Case Study

Ethias: A fully customized intranet

for an Insurance Firm

Ethias, the third biggest Belgian insurance provider, has 1700 employees
spread across 4 locations. With over 1,200,000 policyholders, Ethias
makes it its mission to support and protect citizens, public authorities and
businesses on a daily basis through quality insurance accessible to all.

The Challenge
With a 15-year-old custom-built intranet based on a legacy
platform, Ethias was ready for a change.

Their one-way intranet was outdated, didn’t allow for employee

engagement or file sharing, and the search engine wasn’t fit for
purpose. The centralization of content on the communications
department created a bottleneck for intranet updates, with the
team having to go through a cumbersome and time-consuming
process each time new content needed to be uploaded.

It was not possible to publish video on the intranet, forcing the

company to develop a separate channel for video content.

1
The Solution

h Customizable intranet tailored to insurance sector needs

h Easy-to-use intranet means anyone can publish content

h Out-of-the-box intranet built on Modern SharePoint

h Two-way communication increases employee engagement

h Multilingual feature saves time and enhances inclusivity

h Handy features include People Finder and Quick Links

Why Valo
Ethias was keen for their new intranet to be based on a proven, future-proof
solution. Since they had recently begun to deploy Microsoft 365 across the business,
Acolad recommended Valo Intranet as it’s built on Modern SharePoint.

Valo’s out-of-the-box intranet was able to fulfil all of Ethias’ requirements, combined with the
customizable features that helped to tailor the intranet platform to meet needs that were specific
to the insurance sector client. During the deployment of “Oasis”, Ethias’ name for their intranet, it
became clear that with some customization, Valo could add even more value to the business.

Document Management
Ethias had previously been using a document-management system to share
insurance documents between the company’s underwriters and sales agents.

The old system was outdated and not user friendly so the team at Ethias asked if
we could offer a solution within the new intranet, and so “Galileo” was born.

Using SharePoint, we created a gated content area within the intranet where users
can find relevant documents relating to the different sectors in the business, ranging
from household, car, health and travel insurance. Users are also able to share news
and updates with their co-workers separately from the main intranet.

Galileo is saving Ethias staff time and energy when looking for
the information they need in their day-to-day.

2
The Result
Since introducing Valo Intranet, staff at Ethias now have one
place to access all the information they need.

Content publishing open to all

With Ethias’ old intranet, publishing content was a time-consuming process,
with all updates having to come through the communications team for
publishing. One of the key priorities for the new intranet was to open up
this process, allowing content publishing to be shared to other teams.

One area where this has worked particularly well is for announcing
new members of staff. With HR now being able to publish
this news themselves and with over 165 new starters in the
past year, it’s easy to see how much time this has saved.

Content in native language thanks to multilingual feature

As a Belgian company, Ethias’ staff speak both French and
Dutch. Valo’s multilingual  feature has made a significant
difference to the company, allowing them to have two versions
of their intranet, one in French and one in Dutch, without the
investment in time required to translate from scratch.

When Ethias staff publish a new piece of content, Valo’s content publishing
tool allows them to replicate the page in either French or Dutch. And,
although they still need to check the translation with a member of
the team before publishing, the process is much easier and less time-
consuming. In addition, having the intranet content in all employees’
native languages helps create a sense of inclusivity in the organization.

Valo Intranet’s multilingual feature is very important

for us. When you have to effectively manage two
intranets, it’s easy using Valo Intranet to create a
mirror page in the same place in the other language.
Marc Rosius,
Communications Officer, Ethias

3
 No longer a one-way intranet
Thanks to Valo’s easy-to-use intranet, Ethias no longer has a one-
way intranet. Staff can access company news and information
easily, liking and commenting on what they find.

Location is no longer a barrier to access either, as the mobile app

allows intranet access anytime, anywhere and on any device.

Ethias’ new intranet gave staff a place to access

all the information they need, allowing for
knowledge sharing in a more efficient way.

Find out how customizable Valo Intranet can be

tailored to your specific business needs.
Get in touch, or book a demo with our experts! 

hello@acolad.com
www.acolad.com     
4