About

Electrocomponents – better know for its RS Components subsidiary – supplies a wide range of electronic components and devices to customers at short notice. Its success largely depends on sharing best management practices across the organisation. To improve the sharing of information across the business it implemented a new intranet, designed by corporate communications specialist CDS and powered by RedDot Solutions’ Content Management System. Just a few months after its launch, the new intranet is already gaining recognition, securing the Best Intranet Award, as well as winning the special Gold Award for Best Web Project at the Communicators in Business Awards 2005.

With over 6,000 employees serving 160 markets around the globe, Electrocomponents plc is a true multinational. Through its RS Components and Allied Electronics businesses, Electrocomponents distributes over 350,000 electronic, industrial and commercial supplies to more than 1,500,000 technical and industrial professionals throughout the world.

Challenge

Electrocomponents’ first Group intranet, launched in May 2002, used Microsoft FrontPage to create and publish new web pages across its business divisions – spanning areas such as sales, finance and legal. By mid-2004, the intranet, which had grown to over 4,000 pages, was beginning to show its age. In particular, it could not search for information across business divisions, so tracking down the right content could become a time-consuming undertaking.

• Complex 4000 plus page intranet
• Multi-lingual intranet with a global user base

Solution

The migration of content from the old Electrocomponents Intranet to the new RedDot managed environment began in September 2004. Hosted from Electrocomponents’ offices in Corby, RedDot CMS is entirely browser-based, so it can be accessed from any desktop PC. Its SmartEdit user interface can be mastered with minimal training, whilst ensuring that business processes governing approvals and publication are respected. RedDot has also helped Electrocomponents ensure the right content is just a mouse click away. A custom-built exposed metadata tool – developed by RedDot partner CDS – enables webmasters to set clearly visible keyword search terms for every new page. This ensures that accurate metadata is set by webmasters and content with similar keywords – whichever business unit it belongs to – is given equal weighting in any search. Employees can now rapidly discover related content simply by clicking on the exposed metadata keywords.

Electrocomponents trained a new team of 100 webmasters around the globe to takecharge charge of the intranet’s day-to-day management. At the same time, CDS designed a new look and feel, customising RedDot to integrate with a new bespoke global contact management system. Just six months after the content review, the new Electrocomponents intranet, with over 4,000 pages, was launched on April 4th 2005.

• Low training burden – over 100 users trained worldwide
• ‘AA’ compliant content ensures the intranet can be accessed from a range of browsers and devices
• RedDot integrates seamlessly with contact management and enterprise search applications

Results

The new intranet has enjoyed immediate success, with almost two thirds of Electro components’ employees using the intranet on a daily basis. Shortly, after its relaunch, the Electrocomponents intranet also won two awards at the 2005 Communicators in Business Awards.
With RedDot, Electrocomponents has been able to properly manage its content for the first time. Page templates detail the sponsor, webmaster and author, whose contact details can be called up at the click of a mouse, thanks to a simple integration with the contact management system. With the creation, publication and update dates for each page also included, obsolete content can be identified and removed without delay, and inaccuracies quickly rectified.

Most importantly, the intranet’s consistent structure and exposed metadata have given employees from different divisions easy access to information held in other areas for the first time – breaking down organisational barriers across the business. Boasting content in six languages – and more in the pipeline – Electrocomponents’ intranet has a truly international flavour.

• Almost 4,000 regular users within two months of launch
• No more ‘silos’ of information
• Two Communicators in Business Awards

Facts and Figures

Customer: Electrocomponents plc

URLs:   www.electrocomponents.co.uk

Project duration: June 2004 - April 2005

Greatest challenge: Training about 100 Intranet webmasters (content authors and editors) globally to migrate their content into the new system.

Server specs: RedDot server Spec. DL380 G4 1Gb Backplane, 3.6Ghz, DL380 3.6Gb Xeon  Processor Option Kit, 1Gb 400Mhz PC3200 Memory ( 2x512Mb ), 145.6Gb U320 SCSI Disk Drive, 36Gb U320 SCSI Disk Drive

Integrated Components: RS Components Lexicon (existing applications that provides definitions of business terms – now linked to group contact directory and search engine). SQL Server ASP multi lingual Contact Directory Application DS eSurvey and eForm tools for easy creation of surveys, questionnaires etc.