Technology Reseller v38

technologyreseller.co.uk 27 INTRANET customers have really good solutions, but that isn’t the reality. A lot of them have old legacy intranets sitting on SharePoint that take a lot of time and money to customise; there’s no content being created; there’s no adoption, because they’re not inviting from a design perspective; they’re not social – there’s no real interaction; and you can’t find information, which is the main purpose of an intranet. People go there to find any resource within their company, and to do it in a Google way. If it doesn’t work like that, the rate of adoption goes down,” he said. Digital workspace Powell Software’s platform, says Gomes, is very far from what an intranet used to be, from the control it gives employees over content to the Google-like search capabilities that are no longer limited to SharePoint but cover all applications in the Microsoft 365 stack. “We call it a digital workspace because it encompasses much more than just static top-down communication. It is now a platform where you have to take into consideration collaboration – ‘How do I foster a culture of engagement, so I know my content is being read and people have access to information that matters to the work they do?’. It is not only about communication, but also about creating a space that integrates the tools people use every day – Word, Teams, OneDrive, any kind of application.” Gomes concedes that a lot of what Powell Software does could be done through Microsoft 365 – communications, collaboration, information management – but points out that there is a high overhead in doing so. “If you want to build on top of SharePoint, which is a fantastic content management solution, you can, but it is always a matter of having the resources and knowledge to create a specific design, a specific custom application, a custom integration with other applications, HR or ServiceNow for instance. You Intranet in a box provider Powell Software opened a UK office at the end of 2019 and then, in January 2020, received investment of $16 million to help build a worldwide partner network just as the pandemic went global. Timing is everything, and while the pandemic might have made it more difficult for Philippe Gomes, Head of UK and Ireland at Powell Software, to get organisations to commit to non-emergency investment, it also led to a big increase in Teams usage and highlighted the need for better, more interactive engagement with employees not used to working remotely. “Once lockdown eased and people started to look at more sustainable solutions to put in place for their remote workers, we started to receive a lot of requests,” said Gomes. Formed in France in 2015 and with operations in 10 countries, Powell Software plays in the ‘intranet in a box’ market with a platform that lets customers build and implement a low code intranet. It also provides a Microsoft Teams app that adds security and governance features for IT and dashboard and collaboration templates for end users. Gomes says Powell Software’s platform is less like an intranet in a box and more like a ‘framework’ sitting on top of Microsoft 365 that enables organisations to connect better with their employees through a complete Digital Workspace. “I say framework because you can still add a level of customisation to what you want to do. It is not just a case of me saying ‘I’ve got this intranet that’s going to look the same across all customers in terms of layout and so on’,” he said. For Gomes, the pandemic highlighted the shortcomings of existing intranets, just when they should have proved their value as a hub where people could meet and employers could convey the values of the company along with crisis communications. “Because we are in the world of technology, we probably think that our can do that out of the box, but it will take you more time; it is more labour-intensive; and it requires unique coding,” he said. “More importantly, it is not evergreen; every time you need to update it and make it evolve with your business you will have to change it again; and it won’t update in real-time, as it won’t include Microsoft out-of-the-box updates.” Gomes adds that users of Powell Software’s platform also benefit from continual innovation, which is another of the advantages of a multi-tenancy SaaS solution. “We have 300 customers in the world. Some of them are huge – I am talking about Lacoste, big banks, SNCF with 200,000 users. During the pandemic, a few large customers came to us and said ‘It would be helpful to have something in the digital workspace that would allow us to book a desk, see who is in the office and set a quota for social distancing purposes’. So, we did it, and we did it in a month. We created an application called FlexDesk that allows you, within your intranet, to book a desk, book a meeting room, see who’s in the office and so on. Because we have built it on our own platform in the cloud, we can disseminate it to all existing customers, which we did, for free. When innovation comes from us or from our customers’ feedback, everyone benefits. “So that is the added value. Yes, you can do it on Microsoft, but it is going to take more time, probably be more Powell Software is evolving intranets to meet the challenges of hybrid working. James Goulding reports From intranet to digital workspace Philippe Gomes