Maine State Credit Union Modernizes Internal Communication with SharePoint Intranet 

Internal communications and employee interactions can often get out of hand without the right digital workplace tools. Maintaining a conducive collaboration space that not only boosts productivity, but also encourages employees to engage with the environment is crucial for business success. Take a look at how CollabPoint empowered financial services organization, Maine State Credit Union, with Modern SharePoint and helped them maximize ROI (return on investment) from technology investments. 

Optimizing Internal Communication

A rapidly growing credit union headquartered in Augusta, Maine, Maine State Credit Union, was in search of an effective internal communications’ platform to enhance their internal collaboration experience through a trusted platform. In their time of need, local SharePoint experts at CollabPoint guided Maine State Credit Union to a modern workplace environment with SharePoint Online.  

Prior to the engagement with CollabPoint, Maine State Credit Union’s mass amount of policies and procedures were kept as paper documents, which created ongoing version control challenges. On top of that, many documents were stored in Microsoft OneNote notebooks, that caused access issues for many members of the organization. Not to mention, the existing company intranet was not utilized to its full capacity, leading to information duplication through mass staff emails. 

Upon encountering stagnation and mistrust with their intranet, Maine State Credit Union required a centralized employee communication platform that would not only drive adoption but also eliminate the mess of ‘All-Staff’ emails. It was important for them to remove the dependence on manual documentation and transition to an online experience to keep all employees informed and engaged with an updated document repository.  

“We spoke to several companies, and no one could carve out exactly what we were looking for. After meeting with CollabPoint, we knew they understood our organization and brought a fresh approach to how we could meet our objectives with a fully mapped plan to do it,” Jennifer Roper, VP of Marketing & Communications at Maine State Credit Union shared, “CollabPoint was absolutely the best fit for what we needed.” 

Modernizing the Digital Workplace with a Modern SharePoint Intranet 

The very first step in the direction of modernization was to get an accurate assessment of the existing environment. CollabPoint began the process by interviewing employee subject matter experts to collect the most valuable details to design SharePoint intranet that would fit right into Maine State Credit Union’s business model.

A key element in transitioning from the abandoned intranet was moving all company policies (e.g., SOPs), procedures and documents onto SharePoint providing a central location for employees to access them. At the same time, to ensure the security of any sensitive data, CollabPoint swiftly implemented multi-factor authentication and single sign-on features. Similarly, the Maine State Credit Union corporate directory was also migrated to Modern SharePoint for streamlined management. 

Now, all company information is stored, updated, and maintained in the ‘The Vault’, the new Maine State Credit Union SharePoint Intranet, which has considerably cut down on the number of mass employee emails.  

Accelerating User Adoption with MS Viva Connections 

To further streamline communication, CollabPoint expanded the scope of the project to fully utilize the credit union’s Microsoft Teams platform. With the Microsoft Viva Connections’ implementation, CollabPoint was able to easily overlay the SharePoint intranet to display within Microsoft Teams. Not only did this boost user adoption of SharePoint but also got the credit union team to adopt Microsoft Teams more easily.  

Adapting to the SharePoint Intranet and The Road Ahead 

To ensure high rates of engagement for any tool or platform, organizations must prepare its members. Maine State Credit Union was prompt to involve its employees in the process by hosting a lunch meeting that introduced ‘The Vault’ to all members. Followed by a week of training sessions where everyone was taught the ropes of communicating and collaborating with the new SharePoint Intranet, the credit union empowered all employees with interesting onboarding exercises and games.  

The boost in employee adoption and engagement across platforms enabled Maine State Credit Union to reap significant ROI. By saving over $3000/week and reducing ‘all-staff’ emails by 80% the credit union is benefiting regularly by switching to a modern SharePoint Intranet and utilizing Microsoft Viva with CollabPoint. 

 Impressed with CollabPoint’s dedication to the project, Roper shares, “the team at CollabPoint are really great and very knowledgeable. They were able to find easy off-the-shelf solutions and made us feel like we weren’t a unicorn. They really made an impact with us and we’re already seeing the ROI after just a few months.”  

 The Maine State Credit Union modernization journey does not culminate here. Along with CollabPoint, they look forward to rolling out phase two of the intranet launch, which will involve the development of employee onboarding and training sites.  

 For a deep dive into Maine State Credit Union’s journey to Modern SharePoint and experience working with CollabPoint, make sure to check out the comprehensive case study.  

Enhance Internal Communication with SharePoint Intranet and CollabPoint 

The CollabPoint team comprises industry experts that empower organizations and its members to utilize their technology investments to its full potential. With effective strategy and implementation, we help businesses maximize efficiency and yield measurable results. 

 Whether your organization is leveraging Microsoft 365, SharePoint, or the Cloud, we will help you unlock digital workplace success with comprehensive consulting solutions. Reach out to us today to learn how we can assist you with Microsoft 365 technologies.