The client is a home, auto, and business insurance provider located in the US Midwest. Founded on principles of responsibility and integrity, the client has served its state and local communities for more than 125 years. 

Key Challenges

An early adopter of web-based technologies, the client initially rolled out FrontPage (precursor to SharePoint) in the late 90’s. For several years, the application served the client and its users well. However, as web browsers modernized, user issues began to materialize. As a workaround, the client developed a complex file share system with links to supporting documents and htm pages. Gradually, though, this process became significantly outdated. Further compounding the challenges, the FrontPage application only worked properly with Internet Explorer (IE), a short-term solution considering IE was fast approaching end-of-life. Combined with no support and limited security, the client determined they would need to modernize. 

Since the client already had licensing, they identified SharePoint Online as an ideal solution for this project.

Solution

The client turned to Planet Technology to modernize this application in a phased approach by providing initial analysis, document classification, ongoing training, content migration and post rollout assistance. Training was focused heavily on the content owners to ensure all content was properly permissioned and maintained moving forward. Planet Technology conducted a knowledge transfer to the client’s team on the new SharePoint application, ensuring they would have full ownership of the system once the project was completed. 

Results

Planet Technology worked with the client’s information technology staff and the content owners to complete the modernization effort on time and on budget. After a few weeks of post rollout support the client’s content owners took complete control of the SharePoint Online environment.

Key Features

• Modern Browser Support: New solution works in all modern browsers
• Document Classification: End-users of the application are now able to easily find content using search functionality or filtering of content 
• Reduced Administrative Overhead: Content owners now have a single source of truth for content management and no longer must manually update links within documents for nested documentation
• Modernized Infrastructure/Security: Application now sits on a modern cloud-hosted platform and permissions were updated to ensure the right folks have access to add, update, and delete content 
• Site Pages Managed by Content Owners: FrontPage was difficult to maintain and required some experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, now with SharePoint the content owners have the power to create powerful visualization experiences using Site Pages for the user base instead of being reliant on information technology

Photo Credit: Canva