It is all about benefiting the Company

I have an interesting role here at OfficeMax. I support the HR systems, the Finance systems and the company intranet. Thus my customers are HR, Finance and Corporate Communications respectively. Having been used to working with HR and the difficulty in building a business case for technology projects, I was delighted when I learned that the Corporate Communications project to replace our current intranet, would not require such an effort.

Perhaps it is because we are creating a new culture at OfficeMax and communications is the cornerstone of embedding the culture. Perhaps it is because they have a very strong Sr. Executive who is extremely bright and not only knows about Marketing and Communications, but also knows about the business of retail.

While all of the above are true, the real reason is communications to all employees is one of the top 3 priorities of the CEO and he sees the new intranet as his #1 communication vehicle.

Why does the CEO see this new intranet in this way?

Will these tools make it easier for the Corporate Communications department to distribute the messages? Yes. Will SharePoint give greater flexibility as to what our intranet will look like and brand it to our new culture? Yes. Will it be easier to administer and maintain.? Yes.

While all of these Yes's are great, they only truly benefit the Corporate Communications department.

The key here is the CEO and his directs see this as benefiting each of them in a way that will make us a more productive company. The have been properly educated on how better communication leads to higher sales and better profits. They have been socialized to a world of developing better products and services through collaboration. Each Sr. Executive, can see a clear line connecting their business activities to the new SharePoint Portal.

Projects that have a clear benefit to the CEO and their direct reports get approved, they get funded and prioritized. This project is #7 in the top 10 IT projects list for OfficeMax. It is fully funded and resourced.

All we are doing here is replacing an older portal technology with a new one. However, the communications department to their credit, did their job in linking the new technology capabilities to improved business results.

We are bringing in one of the best firms in the industry to assist with our new portal design. We are providing each store with a new workstation for Associates to use the Intranet, complete with media player, speakers etc.. so they can view the new communication video's.

This is such an exciting time, and a fun project to work on.

We will be presenting our story for IHRIM via Webinar in November and I will share with you our progress in future blogs.

Projects that are seen as improving company performance get approved and funded. "It is all about benefiting the Company"