Kathmandu's intranet adventure

July 2, 2009:Outdoor clothing retailer Kathmandu has implemented Intranet DASHBOARD (iD) across its 80 stores in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

Bryan Moore, General Manager of Information Systems at Kathmandu, commented: “We discovered iD on the internet and lined it up against SharePoint to find it offered significantly more value for money. It was also much less complex making our decision a no-brainer.”

Following Kathmandu’s sale three years ago, internal communications was identified as a key issue for the business. The company was primarily using phone and fax to communicate with its remote staff, which was proving difficult and at times ineffective. It wanted to be able to deliver simple, consistent management communications to its retailers.

“The intranet lets us channel information to our stores through the one gateway and governs the style and timing of our communications,” Moore said.

“It provides a huge opportunity for us to engage with the sales force. Ultimately, we wanted to make sure that everyone is on the same page and aware of promotions, events and related activities.iD gives us one version of the truth.”

The new intranet is also operating as a business intelligence tool by enabling it to gather more feedback and data from its 80 stores. “iD has tools inbuilt that allow us to take timely feedback from our sales force and provide a holistic view of business activity.”

Phase 1 of the iD rollout has gone live with a second phase to follow in a few months time, which will see further functionality introduced into the Kathmandu intranet.

Staff feedback to date has been very positive, with an initial survey revealing 60 per cent of employees rate the new intranet as fantastic.

Connie Pandos, co-founder and director of Intranet DASHBOARD, said customers were increasingly selecting iD over SharePoint because they find SharePoint to be too expensive and complex.

“iD is quickly developing a reputation as the affordable SharePoint alternative among our customers. Our latest version of the software –iD 3.0 – provides a fully featured, cost effective alternative when your company can’t entertain a couple of hundred thousand dollars for an intranet,extranet or portal solution, which is welcomed news when budgets are under pressure.”