Case Study:
Canada’s Labatt Brewer Builds “The Pub,” an Intranet for Enterprise Collaboration and Search
How does an enterprise ensure that its employees get the information they need when they need it? For Labatt Brewing Company, the solution was to leverage the power of the SharePoint platform to build a world-class intranet portal. Labatt Breweries of Canada is one of the nation’s oldest companies. Labatt is part of Belgium-based Interbrew S.A., one of the largest brewing groups in the world with more than 180 types of beer available in over 110 countries worldwide. And Labatt Blue is the best-selling Canadian beer in the world. Traditionally, the company used employee meetings and postings on bulletin boards to keep employees informed, but with Labatt employees spread across Canada, the company was faced with the challenge of delivering information to employees in a consistent and timely manner. Much of Labatt’s corporate information had been tough to share because it was housed in silos belonging to various business units, meaning employees had difficulty finding up-to-date, pertinent information. Labatt’s Intranet’s Architecture and Benefits. After determining Labatt’s business and technology requirements, the Labatt IT team decided that an intranet would provide the most efficient way of delivering the single point of access to employees. The intranet would also provide document management and collaboration. The intranet, which was named The Pub, was built using Microsoft Content Management Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, and SharePoint Team Services. Using The Pub, Labatt rolled out new programs to its employees, such as the Innovation Database. Labatt wanted innovative ways to improve every aspect of the business, and the Innovation Database provides a forum for employees to submit ideas and receive recognition and rewards for ideas that are implemented. Through the seamless deployment of Microsoft technology as the infrastructure for Labatt’s intranet, The Pub, the company has been Canada’s Labatt Brewer Builds “The Pub,” an Intranet for Enterprise Collaboration and Search able to empower employees, improve employee communication, and create efficiencies with the IT department, while making a significant impact on employee productivity and collaboration. About 70 percent of Labatt’s employees use the portal, which has significantly improved productivity and collaboration across the board. With the robust search function within The Pub, employees are able to quickly locate the documents they need and obtain the information they require to make better business decisions. Using Microsoft SharePoint Services, a team website was designed to significantly improve the way teams manage information and activities. Team workspaces provides a common point of access for project or departmental information, including, documents, contacts, tasks, and discussions. A summary of the benefits of The Pub are:
• Empower employees
• Help improve overall employee communication
• Create efficiencies with the IT department
• Help make a significant impact on employee productivity and collaboration
Q1. How do information silos impact productivity?
Q2. Why was a single point of access an important feature?
Q3. How has sharing information via The Pub improved collaboration at Labatt?
Q4. Why might workers not be in favor of document and data sharing?
Your answer must be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (size 12), one-inch margins on all sides, APA format and also include references.