Maximising the benefits of cloud-based office tools – Valo in Vantaa

The City of Vantaa was looking for a modern intranet solution that would encourage the use of the organisation’s existing cloud services. Valo Intranet was chosen as the platform, and the new solution was built in record time. Advania got involved in the project in October of 2018, and the new intranet went live in January of 2019.  

The City of Vantaa was already using many of the products in the Office 365 suite, and it was important for the new intranet solution to be compatible with the organisation’s cloud-based environment.

‘Among the top goals of our intranet project was to maximise the benefits of our cloud-based office tools and build a new home for our existing cloud services. We were looking for an off-the-shelf solution that would work with our Office 365 environment. After putting the contract out to tender, we were only left with a few options’, explains the City of Vantaa’s Communications Coordinator Kirsti Lehtola.

Valo makes accessing Office 365 tools easier and the entire cloud-based environment more inviting to the organisation’s staff.

‘Although we have had our cloud-based environment for a while, not everyone has learned to use it yet. Our new intranet solution makes it easier to access Office 365 tools’, Kirsti explains.

The new set-up is all about user-friendliness. The top-level navigation menu lists the tools that staff need to use every day. Each user is also shown relevant industry-specific news based on their AD profile.

‘The most important change that Valo Intranet has made in our digital environment is the ability to share content and form a more comprehensive view of what is happening across the city’, explains Service Manager Hanna Suomalainen.

‘The search function in Valo is out of this world. Our cloud environment is huge, so being able to search everything included in it accurately makes life much easier all round.’ – Kirsti Lehtola, City of Vantaa

The new intranet set-up also opens up new opportunities for communications staff. The City of Vantaa has a team of more than a hundred people producing and updating content every day. According to Communications Manager Meri Hämäläinen, the change is night and day:

‘The new intranet has pretty much transformed our internal communication. Publishing news is now much easier than before. Information is clearly and intelligently structured’, Meri explains.

According to Kirsti Lehtola, feedback from staff has been incredibly positive, especially with regard to the solution’s user-friendliness. One feature of Valo nevertheless shines brighter than any other:

‘The search function in Valo is out of this world. Our cloud environment is huge, so being able to search everything included in it accurately makes life much easier all round’, Kirsti says.

The new intranet platform is a big step forward on the City of Vantaa’s journey into the digital era. The organisation is hugely motivated to embrace all that the cloud has to offer.

‘Making the most of digital tools requires hard work and constant user activation to increase awareness of new opportunities. This is a big change in the way we work, and it takes time to let go of old habits’, Kirsti says.