Communication is central to successful collaboration within a buying group. If this communication takes place via an intranet, a technically up-to-date, visually appealing and easy-to-use solution is at least as important. For rehaVital, punkt.de therefore carried out an intranet relaunch - and thus created a modern platform for the exchange of information.
The initial situation
RehaVital negotiates supply contracts with health insurance companies and favorable purchasing conditions with suppliers of medical aid products for its 117 medical supply stores and specialist healthcare companies. An intranet serves as a communication platform for this purpose. Here, member companies can access information, use applications and register for events and training courses. However, the system had grown over the years and had become slow, visually outdated, very confusing and difficult to use. For this reason, rehaVital decided to relaunch the system and commissioned punkt.de to develop a modern, future-proof platform.
The challenge
High performance with maximum customizability: rehaVital wanted a simple, fast, intuitive and standardized system that would also allow users to compile the information they need as desired. At the same time, various subsystems should continue to exist in the form of apps, but should be accessible via the intranet homepage without the need for multiple logins. On the technical side, punkt.de also had to modernize the legacy code of extensions already integrated by the previous service provider so that it remained compatible with the new TYPO3 system and could be updated in the future. Another challenge was the tight time frame: In June 2015, a relaunch of the system was announced at rehaVital's shareholders' meeting. The official launch of the system was to take place at the next shareholders' meeting in June 2016. punkt.de started work in December 2015 - and therefore only had six months to successfully complete the relaunch.
The solution
No sooner said than done: The new Vitalnet based on TYPO3 7.6 LTS impresses with its up-to-date technology, ease of use and appealing design, for which punkt.de once again worked together with the specialists from the design office made in. A consistent color system runs from the start page through all navigation levels and thus ensures clarity. Directly on the home page is a customizable app start bar that allows users to sort their apps as desired using drag and drop. The apps are also connected to the intranet via a single sign-on process so that users can access them without having to log in again. Data import from rehaVital's own MS SQL databases and from the CRM system is also automated.
A complex, hierarchical rights system ensures that specific users only have access to information that has been approved for them. User rights are managed decentrally by an administrator of the respective member company: depending on their authorizations, member companies can create and manage users themselves - in other words, determine which users are allowed to read which content.
Other features include an individual newsletter generated according to user rights and an extensive, faceted search with Solr. Of course, punkt.de has implemented all features in such a way that the system can be updated in the long term. Uwe von Seggern, Head of IT at rehaVital, is convinced of the result:
punkt.de has done a really good job and brought the heart of our communication up to date within a very short time. The new system is not only very fast, but also very user-friendly - as our members confirm.
Uwe von Seggern,
Head of IT at rehaVital
- complex, hierarchical rights system
- Event management
- Newsletter
- extensive search
- Single sign-on
- and much more...
Continuous further development
In line with the concept of continuous relaunch, the actual relaunch is followed by a continuous optimization process in which further improvements are made to the intranet. After Vitalnet was presented with its most important functions at the shareholders' meeting in June 2016, punkt.de expanded the functionalities for events and the newsletter, among other things. For example, participants of an event now automatically receive a thank-you email afterwards. The management of events has also been simplified for editors, who can now create an automatically generated list of participants as a PDF from the system or determine which events should be advertised in the newsletter with a single click in the system.
But the intranet is not finished yet. There are still projects planned for the near future, such as search optimization or further customization options for the start page.
