The intranet of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Te Kōpua, has been recognised alongside global corporates American Express, Nike and Vodafone at an international awards ceremony.

Te Kōpua recently received the 'Special Mention for User Engagement' award at the Intranet and Digital Workplace Awards.

To put the recognition into context, global credit card company American Express also received the same award at the ceremony.

The Intranet and Digital Workplace Awards are global awards that recognise outstanding contributions to intranets and digital workplaces.

The awards focus on solutions that deliver business value and look at the teams behind the intranets.

Kristi Bernards, Lead Applications & Systems Solutions, said Hangarau staff were thrilled to be recognised at the awards ceremony.

Digital Platform Architect, Eddie Walker said the recognition was 18 months in the making as Hangarau kaimahi spoke with different groups including kaiako, administrators, managers and Te Taiurungi to ask what they needed in their new digital workplace.

They also researched what changes would be necessary to move from the cumbersome Te Kete to a more streamlined intranet.

“We spent that time looking at what people were searching for. It was about understanding what people's experience was prior so we were able to generate those services,” said Eddie.

“Tanya Wierzbicka was going through Te Kete and looked at search results and she made these groupings so we could say 50% of people searched for this every day, or 20% looked for this every day.”

Kristi says the goal was for kaimahi to be able to go to one place where all the information they need is easily accessible.

“We can’t reduce the administration that people have to do but we can put it in one place in the kaiako space which is utilised really well. Te Kōpua has everything that our kaimahi need in one place.”

Eddie said Te Kōpua was implemented at less than a fraction of the cost that some of their awards ceremony competitors would have spent on their digital workplaces. It was also delivered in just under four months.

“We implemented it for $24,000. I suspect these guys we were up against would have had money to burn so it would have been hard to win overall because you would have to put a lot of money in to make these digital places work. I think we’ve done well for what we have delivered.”