Who is EnBW ODR AG?

EnBW ODR AG is a service company in the fields of electricity, natural gas, energy services, information technology and the environment and a subsidiary of EnBW. The company is based in the Württemberg town of Ellwangen. It has around 500 employees and supplies a total of almost 400,000 people with energy. In recent years, EnBW ODR AG has increasingly focused on new technologies such as telecommunications, e-mobility and smart topics in addition to its core competence as an energy supplier.

Why were they looking for a new intranet solution?

The old intranet portal was an SAP solution for which support had expired. EnBW ODR AG was already in a situation where action was required. The old portal had the advantage that ESS services could be processed directly in SAP via the portal, which were used for time bookings, vacation requests and the like. The company was therefore looking for a new solution. The COVID-19 pandemic in particular has brought the already topical issues of digitalization and digital collaboration even more into focus, so EnBW ODR AG wanted to move away from a pure information portal and towards a central entry point for digital collaboration. Linchpin was ultimately chosen to further drive communication and collaboration within the company.

What use cases does Linchpin cover?

In #omi, company news in particular is displayed prominently on the dashboard and is popular with users. The company news is divided into two sections. The upper section contains company news from the company management. In the lower section, there are eight tiles for news from the specialist department. The news has very different topics and is also often commented on, so that an exchange is also created here. The microblog is also located on the start page of the system.

The menu bar was deliberately kept lean so that colleagues can find their way around quickly. The menu, which is prominently integrated on the homepage, was particularly important. Another central aspect is the Launchpad app area, from which employees can easily access the ESS services and can also directly access time bookings, vacation requests and the like when working from home.

The introduction of Linchpin at EnBW ODR AG can be divided into three phases: The familiarization phase up to the introduction, the usage phase after the go-live (to date) and the phase of currently important topics and those that could become so. Three months after the go-live, #omi started with 650 users in 130 work areas. During this time, 115 news posts were created, including company news from the management as well as news about information events, introductions and training courses. One and a half years later, EnBW ODR AG has 230 workspaces, which has doubled in that time. Over time, more and more users were added and projects, project employees and external parties ensured even more movement in the system. The number of news posts has continued to rise and company news is also developing very well.

What accompanying measures were used?

EnBW ODR AG also relied on a number of accompanying measures for the introduction of Linchpin. As part of this, a marketing campaign was planned that included flyers and posters as well as various information events. These ranged from management to all employees. For example, the topic was also specifically placed at a works meeting and the current status was reported on. What was special about the campaign was that the naming competition was an important component. In this competition, suggestions for the title of the new company intranet could be submitted. It was then possible to vote for the various submissions. When the system was finally introduced, there was corresponding training for all employees, most of which was carried out internally. Of course, training courses were also held in advance for power users, who were able to provide valuable input for the content and were therefore involved in the project at an early technical stage.