70%
cheaper than typical
consultancy costs
4800
user visits per month
How Knoll Inc.
Developed their
Intranet 4x Faster
Thanks to ShortPoint
ShortPoint has enabled us to create internal SharePoint sites that are user-friendly and attractive for our multi-generational group of Associates.
Stephanie Case
Senior Instructional Designer, Knoll
content
customer
Knoll Inc. uses modern design to connect people to their work, their lives, their world. Since 1938, Knoll has been recognized internationally for creating workplace and residential furnishings that inspire, evolve, and endure.
Challenges
Lifting the pressure off HR with a stellar intranet
Knoll’s human resources team recognized that there had to be a better way to help Associates get the information they needed; such as data on benefits, company policies, and human resources contacts. As things stood, the team didn’t only have the task of delivering key business priorities, such as recruiting and talent development. They were also wasting hours sending files back and forth to answer Associate questions. With tons of time being wasted, they spotted the need for a central resource, where Associates could find all the answers and documents they needed in one place.
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“We already had an intranet, as most businesses do, but it wasn’t acting as a useful resource for Associates,” said Senior Instructional Designer Stephanie Case. “So we kicked-off a project to create an Associate resource where we could put things like HR contacts, benefit information or how to retrieve a paystub.”
“Quickly, that project morphed into developing a full, company-wide intranet. One that would provide a brand new avenue for getting information out to Associates that the rest of the world didn’t need to see.”
Key Goals
ShortPoint has led to a more streamlined process, refined our workflow, and enabled us to bring more money in.
-Milton
As a furniture business that’s passionate about modern design, the site had to reflect their distinct branding and feel clean, fresh and familiar.
The site had to appeal to everyone, from the tech-savvy to the less-digitally comfortable. Everyone had to feel like the intranet was theirs.
Overcome the resistance of some Associates, who were skeptical a newintranet was really required.
Keep costs down, while still creating a digital destination that every Associate felt was valuable and usable.
Meet an agreed timeline.
Brand and design is a huge backbone of our company, so we needed the site to reflect that identity. The problem was we didn’t have the skills, time or experience to configure a SharePoint site internally. So we reached out to consultants for an extra level of design support.
- Stephanie
Of course, the job of building a customized intranet came with a host of challenges. The most significant being that, like many leading businesses, Knoll’s existing intranet was created using SharePoint Online. Customizing and branding pages within the software was notoriously difficult without the support of specialist developers.
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Knoll found it incredibly time-consuming and challenging to communicate their vision for the platform to a consultant who wasn’t close to their brand. After several months of toing and froing, they still hadn’t made much headway. The team decided it was time to look for a different route. Stephanie wondered if a tool existed that could be laid over SharePoint, which would simplify its features and allow her to do more of the work herself—and she hit the internet to see what was available. That’s when she discovered ShortPoint: intuitive design software that adds user-friendly features to SharePoint and enables designers to brand and build customized intranets for themselves with no coding.
I was thrilled when I found ShortPoint and realized I could use their tools to accurately reflect our vision for the intranet. Compared to the cost of consultants, the price of a ShortPoint licence was also appealing. I was so excited to see what we might achieve with it.
- Stephanie
We were spending a lot of development dollars, but things still weren’t how we wanted and every day wasted was a day closer to our deadline.
Stephanie Case
Senior Instructional Designer, Knoll
Solution
Easy-to-learn platform and copy-and-paste templates make intranet-building a breeze
While Stephanie was impressed with everything the software had to offer, the team faced the challenge of getting approval from senior management. ShortPoint’s free 15-day trial helped them achieve that. Stephanie trawled its vast library of demos for ideas—and then presented some striking design ideas to the team.
“Rather than having to find the right words to ‘sell’ the solution, I could show our leadership, visually, what a new intranet could look like with ShortPoint,” said Stephanie. “Having those visuals meant they could instantly experience the benefit of ShortPoint integration.”
Everyone jumped on board. And with no time to lose, Stephanie purchased the license and started building out the vision for a beautifully branded intranet.
Used Tools
ShortPoint has led to a more streamlined process, refined our workflow, and enabled us to bring more money in.
-Milton
Undertaking ShortPoint’s live online training , which gave detailed insights into every tool and feature, meaning Stephanie could quickly get the best out of the software.
Using ShortPoint’s Page Builder tool and vast library of cut-and-paste templates to rapidly build an entire intranet site. What Stephanie appreciated most was that ShortPoint provides drag-and-drop design elements that allowed her to customize the templates, play around with them and really make them her own.
Using ShortPoint’s Theme Builder to create an overall look for the site that incorporates corporate branding and a clean, fresh, modern design that mirrors Knoll’s brand. Stephanie loved that she could see an instant preview of any changes and easily undo anything she wasn’t keen on. There were no long-winded installations or customizations to sit through just instant results.
Turning to ShortPoint’s proactive and responsive support team, whenever she met a challenge she couldn’t resolve. Unlike some other software vendors, Stephanie’s support requests weren’t answered by a ‘bot’, which can cause frustration and delays. Instead, they were answered by an experienced developer. Turnaround times for requests were so rapid, her entire team was astonished she was getting answers and support that fast.
Because the software was so quick to learn—and support was there whenever she needed it Stephanie had the intranet designed and deployed weeks ahead of schedule. They were so far ahead, they decided to build three additional sites—a portal for associate resources, IT resources site and career development site. All four were designed and live within the timeframe they’d originally set to create a single site.
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Because ShortPoint allowed us to design everything and figure out any challenges for ourselves, it removed the cycle of trying to articulate ideas to a developer, then waiting and realizing they still didn’t actually get it.
Stephanie Case
Senior Instructional Designer, Knoll
“With ShortPoint, everything was fast. From learning how to use the software and developing the sites, to getting the support I needed from the ShortPoint team whenever I had a question I couldn’t figure out for myself.”
Results
Development costs cut by 70% and sites built 4x faster
Thanks to ShortPoint, Stephanie successfully built four vital intranet sites, with four distinct purposes, in the time an external SharePoint developer would have taken to build one. That’s a 4x jump in development speed, which is a huge deal for any business.
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“Without ShortPoint, we wouldn’t be close to where we currently are with four full, active sites,” said Stephanie. Because users can now find information about every area of need—all wrapped up in professional design that reflects their brand and culture—user adoption has rocketed. Associates now visit the intranet at an average of 4,800 visits each month and the numbers keep growing.
“Once the sites were ready and we’d sent communications to Associates that directed them to the intranet, we started to see more numbers visiting,” said Stephanie. “I think we’d have struggled to get to that level of adoption without ShortPoint.” Associates and executives have had their skepticism smashed and minds changed because of what the team created with ShortPoint.
What’s even more satisfying is that other departments, who were probably a bit on the fence about it in the beginning are now saying ‘wow’ this is really something we did need.
Stephanie Case
Senior Instructional Designer, Knoll
ShortPoint has helped Knoll keep development costs seriously low. Without it, they’d have continued to spend thousands of dollars on consultants. With ShortPoint, they just pay a flat annual fee, which is around 70% less than typical consultancy fees for reconfiguring aSharePoint intranet. For a business in a hugely competitive niche like furniture, those savings are one huge deal. Even better, cost and time savings are being made every day, across every corner of the business. Associates don’t need to waste their working hours hunting around for answers and documents, because everything’s there online. And HR partners save hours a day because they have far fewer calls to field. Everyone’s life is easier. Stephanie is thrilled she chose ShortPoint to rapidly build intranet sites that so many Associates want to use.
“If you want SharePoint not to look like SharePoint, but to be more user-friendly,
feel more familiar to your audience and have an engaging look and feel, then ShortPoint is the tool. It's enabled us to change our internal comms culture for the better and make information that’s important to all, accessible to all.”
ShortPoint has enabled us to create internal SharePoint sites that are user friendly and attractive for our multi-generational group of Associates
- Stephanie
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