OVERVIEW
Established in 1964, The University of Waikato is a world-class New Zealand university. With approximately 13,000 students and 1,500 staff, the University of Waikato offers a unique and rewarding experience with strong international ties. Study pathways cover more than 100 subjects from work-ready undergraduate programs to internationally recognised postgraduate degrees.
The motto for the University of Waikato is ‘Ko Te Tangata’, which means ‘For the People’, reflecting the philosophy that they are in, of, and for the community.
THE BUSINESS GOAL
As a complex institution, The University of Waikato needed a centralised and easily accessible platform to be used as a single source of truth for all staff. The existing solution, a staff portal accessed via their external website, had become outdated and only offered one-way, top-down communication.
With a focus on driving greater employee engagement and supporting important initiatives like the University’s bicultural transformation program, a compelling and comprehensive digital hub was needed. The University was also in the process of moving from Google Workspace to the Microsoft 365 environment and required a solution that would integrate seamlessly with M365.
HOW WE HELPED
The WebVine project team in close collaboration with key University personnel, took a two-phase approach. The first phase was centred around discovery, kicking off with several in-depth workshops conducted to distil key priorities and insights before starting the development of their custom Injio intranet solution.
Part of the discovery process highlighted the need to move away from housing information across multiple sources including the University website, unifying and simplifying important communication and information for staff in one place. Custom targeting can now deliver relevant content to specific departments or groups.
To gain a deeper understanding of user engagement, analytics on key metrics like pages viewed, time spent per session and engagement rate are being used to help shape communication.
Search was flagged as a key priority supporting staff to find what they need, when they need it. This was achieved with an enhanced search experience as well as a section allowing users to bookmark links, documents, and contacts.
BUSINESS OUTCOMES
Extend a warm welcome to ‘Te Hononga’ (meaning ‘joining and connection’ in the Māori language), The University of Waikato’s brand new Injio SharePoint intranet.
This space has been carefully designed to weave cultural elements together, from the Māori greeting, ‘tēnā koe’, in the navigation, to the addition of the Māori language in the Mega Menu. Māori design flourishes are present throughout the intranet, most notable in the beautiful footer design.
‘Te Hononga’ has been populated with rich engaging content, from timely campus announcements to compelling video highlights. The homepage has a number of useful sections including u‘Upcoming events’, and an ‘accordion of key links’ quick links to key tools and platforms.
A detailed ‘DIY’ section, accessible via the Mega Menu, directs staff to a raft of self-service pagesto pages detailing self-service tools and processes, minimising input required from other departmentsreducing reliance on word of mouth or helpdesk tickets to discover processes and improving productivity.
The staff directory has been extensively updated, so that staff profiles are more complete and can now be used more effectively to connect across the wider network, as well as integrating with Microsoft Teams following the organisation’s migration to Microsoft 365.
