Customer Solution Case Study
/ OHA leverages SharePoint platform to streamline communication with members and the public.
Overview
Country or Region:Canada
Industry:Nonprofit
Customer Profile
The Ontario Hospital Association represents 154 public hospitals and is dedicated to achieving a high-performing health system.
Business Situation
To increase efficiency, simplify content management and improve overall communication the OHA needed to optimize its website management platform.
Solution
The OHA streamlined its website content management system by using Microsoft® SharePoint®.
Benefits
Improved communication
Increased productivity
Increased usage / “SharePoint has taken a lot of the load off of my team. Before the implementation we used to be inundated with different tasks, having to do all the content uploading and administering on the web... updates are now done by all the users on the floor.”
Robert Saggiorato, Manager of the IT Department at the Ontario Hospital Association
Representing approximately 154 public hospitals, the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) is dedicated to improving the delivery of health care in the province of Ontario. To continue to communicate effectively to both health professionals and the public, the OHA needed to increase the efficiency of its website content management system, enabling the site to be updated without intervention from the IT department. Working with Microsoft ® Gold Certified Partner Navantis, the OHA implemented the Microsoft SharePoint® platform to cut training and maintenance time, and give the team more ownership over the content. Today, OHA is easily and frequently updating its website and seeing increased traffic and positive member feedback as a result of its improved and more creative communications practices.
Situation
Founded in 1924, the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) is dedicated to improving the delivery of health care in the province of Ontario. Today, representing approximately 154 public hospitals, the OHA assumes a leadership role focused on patients and promoting an efficient and effective health system. Guided by the health needs of Ontario communities, the OHA aims to deliver high-quality products and services, advance and influence health system policy in Ontario, and champion innovation. The OHA relies on its ability to effectively communicate with health care professionals and the general public to achieve these goals – so it is important that its website be a solid vehicle to support its mission and enable that communication.
With an information technology (IT) department of just five people, it was a growing challenge to maintain up to six websites it hosted, all running on different technologies. The OHA team was unable to update content on the sites without requiring IT to intervene and troubleshoot, and were looking for a consistent content management system that would be easy to use for all staff, with minimal training.
The disparate technologies deployed on its websites resulted in a bottleneck of content awaiting to be uploaded, labour-intensive yearly maintenance, and an overall burden on the IT department, noted Robert Saggiorato, Manager of the OHA IT department. As a result of this, the team was also restricted in terms of their ability to be innovative with their communication tools and practices.
“In order for the OHA to continue to be as transparent as it is, we were looking for a better way of communicating to our members and the general public,” Saggiorato said.
Solution
After looking at various technology options, the OHA decided to work with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Navantis, who proposed that the association streamline their website management system with the help of the Microsoft SharePoint® platform.
The OHA factored their history of satisfaction with Microsoft products into its decision.
Internally, the OHA was already using Microsoft Dynamics® CRM, as well as SharePoint for its Intranet.
“For our extranets, we wanted to continue to leverage Microsoft products moving forward, so we thought it would be the best next step,” said Saggiorato. “Given the content management system and the enhanced ability it provided, we determined that SharePoint was the most suitable fit for our immediate and future IT needs.”
SharePoint offered a scalable solution that helped the OHA team update and modify their websites without requiring the technical expertise of the IT department. With simple content and document management, as well as ease of maintenance and navigation, the new environment enabled a more efficient and cost-effective use of the team’s talent and time. The flexibility of the system also helped the OHA incorporate Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 features into its sites, evolving communications to include a CEO blog, calendars of events and RSS feeds - all on a site that would be mobile device-friendly.
“It was all about advocacy,” said Patrick Parato, Territory Executive, Navantis. “The OHA had a couple of distinct groups they wanted to communicate with, and using a static brochure-type website of the past no longer fit in terms of how they wanted to put their message forward.”
Benefits
By harnessing the SharePoint platform, the OHA implemented a content management system that enabled improved communication with members and the general public, increased productivity and efficiency and increased overall usage and potential for growth.
Improved communication
With the new ease of use and team ownership over the content, the OHA website has become a platform for innovation – resulting in improved communication. Content is regularly updated on a daily basis, which helps keep the site fresh and engaging. The CEO blog and other Web 2.0 features have been a big success, noted Saggiorato, adding that other, already established communication tools like newsletters and bulletins, have also improved.
“Our labour relations bulletins rely on stable document management that is not only scalable but reliable,” said Saggiorato. “Since implementing SharePoint, we’ve had little to no downtime with any of our bulletins or any of our documents, which enables us to more efficiently use our time and resources. Having new and improved creative communication practices has also enabled a much stronger sense of community for our members.”
Increased productivity and efficiency
Implementing the new system allowed the OHA to more effectively use their resources, and enabled the IT department to better focus on software and services support, instead of time-consuming troubleshooting and content management. Staff members now use SharePoint to help take control of the content and adopt a strategy which allowed them to easily migrate the content. In addition, employee engagement has increased, non-technical employees are now updating content, and there are users from different departments who own their content instead of having an IT bottleneck.
“SharePoint has taken a lot of the load off of my team,” said Saggiorato. “Before the implementation we used to be inundated with different tasks, including having to do all the content uploading and administering on the web... updates are now done by all the users on the floor.”
Increased usage
The OHA now sees about 2,000 unique hits per day and has had record traffic to its educational department, courses and conferences web pages. Professionals can find the content they’re looking for quickly – and from the public perspective, users can get valuable information about their hospitals.
“We have seen a substantial increase in user involvement from both the members and the public, as well as an increase in the number of hits we get on a day-to-day basis,” said Saggiorato. “Communication is stronger, our audience is better informed, and our community is growing.”
Many health care professionals have also shared how impressed they are with how usable the site is. One hospital human resources team was especially pleased with how quickly they can now find documents, such as collective bargaining agreements, without getting lost in the site.
“It is important to both public and OHA members to receive up-to-date communications and resources from the OHA through their website and now they can do that,” said Parato.
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