An Intranet Portal Boosts Collaboration and Productivity at Bharti Retail
A case study on The Internet in RetailExecutive Summary
CIO 100 Winner: As a start-up organization, Bharti Retail needed to create a central platform to provide employees with a single point interface for all communication, processes and applications.Here's how they did it
Bharti Retail, a subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises, operates a chain of multiple stores that offer consumers a variety of choices at affordable rates. To increase efficiency however, all processes that existed at a manual and rudimentary level had to be digitized. Sanjay Kotha, CIO, Bharti Retail, says, "As a start-up organization, we needed to create a central platform to provide employees with a single point interface for all communication, processes and applications."
Case Study Highlights
In its endeavor to create centralized communication, Bharti Retail built an Intranet portal (myAccess). The portal is divided into three sections: myOrganization, myFunction and mySpace. The first section, provides the employees with enterprise-wide information and engagement tools like company news, policy and forms, company announcements etcetera. "Data pertaining to an employee's specific function is available in the second section of the portal. Here, users can engage with their functional heads, and set functional priorities," says Kotha. The last section is more personal. Employees can customize the information they require like check news, weather, jokes, cartoon and astrology.
In addition, the portal provides a link to an online facility for users to log IT related issues for resolution.
But, for a start up like Bharti Retail, this wasn't easy. Kotha had to convince the business to invest in the initiative. Tight timelines didn't help his cause as he also had to train the users, and hence, the first phase of the project was completed in a short span of two months.
Today, the number of hits that the portal receives has crossed six lakh a month. By automating various workflow processes, the portal has enhanced employee productivity and satisfaction levels.
"The application has become the lifeline for employees. The travel and expense management feature of the portal has helped in tracking expenses and trends, thus leading to better cost management and optimization," says Kotha.
Kotha is proud of the results the project has generated. "This is a landmark project because a non-technology oriented organization has made the paradigm shift towards technology," he says.
The project epitomized Kotha's vision for change: The age of automation is going to be the age of 'do it yourself.'
The Person Behind It
“The switch to increased automation not only boosted efficiency but also enhanced and delighted staff."
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