Replacing an Intranet with Talkspirit: The Mutualité de la Réunion Story

Streamlining internal communication and information sharing can be a real challenge in a multi-site company. To meet that need, MUTA decided in 2016 to drop its intranet and move to a modern enterprise social network : Talkspirit.

Mutualité de la Réunion, also known as MUTA, is a union of mutual insurance companies affiliated with Mutualité Française. Founded 40 years ago, the organisation specialises in health insurance and death benefit solutions. Alongside this core business, MUTA also runs several optician and hearing-aid stores, gyms, a Diabetes Museum and a Solidarity University for senior citizens.

Key figures:

• 20 sites across Réunion Island
• 440 users on Talkspirit, including 360 MUTA employees and more than 80 ambassadors
• 82 % active users per month

In this interview, Alexandre Elma, IT Director at MUTA, looks back on the initial need and the rollout of Talkspirit, on how employees use it and on the main benefits they get from it today.

A Need for More Communication and Interaction

“Before Talkspirit, we were using the intranet Microsoft Sharepoint, which had several limitations: it was more about the file tree and less about communication, and Sharepoint had no social features such as a news feed, posts or polls. And then the interface was not very pleasant… The result: people just did not go there”, says Alexandre Elma.

Another issue: mobile. Sharepoint could only be accessed from a PC and made it impossible to communicate on the move, yet that was something MUTA needed.

“We needed a solution to communicate better internally and liven up the conversations between employees. The goal was also to encourage more informal communication, which simply did not exist on the intranet.

That is why we focused our search on an enterprise social network.”

Read also: Choosing the Right Enterprise Social Network (ESN) Solution

Talkspirit for Its Easy Deployment and Usability

“Given that we had little time to spend on the rollout, we looked for a turnkey enterprise social network that could be set up quickly.”

That was not the only criterion, of course. MUTA also needed an easy-to-use platform with a mobile version.

“Talkspirit met all of those needs perfectly.”

So MUTA adopted the platform without hesitation at the end of 2016, replacing its old intranet.

Lightning-Fast Adoption

“Whenever we adopt a new tool, we always test it internally with a small group of people from the management team. At the start, we began on Talkspirit with 10 users.

We built several groups, and then we quickly realised that the platform suited everyone. After a week or two, we rolled Talkspirit out across the whole organisation straight away.

We did announce it internally, but no training was needed.

Since the tool is very simple to use, users took to it immediately and adopted it quickly without any difficulty”, explains the IT Director.

Read also: Rolling Out an Enterprise Social Network: Nailing the Key Step That Will Determine Adoption

A Platform That Brings Company Culture to Life

“We mainly use Talkspirit to keep employees informed about company news, particularly the events and major projects happening across the different departments. When a project is completed, the opening of a new branch for instance, we share the news on Talkspirit.

Read also: Internal Communication: The Multi-site Challenge – Celebrating Successes Internally

The Communication department is also very active on the platform: they run polls, for example to let employees vote on the logo of a new brand. And then there are regular prize competitions, with prizes to be won. Right now, for instance, we are running a prediction game on the Euro 2021 football tournament.”

A Tool for Information Sharing

“Several types of groups have been created on Talkspirit, in particular:

• a general group that brings together every employee,
• groups by department,
• project groups,
• and groups by area of interest.

These groups are heavily used to share information and talk across the different departments”, through chat or posts. “For example, we share the minutes of meetings on cross-functional projects there, as well as the figures specific to each department.

On my side, for instance, I use Talkspirit to share and track the IT department’s KPIs with my team”, explains Alexandre Elma.

Read also: Streamlining the Flow of Information with Talkspirit: the Gîtes de France Story

“During the Covid crisis, Human Resources also used the platform to circulate information about the pandemic, in particular about the new ways of working to adopt during that period.”

Ease of Use: A Major Advantage of Talkspirit

“The big advantage of Talkspirit is that getting to grips with it is genuinely simple and fast. Since it is very intuitive, employees do not need any training, which makes our life easier.

Sometimes, if I see that some people are not using certain features properly, I quickly show them a few good practices. But on the whole, the vast majority have no trouble using the tool.

I have had nothing but positive feedback from users.”

Smoother Communication

“When we used email internally, communication was often one-way.” For a simple reason: email is not ideal for interacting, because it can easily be lost or forgotten by the recipient. “And then, paradoxically: as soon as there are too many of them, you stop seeing them”, adds Alexandre Elma.

Read also: How Agence Bergamote Cut Its Emails by 95% and Boosted Productivity with Talkspirit

“Since we started using Talkspirit, conversations and information sharing have become much smoother.” Thanks to the more “informal” format of the enterprise social network, employees interact far more with each other, and with management.

“Before, they did not dare speak up and share their opinion, because it meant sending an email. But now that they can do it more informally in chat or in posts, they no longer have any trouble communicating.”

Talkspirit’s Take on MUTA

Five years after its rollout, Talkspirit still perfectly answers MUTA’s internal communication challenges. A view widely shared by the IT Director.

“We are nowhere near giving up the platform. Because in five years, Talkspirit has never let us down”, he says.

Read also: Internal Communication: How Talkspirit Transformed Life at Squad Consulting

A true hub for conversation, Talkspirit brings together everything employees need to communicate, stay connected with their colleagues and keep up with important news. It is a dedicated space for showcasing the projects teams have delivered, and for bringing together people from the various offices.

Another benefit, and not the least of them: the enterprise social network has given a voice to employees who previously spoke up very little. Now they do not hesitate to share their ideas and good practices.

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Photo credit: ©L’Alsace / Thierry Gachon

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Author: Emmanuelle Abensur