Migrating to a Leaner Intranet: 60% Usage Growth in 3 Months

Background

A global manufacturing company with over 10,000 employees relied on its intranet to deliver critical policies, updates, and resources. However, the platform had become cluttered and outdated, making it difficult for employees to find what they needed. The organization recognized that inefficient information access was impacting productivity and trust. To address this, they set out to transform their intranet into a streamlined, user-friendly platform that would serve as a reliable source of truth for the entire workforce.

The Challenge

The company’s legacy intranet had grown without clear site governance. Over the years, it had accumulated a vast amount of redundant and obsolete content, leading to several critical issues:

• Information Overload: Employees struggled to navigate through thousands of outdated pages and documents, often spending excessive time searching for relevant information.
• Poor Search Functionality: The search results were often irrelevant, causing frustration and inefficiency.
• Lack of Trust: The intranet was no longer seen as a reliable source of truth, leading employees to seek information through other, less efficient channels.

The Solution

To address these challenges, the company embarked on a strategic intranet migration project. The solution involved several key steps:

1. Content Audit: The company performed a thorough content audit, identifying and removing roughly 40% of content that was redundant or obsolete. This step was crucial in decluttering the intranet and ensuring that only relevant and up-to-date information was retained.
2. Content Strategy: A clear content strategy was mapped out, categorizing information based on department and topic. This helped in organizing the remaining content into a clean, intuitive structure.
3. Metadata Tagging: Each piece of content was tagged with clear metadata, such as department and topic, to enhance search functionality and ensure that employees could easily locate the information they needed.
4. Custom Search Experiences: The new intranet featured custom search experiences, including a policy center and news center, tailored to meet the specific needs of different departments and functions within the company.
5. Viva Connections: The new intranet integrated Viva Connections, providing employees with timely news, announcements, and notifications. This feature helped in keeping the workforce informed and engaged.

Implementation Process

The implementation process was meticulously planned and executed:

• Planning and Preparation: The project team conducted extensive planning sessions to outline the migration strategy, set clear objectives, and define success metrics.
• Content Audit and Cleanup: The content audit was carried out systematically, with teams from various departments collaborating to identify and remove outdated content.
• Reorganization and Metadata Tagging: The remaining content was reorganized into a logical structure, and metadata tagging was applied to enhance search functionality.
• Testing and Feedback: The new intranet was tested rigorously, with feedback from employees being incorporated to fine-tune the system.
• Launch and Training: The new intranet was launched with comprehensive training sessions to ensure that employees were familiar with the new features and functionalities.

Results

The intranet migration delivered measurable improvements across several key areas:

• Improved User Experience: Employees found it much easier to locate information, thanks to the clean, intuitive structure and enhanced search functionality. The average time employees spent searching for information decreased by 50%.
• Relevant Search Results: The relevance of search results improved by 60%. The custom search experiences and metadata tagging ensured that search results were highly relevant.
• Increased Trust: The intranet became a trusted source of truth, with employees relying on it for accurate and up-to-date information. Employees' intranet usage grew by 60% over 3 months post-launch.
• Enhanced Communication: Viva Connections facilitated timely communication, keeping employees informed and engaged.

Avoided Issues

By cleaning up content before migration, the team avoided several common pitfalls. They did not simply lift-and-shift all legacy documents, which often duplicates problems into the new system. This preemptive culling prevented user confusion over multiple versions of the same policy. It also kept the new information architecture uncluttered so that links and dashboards remain relevant as the intranet grows.

Moreover, having a clear metadata and search strategy in place from the start prevented future content sprawl. Every new page now enters the system with tags, a review date, and an owner, so we are no longer accumulating a “content dump” that will rot. In short, their new governance rules and search filters mean the intranet won’t turn into a sprawling “landfill” of forgotten documents.

“The new intranet is a game-changer for us. Employees can now find policies and procedures in seconds, and because we removed so much outdated material, what’s left really feels relevant and current. Search works like it should, and trust in the site has gone way up. We’ve also cut helpdesk time by half because people don’t have to wait for emails; the intranet has the answers. This migration has made our internal communication far more effective – we’re very pleased with the result.”

- VP of Internal Communications, Global Manufacturing Co.

Conclusion

This case demonstrates that content cleanup and strategic design are the keys to a successful intranet migration. By auditing and removing obsolete content upfront, and reorganizing what remains with clear taxonomy and metadata, the company drastically improved search relevance and usability. The result was a lean, intuitive intranet that employees trust and use daily.

The lessons here apply beyond manufacturing: any large organization moving to a modern intranet will benefit from the same disciplined approach. In all industries, taking the time to declutter and plan ahead “will make employees more satisfied and efficient" ensuring that the new platform truly supports the company’s goals.