Case Studies

The Client

A US $29.2 billion corporation, the Aditya Birla Group is in the league of Fortune 500. It is anchored by an extraordinary force of 130,000 employees, belonging to 30 different nationalities. The Group operates in 25 countries — India, UK, Germany, Hungary, Brazil, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Australia, USA, Canada, Egypt, China, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, Dubai, Singapore, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia and Korea. With a pan global presence the company envisions to be a premium global conglomerate with a clear focus on each business.

The Brief

The Aditya Birla Group is a global conglomerate that transcends geographical boundaries and is spread across 38 Group/ Indian/ International/ Joint venture companies. Focused on various verticals, as diverse as, textiles to Telecom, to mining and insurance, fibres, cement, and more, the Aditya Birla Group wanted to bring together its workforce of 130,000 employees under one umbrella. HGS Interactive was entrusted with revamping the existing intranet with a clearly defined 10 point metric to measure the success of the new intranet - Aditya Disha.

The Approach

HGS Interactive interacted with key personnel in Aditya Birla Group to address past roadblocks and interviewed various stakeholders to create a wish-list of features. Each of the 10 metrics (to be used to measure the success of the intranet) were linked to features and functionalities that were decided for the revamped intranet. More than 300 links on the homepage were slotted in a matrix of businesses & departments to create a logical navigation flow.

The Solution

• New layout was designed, as per the business requirement and brand guidelines.
• Innovative menus were implemented on the page in the form of left tabs and AJAX box navigation.
• Multiple highlights were employed as a “crowd puller” and engaged the users with offers, discounts, events & functions. (This information was earlier sent as newsletters and got overlooked in the mailbox)
• User level customisations were enabled in the “My Info” section, which empowered users to choose the updates they wanted.
• A new internal job posting section was added, where various openings within the group companies was announced and could be applied for.
• People Soft HR Database was integrated with intranet, hence enabling search for employees / colleagues amongst the group of companies easy for both the employees and the Human Resource department.
• The system would generate a Login ID for a new employee on the day of their joining, and the same would cease to exist the day they separate ways from the organisation.
• The then available cutting edge technology AJAX & a combination of Microsoft technologies- Microsoft .Net 1.1, C#, AJAX and Microsoft SQL Server technologies were used to make the user experience friendly with quick access to information.

The Result

The response to Aditya Disha was beyond appreciation. The Aditya Birla Group saw an improvement in knowledge sharing via forums; process cut downs that resulted in direct cost cutting and implementation of best practices across organisations. Most importantly - the employees were now connecting on a singular platform that unified them across continents.