Intranets and digital workplaces are never finished. To be successful they must constantly evolve to meet new employee needs, reflect organisational changes, keep up with changes in technology, and satisfy changing user expectations. World-class intranets that keep on delivering value are based on continuous improvement, adding new features, introducing refreshed designs and content, and taking into account changing user needs. But continuous improvement is challenging, and in practice many intranets run out of steam, and start to decline in adoption and value.

In the 2024 Intranet and Digital Workplace Awards there was an exceptional example of an intranet that has continued to deliver value over many years and through a number of iterations. Duke Energy’s The Portal is an inspiring example of what can be achieved by continuously improving an intranet over many years, through strong governance, robust management, excellent execution and a relentless focus on users.

Now in their eighteenth year, the Intranet and Digital Workplace Awards recognise outstanding contributions to the fields of intranets, digital workplaces and digital employee experience from all over the world. The awards uncover remarkable solutions that deliver business value, sharing them with the wider community. We were delighted to award the intranet team at Duke Energy our Platinum award, reflecting the single entry that was most admired by our judging panel.

About The Portal, Duke Energy’s high-performing intranet

Duke Energy, a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. The company’s electric utilities serve over 8 million customers across a number of US states while a natural gas unit services over 1.5 million customers.

The Portal, Duke Energy’s intranet, serves to inform and engage 27,000 employees as well as 21,000 contingent workers. The intranet, which is based on SharePoint modern and uses both out-of-the-box and custom features, has been operating since 2001. Over that time, it has gone through several iterations, but through this evolution it has also maintained a high level of consistency and continuity in its experience, features and operations. This has allowed it build up high levels of adoption and value.

One of the reasons that The Portal has been able to sustain value over such a long time is the high-performing intranet team that manage it. Led by Martha Brown, who has been in change for over two decades, the team consistently deliver and exhibit strong execution, all underpinned by a consistent set of principles and robust approach to governance.

Delivering continuous improvement

Duke Energy’s intranet (“The Portal”) has been continuously improving since 2001, although their Platinum award focuses on features and innovations from the past three years, all of which have been delivered taking a data-driven and user-centric approach.

Among their impressive output over this three- year period includes moving from classic to modern SharePoint, with an approach that combines both out-of-the-box and custom web parts, with the latter used to not only remain on-brand but also drive employee experience. Notable custom web parts include the “Employee Connections” section of the homepage which supports peer-to-peer recognition, while also celebrating employee milestones in a company where long tenure is common.

The team also launched a new Viva Connections mobile dashboard mainly focused helping non-office staff to access The Portal on their mobile device. The team also launched the My Portal Toolkit which allows users to access personalised links from any page and configure subscriptions to news topic, experimenting with different design options in the process. The Portal Team also conducted an excellent reorganisation of HR and people-content based on a “Life Journeys” concept.

The Life Journeys section of Duke Energy’s intranet presenting pay and benefits information. Screenshot remains the copyright of Duke Energy and may not be reproduced without written permission.

The team have also continued to evolve their strong support for site managers through resources and training, as well as the smart use of automation through Power Automate to better manage site access and. And there are host of other improvements including a new navigation, a rescoped search, new content formats focused on employee recognition, and the introduction of a new analytics solution.

Ingredients for success

There’s no single “ingredient X” behind the success of The Portal but more of a number of factors that come together. One of these is a long-term commitment from Duke Energy’s leadership to continue to support and fund The Portal as an essential channel and resource that supports both employee experience and everyday work. The Portal Team also ensure that the intranet continues to be strongly aligned with Duke Energy’s strategy, supporting a number of “leadership imperatives”. The team also partner with different functions such as HR to drive alignment with the plans of business functions.

The team’s commitment to keeping the portal user-centric is also critical. This is achieved through taking a data-driven approach and ensuring that users are always involved in everything the team rolls-out. There is a consistent use of pilots and ongoing user testing ; learnings form these are acted upon to ensure long-term value and adoption. This user-centric approach means that over time The Portal has become an internal brand trusted by Duke Energy’s workforce.

Finally, the team’s can-do mindset, persistence in driving change and excellent execution are all essential to delivering strong results. This is enabled by The Portal’s robust governance and team’s consistent and process-led approach to intranet management. Our congratulations to Duke Energy and the team for continuing to deliver one of the world’s best intranets.

Gain more insights!

Want to know more and gain insights into leading intranets and digital workplaces? The 2024 Intranet and Digital Workplace showcase report contains extensive details (and screenshots) on each of the 11 winning entries, including Duke Energy. See what the winners have done, and how what they have done has made a lasting impact. .