Rufus Leonard helps BT to communicate

04 April 2006

BT today unveils its newly updated “BT Today” intranet website that is set to become a world leader in employee communications, embracing many revolutionary Web 2.0 principles.  The new site will continue to be the organisation’s primary employee communications channel amongst its 100,000 global employees.  It has been designed by leading brand and digital design agency, Rufus Leonard. 

Already a flagship employee communications channel, the brief for BT Today was to develop new ideas for content and develop the site’s information architecture and design in order to encourage wider use and interaction with the site amongst BT’s diverse workforce, which is one of the largest in the UK.

A key function of the redeveloped site is the ability to connect with employees that it has traditionally been hard to engage with, such as remote field workers or call centre operatives. In order to make the intranet a social as well as business tool and to help make staff feel like it was their site to interact with, rather than a one way communication tool, social media such as Wiki based community discussions, blogs from BT thought leaders and RSS feeds are expected to be incorporated as the site develops. Rufus Leonard’s role in the project was to explore user requirements, develop the information architecture and produce a new look and feel for the site.   The site will be further developed so that communities on a regional or professional grouping basis can easily communicate amongst themselves as well.

The BT Today intranet site contains a lively mix of up to date news, features, regional news, opinion and employee benefits.  The new design and functionality will encourage more frequent return visitors and therefore make the intranet a more effective platform for key corporate announcements amongst the workforce.  Its use of Web 2.0 functionality additionally ensures that it is cutting edge and innovative, underpinning BT’s own brand values.

The end result is a revolutionary new intranet site that provides cutting edge tools for two-way communication between employees and management, contained within an outstanding design.  The wide range of information on the site, and methods by which this can be accessed and responded to, means that BT has an employee communications tool capable of reaching and engaging the entire workforce. 

Speaking on the completion of the project Tim Wong, Creative Director at Rufus Leonard, commented:

“Having had such a long standing relationship with BT where we’ve helped them to communicate with their external audiences, it has been a real pleasure to now work on the redesign of the BT Today.  We’re delighted with the results and look forward to seeing how BT staff react to it.”

Ken Runicles at BT adds:

“We are really pleased with the design work and IA work undertaken by Rufus Leonard.  This will enable BT Today  to become one of the most valuable internal communications tools for BT staff”.