I enjoyed that Raquel and Erin (from IC) were a part of the initial drawing board when we were in the planning phase. That really helped set the stage to the execution and launch and allowed me to trust their support with the ongoing process. Even today, I feel so comfortable with the team that I can reach out to them whenever to ask a simple question. I enjoy the easy, open communication style that we have and feel supported when I come across issues (which can be frequent!).
– Natasha Kambo, Marketing Coordinator, Smythe
About Smythe
Founded in 1980, Smythe LLP Smythe LLP is a mid-size Chartered Professional Accounting (CPA) firm located in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, with three offices across the province: Vancouver, Langley, and Nanaimo. The firm has grown rapidly over the past few years and now employs over 230 staff across their three business lines, Smythe CPA, Smythe Advisory, and Smythe Insolvency.
The problem: an unengaging corporate intranet
Smythe became an IC customer in 2017 and have used their corporate intranet solution, for approximately three years. However, their employees did not widely use their intranet, nor was it very engaging. Instead, the intranet was mainly used for document storage.
In the fall of 2019, the team at Smythe decided it was time to rethink their internal communications processes, and a big part of this was gaining more value from their corporate intranet. They started by going back to their intranet provider, IC, for assistance. They knew that IC provided 1:1 support to new and existing customers through their Tailored Experience program.
Prior to relaunching our intranet, we had very minimal contact with the team at IC. It was mostly our IT department that reached out to the IC team for website maintenance and updates. We previously used the intranet to a minimum and therefore did not require much assistance.
– Natasha Kambo, Marketing Coordinator, Smythe
The solution: a partnership with IC
The team at Smythe wanted to create a space for their staff to find resources, news, upcoming events, and fun employee-related content so that employees could get to know each other. In other words, they wanted a more engaging, interactive, and aesthetically pleasing intranet platform.
The team at IC was thrilled to support Smythe through this endeavor to relaunch their corporate intranet. They also stepped up to help Smythe improve internal communications best practices across the organization.
To ensure that they were meeting all the needs of the Smythe team for the duration of the project, the IC team met with representatives from Smythe weekly. During the planning phase, the two groups brainstormed together and gathered ideas. As the project progressed, they continued to meet up for additional guidance and to get familiar with the software and its capabilities.
The result: an interactive corporate intranet
As a result of working so closely with IC, the team at Smythe was able to relaunch their intranet, this time utilizing all of the software’s built-in capabilities to improve employee engagement.
Here are some of the other benefits that the team at Smythe realized as a result of working with IC:
I would describe this project as redefining our internal engagement at Smythe by introducing a brand-new intranet! An intranet that is full of interactive widgets, engaging content, a breadth of resources and a way to get to know your peers. A safe space for all and the one source of truth for all things related to Smythe.
– Natasha Kambo, Marketing Coordinator, Smythe
Private Cloud-hosted corporate intranet
When IC first started to work with Smythe, they identified an opportunity to move Smythe onto a Private Cloud, as the Smythe team wanted a more accessible and readily available corporate intranet while also being able to free up IT resources.
By moving to Private Cloud, Smythe’s IT team had more time to focus on other tasks as they no longer had to maintain the software or schedule updates for the firm’s intranet. This also meant that the intranet was now readily accessible for the employees at any time, no matter where they were.
New intranet skills to carry forward
Working so closely with the team at IC also had professional benefits for the Smythe team:
There is a lot that we learned over the duration of this project that we would not have known of otherwise. Some examples are literally getting into the back end of the intranet and creating widgets and designing pages/sites. It was very intimidating for myself in the beginning, but after lots of practice and research, I feel very accomplished and comfortable on that front. I have been able to create working, efficient sites/pages from scratch which is a huge accomplishment for me personally.
– Natasha Kambo, Marketing Coordinator, Smythe
IC’s Tailored Experience
The Tailored Experience is a proven process developed by IC based on our methodology. When IC goes through the Tailored Experience with a customer, we have the following goals:
1. Measure and improve internal communications
2. Continuous improvement of internal communications
3. Empower internal communications to act strategically
4. Bring metrics, reporting, and data analytics to internal communications
5. Give internal communicators a seat at the leadership table
Because this is a “tailored” process there is no script; the IC team—our Communications Specialist and Customer Success Manager—meets with the customer’s team and works on their needs every week for about 12 weeks. The Tailored Experience also includes milestones and check-in points along the way to keep the journey on track.
The process starts with an Internal Communications Audit, conducted by the Communications Specialist. After the audit a report is drafted, which includes a General Score that is used as a baseline for that organization to measure growth. From that point on, the two teams meet weekly and work both on internal communications concepts and on IC’s software solutions.
Across our customers, we have observed the following trends:
1. Faster launch: on average, Tailored Experience customers launch their intranet sites 75% faster than customers without (12 weeks vs. 52 weeks).
2. Communication tied to business goals: the Tailored Experience creates a way to bring your communication plan alive within your organization, allowing you to measure the impact communication has on achieving your goals.
3. Increase engagement in the project: on average, Tailored Experience customers have 3.6 people involved in the project. Customers without the Tailored Experience have, on average, only 1 person involved in the project.
You can see how our Tailored Experience process works in the infographic below:
Learn more about intranet software & the Tailored Experience
Interested in learning more? Book a demo now and discover how intranet software combined with the Tailored Experience can set your organization up for success.