I summarized the discussion of the SharePoint Transition & Migration panel interview since we were not successfully able to record it. You may access the recording of Morningstar’s modern intranet presentation along with the slides I presented.
SharePoint Transition & Migration Strategy Panel Discussion
Panelists' Background
Thomas Iacovantuono, Director of AI & Automation, was responsible for both Microsoft Office 365 and ServiceNow. No one has better perspective regarding both platforms and what they are best suited for. Thomas chose to replace three SharePoint portals that served as Organon’s intranets with EC Pro in the summer of 2023.
Ann Halvorsen, VP of Global Communications at Trivium Packaging, moved away from SharePoint portal as their intranet portal in 2022 and wrote this story explaining how EC Pro has changed the way they are communicating at Trivium Packaging for 7,500 employees in 16 languages across 20 countries.
Ashly Health, Sr Manager Enterprise Solutions at NASCAR, transitioned from SharePoint to EC Pro as their intranet portal in 2022 and have seen amazing success with their InsideTrack portal. They produced a very entertaining and insightful video as part of their participation in the Best Employee Portal Contest in 2024.
Moderator Question #1
Why did you decide to switch from SharePoint to EC Pro for your company’s intranet portal?
Summary of Answers:
We selected ServiceNow and EC Pro because we wanted our employees’ experience to be functional. We wanted them to not only consume personalized news and information, but also to be able to get answers, services, and support. We wanted them to be able to take action on tasks and approval requests, as well as, gain access the right systems at the right moment in time. We wanted an “actionable” experience rather than a passive one.
We struggled to personalize news, announcements, and information with SharePoint. We transitioned to EC Pro so our communications could be targeted and the portal experiences personalized.
Our former SharePoint portals were often not up to date with accurate information, so we wanted to use ServiceNow’s knowledge bases with workflows to ensure that content was relevant and accurate.
Moderator Question #2
What SharePoint files or documents, if any, did you decide to move into ServiceNow? How did you justify this decision? Did you have a rationalization or clean up effort?
Summary of Answers:
We absolutely went through and cleaned up the content in SharePoint. Much of it was old, abandoned, and inaccurate. We looked at policies and answers to specific questions to move into the ServiceNow knowledge base. We left the files that teams or departments collaborate on and use for their business in SharePoint.
Moderator Question #3
What SharePoint sites, if any, did you decide to move into ServiceNow? How did you justify this decision?
Summary of Answers:
Sites that specific teams or departments used to collaborate on files for their business function, we left in SharePoint. For sites that were intended for mass consumption and mainly informational in nature, we moved into ServiceNow as microsite pages using the rich content editor.
Moderator Question #4
Are you indexing SharePoint content with ServiceNow’s SharePoint Online search connector?
Summary of Answers:
Organon is using Coveo enterprise search, that does this for them. Trivium Packaging and NASCAR said that they do not yet trust the accuracy and access controls that are set on files in SharePoint. They made a point of stating that while ServiceNow’s search connector returns results from SharePoint with relevancy and honors permissions, those permissions must be set up appropriate in SharePoint otherwise someone might see a result to a file they should not see or get an answer that is not personally correct for them. If a customer does have confidence that their SharePoint files have the correct access rights, then the search connector could be very valuable.
Moderator Question #5
Is there anything else you’d like the audience to know, which helped you with your transition from SharePoint to EC Pro as your intranet portal?
Summary of Answers:
It’s very important to set expectations and explain to your Microsoft Office 365 Team that SharePoint is not going away. It is still the platform that teams and departments will use to organize and collaborate on files that they use for their business and function. It’s also very important to documents guidelines and set expectations for what will stay in SharePoint and what will move into ServiceNow. It’s important to educate your users so they understand the process and guidelines and have some training for the content they may move into and maintain in ServiceNow going forward. IT can be your best friends.
Morningstar Modern Intranet Journey
Courtney and Lori worked on a project with HR & IT in 2024 to replace their old intranet portal named POND with EC Pro. Morningstar has high expectations for content creation and interaction because their employees are experts at publishing and making the complex simple. To hear their full story, watch the recording.
Courtney - “We wanted the new POND to feel more like a coffee shop. It’s a place where you stop as part of your routine every day; maybe it’s a break in your day. You might go in for a cup of coffee, but you also connect with other people. You might find something else that sounds good; get a little bit more than you bargained for every time you walk through the door. Nobody goes into the coffee shop expecting to come out in a bad mood, so it’s going to be a little bit of a pick me up.”
Lori - “It’s been such a successful integration of various teams coming together that it’s been nominated for one of our coveted Values awards. We’re so proud of that.”
