Dixons Academies Trust
Using Lightspeed365 to update and upgrade an existing SharePoint intranet aimed at knowledge and frontline staff
Dixons Academies Trust runs a network of around 30 schools and colleges across the North of England, educating nearly 20,000 students in locations such as Manchester, Leeds and Bradford.
Around 3,000 staff work hard every day to support the Trust’s key mission to challenge educational and social disadvantage across the North.
Influencing culture across the Trust
To help support this mission and deliver an exceptional education for students, Dixons wanted to nurture a unique culture and set of values that was consistent across all their schools and colleges.
However, efforts to engage busy staff was hampered by a lack of effective digital communication channels. Messaging was centred around email and messages were getting lost in already bulging in-boxes, with the communications team finding it hard to cut through the noise.
Transforming digital communication for 3,000 staff
With a brief to transform communication for all staff, Dixons Academies Trust engaged Content Formula, the team behind Lightspeed365, to develop and launch a brand-new Lightspeed365-powered SharePoint intranet.
After performing an initial discovery phase, we got the green light to create a digital channel that would help drive culture change, support staff in their day-to-day work and move messaging away from email.
A new Lightspeed365-powered SharePoint intranet with minimum disruption
During the project we worked in close partnership with Dixons’ communications team and collaborated with their colleagues in IT, ensuring minimal disruption and helping overcome any technical challenges.
We also prepared for a smooth and straightforward implementation, running training sessions on how to use both SharePoint and Lightspeed365 with the comms team and other intranet administrators.
One source of truth for critical resources and updates
Today Dixon Academies Trust’s new Lightspeed365-powered SharePoint intranet provides a single source of truth for staff to receive authoritative news and updates, as well as access important learning resources.
Staff can also find core information on a range of employee services including IT support and pay & benefits, as well as access Trust policies. It is also the place where staff can learn about the Trust’s mission, values and initiatives.
Effective and targeted messaging delivered to every school
The new intranet has revolutionised internal and leadership communications – updates are actually read by the people who need to see them.
The communications team can now send out messages ranging from news about school inspections to operational updates to the launch of a new digital campaign.
Messages can also be targeted to specific groups based on Entra ID profiles, including teachers or facilities staff, ensuring updates are relevant to their audience.
Using the Lightspeed 365 push notifications feature, critical operational alerts are also highlighted, appearing as targeted alerts at the top of the intranet homepage. Important updates are no longer missed.
Microsoft Teams as the centre of communication
Push notifications are also routed into Microsoft Teams, which is heavily used by staff across the Trust, ensuring communications appear directly in the flow of work.
News items appear as messages within the normal Teams “chat” feed, but can also all be viewed together in the Lightspeed365 Teams app.
Staff also get a red dot notification indicating when there is a new item to read, supporting healthy numbers of views.
For the very first time the comms team can also see how updates are landing, with a bespoke Azure app created by Content Formula to confirm that items have been sent.
The one source of truth for getting things done
A platform that grows and evolves with the needs of staff
One of the strengths of both SharePoint and Lightspeed365 is its flexibility to add new features and capabilities. The new intranet has been designed to continuously improve and evolve over time, supporting emerging needs and tackling new challenges.
The next stage of evolution is to integrate key tools and systems such as the Trust’s learning platform with the intranet homepage using the Viva Connections dashboard, helping staff complete tasks more quickly.
A cost-effective and budget-friendly solution
As an educational trust, resources are prioritised to focus on educating students. Overall, the Lightspeed365 solution has proved to be highly cost-effective, particularly as Dixons do not have to pay for any features that they already have paid for in SharePoint.
With tiered pricing and support levels to meet different budgets, and a further education sector discount provided by Lightspeed365, Dixons were able to launch an exceptional intranet with surprisingly little spend.
Helping to embed a consistent culture across the Trust
With an effective digital communications platform, the Trust is now succeeding in its campaign to build a consistent culture across each of its schools and actively planning to extend the value of the intranet.