Create IT implements intranet to centralize and streamline internal communication at Fidelidade Group

The new platform is available to the more than 5000 employees and agents of the Fidelidade Group and serves as a single point of entry to access useful information and essential functionalities for their daily work.

The Challenge

Fidelidade is the leading insurance company in Portugal, both in life and non-life areas, with more than 8000 agents. Its expansion and internationalization strategy already includes Spain, France, Luxembourg, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique and Macao.

With more than 3600 employees and the challenge of uniting employees around “Be Fidelidade”, Fidelidade intended to create a single point of entry into the Group's intranets, with the goal of improving communication and reinforcing the sense of belonging of each person who is part of the Group (employees, service providers, trainees, etc).

This created the need to implement an internal communication platform that was not only a vehicle for the cultural development of the Group, but also a working and useful tool for the sharing of essential information to the business of the various companies: Multicare, Via Directa, Universal Seguros, DIN (Garantia, Fidelidade Mozambique and Macao) and Gente com Ideias (Social Responsibility program).

The major challenges were:

To create a unique homepage, visualized by all Group companies, as a gateway to not only the Fidelidade SA intranet but all the existing intranets/platforms.
To position the new intranet as an internal communication tool with restricted guidelines limited to the relevance to the company's business and culture.
To consider, in the Governance Model, the existence of a team responsible for content management.

Create IT comes into the project on the recommendation of By, the design company hired by Fidelidade. "Throughout the project we have been building a relationship of trust, strongly supported by team spirit and the sharing of our experience in implementing other intranets and projects. Instead of autonomous teams we became a unique team with members of Create IT, By and Fidelidade", says Sara Oliveira, responsible for the project at Create IT.

The Solution

In order to successfully adress Fidelidade's needs, the solution included the development and implementation of a SharePoint intranet as a gateway to all Group’s intranets. This intranet is very focused on communication, making information available to everyone and sharing useful features to employees, with particular emphasis on the User Profile and Employee Portal.

According to Teresa Ramalho, Fidelidade's Head of Internal Communication, "The intranet ‘Be Fidelidade’ main focus is people, uniting all employees in a single portal where we communicate news regarding all the companies of the Fidelidade Group, where employees have their Profile interacting with each other, and where we can facilitate and promote professional networking so important for business engagement. This project was just the beginning and started very well! With a new Scrum methodology for Fidelidade, which proved to be extremely effective, and with a team made up of members of By, Create and Fidelidade very united, focused and constructive”.

The implementation lasted about 7 months (in 7 sprints with feedback gathering and consideration according to the Agile methodology) and involved 7 Create IT employees, 4 By employees and 8 Fidelidade employees, also including other stakeholders in specific phases of the project.

"The involvement was very close, we worked as a unique team and extremely aligned with an excellent collaboration", highlights Sara Oliveira. "We did not separate the technological part from the business part, using technology as a vehicle to help meet the project needs", she adds. Create IT, which has maintained a constant and active presence from the beginning to the end of the project, was responsible for designing and implementing the entire solution.

The Results

The new intranet strengthens the Group's sense of global belonging (each person does not access the company's intranet, but the Group's intranet), enables an easier and faster access to information (synergies derived from centralization) and makes communication more agile and efficient (with the access to new tools useful for the daily work of each employee and the sharing of information among colleagues). However, this project is only a first step in a larger program, to create a single intranet for the entire Group.

"Our goal is to do this journey with Fidelidade Group, not only to improve and increase the functionalities of the new intranet, but also in terms of technological evolution. We were able to address all project requirements while maintaining an excellent team environment until the end. There is now the possibility for employees to interact more with the new intranet and with each other to get the most out of the available channels, starting a true concept of Networking within the Group. For example, in the area of Recognition on the user’s profile page, each employee can highlight and give a testimony about the work of another colleague in a set of predefined categories (ex: Collaboration, Innovation)", concludes Sara Oliveira.

Fidelidade now has a privileged Internal Communication tool that promotes the Group culture and is accessible at any time and in any place by all team members, regardless of the company to which they are allocated.

The intranet ‘Be Fidelidade’ main focus is people, uniting all employees in a single portal where we communicate news regarding all the companies of the Fidelidade Group, where employees have their Profile interacting with each other, and where we can facilitate and promote professional networking so important for business engagement. This project was just the beginning and started very well! With a new Scrum methodology for Fidelidade, which proved to be extremely effective, and with a team made up of members of By, Create and Fidelidade very united, focused and constructive.
Teresa Ramalho - Fidelidade's Head of Internal Communication

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