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“Our email usage went from approximately 95% down to less than 10% after implementing the SP Marketplace Digital Workplace Suite." Joseph Ricks, IT Project Manager |
Hirsch Pipe and Supply Uses SP Marketplace Products to
Drive Self-Service in a Cohesive Digital Workplace
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Hirsch Pipe and Supply was founded in 1933 to provide commercial repair, remodel and plumbing needs. They provide maintenance services of all pipes in and around buildings, as well as supplies needed for fixing do-it-yourself projects for residential or commercial. Hirsch prides themselves on a huge selection, and a fast, personal service by a knowledgeable team backed by technology. Joseph Ricks is the IT Manager that implemented the SP Marketplace products at Hirsch. |
"Hirsch could see great value in using SP Marketplace products to accelerate their implementation and their Digital Workplace adoption.” |
The Challenge
Before implementing the SP Marketplace Products, Hirsch used SharePoint Server on Premise to communicate company news. Over the years, they built their own Intranet, called Hirsh Connect, but it was not intuitive, and lacked any kind of self-service functions or portal structure. “We were limited to the interfaces from 2003 and 2010 and many of our employees’ needs went unmet“, explains Joe. Hirsch had one document library that was not fully leveraged and was too basic for their business needs. It lacked structure and organization making it difficult for employees to find needed documents. When it came to finding company policies, procedures, forms or reference docs, for example, employees were at a loss and would end up contacting HR, IT or other department staff directly. Each department did it differently.
The lack of a well-designed Digital Workplace was really hurting employee and staff productivity. Employees had to ask Staff where things were via phone or email, because they could not find the resources and answers themselves. Departments like Marketing, HR, IT, and Facilities had no way to track or report on service requests arriving through email. The Safety Department had no way to track and report on all safety incidents at the company. Many incident reports would get lost in email, and it was very time consuming to generate overall reports showing incident historical data.
Before implementing the SP Marketplace Products, Hirsch used SharePoint Server on Premise to communicate company news. Over the years, they built their own Intranet, called Hirsh Connect, but it was not intuitive, and lacked any kind of self-service functions or portal structure. “We were limited to the interfaces from 2003 and 2010 and many of our employees’ needs went unmet“, explains Joe. Hirsch had one document library that was not fully leveraged and was too basic for their business needs. It lacked structure and organization making it difficult for employees to find needed documents. When it came to finding company policies, procedures, forms or reference docs, for example, employees were at a loss and would end up contacting HR, IT or other department staff directly. Each department did it differently.
The lack of a well-designed Digital Workplace was really hurting employee and staff productivity. Employees had to ask Staff where things were via phone or email, because they could not find the resources and answers themselves. Departments like Marketing, HR, IT, and Facilities had no way to track or report on service requests arriving through email. The Safety Department had no way to track and report on all safety incidents at the company. Many incident reports would get lost in email, and it was very time consuming to generate overall reports showing incident historical data.
The Solution – A Digital Workplace on Office 365
Hirsch wanted to provide a common way across departments for employees to access News and information, find documents, and get internal services. They saw an opportunity to use the Office 365 platform to implement an integrated Digital Workplace. However, they didn’t want to build it from scratch using vanilla SharePoint and spend months of effort and manhours to reach their goals. They discovered they could use the out-of-the-box solutions offered by SP Marketplace which provided a self-service portal structure, robust functionality and fully operational department modules at a fraction of the cost. It empowered employees to get what they need to do their job themselves, and a consistent approach for departments to organize resources and provide services leveraging SharePoint Online and Office 365 services.
Best Practices Operational Portal Structure
To start things right, Roger Stoesz, a certified consulting partner of SP Marketplace, worked with Hirsch on an Operation Portal Structure design. Hirsch implemented an Intranet as the hub of the Digital Workplace with integrated department service portals. The Intranet provided a one-stop shop for all employees to get active news and information, resources and to navigate to a variety of department portals. This structure delivered self-service all within a common platform and a common user experience, significantly reduced the number of phone calls occurring to internal departments. It also greatly reduced the use of paper, and it lowered email usage for tracking incidents and requests. It made it “easy to do business inside the organization”.
Hirsch ended up with a fully functional Operational Portal Structure in a matter of a couple of months. “Hirsch could see great value in using SP Marketplace products to accelerate their implementation and their Digital Workplace adoption, ” reports Roger. Hirsh went beyond the basic SharePoint Communications Site to take advantage of the SP Intranet which includes governance, personalized content and eDiscovery features. They empowered employees with self-service, leveraging Doc Central, Help Central and Process Central. Finally, they also implemented SP Project Tracker to manage all their projects and welcomed the governance and cross project reporting that was missing in MS Planner.
Hirsch wanted to provide a common way across departments for employees to access News and information, find documents, and get internal services. They saw an opportunity to use the Office 365 platform to implement an integrated Digital Workplace. However, they didn’t want to build it from scratch using vanilla SharePoint and spend months of effort and manhours to reach their goals. They discovered they could use the out-of-the-box solutions offered by SP Marketplace which provided a self-service portal structure, robust functionality and fully operational department modules at a fraction of the cost. It empowered employees to get what they need to do their job themselves, and a consistent approach for departments to organize resources and provide services leveraging SharePoint Online and Office 365 services.
Best Practices Operational Portal Structure
To start things right, Roger Stoesz, a certified consulting partner of SP Marketplace, worked with Hirsch on an Operation Portal Structure design. Hirsch implemented an Intranet as the hub of the Digital Workplace with integrated department service portals. The Intranet provided a one-stop shop for all employees to get active news and information, resources and to navigate to a variety of department portals. This structure delivered self-service all within a common platform and a common user experience, significantly reduced the number of phone calls occurring to internal departments. It also greatly reduced the use of paper, and it lowered email usage for tracking incidents and requests. It made it “easy to do business inside the organization”.
Hirsch ended up with a fully functional Operational Portal Structure in a matter of a couple of months. “Hirsch could see great value in using SP Marketplace products to accelerate their implementation and their Digital Workplace adoption, ” reports Roger. Hirsh went beyond the basic SharePoint Communications Site to take advantage of the SP Intranet which includes governance, personalized content and eDiscovery features. They empowered employees with self-service, leveraging Doc Central, Help Central and Process Central. Finally, they also implemented SP Project Tracker to manage all their projects and welcomed the governance and cross project reporting that was missing in MS Planner.
Taking Advantage of the Flexibility
Hirsch’s Safety department was the first to adopt the SP Marketplace Department Portal that includes a fully functioning Service Desk. They took the Service Desk function and customized it to become a Safety Incident Tracker. Now Employees can visit the Safety Department Employee Portal to access documents, forms or an FAQ. They can submit incidents as well through the p portal or via email or mobile device. Prior to SP Marketplace products, employees used email 95% of the time for incidents, now with the automation built into the Portals, all notifications and status are automatic. Safety had so much success with this new Employee Service Portal, that the word got out to other departments. Joe then went on to implement a Service Portal for Hirsch’s Marketing department and others.
Joe enjoyed working with SP Marketplace. “Everyone is very helpful on your team. They immediately contacted us and set up a series of initial meetings where they did requirements gathering to determine what we needed. Then they set up a project plan that broke it into phases, and helpful training sessions as part of their Quick Start service that got me up to speed. They are extremely responsive as a team, if I email them or call, I get a response immediately”, commented Joe.
“All in all, SP Marketplace has allowed us to do things we were hampered by in the past by the limited SharePoint interface,” states Joe.
Hirsch’s Safety department was the first to adopt the SP Marketplace Department Portal that includes a fully functioning Service Desk. They took the Service Desk function and customized it to become a Safety Incident Tracker. Now Employees can visit the Safety Department Employee Portal to access documents, forms or an FAQ. They can submit incidents as well through the p portal or via email or mobile device. Prior to SP Marketplace products, employees used email 95% of the time for incidents, now with the automation built into the Portals, all notifications and status are automatic. Safety had so much success with this new Employee Service Portal, that the word got out to other departments. Joe then went on to implement a Service Portal for Hirsch’s Marketing department and others.
Joe enjoyed working with SP Marketplace. “Everyone is very helpful on your team. They immediately contacted us and set up a series of initial meetings where they did requirements gathering to determine what we needed. Then they set up a project plan that broke it into phases, and helpful training sessions as part of their Quick Start service that got me up to speed. They are extremely responsive as a team, if I email them or call, I get a response immediately”, commented Joe.
“All in all, SP Marketplace has allowed us to do things we were hampered by in the past by the limited SharePoint interface,” states Joe.
