Project overview
Mission
Launch a rich communications platform that will serve as the single source of truth for all. The forthcoming solution will unite employees around common goals, build community, and hit the ground running by launching in just two months’ time.
- 9 weeks from inception to launch
- 12k employees
- 2.5k sites migrated
- 130k social comments migrated
Making the jump
In 2019, Windstream’s internal communications team found themselves at a turning point. For nearly five years, the enterprise had hosted their intranet platform, Stream, with an established provider. After an initial period of satisfaction, several pain points began to emerge, including reoccurring platform outages, a lack of customer support, and insufficient product innovation.
A poorly managed AWS migration and the absence of feature updates represented the final straws that prompted Chris Wilson and his team to re-evaluate their options in the mature intranet market. With the end date for their contract approaching at the end of 2019, Windstream’s Corporate Communications function saw an opportunity to review their intranet strategy in the context of an evolved technology landscape. “Once we started looking at other solutions and seeing what competitors were doing, it was actually a really exciting moment. We had no idea that different intranet-as-a-service providers were running circles around our current solution in terms of seamless Office 365 integrations and innovative developments,” says Wilson.
Windstream also prioritized finding a service provider that could work efficiently to oversee a streamlined migration process. The forthcoming solution needed to turn concept into reality in less than nine weeks’ time. “We wondered how we were going to do this. There was so much we had to do in so little time,” reflects Wilson, “But Unily had a robust playbook for migrations that left no stone unturned. They were able to work with us and adapt quickly to fit our accelerated timeline.”
Ease of migration was the primary concern for the project team, given the central role that the intranet platform plays in driving internal communications and collaboration across the organization. With more than 310k unique content items, a seamless transition was needed to maintain employee engagement levels and ensure that no user went without access to information.
Requirements checklist
A demonstrated commitment to innovation
Instead of taking a step back, the forthcoming solution needed to drive Windstream’s communications forward through expansive functionality and ongoing evolution.
Seamless integration with Office 365 and third-party tools
The platform needed to cultivate a symbiotic digital ecosystem by integrating with Windstream’s existing Microsoft stack in addition to other applications including DocuSign, Confluence, PeopleSoft, and Concur.
A well-honed track record
Stakeholders wanted a platform with staying power and sought service providers with an unprecedented success record.
Platform stability
To make sure outages became a thing of the past, consistent performance was vital.
From concept to go-live in nine weeks
When it came to launching the newest iteration of Stream, time was of the essence.
Windstream had approximately two months to complete the transition. While a nine-week migration may have felt like a leap of faith, Unily’s consultants devised an approach that ensured success was well within reach.
The team successfully migrated 100% of the content items, 130k social comments, and 2.5k sites. All sites were initially moved to a base template site, where owners had the ability to polish their pages. Following this, Windstream employees received access to Unily under a “Beta Preview” to encourage users to get familiar with the solution prior to the hard cutover.
Project timeline
The standard migration process takes approximately 20 weeks. With the deadline for Windstream’s previous contract imminently approaching, consultants created an accelerated strategy to ensure a seamless transition to the new iteration of Stream before the hard cutover.
Initiate - 2 weeks
The first phase creates a foundation for the migration process by reviewing prerequisites for the transition and focusing on technical configuration and planning.
Audit - 1 week
To understand the full scope of the transition, the auditing phase allows for a total review of what will be migrated, in addition to a full legacy system extract.
Design - 2 weeks
Working through a proven framework, collaborators design new homepages and sites, as well as migration templates.
Migration waves - 2 weeks
To mitigate risk of information loss, migration occurs over waves. Before handover to site owners, a first and second pass migration are undertaken, and this process is repeated until total accuracy is ensured.
Remedition - 1 week
Here the IA of the environment is defined, and content refactoring takes place. Design enhancements are also added to high-yield locations.
Launch - 1 week
The final step, during which the migrated site debuts alongside a strategic launch plan. Continued remediation occurs for ongoing improvement.
Planting the seeds for lasting change
“The biggest challenge to tackle during migration isn’t the technology, it’s behavioral change,” explains Mark Chevis, Unily’s Head of Onboarding in North America.
“There’s a learning curve associated with transitioning from one platform to another, as every tool functions differently. Without ongoing support and ample opportunity for training, enterprises run the risk that some users will fail to fully adopt the new platform.”
Unily’s consultants supported Wilson and his team in ensuring that Stream wasn’t just functional but rather inviting and intuitive to all employees. “We needed to forget a little bit of what we knew and go into beginner’s mind. It was definitely an adjustment. But once that lightbulb went off, I started to get really excited about what the new platform could help us achieve,” says Wilson.
To drive adoption and ensure ease of use for all, a Welcome to Stream page served as a comprehensive guide for end users looking for guidance throughout the transition.
Before and after
Ushering in a new era of connectivity
Launching Stream is more than a migration story; the solution marks a 360-degree innovation devised to transform the platform into a centralized hub for news, updates, and opportunities to come together as one.
Windstream’s previous platform limited the impact of internal comms: leaders weren’t able to push key content pieces, target news to sub-segments of the workforce, or utilize mobile functionality to engage with frontline employees.
In contrast, the forthcoming iteration of Stream includes the capabilities needed to launch the kind of comprehensive communications platform that stakeholders had always envisioned. “We wanted to be that enterprise-wide wrapper, where we could take all these other applications in our IT stack, bring them together, and then also be the place where people could still come and talk about everything else,” says Wilson of Windstream’s vision.
To underpin a seamless digital experience and pave the way for a new era of internal communications, several considerations were given top priority.
Single pane of glass experience
Prior to Unily, clunky integrations with key apps like Outlook prevented users from reaping the benefits of a unified digital experience. The new iteration of Stream serves as an efficient gateway to every tool within a user’s arsenal, in turn leveling up digital satisfaction and productivity in one.
From searching across SharePoint to an Outlook calendar widget, Stream now integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft stack as well as third-party applications to remove silos and cultivate a unified experience for all.
Two-way communications
Windstream’s Corporate Communications team sought a digital platform that would serve as the backbone for their internal messaging strategy. Previously, the enterprise lacked the ability to push key content pieces; instead of a curated experience, Stream’s homepage was populated purely by social activity.
“We were looking for the Goldilocks solution, that hybrid where people are encouraged to have a voice and participate, while maintaining structure and governance,” explains Wilson. The platform needed to simultaneously offer leaders the ability to push key pieces while giving users the autonomy to create their own experiences and interact with the content that interests them most.
The newest version of Stream merges authentic social functionality and mechanisms for two-way communications with customizable controls and permission settings, creating a balanced approach. Employees from all corners of the organization can contribute content, ensuring a diverse array of updates that spotlight various teams and departments.
Mobile access for the frontline
From employees working in call centers to technicians connecting ethernet cables, frontline employees play a crucially important role within the enterprise. The newest iteration of Stream features a branded mobile app to keep employees across every division connected and reduce instances of siloes and segmentation. Whether accessing the platform on their desktop before heading out to the field or keeping tabs on updates via their mobile device, Stream now serves as the go-to source for communication and connection.
Leadership visibility
To shape corporate culture and align employees across all divisions, ongoing input from leadership is essential. Stream provides senior team members with designated pathways to share insights and updates in an efficient manner. An “Insights from the CEO” section on Stream’s homepage ensures that leadership receive maximum visibility, while embedded social commenting creates opportunities for two-way communications and authentic conversation. Windstream’s C-suite also takes advantage of social functionality to respond to employee comments and build authentic dialogues with users across the organization.
Consumer-grade experiences
To level up engagement, Windstream wanted to arm employees with high-caliber workplace tools that are on the same level as the technology they experience in their personal lives. “People are seeing their software change in their daily lives; their personal technologies are always advancing and so they start to expect the same level of improvement at work,” says Wilson.
Prior to their intranet redesign, employees went years without product updates or additional features. In the six months since relaunching Stream, two major site innovations have taken place: the debut of a unified search center and the arrival of native video capabilities. With a roadmap outlining future evolutions, leaders now feel confident that their platform will continue to keep pace with the needs and expectations of their workforce.
The results
By combining a strategic approach with niche expertise, Windstream and Unily collaborated to unveil a comprehensive intranet redesign in just nine weeks.
Despite the accelerated timeline, the team ensured that no feature or functionality fell by the wayside. Consequently, Stream has been met with both widespread employee acclaim and impressive analytics that point to the solution’s efficacy.
Crunching the numbers
With approximately 11.8k users logging on during the solution’s first few months, the platform’s overall usage rate surpasses 98% of employees. Over 1m sessions and more than 3m total page views indicate that employees are regularly utilizing the solution and navigating to multiple sections of the intranet.
Stream’s Tools and Applications page is amongst the most popular, with more than 100k views since the start of 2020. Users have also taken advantage of Stream’s top-performing search center, which has received nearly 70k views. For employees looking to connect and collaborate with peers, the user profile directory has become an essential resource, as illustrated by a view count that exceeds 42k.
In addition to impressive analytics, Stream has earned ample praise from employees across the organization, including members of the C-suite. Stephen Farkouh, Windstream’s CIO, reflects, “We wanted to be confident we were investing in a solution with ‘staying power’ — something that would grow along with us. Unily checked that box and, by all measures, this new partnership is a win for Windstream.”
A bright future
Although the migration chapter of Windstream’s transformation may have come to a close, the enterprise’s digital journey is only just beginning. Leaders are looking ahead to an inspired future in which a richer communications strategy will level up every employee’s digital experience.
As their workforce continues to expand and evolve, the need for cohesion and ongoing connection becomes increasingly critical. In addition to pushing key content pieces and maximizing the visibility of updates from senior leadership, Stream has transformed into every employee’s virtual water cooler. Users utilize the platform to connect and converse with colleagues, seamlessly gain access to key apps and tools, and stay informed about the innovations that are shaping the future of the enterprise.