86%
Adoption of intranet portals
8/10
GCC recommends Powell
GCC has 50 operational entities throughout France and nearly 2,580 employees. In less than 20 years, GCC has become one of the top 10 companies in the construction sector. With agencies and subsidiaries grouped under Construction, Energy, and Real Estate Development Divisions, GCCs corporate structure poses communication and collaboration challenges.
GCC’s ambition was to modernize business processes and improve internal communication. They also wanted to take advantage of what Microsoft 365 has to offer.
So GCC opted to redesign its outdated intranet, which was expensive and didn’t allow for autonomy or customization. The new intranet would act as the lungs of a centralized digital workplace adapted to modern business needs.
Challenges
GCC took a user-centric approach. They wanted to set up cross-functional group portals allowing management to communicate with all employees and make documents easily available. They wanted to allow field workers in construction sites to have the ability to create private portals within each entity. The main challenge was to make the intranet a digital workplace that meets the needs of both the business and IT teams.
Objectives
Improve sense of belonging to the Group
Keep all employees informed about company life
Maintain autonomy within the entities
Private portals by entity to communicate and collaborate independently
Inform on the field
Push the information on construction sites without
duplicating it
Digitizing construction sites
Communicate and share documents throughout the life cycle of construction sites
GCC experimented with Powell Manager as part of a POC for the implementation of SharePoint sites. Having experienced great success, and after reflecting on what native SharePoint and other competitors offered, GCC chose Powell Intranet for its ability to:
- Enhance the SharePoint experience
- Customize the employee experience
- Replicate sites without complex IT management through Powell Manager
- Integrate fully with Microsoft 365
Final result
Customized portals for effective communication
The resulting digital workplace effectively reflects GCC’s organizational structure and culture, placing the group, service lines, and individual entities on equal footing.
Management and service lines use the intranet to disseminate information to all employees, while each entity functions as an autonomous unit.
To achieve this, GCC implemented a service line communication site, accessible to all employees, with both general and targeted content (based on Microsoft 365 group memberships). This approach enabled GCC to deliver a tailored and personalized experience for each entity through private portals (Team Sites with SharePoint and Teams) and a central home portal aggregating all content.
Access where employees need it
- The group intranet is accessible in Microsoft Teams to bring more engagement and content consumption.
- From the Group intranet, it is easy to access secondary portals for entities and service lines
- All portals are accessible form the mobile application
Opening the concept to construction sites
Following a successful POC across 10 construction sites, GCC recognized the potential of portals as a communication and collaboration tool for field-based teams.
The goal was to establish a common, customizable site template that would meet the day-to-day needs of construction sites, while leveraging relevant Microsoft settings. The resulting Site Portal not only digitizes numerous processes but also connects the external ecosystem.
Leveraging Microsoft 365, IT teams developed a common site template with a fixed tree structure, where each job site is represented by a Microsoft 365 group with its own storage space and rules.
Streamlining construction portal creation
To simplify the creation of worksite portals, GCC aimed to automate the process using a Microsoft Flow that triggers the creation of a standardized portal through Powell Intranet technology.
Button to create a site portal in the intranet
A Microsoft Flow launches and uses Powell Manager
Powell Manager creates the M365 group and applies the Powell Template on the SharePoint site
Intranet portals
1. Group portal
Provides access to service lines and construction site documents, including information on prevention, management, and compatibility.
2. ISD portal & Training portal
ISD Portal: Offers IT support access (ticket submission), process information, and equipment details.
Training Portal: Provides access to training offerings, course booking, and trainer contact information, along with details on IS security.
3. Construction portal
Construction Site Portal: Includes a common filing plan, version history, offline access, PC, mobile, and tablet accessibility, prevention portal integration, and Agora (group portal) integration.
Modalities: Each agency has a designated representative and autonomy in creating site portals.
4. Field workers access
Field Worker Access: Field workers can access site portals via a Microsoft 365 account on their devices, enabling access to traffic documents, local and institutional news.
Working with partner Expertime
For 18 years, Expertime teams have been challenging and offering their customers the best of Microsoft technologies. Expertime is an expert in application innovation and consulting on DevApps, Data & Artificial Intelligence solutions in Azure and Office 365 environments.
“We have trusted Expertime on several occasions because of their excellent understanding of our needs”
Soumaya Toumi
Office 365 Project Manager
GCC
Benefits
User benefits
- Autonomy
- Better sense of belonging
- Greater visibility on group actions
- Informed field workers
IT benefits
- Time-saving
- Reduction of recurring requests
- Controlled governance
- Automated portal creation
What’s next?
Building on their success in the Construction Division, GCC plans to extend their “Site Portal” solution to the Energy and Real Estate Development Divisions. They also intend to leverage Powell Manager’s scalability and replication capabilities, using template IDs to facilitate easy search and identification across a large number of sites.
Conclusion
In conclusion, by partnering with Powell and leveraging Expertime’s expertise, GCC has successfully transformed its digital workplace with a custom intranet that addresses the diverse needs of its workforce. This new intranet has not only improved internal communication and streamlined business processes but has also fostered a stronger sense of belonging and autonomy across GCC’s 50 entities. With high user adoption and positive feedback, GCC is well-positioned to further expand its digital capabilities and enhance collaboration across its Construction, Energy, and Real Estate Development Divisions.
