Second intranet award for Bank of Ireland


29 May 2006

The Bank of Ireland has scooped a second major international award within months for its ‘Insite’ intranet, which serves 17,000 workers across the group. The top award for online media was granted by the UK professional body representing corporate communications specialists, Communicators in Business.

In January, the bank was named as one of the world’s top 10 intranet sites, according to a scheme by leading web expert Jakob Nielsen. It was the first Irish site to be awarded this accolade.

In the latest award Insite was selected from hundreds of entries to the CiB award scheme and won not only the class category for best intranet but also the gold award for best use of web media. The judges assessed how entries delivered a measurable business impact, as well as their style, substance and impact.

In their citation, the Communicators in Business judges described Insite as “a standard against which other sites should be measured.” They added: “Insite is a really exciting and engaging business tool which positively encourages user interaction. It balances ‘the stick and the carrot’ – users are initially enticed by LFC (light fluffy content) which includes a series of topic based news feeds, polls and surveys. They stay because Insite enables them to complete everyday business tasks very easily from booking a room to completing an expense claim.”

The intranet is an extensive website that publishes all BoI groupwide and intradepartmental communications. It features a breaking news service, job vacancies, a classified advertising service and also publishes extensive policies, procedures, forms, research and other internal documentation. It also offers access to procurement and purchasing services, room-booking facilities, an electronic employee directory and a facilities management system.

The site can be accessed by more than 17,000 BoI Group employees in Ireland and the UK. More than 200 individuals throughout the group publish content to the site using a content management system.

By John Kennedy