Alzheimer's Society

Supporting over

800,000

people living with dementia

Connecting

12,600

staff & volunteers

Relying on

1

enhanced digital workspace

"Atlas brings our 2000 employees and 1000 volunteers under one digital roof to collectively work toward creating a world without dementia. Atlas achieves this by providing one platform to effectively communicate, collaborate and manage knowledge across the entire organisation."

Alzheimer’s Society, a major UK charity, consists of 3,000 staff and volunteers who support over 800,000 people living with dementia. As the organisation grows and with workers located across the United Kingdom and encompassing the full spectrum of digital skill proficiency, it needed to enable all of its people to find the information they need, to connect and collaborate effectively. Alzheimer's Society chose Atlas to meet their needs.

Following a competitive tender, ClearPeople recommended, designed and developed a new intranet using Office 365. ClearPeople ensured that all of the charity's requirements would be met through Atlas, which was customised for Alzheimer's Society and named Arena.

Arena goes beyond an intranet and provides a single digital platform where its users can find all the information and digital tools they need to do the essential work they do.

Features

Personalised and relevant content

Each user's news feed and homepage prioritises content based on their location so that news most relevant to their region is displayed first.

Business social platform

Arena's integration with Yammer has been eagerly embraced by staff and volunteers and uptake and usage has been much higher than anticipated.

Content contribution

Users are readily contributing content in discussion forums and cross-department and region collaboration is already a major success. The Society's internal blog has also seen a significant increase in engagement since Arena's launch.

Ease-of-use and accessibility

The new intranet design is slick, modular and intuitive. As a large proportion of the workspace's users are volunteers who do not have regular access to a computer and have varying levels of digital literacy skills, the top navigation is intentionally straightforward. It consists of just 4 items to make it easy for users to find the information they need. This also ensures that the subsequent information taxonomy is as streamlined and intuitive as possible. Sign-on is quick and easy, and workflows are intuitive. Quick links help guide users towards what they need. Arena is fully accessible on mobile and any device.

Efficient and powerful search

The site search box is prominent and clear and Atlas' powerful search functionality means users can efficiently find exactly what they are looking for.

"Our intranet encourages and enables people to share their experiences and knowledge… This culture leads to a greater understanding of different peoples’ roles and contributions to the Society and the fight against dementia. This is morale boosting, creates shared respect, and by knowing each other's responsibilities, to better work together."

John Bazley, Intranet Manager, Alzheimer's Society