CASE STUDY AGRAVIS
Wolke 365 – AGRAVIS‘s new digital workplace with
the latest innovative technological approaches
About AGRAVIS
AGRAVIS Raiffeisen AG, headquartered in Münster, is a leading agricultural trading company in the core business segments of agricultural products, animal nutrition, plant cultivation and agricultural technology, as well as in the areas of energy and Raiffeisen stores, including DIY stores as well as +9turnover of around 9.4 billion euros and operates at more than 400 locations, mainly in Germany. International activities are carried out through subsidiaries and associated companies in more than 20 countries and export activities in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Initial situation & goals
Under the project name Wolke 365, the complete IT landscape of AGRAVIS was rebuilt to establish the technical basis for advanced collaboration and communication. Outdated applications such as Domino, Notes and IBM were replaced by the cloud-based Microsoft 365 suite. As a result, the existing intranet „AGRAVIS Life“ also had to be replaced. The intranet was outdated both technically and in terms of design, lacked clarity, and had limited editorial and collaborative options. The old solution was not optimized for mobile devices and there were no possibilities for personalization. Many employees could not access the existing intranet for technical reasons. The goal was a new, personalized, modern, group-wide and mobile intranet.
The project
The project was set up by IT, who were also responsible for the structure, implementation, and budget. Employees from a variety of professional groups were intensively integrated into the reorganization of the Digital Workplace to actively contribute their ideas and requirements and to be able to participate in editorial processes.
From the very beginning, different target groups were defined: Employees in the office (white-collar workers), in production (blue-collar workers), the company (corporate communication) and the users themselves (personal). In previous sessions, the problems of the old intranet, the use cases and the resulting goals & wishes for the new solution were discussed. Each of the participants had the opportunity to provide their own input, e.g. how they envisioned their start page. A design sprint approach was followed. In this approach, ideas for new features, processes, etc. are visualized and optimized iteratively. The optimal result was thus achieved step by step. Furthermore, the visualized result also serves as a conceptual template for the subsequent implementation.
The intranet editors of the divisions and shareholders were defined as multipliers and introduced as a new internal reference group. They were particularly involved and well informed.
The project had specific prerequisites, as AGRAVIS is a pilot customer of Microsoft. This meant that there was support and direct supervision from Microsoft. Thus, many new technologies and approaches could be applied. For example the use of Viva Connections to display the digital workplace and the apps in Microsoft Teams.
A challenge was that the transformation and communication process took place throughout the group – across numerous decentralized locations as well as across partly international subsidiaries and affiliates. Another challenge was the timing of the project and the transformation, which happened in the middle of the pandemic-related home office phase.
The solution
AGRAVIS inside went live in September 2021. The new intranet, based on SharePoint Online, was seamlessly integrated into Microsoft Teams and has become an important part of the employees‘ daily work and information gathering. As an agricultural trader, AGRAVIS has many non-desk workers, so mobile availability of the intranet was essential. Employees therefore receive an optimized experience on both desktop and mobile. Users can access the intranet and the individual apps via the web version as well as the mobile version of SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.
AGRAVIS inside is characterized by simple navigation and intuitive usability. The new center of internal communication has a lean structure and was designed for three essential segments: people, their work and for the company.
As a “personal digital workplace”, there is an individual workspace for employees. In this “my“ area, users can store important personalized content, such as:
- recently used files
- pages to read later
- important contacts
- menu from any location
For this, separate modules have been developed, similar to SharePoint modules. The widgets are available as individual apps in Microsoft Teams. The customized widget area is displayed in a dashboard, which can also be personalized. The widgets for the dashboard can be selected, deleted and moved as desired. In this way, the “ my” area adapts to the tasks and professional fields of the employees. The applications are based on SharePoint and are displayed using Viva Connections in Microsoft Teams, which acts as a container.
AGRAVIS inside is the digital gateway to the AGRAVIS world. All applications from AGRAVIS Life can be accessed quickly and easily. An app launcher was developed for this purpose. Internal and external applications, e.g. travel expense applications, are linked here and can be opened directly in a separate window. All applications offered by AGRAVIS appear in a list. The user has the option of compiling a list of favourites with their preferred applications. The view can be configured and the applications moved, added or deleted.
To enhance the sense of community and keep employees informed, company news from various sources is effectively presented in the “our“ section. Integrating the social media channels Facebook and Twitter on the homepage increases identification with the company. In addition, photos and videos from a gallery are displayed randomly.
A highlight of the project was the complete digitization and improvement of the menu as a business app. The application is based on SharePoint and is completely customized for AGRAVIS. The plan was previously created as a PDF and offered as a download on the intranet. This was time-consuming and awkward for those using the menu. The canteen manager can now easily enter the dishes digitally in the new app and reuse them at any time. Meals are grouped into categories such as Dish 1, Breakfast, or Side dishes. The current menu is automatically displayed and updated on the intranet for everyone as soon as the canteen manager makes changes and approves them. Some dishes, such as those in the breakfast category, are only displayed at a certain time, for example until noon. There are several views of the menu (a monitor view for the displays in the canteen, an administration interface for the canteen manager and a weekly view for the employees).
Canteen view for employees
Canteen view for editors
Outlook
The project was extremely successful, and the solution has been very well received by the employees. The introduction of the Digital Workplace brought about a new culture of communication. The next step is the design and implementation of the digital workplace for veterinary medicine, which will be used internationally and made available in six languages. In addition, further stages of expansion to increase social interaction via a social network (Viva Engage) are planned.
