employees to find everything they need to work. The existing SharePoint solution was unable to change components often, had no governance model, and did not have advanced capabilities such as video, social, and events.
The solution was very basic visually, and organizationally. In order to continue to provide for their patients, doctors, and caregivers the company is esteemed for worldwide, Biogen needed to upgrade to something with more current digital capability.
So, Biogen worked with Unily to design a tailored employee experience platform that fulfilled the brief and targets set out – Synapse.
Establishing the need for a digital workplace
Driven by a commitment to patients and its passion for neuroscience, Biogen is focused on furthering research and treatment for conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and MS. Its patients rely on Biogen to lead innovative scientific research, with the goal to defeat devastating neurological diseases.
Biogen has some of the world’s best neurologists and neuroscientists and engages with physicians and scientific leaders around the world with the aim to further medical research. Biogen’s focus on neuroscience, its deep scientific expertise, and its courage to take risks make it a leader in the research and development of medicines to transform neuroscience to benefit society.
Its technology and engineering capabilities create novel ways to seamlessly transition products from development to manufacturing with the intent of bringing high-quality medicines to market faster. Biogen embraces and leverages differences to foster an inclusive community, both internally and externally.
Reimagining their intranet emerged as a critical component of Biogen’s larger digital transformation journey.
Biogen's project mission:
Establish a SaaS-based enterprise corporate communications solution that could overhaul the existing, outdated intranet and take advantage of modern and advanced ways of utilizing digital communications.
Key project goals:
- Replacing the pre-existing intranet with more advanced capabilities
- Developing modern corporate internal communications
- Streamlining content collaboration and maximize knowledge sharing
Outgrowing SharePoint
Biogen’s pre-existing digital workplace was a custom-built SharePoint 2010 intranet. Although the intranet was designed to increase employee collaboration and be a hub for all content, information, and research, employees seldom used it. After many years with minimal updates and little governance, the intranet ended up containing hundreds of pages with irrelevant and outdated content, no ability to effectively search, and collaboration was non-existent.
Biogen needed a solution that would enable true enterprise corporate communications and act as a one-stop-shop for all employees to find everything they need to work. The existing SharePoint solution was unable to change components often, had no governance model, and did not have advanced capabilities such as video, social, and events. The solution was very basic visually, and organizationally. In order to continue to provide for their patients, doctors, and caregivers the company is esteemed for world-wide, Biogen needed to upgrade to something with more current digital capability.
The future is the cloud
When looking to upgrade its digital workplace, Biogen was looking for something that was not hosted internally on-premises, but instead cloud-based. A solution provider that was constantly innovating and building new components for the platform was required, which in turn would allow Biogen to be more agile in its approach.
Adopting a cloud-first strategy means Biogen could move away from maintaining and managing its own on-site technology stack, and so looking for a cloud-hosted employee experience platform (or EXP) was a step forwards in its digital evolution.
The new Synapse
Biogen worked with Unily to design a tailored employee experience platform that fulfilled the brief and targets set out – Synapse.
Knowledge hubs: A new era for employee collaboration
Biogen’s initial goal when overhauling its previous intranet with Unily’s cloud-based platform was to prioritize employee communication and develop enhanced company collaboration, enabling a digital headquarters for every employee to access and collaborate through. Employee experience platforms at their most basic level should make it easy for employees to do their day-to-day roles. At Biogen, content collaboration is a hugely important part of the job, thanks to the nature of sharing research, insights, and information. One of the biggest setbacks for Biogen before Unily was that information was incredibly difficult to search for and find. Users come to the platform for relevant information, not for a great design, so the importance of having an EXP that was user-friendly, not just well-designed was vast. Synapse’s internal content hubs have become the key for facilitating the sharing of knowledge in the company among employees and different departments. This has proved to be essential when it comes to the research Biogen produces.
The information in Biogen’s Change Management Knowledge Hub was previously delivered in a 60+ page PowerPoint file that not many people were downloading or engaging with. In the new platform, Biogen took the opportunity to think of a more engaging way to design this content and through a few pages, were able to deliver the same content in a new way that increased readership significantly. Biogen has many content hubs that include topics like Diversity & Inclusion, Career Portals, and targeted hubs for its Field Force.
The knowledge hubs have saved researchers and employees time, enabling equal participation and engages them throughout the different layers of knowledge. It acts as a one-stop-shop for all documents, updates, information, and FAQs, meaning anyone within Biogen has all the knowledge they need at their fingertips. With the addition of having “apps” that can link to other tools makes the ability to have information outside of Synapse that employees can also find very quickly. By putting key information at the forefront and shining a light on various affiliates, the solution has reduced segmentation and encouraged employees to more frequently engage in cross-functional collaboration.
Promoting a cultural standard: Recognition as content
Synapse has proved to do more than simply focus on helping Biogen’s employees, researchers and staff do their daily work, it has also mirrored and influenced the company’s culture. The platform allows workers to feel directly connected to the company, and can highlight employees or stories that personify Biogen’s values. This in turn improves organizational culture. Biogen has a huge focus on culture standards and prides itself that the company culture is a positive and inviting one.
Employee appreciation is an essential part of human need at the workplace – if you improve employee engagement, you naturally improve employee retention. Biogen believes in the importance of putting its employees at the center of its EXP.
Recognition is a type of content that is not often considered in a digital workplace, and Biogen wanted to change this. Peer to peer recognition creates a positive culture, and so Biogen rolled out the use of Kudos.
Recognition is a type of content that is not often considered in a digital workplace, and Biogen wanted to change this.
Biogen has six core areas – known as its elements – for its cultural north star: Pioneering, Agile, Ethical, Customer Focused, Inclusive, and Accountable or how Biogen works. These images are pasted across both the online digital workspace and the physical offices, on e-boards, stickers on Biogen’s floors, and on the windows of conference rooms. These “elements” are awarded to employees who embrace that cultural category and make it real in the workplace. Biogen’s employees view this as a fun way to engage with how the organization measures effectiveness and greatness, making sure it is encouraged more openly and consistently.
The solution has helped bring Biogen’s unique and compelling culture to life through blog spotlights, social networking, and content specifically dedicated to exploring the enterprise’s six cultural elements. People want to thank their co-workers for the work they do or the help that they received. This way employees can feel appreciated without having to wait on their leaders or the management team. The recognition that they receive from their peers can have a very powerful impact, and can consequently have a direct and positive influence on retention – Biogen found that recognized and valued employees stay at companies longer.
Committees and communities: Uniting a workforce
Another way Biogen fosters collaboration is through its platform committees and communities, bringing clarity and purpose to the groups employees belong to. The committees enable productivity and allow for teams to relax and have some entertainment within their groups.
Biogen’s governance committees meet to discuss the approval of its drug pipeline from one phase to another. Each governance committee has a page that has agendas, documents, upcoming meetings, and meeting minutes all in one site. If someone wants to know where something was discussed they can search the agenda to find the meeting it is held in, then search the documents below to find the presentations that topic was discussed in.
Biogen also utilizes the news component as ‘Meeting Summaries’, using the feature to host all meeting minutes so employees don’t have to rely on the use of email, and meaning past meeting information can be found easily when needed. Communication can be done via mobile notifications through Synapse to let teams know that content is ready and available.
Growing employee engagement
Having an alert and engaged workforce was another aim of Biogen’s when creating the ideal EXP. A compelling design, intuitive navigation, and targeted content come together to ensure that every employee’s experiencewith the intranet is personalized and inviting from the start.
Biogen’s team also maintains an ongoing eye towards innovation, with new features and upgrades added regularly, often based on direct feedback from employees. Usage rates and built-in analytics provide Biogen’s team with important metrics that illustrate how the platform is performing and potential areas for growth and innovation.
Affiliate spotlights
In order to eliminate silos, Biogen launched a monthly series to highlight different affiliates, using map widgets, employee spotlights, and social commenting. This feature drives conversation and encourages cross-functional collaboration.
Mobile app: Information to hand, no matter the location
The mobile version of Biogen’s Synapse has been shown to be popular amongst employees. Due to the research and development aspect of Biogen, many employees aren’t sat behind a computer screen all day checking their emails.
When considering the content for the digital workplace it’s important to understand how your employees will be accessing this content. Ensuring content is optimized for mobile is an ever-increasing consideration in the world we live in today. It’s not enough to just have content it must be engaging, it’s also not enough to just have engaging content it must be accessible.
Being able to have the entire of Synapse on their mobile device means employees have all the information they need to do their daily work at their fingertips, no matter where they are situated. The use of push notifications means that any important business updates or announcements will get sent straight to the pockets of every employee in real-time so no vital information gets overlooked or lost in a sea of emails.
Communications in a crisis
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Synapse proved to be a valuable tool in ensuring business continuity. With the ongoing confusion caused by the uncertainty of events unfolding, employees naturally had many questions. Synapse acted as the main point of contact for everyone, displaying a button on the homepage that had all the information, FAQs and real-time updates for those that wanted it.
Thanks to their platform’s great UI and near-endless integration capabilities, Biogen’s team was able to get this key site up and running quickly to ensure employees could access crucial news updates as events unfolded. This became vital to ensure that the business messaging, views and stance on the pandemic was aligned throughout, and that all employees felt up-to-date, included and calm about the situation at hand.
Biogen also utilized social tools for when remote working became a mandatory requirement. The company shared tips on how to work from home, advice on how to stay healthy both mentally and physically, videos of home gym workouts, and overall advice about wellbeing. Synapse became a supportive community where anyone could seek advice and help when needed, and knowing they could still connect with each other despite the distance.
The results: Creating a true digital workplace
Since working with Unily to create a true digital workplace, Biogen has seen an impressive increase in the number of employees that utilize and interact with it, seeing the active user base growing around 70% each year. Additionally, the digital workplace is growing in size by 20-40 sites a year. Employees are consistently engaging and commenting on the intranet’s content, and Biogen is receiving positive feedback regarding the platform.
The search relevancy, which was a pivotal need for Biogen, has grown from 15% to 78%. This increase has been hugely beneficial to employees, shortening the time it takes them to find relevant and vital information for them to do their daily tasks.
Additionally, feedback from employees has been positive, with specific praise about how much easier it is to use compared to the previous system, and particular call out for social collaboration and the mobile application.
Biogen’s team continuously measures usage, makes sure content is up to date, and pushes critical information to the most relevant subset of users. A team meets with business users to discuss goals for the site, makes recommendations based on this feedback, and trains authors to be self-sufficient and make the most of the CMS. This team also builds new configurations and brainstorms the widgets and additional features needed to ensure a top-tier experience for all.
Biogen also receives backup from Unily’s full-time outsource support team, a dedicated support team that is on hand to help and fix any issues that may arise. Although over 15k people are accessing the platform on a weekly basis, the team receives less than 30 tickets a week – an impressively low amount in comparison. Unily’s Universe, a dedicated space for Unily users to collaborate, discuss and explore, has also been beneficial for Biogen as it means the EXP is more than just the plug-and-play platform – it’s a community of peers that can generate insights and understanding that otherwise wouldn’t be explored.