Berner Baumeisterverband: Towards the Digital Workplace with M365

In collaboration with novaCapta, Berner Baumeisterverband has established its modern digital workplace using Microsoft 365. Thanks to Teams, an intranet, and a secure and structured data center in the cloud, a flexible and transparent way of working is now possible.

Documents were stored on two file servers and edited through the Citrix Cloud

Communication and collaboration were previously conducted through email, telephone, and physical meetings

Regular collaboration with external parties requires clear access permissions, both in terms of device management and document management

A comprehensive technological transition requires sustainable support for employees

Implementation of M365 and migration to Azure

Establishment of Microsoft Teams as the central tool for collaboration, including novaWorxx with pre-built templates

Creation of an overarching document search center using PnP Modern Search & SharePoint

Integration of the SharePoint intranet into Teams through Viva Connections

Implementation of Microsoft Intune, including Conditional Access and MFA

Central hub for communication & collaboration

Consistency & clear structures through Teams templates

Flexible work approach with faster and transparent information exchange

Optimizing Committee Communication: This was the goal of Berner Baumeisterverband. Quickly, a solution was found with Microsoft 365 and a suitable partner, novaCapta, for implementation. However, in intensive discussions and during a Cloud Readiness Workshop, it became apparent that the project needed to be expanded to the entire association. Like many companies, Berner Baumeisterverband had introduced Microsoft Teams during the pandemic, but not all possibilities were fully utilized with the chat function and video meetings. Instead, communication within the headquarters and with training facilities continued in a traditional manner through email, phone calls, and physical meetings. Documents were stored on two file servers and accessed via the Citrix Cloud acting as a VPN. Therefore, the entire communication and collaboration architecture was designed to be secure and stable with M365, yet still flexible.

250 GB - this amount of documents was intended to be migrated from the two file servers to the Microsoft Cloud. Therefore, novaCapta initially assisted with an extensive migration analysis and concept; the migration itself was carried out by Berner Baumeisterverband independently. 

Teams is now the central workplace platform for the association. To establish clear structure, pre-built templates for committees, departments, and projects, including lifecycle management and governance were introduced with the provisioning tool novaWorxx. Each team consists of a publicly accessible channel called „General“ and an „Internal“ channel, for which only specific individuals have access rights - this is particularly important for committees and projects where collaboration with external partners is common. Clear access permissions were not only desired within Teams but also for the devices used. Previously unmanaged, these devices were connected to Microsoft Intune, and Conditional Access as well as Multi-Factor Authentication via app and SMS were introduced.

ments available, novaCapta implemented a central search center based on PnP Modern Search and SharePoint. The search center is also pinned as a tab in all Teams channels, with the appropriate filter settings already applied. However, it can also be used to search for documents globally across all of Teams. The relevant metadata for locating the documents is automatically assigned by Teams, and in a workshop, an information architecture and metadata and search concept were developed - tailored to the specific needs of the association.

To protect these documents, strong governance and compliance measures were established, including the use of tools like Microsoft Purview (encryption in Internal/Public), Activity Explorer, and Azure Information Protection.

A comprehensive collaboration tool is always complemented by an intranet that keeps employees up to date. The Berner Baumeister intranet was implemented in SharePoint and includes news, events, documents, and important company information. „Thanks to our intranet, we can quickly disseminate information from meetings and no longer need to create lengthy protocols. In return, our employees always know where information is published,“ explains Rebeca Nacht, Head of Communications at Berner Baumeisterverband. The key feature: Viva Connections integrates the intranet into the Teams sidebar, allowing employees to access it conveniently via Teams at any time – even on mobile devices. Smaller workflows for publishing news in the intranet or general approval processes in Teams have been automated using Power Automate.

Such a profound change in the way of working should never be purely technical, as Rebeca Nacht has also recognized: „The biggest challenge was to get our employees on board with a tool that is actually intuitively usable but to which they had to get accustomed.“ Therefore, novaCapta supported the implementation of M365/Teams as the central workplace platform with corresponding change measures - from developing a Key User concept to training (Key Users and End Users) and providing communicative support for each step.
 

The change process will continue: In the next project, Berner Baumeisterverband will transition to Teams telephony. The digital transformation to M365 laid the necessary foundation for this.

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