Kenneth Fonzi, Children's Hospital Foundation

SuperNova Award Category

Future of Work

The Company

For over 140 years, Children’s National Medical Center has served the nation’s children as a premier provider of pediatric care in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Children’s Hospital Foundation is the fundraising arm for Children’s National. The foundation partners with individual donors, corporations, and community organizations to help the doctors, nurses, and clinicians fulfill their vision to transform children’s health across the country.

The Problem

Within the next five years, we plan on doubling our philanthropy from $45 Million to $90 Million and we needed a set of tools that would allow us to do what we do, only better. A vast array of cloud apps were in use by the team and a SharePoint-based intranet was in place at the hospital, but it was difficult to find information and coordinate activities.

The Solution

We wanted a solution that better fit the way we work, so we deployed a cloud intranet to serve as the hub for collaboration – tying all of these disparate tools together in one place. The key was to get senior leadership support right from the beginning, as they helped to champion the change, identify requirements and encourage adoption. Based on their insights and feedback from staff, we sought out a solution with clear APIs for integration, a malleable layout and flexibility to customize the interface with CSS, HTML and JavaScript.

The Results

At the end of 2012, the intranet launched with 80 people inside the organization. Today, there are 127 employees, interns and even outside consultants actively using the intranet as the central access point for their applications and as the core area for collaboration.

The Technology

Igloo Software’s cloud intranet platform (www.igloosoftware.com)

Metrics

Before implementation: Information workers spend approximately one day a week looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues to help with tasks (according to McKinsey’s 2012 social economy report). Our team was no exception. We relied on e-mail, disparate cloud apps and a difficult to manage shared drive to collaborate with each other and time was wasted searching for company information. 

After implementation: Instead of relying on a shared drive to find an employee staff list or a list of procedures, we are aggregating all of this information in one spot. Our onboarding process has also improved - it is now simplified for new employees since information is in one unified area where they can be brought up to speed quickly. 80% of our members (including interns and outside consultants) are actively using the intranet each month and (with social analytics) we have greater visibility into the popularity of resources and how interactions occur across the team.

Disruptive Factor

Companies are using more than 10 different cloud apps on average. We use numerous applications for working and reporting, including Wufoo's online form builder, Logi Analytics as a dashboard client, Google Apps, Google Analytics, TeamGantt and MerlinOne - so we weren't looking for another platform, we were seeking something that could tie all these disparate tools together in one place. When we launched our intranet, we integrated all of these applications through Okta and a single sign-on environment, so I can do what I need to do, no matter where I am.

Shining Moment

The competition for philanthropic dollars is stiffer than ever and our intranet is a great example of using technology to punch above our weight to compete with larger organizations. It has not only made us more productive in executing outreach campaigns, but it has changed the culture. Now, we start our day by logging into the intranet, not our inbox.