Z Energy is a large company that supplies fuel to retail and large commercial customers like airlines, trucking companies, shipping companies, and vehicle fleet operators. It also provides an essential substance known as bitumen to roading contractors, and owns and manages numerous service stations and truck stops.
With a core company value of ‘Share Everything’, Z Energy wanted to deliver a modern communication platform to provide an industry leading employee experience that would support their internal strategic goals and allow their employee stories to be shared.
The current intranet solution had several constraints and shortfalls – these resulted in functional and technical limitations that affected how Z Energy delivered to their strategy and on the overall user experience. In addition, there were inherent risks around future supportability of the existing platform.
Provoke was approached by Z Energy to partner with them in delivering a modern communication solution. As Z Energy had already made a strategic investment in Office 365 as their modern workplace solution, leveraging SharePoint online for their intranet was the logical choice.
The project followed a minimum viable product (MVP) approach that utilized agile methods, collaboration and continuous improvement with both parties working closely and nimbly together. Staff involvement was key to success. Several site content owners were identified and engaged with early on to help collaborate on designing and building the new intranet. This enabled collaboration, buy in from across the organization and ensured the new site remained core to Z Energy’s values and tone of voice.
Provoke spent two days with the core Z Energy team conducting ideation and design sessions to define a functional architecture in SharePoint Online using Hub and Communication Sites. Subsequently, functionality was showcased on Z Energy’s test environment through collaborative prototyping sessions, ensuring the Z Energy project team developed a comprehensive understanding of the new technology and functionality for its initial users who would go on to promote the usability across the wider organization.
Provoke assisted Z Energy site owners with their content preparation and Microsoft Teams was used for file storage and communication through the process. Provoke facilitated a high level information architecture session with site content owners to determine an initial IA and navigation structure.
Using this agile MVP approach allowed the project to have a shortened time to market, and reduced overheads and cost. The new “Z Hub” has delivered the necessary digitization and productivity gains the business has outlined as part of its internal communication strategic goals.
Z Hub now offers an engaging way to share news and content online, encouraging interaction and collaboration across teams and various business locations throughout New Zealand. Having a modern and responsive solution accessible on all devices allows all Z Energy employees to have an enhanced experience when sharing insights and thought leadership, whilst empowering those in the business to own and update their content easily.
Technology
The Z Hub was built using Office365 with SharePoint Online’s Communication and Hub Sites.
