Reading Borough Council appoints Invotra to provide its new intranet platform

Following up on a recommendation, Reading Borough Council first approached Invotra in September this year, and after some efficient and decisive discussions, Reading soon confirmed Invotra’s appointment as its preferred intranet provider. 

The new intranet is being launched as a trial to 40 users today, Monday 3 December 2018, following a fast three week turnaround.  

At launch, Reading will have Single Sign-On, staff directories, intranet features and social applications. The Council will also look to share secure, restricted access to its information via Invotra’s portal features with agencies and local businesses in the future, as it seeks to communicate, share and interact with key community stakeholders and municipal partners.

Reading Borough Council has chosen the Invotra gold service, which includes the provision of a flexible, scalable and secure intranet platform with easy to find and up-to-date information and social applications. 

The Council plans to launch the new intranet to over 2000 users across its multiple locations early January 2019.

The key reasons Reading Borough Council decided to make the software changes include its drive to:

– Improve staff engagement to encourage collaborative working across departments thus improving services to the public
– Improve digital skills and capability, encouraging employees to self-serve with access to timely, relevant information thus improving efficiencies
– Getting more involved in the government community via the GOV.invotra portal which facilitates central government departments and other local councils sharing best practice
– To provide a digitally inclusive internal communications service for all Council software users

As part of the service, Invotra has provided hands-on interactive webmaster training, over a two-day workshop, with key stakeholders in the communications, digital services/IT, HR and finance teams. 

Adam Bevington, digital and website manager, Reading Borough Council commented, “We’re replacing our outdated intranet with a superior service which will ultimately improve services for the public, saving both time and money. The Invotra team has been great to work with, helping us deliver the new intranet within weeks. We’re looking forward to continually improving efficiencies, extending access and launching new features to benefit Reading Borough Council staff, residents and businesses.”

Paul Zimmerman, COO at Invotra added, “We’re delighted to welcome Reading to our local council community. They have already demonstrated great determination to improve digital services to employees and the public and we’re delighted to work with them to deliver this quickly and efficiently. Reading is a great addition to our central and local government portal for sharing best practice and working collaboratively across the UK.”

Reading has moved away from its outdated intranet which was not engaging employees, had few collaborative features and was visually poor. The Invotra contract is valued at £100,000 for the two year contract including training, onboarding, product and service support.

As part of Invotra’s gold service, Reading Borough Council is receiving:

– Managed intranet and portal services and applications, including single sign-on
– A live service desk from 7am-7pm
– Dedicated service manager, including service reporting
– 24/7 high priority incident management service
– Dedicated account manager, monthly meetings
– Monthly product meetings, including input in to Invotra’s roadmap
– Access to GOV.invotra, Invotra’s exclusive portal for sharing best practice in central and local government
– Built-in analytics dashboard enabling accurate reporting on engagement per user, location, teams etc