SharePoint development for Camelot

Camelot with headquarters in north west London, run a games business for the public and are a licensed operator of the UK National Lottery since its launch in 1994.

Camelot previously used a content management system (CMS) from Alterian Software called ‘Immediacy’ to host and manage their intranet, which they called ‘icom’. As it was built using technology which has been discontinued and is therefore not supported for future developments, it was clear to Camelot that they needed to migrate their intranet to a new, more modern platform. They also wanted to use this as an opportunity for digital transformation and to align the intranet with Camelot’s corporate goals; namely to provide a digital workspace to reinforce and reflect Camelot’s vision of being the world’s leading digital lottery.

Camelot’s internal communications team initiated a project to cost-effectively and efficiently transform the intranet from a static platform to a more dynamic, engaging and interactive one.

Camelot concluded that they had two options:

1. Upgrade to the latest Alterian CMS, or
2. Migrate to Microsoft SharePoint.

Because of the functional wealth that SharePoint provides, as well as having purchased the required licences for the platform already, Camelot opted to migrate to Microsoft SharePoint.

Camelot initiated a competitive tendering exercise to identify a partner they could engage to undertake the work and BCN Group were selected, following a rigorous interview process, to manage their SharePoint migration. Primarily BCN Group were chosen because of extensive experience implementing SharePoint intranet solutions for other organisations of a similar size and profile to Camelot, as well as having reference sites that Camelot could visit within very close proximity to their Watford location.

Camelot felt that BCN Group not only had the requisite skills required to undertake the engagement but had a team of individuals who they could form a close, long-term working relationship with as well as providing ongoing SharePoint support.

BCN Groups’ SharePoint consultants helped to implement the following features:

• Redesigned Camelot’s existing intranet with new page designs and site navigation.
• Introduced new page templates.
• Rebranded the homepage look, feel, navigation and content.
• Enabled video streaming of content and other audio and visual media.
• Incorporated SharePoint social media and networking functionality.
• Introduced ’Team sites‘ for each business unit.
• Employees were empowered to manage content on noticeboard with minimal intervention from the Internal Communications department.
• Enhanced their SharePoint branding to corporate guidelines.
• Increased web based content as opposed to downloadable documents.
• Improved search facility to help find people as well as content within the intranet.
• Made use of web forms to avoid manual form processing.
• Enabled single sign-on into various applications.
• A countdown to the next lottery draw complete with details of any “roll-over” and other prize values.

BCN Group helped Camelot launch a brand new, refreshed intranet conforming to their corporate brand guidelines. Built on SharePoint 2013 and running on on-premise technology, the intranet is available to users on all devices, including mobile phones and tablets. The new intranet is modern looking and dynamic and designed to encourage user interaction and adoption by being highly intuitive, inviting and engaging. This has had a major positive impact upon the company’s intranet usage statistics and judged as a great success for Camelot’s Internal Communications team.