Case Study - Creating a modern digital workspace for care teams: Sevagram’s Ichicraft Boards success story

Sevagram is a prominent provider of residential, welfare, and elderly care services in the regions of Heerlen, Maastricht, and Heuvelland in the Netherlands. It’s proudly distinguished as the only care organization in Limburg to hold the prestigious Golden Planetree Person-Centered Care certification.

Sevagram is dedicated to continuously improving the care and wellbeing of both its patients and team of professionals. With that in mind, Project Manager from the ICT & Information Management department, Dietrich de Lannoy was looking for a more accessible, user-friendly digital workspace to make the team’s lives easier.

Step forward Ichicraft Boards to tick all those boxes, and more.

Sevagram's challenges and needs

Previously, Sevagram relied on an outdated Citrix environment coupled with Microsoft Office 2010 for collaboration and daily operations. This setup was robust in its time, but technological advancements rendered it inefficient; making it harder to use and hampering productivity.

It was important for their care professionals to access essential information and applications within the newly adopted Microsoft 365 quickly and easily. Sevagram’s main aim was to create a digital workplace that was well-organized, intuitive to use and readily accessible for all employees. It needed to aid collaboration and productivity, rather than hamper it. Importantly, it needed to make the team’s professional lives simpler and easier so that their primary focus could be on excellent caregiving.

“We needed a user-friendly digital workspace that provided clear information and frictionless access to applications for our care professionals in Microsoft 365. Ichicraft Boards stood out with its simplicity and effective capabilities, making it the ideal choice to modernize our environment and improve collaboration across the organization.”

— Dietrich de Lannoy, Project Manager for Information Management & ICT at Sevagram

The solution: Ichicraft Boards

To address these challenges, Sevagram turned to its experienced implementation partner Advantive. During their search for a suitable digital workspace, Advantive recommended Ichicraft Boards as a potential solution.

Ichicraft has proven expertise in Microsoft 365 platform solutions, with a firm focus on enhancing collaboration and productivity with SharePoint and Teams extensions. The flagship product, Ichicraft Boards, empowers users to create their own personal digital workplace that optimizes workflows and ensures easy access to essential resources.

Implementing Ichicraft Boards

Recognizing the importance of meticulous planning in a large care institution, Sevagram, with the guidance of Advantive, proceeded through a structured implementation process:

  • Planning and design: Developed a comprehensive plan from design to deployment, spanning technical aspects.
  • Migration strategy: Crafted a robust strategy to transition from the old ICT environment to a new Microsoft 365 cloud-based infrastructure.
  • Realization and technical preparation: Set up the technical aspects of Ichicraft Boards and prepared for deployment.
  • Training and change management: Educated staff and managed the organizational change to ensure smooth adoption.
  • Go-live deployment: Launched Ichicraft Boards across the organization in a ‘big bang’ approach.

The entire implementation spanned one year, primarily due to the need to migrate from the old system to the new Microsoft 365 cloud environment. Despite the scale of the change, the deployment process was smooth and minimally disruptive.

“Ichicraft Boards has significantly improved how our employees access essential applications and SharePoint sites. From management to frontline care staff, the platform’s intuitive design has created a more efficient and satisfying digital work experience in Microsoft 365.”

— Dietrich de Lannoy, Project Manager for Information Management & ICT at Sevagram

How is the platform used?

Across the organization, Ichicraft Boards is primarily used to provide employees with quick and centralized access to essential applications, favorite SharePoint sites, and organizational messages.

The digital workspace serves as the main starting point for staff at all levels, from management to frontline care professionals. Instead of spending time hunting around for information, the most useful resources are presented to a user from the get-go.

At the time of implementation, the primary focus was on establishing a user-friendly environment within Microsoft 365 that improved access to information and resources.

Key features include:

  • Quick access to essential applications: Customized per persona, employees have immediate access to the tools they need for their specific roles.
  • Easy navigation to favorite SharePoint sites: This saves time spent searching and encourages collaboration and information sharing across teams.
  • Centralized organizational messages: Keeps everyone informed about important updates and announcements.
  • Persona-based board templates: Eight different board templates were created to cater to the unique needs of various employee groups within Sevagram.

What difference has Ichicraft Boards made?

Since adopting Ichicraft Boards, Sevagram has experienced several positive outcomes:

  • Enhanced accessibility: Employees access applications within Microsoft 365 and SharePoint sites more efficiently, reducing time spent searching for resources.
  • Improved productivity: The modern digital workplace simplifies and speeds up operations, freeing up staff to spend more time on patient care and less on navigating complex systems.
  • Positive employee feedback: Staff members have been impressed by the new digital workspace customized to their specific needs.
  • Integration with Microsoft 365: Ichicraft Boards integrates well with SharePoint, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 services, providing a unified solution for easy information access.
  • Security and compliance: Ichicraft Boards aligns with leading security standards, including ISO 27001 certification, ensuring all data interactions are secure and compliant.
  • Low administrative overhead: By using shared board templates and persona-based configurations, Sevagram’s IT team have minimized ongoing administrative work, making resource management more efficient.

“During preparations and after the go-live, employees let us know how happy they are with the new digital workplace featuring Ichicraft Boards as the start screen.”

— Dietrich de Lannoy, Project Manager for Information Management & ICT at Sevagram

Conclusion

By adopting a solution that integrates smoothly with Microsoft 365, adheres to ISO 27001 security standards, and minimizes administrative overhead, Sevagram has improved operational efficiency and employee satisfaction. The organization is now better equipped to continue its mission of providing exceptional care and wellbeing services to its clients, patients, and employees.

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