What do you do when you find out that your staff will be divided between two locations during a major renovation period? How can you unify employees at the two locations and ensure that communication remains consistent?

If you are BC Place – the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics – you decide that the best way to overcome the internal communication challenges is with an intranet.

BC Place launched their intranet, built on the Intranet Connections software, in July with the goal of improving communication, increasing employee involvement, and enhancing information sharing within the organization.

As this was BC Place’s first foray into an intranet project, the intranet roll-out had to focus on introducing the concept of an intranet.

BC Place wanted to ensure that their intranet caught on with all users and would become a dynamic and widely used resource for corporate information. User education was the way to do it. Their message included:

• What the role of the intranet was to be within the organization
• Intranet site usage policies
• Content strategies
• Boundaries to the type of content that should be included on the intranet

BC Place is currently undergoing major construction to revitalize and modernize the facilities, including the largest retractable roof of its kind in the world (!) so a lot of the information on the intranet is currently comprised of construction news. Other information and popular communities on the site include:

Live Construction Updates
A widget on the site Home Page that pulls a live web cam feed of BC Place so users can view the construction site in real time

Press Releases
An area for employees to see all the latest press updates about BC Place

Road Show Information
A central bulletin board for all the latest information and updates about the community tour going on throughout the province

Employee Directory
A central repository for employees to find contact and location information for their coworkers, across the different facilities. Particularly helpful now that many staff members have moved offices or been moved to the temporary offsite location because of the construction

E-Forms
Streamlines daily business processes as users can quickly find and complete popular forms right through the intranet

Department Sub-Sites
Provides each department with an area to store their dedicated departmental content. Granular access to department info

Job Centre
A central area for BC Place to post job opportunities for its large group of part-time, seasonal employees

Although the IT team at BC Place spearheaded the search for an intranet solution, an intranet development committee has since been set up to ensure that going forward the intranet keeps evolving. The committee plans to meet once a month to discuss content strategies, share ideas for the intranet and plan for ongoing development of the site.

For more information about the features mentioned above, check out Intranet Connections: Intranet 2.0 Software.

More about BC Place

BC Place is the largest sports, exhibition and entertainment venue of its kind in British Columbia, hosting the province’s most notable events, including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Upon re-opening in 2011, BC Place will be the new home for the Vancouver MLS franchise, will continue to be home to the BC Lions Football Club, the 2011 Grey Cup and many other exhibitions, community and entertainment events. Visit http://www.bcplace.com for more info.