Scandinavian Business Seating

Scandinavian Business Seating (SB Seating) was born from the merger of the three companies HÅG, RH og RBM.

With almost 450 employees there was a challenge when it came to sharing information and knowledge internally, and we needed a quick decision on how the company would handle this. 

With three strong brands and different cultures who would merge into one organization, there were challenges and tasks in queue: reorganization, new colleagues, interdisciplinary teams, demands for streamlining processes, and so on.

A merger is a complex process and this results in an enormous need for information and communication across the company increased significantly during this period.

It was often point to point via email, which results in closed channels, delays, forwards, and many versions of the same information scattered in many mailboxes.

The Executive Board soon needed new and better channels for sharing information;

“We wanted to build identity and a sense og belonging, with success stories both within and accross departments”, says project manager Linda Øksendal.

“A collaborative portal for all employees, with tailor-made workspaces for employees at all levels of the value chain.”

For the employees who were commissioned to take on "project intranet" it was a pleasure to see the positive attitude of the management right from the start.

When the new company took shape and the pieces fell into place, it bacame clear that the need went beyond information sharing.

They also wanted the employees to collaborate better and that IT systems should protect and reflect the new company as it stands today.

“"It's a lot about people in such a process, so the first thing we focused on was an employee guide. Here we had an interactive guide to all our new and old colleagues"

"Eventually the new intranet took shape, bit by bit. Large screens are placed on all workstations to show that this is a tool for the employees and by the employees, there are no secluded nooks in the company today that is not included."

In production environments in Nässjö and Røros, this has been a welcoming and useful tool, which has "opened up " the organization

“The solution from Symfoni differed from the others because it was simple to use, and yet contained advanced functionality under the hood in accordance with SB Seating specification. The solution was easy to learn, not to mention easy to teach.”

Project manager Linda Øksendahl believes the user friendliness and flexibility is the reason that stories for the News section of the intranet, has been queueing up right from the start:

“Good stories are the key for success, when it comes to building the culture we so depend upon via our intranet”.

All value chains in the organization have been assigned their work surfaces in the form of portals where they profile the department, projects, trends, success stories, etc.

The goal is to give all employees a feeling of belonging under the same umbrella, that you get a common identity.