Aspia Unifies the Organization with SharePoint

“We have taken a major step forward with our new SharePoint-based intranet. Our previous solution was poorly structured and difficult to navigate, which limited its use and support for the organization. Now we have a well-structured, modern, and appealing solution that, through integration with Microsoft products, makes the intranet easily accessible and ever-present for employees. Unlike before, it is now easy and quick to find all types of information. It is also simpler to create, maintain, and target content. By increasing user benefit, accessibility, and relevance, we believe the new intranet will strengthen productivity, engagement, and a sense of community in the long run,” says Mukarram Roomi, Product Owner at Aspia.

The Need for an Easy-to-Use and Flexible Intranet

Aspia is one of Sweden's largest business and accounting firms, offering services and solutions in accounting, payroll and HR, advisory, and taxation. With over 1,300 employees and 50 local offices, Aspia assists clients across Sweden from north to south, and has a growing presence in the rest of the Nordics.

Aspia's previous intranet lacked certain functionalities, was perceived as difficult to navigate by employees, and was complex to administer and modify. The company decided to upgrade the platform and modernize its intranet. Given that its digital work environment largely consists of Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, and other Microsoft products, it was natural to explore SharePoint as a potential platform. Some units already had their own SharePoint sites for parts of internal communication. To validate this approach, Aspia requested Precio Fishbone conduct a Proof of Concept (POC) in February 2023.

“The POC was successful, and we became convinced that SharePoint was the right platform. Many of us already had positive experiences with SharePoint, and Precio Fishbone demonstrated how simple, flexible, and powerful the platform is. SharePoint provides a solid foundation to build on. It also allows us to start with the essentials, test, and easily add new features and content based on user feedback and the business's development,” Mukarram emphasizes.

Getting the Organization on Board from the Start

The implementation began in June, and the new intranet was launched to the entire organization in November. Precio Fishbone assisted Aspia with project management and developed the new information and navigation structure. The intranet has a dual navigation structure where all HR and personal employee information, support, tools, and more are accessible from the global menu and the main homepage. Under the global menu, there is a local menu for the unit the user works within or follows, such as Marketing. This section contains news, document libraries, and other shared resources within each unit. The menus are also always available in Microsoft 365 applications.

“One of the significant improvements compared to our previous solution is that it is now very quick to find and access information, documents, colleagues, and other resources. This was difficult and time-consuming before. We have not only gained a better, clearer, and more navigable information structure but also consolidated, structured, and transferred parts of document management into SharePoint. This makes it much easier to find and share files. Furthermore, the new intranet is integrated with Teams and Microsoft 365, which enhances accessibility and facilitates internal collaboration,” Mukarram underscores.

Internal communication has also been strengthened with Microsoft Viva Connections in Teams, which further simplifies the distribution and accessibility of news and conversations. The mobile experience has also been enhanced through Teams and SharePoint mobile apps.

The implementation project largely involved reviewing, cleaning up, and migrating existing content, as well as creating new content, a task Aspia’s editors and communication managers undertook themselves. Mukarram notes that if faced with the same situation again, he would likely outsource the migration to a consultant:

“We chose to handle part of the migration ourselves, thinking it wouldn’t be that difficult. But it would have saved us a lot of time and trouble if we had hired an implementation consultant, like Precio Fishbone, to do it for us, or if we had allocated resources and time to do it ourselves. Another lesson we learned is that having key people in the organization involved from the start of the project is essential and time-saving.”

Better Reach with Relevant and Engaging Content

Mukarram shares that they have already met several of their goals for the new intranet in a short time. For instance, they wanted to reach more employees with news and critical information, improve the intranet’s exposure, make it more attractive and relevant, and foster a sense of community and engagement.

“The new intranet has only been live for a few months, but we are already seeing increased engagement, significantly more page visits, and greater interest in internal news. The number of publications has also increased as it has become easier to create, edit, and publish content and news. With SharePoint’s smart targeting functionality, we have also started to target content more effectively, increasing the relevance of the intranet and information for all employees,” Mukarram points out.

With increased activity on the intranet, the ease of finding and sharing information, and improved opportunities to initiate and participate in conversations, Mukarram believes Aspia will become an even more unified company. Facilitated internal communication and collaboration heighten interest in cooperation and addressing common challenges.

A Change-Friendly Platform Keeps the Intranet Alive

Since the November launch, Aspia has continued developing the intranet. New features are tested in small pilot groups before being rolled out to the entire organization if successful. To get help and support, Mukarram and his team have monthly meetings with Precio Fishbone’s SharePoint experts. During these meetings, the team reviews ongoing improvements, test projects, and organizational requests for advice and tips on the best next steps.

“We have a very good and efficient collaboration with Precio Fishbone. They are skilled in SharePoint and understand our needs, providing us with the right guidance. SharePoint is also an easy-to-use and change-friendly platform, which allows us to create new solutions and improvements ourselves. Our goal is never to be fully satisfied with the solution but to constantly find areas to improve,” Mukarram concludes.