AUT

Operating as a university since 2000, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has already grown to be the second largest in New Zealand and been independently ranked as one of the top 1% of universities worldwide.

AUT have more than 60 research centres and institutes delivering leading research – from artificial intelligence and robotics to ecology and public health. With more than 250 programmes, 2,200 academic staff and over 100,000 alumni, AUT focus on collaboration and innovative teaching to bring learning to life.

As an institution dedicated to innovative teaching, AUT required a platform to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration, supporting their strategic theme of ‘being a place where people love to work and learn’. AUT strongly values culture and employee retention. Their top priorities therefore included easy access to support and opportunities and ensuring the faculty were well informed and inspired about their work and contribution as a university.

The existing SharePoint on-premises intranet was not meeting the needs of AUT staff. There was a lack of governance and intranet ownership resulting in difficulties surfacing information and poor search experience. Mobile working was not well supported and better integration with Microsoft 365 was required.

The project team needed to create an informative, engaging hub for their people to access key information and useful news, as well as services, platforms and opportunities that promoted engagement and efficiency.

WebVine worked with the AUT team to explore their goals and design a SharePoint modern intranet solution delivering better communication capabilities, productivity gains and a strong mobile experience.

Because search had been highlighted as a major frustration, the surfacing of documents and resources was a focus. Injio intranet search with customised filters, document text search and roll-over previews delivers relevant results in a digestible format. The new document hub and staff toolkit provide access to procedures, policies, forms and templates in a few clicks.

While keen to move to the modern SharePoint experience, AUT had invested in the development of several SharePoint tools that they wanted to retain such as embedded campus maps and a handy email signature builder. WebVine were able to render these features in the new SharePoint modern experience, as well as present global SharePoint search within the intranet navigation, creating a consistent, familiar experience.

The new SharePoint modern AUT intranet is called “Tuia”, meaning to weave together in the Maori language, bringing people together in unity.

Accordingly, Tuia is a unified and personalised digital workplace hub, tightly integrated with O365 tools, promoting staff engagement and making work easier and more enjoyable.

As well as the significant improvements in search and mobile accessibility, Power BI integration presents information like research funding status clearly and efficiently. A new Microsoft Teams chat card on the Help page allows users to resolve issues quickly and Teams integration in the Staff Directory helps faculty members to find each other and connect almost instantly.

“AUT has students at the centre of our work, and ensuring our staff are well informed and engaged is essential to delivering our mission of Great Graduates. Tuia, our new intranet is a powerful tool in this work,” said Abi Dowd, Deputy CIO.

Staff can acknowledge each other using the home page “Shout Out” feature which has already had more than 70 entries less than a month after launch. The home page poll can quickly take a pulse, with 70% of staff indicating a positive first impression of their new intranet.