Intranet Case Study
Anthony Collins solicitors create a new dynamic intranet
Anthony Collins Solicitors is a specialist law firm with a clear purpose – to “improve lives, communities and society”. For over 40 years it has been successfully combining market-leading legal expertise with a commitment to excellence and long-term relationships underpinned by a strong set of values.
Location:
Birmingham, UK
Industry:
Law Practice
Employees:
200 – 500
Location:
Birmingham, UK
Industry:
Law Practice
Employees:
200 – 500
The challenge
To deliver a fresh, modern, dynamic intranet which would provide a central location for all policies and procedures to be stored. To improve communication, productivity and knowledge management. To provide a virtual breakout area for all employees and a go-to place for knowledge and information for everyone within the organisation.
The solution
The Sorce journey at Anthony Collins Solicitors started many years ago. They have gone through two major intranet launches to ensure that they have kept up to date with changing requirements and have kept the site fresh and relevant.
The launch of their first site was celebrated with a companywide naming competition. The office building has eight working floors, of which Anthony Collins Solicitors occupy 4, plus a top ninth floor with a roof terrace for client meetings and employee breakout space. They wanted the intranet to serve as a breakout area for employees so they aptly chose the name ‘The Ninth Floor’.
The Ninth Floor was highly stylised with buttons, headers and pages that were custom designed. The idea was to create a space for employees to go to that felt like a breakout area away from the corporate feel of the organisation. This worked well and did create a separate identity for the site. Time was certainly saved through having one central location for information. The Ninth Floor was used heavily as the go-to place when searching for policies and procedures and replaced a paper based telephone directory that was previously very time consuming and cumbersome to update and distribute.
Engagement was encouraged by the introduction of a few fun widgets, such as the local weather and a ‘coffee cup spin’ to determine which member of staff was to make the next round of drinks in the office!
“The naming competition created a good amount of hype and buzz around the launch. Besides the much-improved interface and ease of access to business information, widgets such as the local weather and the coffee cup spin proved to be very popular.”
Angela Skuce
IT Manager
Staff changes over the years led to a new intranet project team coming together. The new team were keen to update The Ninth Floor to ensure that it was kept up to date, fresh, relevant and user friendly. It was decided that an upgrade and a relaunch was needed.
The site relaunched with a new look and feel, losing the name The Ninth Floor. The new site is very modern looking with a clean and simple feel. The background image is changed regularly to reflect local news or changes in the seasons and the Senior Partner blog on the homepage is updated every few weeks. This positive engagement filters down through the organisation and encourages employees to get involved and contribute content to the site.
The Staff Room page on the new site is proving to be very popular. It is used to share notices, classified advertisements, information about clubs, events, the local area, and includes an engaging photo wall of recent staff events.
The firm’s new telephone system was launched in 2017 and promoted using the intranet. They even created a cartoon character on the site to help answer questions about the new system. The promotion helped to encourage employees to learn more about the new system and all queries were filtered through the intranet, which helped to save lots of time with answering questions.
The trainees at Anthony Collins Solicitors use the intranet to promote their charity fundraising; raising awareness of samosa sales, cake bakes and activities such as The Birmingham Legal Walk. Also on the site is a new starter portal. The Human Resources (HR) team have developed a dedicated page full of useful information including details of induction training, documentation, who is who around the firm, and frequently asked questions, etc.
“The new starter portal has proved to be a great success.It is the go-to area for new employees where they have all the information they need at their fingertips and can find out more about life at their new firm. This has helped to improve employee engagement from the outset. It enables new employees to ease into their roles and has saved lots of time within the HR department.”
Angela Skuce
IT Manager
RSS feeds are providing employees with dynamic information from areas such as local area news and law sites providing legal and industry news, along with important case law updates.
The Resource Booking application is a vital tool for the reception team. There are lots of rooms and facilities available to book for internal meetings and visiting clients. The application is simple but highly effective, it has saved lots of time and improved efficiency.
The results
Using Sorce, Anthony Collins Solicitors has created a dynamic, fresh, modern and informative intranet that will continue to evolve as business and employee requirements change. There have been improvements in productivity and knowledge sharing. A great relationship has been formed between Sorce and Anthony Collins Solicitors that will continue to grow.
“Our Sorce intranet is a living breathing source of information. It is a user-friendly site that is dynamic and engaging with a modern and fresh feel. Our site is a dedicated resource for all information and knowledge across all departments within the organisation. Our intranet also provides our employees with the break-out space we all need and is vital to staff engagement and communication.”
Angela Skuce
IT Manager
