Linney is one of the most respected and innovative creative marketing agencies in the UK, with a heritage dating back to 1851. Providing multi-channel marketing services to some of the world’s most valuable brands, Linney frequently participates in large and complex Request for Proposal (RFP) and bidding processes. To support these initiatives, Linney sought a partner to make the way they manage bid and marketing content more robust, consistent, and efficient.
Case Study
Linney
The end result has given Linney an easy-to-use bid management system that helps improve the efficiency and consistency of their bid responses, whilst making best use of Microsoft 365 functionality.
Challenges
- Bid and marketing content stored in traditional file shares and spreadsheets
- Difficult to find relevant content to support new requirements
- Lack of review processes and content ownership
- Limited sharing of content and resources across bid teams
Goals
- Create a modern, cloud-based “library” for bid and marketing content
- Tag and manage content snippets to make finding and reusing content easier
- Build lifecycle management and review processes to ensure content stays up-to-date
- Ensure the solution is easy for staff to use and easy for Linney technical teams to support
Solutions
- Leverage Linney’s existing investment in Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online
- Create a modern and easy-to-use structure using hub sites, communication sites, libraries, lists, and pages
- Implement tagging, review processes, and lifecycle management using metadata and automation
Head of Marketing & BidsChorus were an invaluable partner on this project – their technical knowledge and personable approach were greatly appreciated throughout.
Using Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online
As existing users of Microsoft 365, SharePoint Online was a natural choice for Linney’s content management requirements. However, as busy professionals responsible for multiple complex bid processes, the bid and marketing teams at Linney needed a technical services partner that could quickly understand their requirements and help them make the most effective use of SharePoint’s modern content management capabilities.
To gain a comprehensive understanding of Linney’s content management requirements, Chorus and Linney ran a series of workshops at Linney’s campus in Mansfield, UK. During the workshops, we first identified a set of job roles, or personas, with a stake in bid or marketing processes. For each of these personas, we then captured a set of user stories – essentially a people-centred distillation of a requirement.
For example:
As a Bid Manager, I need to browse content by predefined categories (such as Culture and Values or Cost Management) to help me respond to specific tender questions.
And:
As a Marketing Manager, I need to make it easy for end users to find the templates, brand assets, and guidelines they require, to reduce instances of users using out-of-date templates or resources.
These user stories provided the technical consultants at Chorus with a multifaceted view of Linney’s needs. The team were able to map these user stories to technical approaches and demonstrate how Linney could use SharePoint Online to meet specific requirements.
For the bid and marketing teams at Linney, it was essential that any solution was intuitive, low maintenance, and easy to live with. The technical team at Chorus designed a solution that leveraged modern, easy-to-use SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365 functionality, in a modular and flexible structure.
We’re big advocates for keeping things simple. We understand that clients need to support and maintain these platforms after we’ve delivered the project. Where we need to provide custom functionality, it’s crucial that we’re following industry standards and best practices so that anyone can pick it up, understand how it works, and continue to move it forward., Collaboration and Information Management Lead at Chorus
Proof of Concept
Following the discovery and design exercise, Chorus built a small-scale proof-of-concept to illustrate how SharePoint Online could meet some of the critical requirements at Linney.
Discovery exercises and demonstrations are essential components of the design process, but we need to make sure we’re bringing the users with us on the journey. Including a proof-of-concept early in the project, where we can show how technical solutions can meet specific requirements, can really engage the relevant people, and build momentum behind a project., Head of New Business at Chorus
The solution
Tagging and Document Management
To meet Linney’s requirements for content discovery, Chorus set up document libraries with multifaceted metadata fields (columns, tags). Unlike a fixed folder structure, this enables users to progressively combine filters in any number of ways – by industry sectors, by service areas, by categories, by keywords, and so on. The modern SharePoint experience makes this process intuitive and visual.
In a traditional file share, it’s not easy to track when content was last reviewed and when it needs to be revisited. It’s even harder to track who’s responsible for different documents, and to remind them when they need to review or update a document. By moving this content to SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365, Chorus and Linney were able to implement more robust processes for tracking ownership, tracking review cycles, and sending reminders.
Additional columns track when each document was last reviewed, when it needs to be reviewed again and who owns each document. “Rag status” colour-coding helps the Linney team to quickly see at a glance which files are up-to-date, which are approaching their review deadline, and which are out-of-date. Behind the scenes, the Chorus team leveraged the Microsoft Power Platform to send email reminders to document owners when their review dates are approaching.
Managing templates and brand assets
Alongside bid management, managing Office templates was a key priority, which is a common source of frustration in many organisations. To make it easier for Linney users to stay up to date and use the latest versions of templates, Chorus set up organisation asset libraries in SharePoint. Any templates that the marketing team adds to these libraries are automatically made available to users in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Rather than workers having to locate and retrieve templates from a server – a process that often leads to shortcuts, such as users saving templates locally – templates are pushed directly to where people need them, providing an immediate improvement in brand consistency and efficiency.
Branding and performance optimisation
Finally, as leaders in a creative industry, branding is important to Linney. While modern SharePoint sites provide only limited support for UI customisation, Chorus were able to create custom themes to ensure the bid and marketing library reflects the Linney brand. We also provided guidance on optimising the performance of the SharePoint sites for both campus-based and remote users, for example by configuring the Office 365 Content Delivery Network (CDN), ensuring landing pages are optimised for fast loading, and ensuring network infrastructure meets Microsoft guidelines for Microsoft 365 connectivity.
Conclusion
The end result has given Linney an easy-to-use bid management system that helps improve the efficiency and consistency of their bid responses, whilst making best use of Microsoft 365 functionality.
“Chorus were an invaluable partner on this project – their technical knowledge and personable approach were greatly appreciated throughout. All at Linney are delighted with the final product, which is already helping us to operate in a more agile way.”, Head of Marketing & Bids
Head of Marketing & BidsAll at Linney are delighted with the final product, which is already helping us to operate in a more agile way.