Context
Barclays is one of the largest financial services companies in the world, engaged primarily in banking, investment banking and investment management. cScape created designs for Pulse, a news-oriented home page and portal site built to ensure that users received a coherent message and had a single point of entry to Barclay’s corporate intranet.
Challenge
Our greatest challenge was to persuade 40,000 international employees to accept changes to the appearance and navigation of their intranet – and present change as opportunity. In building Pulse we were effectively changing the home page for every person in the organisation; experience has taught us that new systems are often viewed with a mixture of over-optimism and suspicion.
Solution
cScape worked with Barclays to create a strategic launch plan structured to maximise employee engagement with the new portal. We set out to manage expectations, opening and maintaining a dialogue with our target audience to ensure final adaptation and acceptance. We also encouraged the appointment of an intranet champion to supervise the launch and act as advocate for the new system.
Outcome
We achieved acceptance and engagement with Barclays’ internal audience through a four-week plan that communicated the Pulse online value proposition (OVP). Our strategy encouraged users to explore the new site, instilled confidence in the new navigational structure, and promoted the intranet champion and their team as a resource for users. The competitions we ran to encourage employees to explore new site areas also allowed key internal departments – such as the Barclays Premiership football promotion team – to highlight their offering.