Modernizing Traditional Services: How the Ontario County of Huron simplified their Digital Platform based on Intuition
The County of Huron is a municipal corporation for the most agriculturally productive county in Ontario. Among other responsibilities to its almost 60,000 residents, the Country is responsible for public health and social services, library services, and county land-use planning and development. While steeped in tradition, private citizens and public servants alike are also quick to embrace modern technologies, including digital platforms. Indeed, in recent years, Huron County, with a staff of approximately 100, decided to transform their online platform from a largely email-driven system for internal collaboration to a more sophisticated – yet technically user-friendly – digitally-driven system. IC was able to provide a platform usable by Huron County’s entire staff, regardless of their level of technical ability. By adopting and adapting an Intranet for their needs, staff have become more digitally proficient and engaged.
Affordable and User-Friendly
When Huron County realized that it had to get rid of its current, largely email-driven system for internal collaboration, some of its members had already used an IC alternative; after a search for options, the County determined that IC offered all the features needed by County staff, along with the pricing, support, and ease-of-use to make it attainable.
Advanced Features Made Easy
Huron County staff were used to collaborating through rather primitive tools like email, but they were able to quickly adapt to IC’s modern platform. Now, they can stay updated and work together like never before. Thanks to advanced tools and a more organized architecture, the County was able to turn its team’s processes into an organized, digital workplace.
Benefits of Modernizing the Workplace
Today, Huron County staff spend between approximately 15-25% of their average day interacting with their intranet. Thanks to the switch, staff are more aware of the opportunities afforded them by their workplace, and they can stay up to date about the latest changes in policy. IC has helped to streamline everything from onboarding processes to exit reports — and the staff at Huron County can perform much more like fully modern digital workers, as a result.
Technological Tools Made for the Non-Technological Minded
The difficulty with advanced technologies is that making use of their most powerful new features often requires an advanced technological background all its own. IC is meant for deployment over any database and for use by any team, meaning that it has been built first and foremost with usability in mind. Huron County needed to find an intranet solution with powerful features, but which could provide those powerful features through an intuitive interface. Now, employees with various levels of digital experience are active on the platform’s social pages. Staff can explore features of their intranet with confidence, knowing that tools are organized logically, labeled clearly, and supplemented with IC’s friendly, knowledgeable support.
Facilitating Expression and Provoking Engagement
Huron County management runs a weekly blog called “This Just In,” which keeps employees informed on relevant developments in a far more engaging way than simple email blasts. Employees also have access to a section called “The Water Cooler,” on which any staff member can post or reply. It gets a lot of use by staff members, and the discussions it generates often go on to provoke engagement throughout the physical office.
Near-Instantaneous Alerts
The alerts system is a heavily used feature that allows staff to be extremely proactive when it comes to staying up to date. The alerts are especially helpful for off-site staff to stay current to the minute, despite not being privy to some meetings and off-hand conversations. With a reliable and feature-rich intranet solution, Huron County has been able to collaborate more closely even while moving physically further apart.
A Real Time Saver
Before switching to IC, Huron County had crucial documents scattered across multiple drives, and in multiple locations within each. With a single, central solution that can be accessed by everyone, from anywhere, the team was able to unify behind a single storage location and cut down on unnecessary search times.
Organizing Data
For many staff members with Huron County, everything about work is suffused in statistics, and statistics can only come from data. Prior to their intranet, the County of Huron kept their statistical data in multiple drives and within multiple folders under those drives. With their intranet, they have been able to organize folders and files in a simple to access, intuitive manner. You needn’t be a computer hacker or a technological wizard to find the data you are looking for; IC has made searching for the right file a cinch!
A Unified Storage Option
By using a single standard, Huron staff were also able to implement effective version control, preventing each staff member from forking their own version of a document with every revision. Since then collaboration on a single document has been smooth and painless, allowing staff to loop one another into projects without a great expenditure of time.
The Takeaway?
IC has aided the County of Huron in modernizing its digital platform, and it has resulted in an easy to access – and search – centralized database. Huron Company has used their intranet to craft multiple company blogs that keep staff both engaged and informed, and staff appreciates the intuitive interface which they all can use with confidence, regardless of technological prowess.