K. Hovnanian Homes is a US-based construction company that builds high quality, beautiful new homes. It employs 2,500 employees across the US, spread across a number of different locations.

The company was seeking to streamline and standardise its communication and design approach in order to improve operations and ensure it continues to provide the very highest standards to new home owners right across the US.

Building a new intranet

An intranet was considered an important way to share knowledge and communications, but the current SharePoint intranet was no longer fit for purpose. It also had an outdated look and feel and was out of step with the company’s branding.

K. Hovnanian Homes contacted Content Formula and the Lightspeed team with a view to creating a brand-new iteration of HovShare, their SharePoint intranet.

Using Lightspeed365 features to extend the power of SharePoint

To get a thorough understanding of user needs to define the intranet requirements, we conducted a series of remote employee and business stakeholder interviews, as well as a number of user workshops. We even interviewed the company CEO!

Following this through discovery phase, we recommended building an intranet that leveraged LightSpeed365 Features to extend the power of SharePoint Online though a range of additional web parts.

Working in close partnership with the team, we proceeded to implement a new Lightspeed365 intranet.

Improving communications across the whole company

Today the new HovShare intranet is helping to streamline communications and break down siloes across the company, from the East coast to the West Coast.

A mixture of companywide and regional news items targeted for relevancy are displayed on the intranet homepage using the Lightspeed365 News feed module, providing a more attractive interface than out-of-the-box SharePoint.

Different business teams also have their own local sites with news, useful documents and more, to help facilitate an improved flow of communication.

One source of truth for organisational knowledge

A key objective for the intranet was to be the “one source of truth” for key organisational knowledge, including providing access to a new set of standardised home designs and floor plans that improve on K. Hovanian’s already high-quality designs.

We deployed a combination of the Lightspeed365 Handbook web part and Card link web part to provide a focused hub for employees to link to key resources as well as a scoped search across these knowledge assets. Now employees can easily everything they need regarding the design collection and related floor plans.

Additionally, the Lightspeed365 Handbook web part has also been applied so employees have one source of truth for corporate policies and “How do I” procedural information.

Supporting collaboration and ideation

The company was also eager to encourage bottom-up feedback and knowledge-sharing between employees, not only to nurture a sense of community and connection, but also a place to ask questions, swap tips and share learnings.

We recommended using Viva Engage communities. These are integrated with HovShare and employees can browse to find both regional and national communities to join for a range of useful forums and discussions.

A front door to the wider digital workplace with Lightspeed365’s app launcher

There was also a strong desire to use the new intranet homepage as a wider window to the digital workplace. Following specific requirements from the client, we extended the power of our Lightspeed365 app launcher web part, so links to key apps can be displayed as attractive, large tiles.

We also added a search facility so employees can find the tool they need more quickly, adding to existing capabilities such as the ability for employees to add their own individual links to the app launcher. The client valued this opportunity to influence the Lightspeed365 roadmap to enhance and improve their intranet.

A successful launch

A successful launch of the new intranet was important to spread the world and support strong adoption from the get-go.

To help guide employees through the extensive new features compared to the previous iteration, we deployed the Lightspeed365 Page tour web part that provides a custom walk-through of the main new features.

We also worked with the client to design an eye-catching three-part email teaser campaign based on a “building a new house” concept.

Supporting adoption and change management

To support ongoing adoption, we also created an intranet resource hub using the Lightspeed365 Cards links web part. This provides a user-friendly and appealing interface to self-serve resources that guide employees and content owners on how to use the new intranet and contribute content.

With an emphasis on supporting content owners across the US, we also created an additional “Look Book” that details a series of suggested page layouts and constituent web parts, helping provide both inspiration and best practice guidance for local site owners.

Building productivity and engagement while knocking down siloes

Although it’s still early days for the new HovShare it’s already supporting productivity and efficiency, providing one source of truth for employees to find corporate knowledge and quickly reach the apps and tools they use every day.

It’s also streamlined communication with employees from across the US, helping them to stay informed, while also providing the ability to share insights with colleagues via communities. Ultimately the new intranet is helping to knock down siloes, while helping K. Hovnanian Homes to continue to build beautiful homes.