Stevenage Borough Council launches its new Invotra intranet service to 750 employees

Stevenage Borough Council (SBC) has introduced its new intranet, called MySBC, for users at Daneshill House headquarters and Cavendish Road Depot.

Council employees are using the service which includes applications such as Groups, Message wall, Blogs, News, HR directories and contact information for elected members.

In an innovative move, SBC and East Herts Council co-procured the services of Invotra to establish new intranet access through cross collaboration.

Richard Protheroe, Assistant Director for Corporate Services and Transformation, Stevenage Borough Council said: “Our employees can’t wait to get quick and easy access to up-to-date information which helps them provide great services for the people and organisations within Stevenage. In particular, for employees who are largely off site and don’t have a desk or computer, like refuse collectors, they can now access the intranet on their mobiles anytime and anywhere.”

Invotra has provided webmaster training as part of its comprehensive onboarding service to key HR, digital services and communications staff.  Stevenage (SBC) has signed a two year contract for Invotra’s gold service.

With staff engagement currently low due to the lack of intranet services, Stevenage Council will track the success of the new platform using Invotra’s analytics dashboard, included in the service.

SBC has already benefited from being part of Invotra’s exclusive portal, GOV.invotra, which encourages collaboration between its customers, including central government departments, councils and Invotra. In addition, Invotra hosts quarterly pan-government meetings to further encourage sharing best practice and collaborative working on critical matters such as cyber security, campaign ideas and giving civil servants a prominent voice in their internal communications.

SBC and Invotra have worked hard, over a year, to produce a design-led intranet, which is also secure, flexible and scalable.

In the second phase, after launch, the council has plans to introduce Single Sign On, improve digital inclusion for employees with specific needs, and launch e-forms to enable staff to self-serve for general HR matters including holiday booking.

The key reasons Stevenage Borough Council has decided to make the software changes include its drive to: 
●     Improve staff engagement via groups 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
●     Get more involved in the UK government community via the GOV.invotra portal and pan-gov meetings to encourage the sharing of best practice and collaborative working
●     To provide a digitally inclusive internal communications service for all Council software users

Jamie Garrett, Key Accounts Manager, Invotra, added:
“We are looking forward to helping Stevenage stepchange employee engagement with its new intranet. And, in turn, with improved communications and collaboration, Stevenage Borough Council will provide the best services possible to its public and municipal stakeholders.”

As part of Invotra’s gold service, Stevenage Borough Council is receiving:
●     Managed intranet and portal services and applications
●     A live service desk staffed from 7am-7pm, 7 days a week
●     A dedicated service manager, including service reporting
●     24/7 high priority incident management service
●     Access to GOV.invotra, Invotra’s exclusive portal for sharing best practice in central and local government, and quarterly pan-gov meetings
●     Dedicated Account Manager and monthly meetings
●     Monthly product meetings, including input into Invotra’s roadmap
●     Built-in analytics dashboard enabling accurate reporting on engagement per user, location, groups etc.

Date: 

Monday, December 17, 2018