Connecting a community of subject matter experts with modern information access and governance.

The Bionics Institute is an internationally recognised, independent medical research institute that solves medical challenges with technology. The cutting-edge research undertaken by the engineers and scientists at the Bionics Institute has the potential to transform the lives of people living with difficult to treat conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, hearing impairment, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, stroke and arthritis.

The organisation is currently undergoing a period of rapid growth, with several pioneering research projects maturing into the next phase of development. With multidisciplinary teams dispersed across three sites, modernising the way staff access information is critical to the success of the Institute’s activities.

Struggling with an unsupported, difficult to navigate intranet, departments had devised their own methods of managing information and communications. There were both governance and use issues to address.

Dr Lyndal Borrell, Bionics Institute’s Quality & Research Governance Manager says: “Our information management rules are largely driven by external regulatory requirements and we needed to build up internal Bionics Institute information management rules.”

A project team of subject matter experts was established to develop organisational wide connections with centralised access to the latest documents. In addition to organisational policies, procedures and forms, the subject matter experts wanted the intranet to be an effective means of communicating important information and events, building a connected community.

“We’re a world-class research organisation – innovation, data integrity and teamwork are core to our day-to-day operations. We needed to develop an intranet that instilled confidence in staff as a single source for important documents and information. FiveP supported us to put the tools in place to make that happen.”
Maria Spizzirri, IT Project Manager, Bionics Institute

“We’re a world-class research organisation – innovation, data integrity and teamwork are core to our day-to-day operations. We needed to develop an intranet that instilled confidence in staff as a single source for important documents and information. FiveP supported us to put the tools in place to make that happen.“
Maria Spizzirri, IT Project Manager, Bionics Institute

Simplifying and enriching engagement.

FiveP’s SharePoint Foundations proposal immediately stood out as a best practice approach to optimise engagement with staff and foster self-management of the Institute’s intranet.

Maria explains: “FiveP’s approach established a good understanding straight away. It was very much ‘from the hundreds of SharePoint projects we’ve designed, this is what we believe is most appropriate for you now and this is how to build from it’. That was exactly what we needed – it addressed our priorities while not overwhelming us with choice.”

Thanks to FiveP’s SharePoint Foundations framework, the Bionics Institute gained a clear understanding of SharePoint’s potential and accelerated their development process. In just five days, the FiveP consultant collaborated with the Bionics Institute team and built an operational intranet using SharePoint Online.

Together, they identified the specific configuration requirements for Bionics Institute’s intranet – taking into consideration both governance and staff use perspectives – to ensure consistency in structure and layout components.

FiveP also recommended the Tabei Resource Centre as Bionics Institute’s new single source for published content, policies, procedures, templates, and final versions of controlled documents. “It’s intuitive and easy to filter searches and quickly find targeted information,” Lyndal says.

Fast tracking success.

FiveP’s adoption and change management approach aligned to the Bionics Institute’s working model, resulting in rapid, relevant skills uptake.

Adoption success was also fast tracked due to strong ownership from Lyndal, who volunteered to conduct introductory training sessions for staff. The number of ‘intranet champions’ grew across the organisation as staff worked on intranet pages for their own departments and shared their new expertise.

“We knew from internal discussions that it had been difficult for people to find documents, and the only way to provide day-to-day information was through ‘All Staff’ emails. We ended up with multiple versions of ‘the truth’, which is a Quality Management nightmare. Staff were quick to get on board now that we have clear access to everything from a central, secure, structured place.”
Dr Lyndal Borrell, Quality & Research Governance Manager, Bionics Institute

“We knew from internal discussions that it had been difficult for people to find documents, and the only way to provide day-to-day information was through ‘All Staff’ emails. We ended up with multiple versions of ‘the truth’, which is a Quality Management nightmare. Staff were quick to get on board now that we have clear access to everything from a central, secure, structured place.“

Dr Lyndal Borrell, Quality & Research Governance Manager, Bionics Institute

No clutter, no time wasting. 

Maria says the new SharePoint structures provide a centralised, secure place to store information, “there’s a one stop location for published documents and we’ve achieved coherent application of information management rules.”

The feedback from the Institute’s COO is indicative of the positive response they’ve received: “This is fantastic. Our intranet empowers people to find what they need without having to come to me.”

One of the first areas to see positive productivity and engagement changes was the Institute’s marketing team. Internal newsletter production had previously been a laborious task, requiring the team to seek out the latest information from multiple departments, track draft article versions through to approval, and fight deadlines. “Instead of an e-mail every two weeks, they now post articles while the news is fresh and then do a ‘round up’ every fortnight to make sure staff don’t miss important news.” Lyndal says.

Disseminating non-critical information across the organisation was an ineffective and often centralised task. The only way to provide day-to-day updates was through ‘All Staff’ emails, which only some staff had authorisation to do. Now, all staff are empowered to share good news and research wins plus promote staff activities like morning teas or trivia sessions at lunchtime via specific news and community noticeboards.

“We’re seeing a cultural shift across the organisation not just from the improved and secure access to quality management and process information, but also from being able to offer all staff the ability to share information in an appropriate, central place that will reach the right people.”

Dr Lyndal Borrell, Quality & Research Governance Manager, Bionics Institute

“We’re seeing a cultural shift across the organisation not just from the improved and secure access to quality management and process information, but also from being able to offer all staff the ability to share information in an appropriate, central place that will reach the right people.“

Dr Lyndal Borrell, Quality & Research Governance Manager, Bionics Institute