Project Description

Surrey County Council had an intranet which was built on multiple different services. The systems were disconnected and often led to users not getting the most out of their internal network as they had to navigate from one site to the other.  

Bridgeall engaged with the team to develop a SharePoint intranet which included well-structured sites and hubs for providing the latest and most important news. As part of this, site pages and important information which was previously stored in the old intranet was migrated into SharePoint. 

About Surrey County Council

Surrey County Council is the county council administering services in the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. With 23,000 staff, the Council is responsible for services that include adult social care, children’s services (including education), roads and transport, libraries, countryside, public health, Surrey Fire & Rescue Service, emergency management and Trading Standards.

Challenges facing Surrey County Council

Surrey County Council had an existing intranet platform that was making internal communication difficult. Disconnected systems, incorrect signposting of assets and a lack of cohesive collaboration space for different roles within the Council – were just some of the common issues the team were facing. The team also wanted to make better use of their existing Microsoft 365 licenses and get the best value for their money. 

Bridgeall developed a SharePoint intranet which included a site for each Directorate in the Council as well as a hub for providing the latest and most important news. As part of this, site pages and important information previously stored in the old intranet were migrated into SharePoint. Yammer was also set up to carry over the Council’s internal social network, ensuring a group was set up for each community whilst remaining under the Microsoft 365 umbrella.

Various activities were undertaken to establish the ideal solution. Starting with wireframes, we were able to establish a set of templated pages to be used across different business areas depending on the use case.  

Once a design had been agreed on, the next steps were to establish the ideal navigational structure to enable quick and easy navigation across the sites and hubs which were to be set up or were already in place. Once the navigational structure was in place, work was carried out to migrate content across from the existing CMS platform (Squizz). As there was no direct path of migration from Squizz to SharePoint, all pages were exported as JSON files, and then imported using SharePoint PnP PowerShell scripting tools. This allowed for content to be imported into the right sites and pages as required, maintaining the content structure. 

We carried out a consultation on Yammer and the solution was set up to carry over the Council’s internal social network, ensuring a group was set up for each community. We also carried out a consultation for Viva connections and advised on the correct process for setting up Viva connections, and how to integrate this into Microsoft Teams. 

Since building the intranet for the team, Surrey County Council have been able to realise the following tangible benefits across the organisation. 

  • Surrey County Council now has an intranet that supports their wider organisational and digital strategy ‘living digital’ which aims to transition the authority into making staff, their digital tools, sources of information and personal online workspaces connected and available from anywhere, anytime.     
  • The team now has a consolidated hub for the people and staff directory, skills profile and connections to existing business applications and digital tools. There are also workspaces for teams to work collaboratively. 
  • Staff can work anywhere at any time without constraints.
  • The intranet is future-proofed and will be easy to maintain and update. 

Modernise your intranet with SharePoint

Many organisations have SharePoint, but how many have a SharePoint that delivers value and supports their employees?  

We can help you design an approach to SharePoint that meets your requirements. Build cohesion and inform your employees through your intranet. Drive organisational efficiency by sharing common resources and applications on home sites and portals. Tell your story with beautiful communication sites and stay in the know with personalised, targeted news on the web and the SharePoint mobile apps. Using the wide range of options, it is easy to build an intranet that inspires and supports your employees. Contact our team who can help.