Groupon rapidly expanded globally but lacked unified communication tools, leading to siloed teams. They implemented Skynet, a social intranet built by 7Summits on the Jive platform. 7Summits customized Skynet based on Groupon's culture and needs. Skynet improved collaboration, engagement and information sharing across countries and teams. Employees now feel more connected and productive using Skynet for their daily work.

1. Groupon Engages Employees
with Social Intranet Built
by 7Summits AT A GLANCE
Challenges
Groupon’s rapid early growth outpaced
development of their business
processes; siloed emails, spreadsheets
and team-specific processes hindered
communication and information sharing
Departments used different
collaboration tools, which created
an inability to work effectively on
cross- team projects
With a broad global workforce,employees
in different countries felt disconnected
from each other and from the company’s
overarching business goals
Results
Groupon’s formal business processes
became more efficient and effective as
everything was systematized within a
single tool
Skynet became Groupon’s system of use,
consolidating various department tools
into a single interface and fostering a
more collaborative environment
Company culture and morale have
improved as employees have embraced
Skynet, using the tool to engage with
each other on a daily basis
Client Success:
“The power of Skynet has gone far beyond
what we initially imagined it could be. Skynet
started out as a collaboration tool and has
grown into a true engagement tool, allowing
employees to communicate just as seamlessly
as they did in our early days in Chicago.”
ANDREW MISHALOVE
GLOBAL SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGIST
AT GROUPON
Situation
Groupon is a local e-commerce marketplace and the leading daily deal site worldwide,
connecting millions of subscribers around the world with merchants by offering goods
and services at a discount.Originally launched in Chicago,Illinois,the company expanded
rapidly,establishing a global presence in its first few years and becoming one of the
fastest growing companies in Web history,according to Forbes,when it reached $1 billion
in revenue in less than three years.
This rapid expansion naturally caused growing pains for the company,and business
leaders recognized the need to update their business processes to keep pace with their
expanding workforce.Although Groupon had offices all over the world,the company
continued to rely on vestiges of their younger days: using email as the main mode of
communication and static spreadsheets for housing business data.Teams from various
departments and countries had their own directories and used their own tools for
collaboration,which hindered inter-team communications.The need for a streamlined
communication hub and official processes for sharing documents and corporate news
had arisen seemingly overnight,and the company struggled with using tools and
processes that mirrored those of a small startup.
To achieve the streamlined business processes and engagement improvements they
desired,Groupon sought a social business tool that could consolidate all of their
segregated tools into a central communications hub.The platform needed to act as a
document repository,staff directory,HR benefits distribution tool and a channel for cross-
company collaboration and communication.Groupon’s goal was to get all employees on
the same page,working toward the same goals and receiving the same information.
When a first-generation solution failed to scale to Groupon’s immense growth,the
company reached out to Jive’s hosted platform to develop a more effective application.
“Groupon wanted to connect with a company that would be able to modify and customize
our Jive experience,”said Andrew Mishalove,Global Social Business Strategist at Groupon.
“We needed to customize not only the functionality,but the look and feel of the tool–we
wanted it to look like another Groupon tool.”
Jive recommended 7Summits as the ideal partner for the project,thanks to their expertise
in developing strategies to help organizations implement company transformation and
growth initiatives.After receiving additional positive recommendations from other Jive
customers,Groupon was confident that 7Summits would be the strategic partner they
needed for a successful Skynet activation.
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Global teams overcome growing pains with collaboration
and communication platform
7SUMMITS CASE STUDY: Groupon
INDUSTRY: Business-to-Consumer Commerce
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2. “7Summits offered a lot of great feedback and suggestions. Their team took the initiative
to make sure we were deriving the right value from the tool. Rather than merely taking
orders from us, they helped us to think about things differently and provided guidance,
not only on customization but on the strategy behind our social business tool.”
ANDREW MISHALOVE, GLOBAL SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGIST, GROUPON
Solution
7Summits engaged with Groupon right away to learn their
business objectives,target audiences and requirements and
develop a strategy to customize a social business solution within
Jive.The 7Summits team attended early strategy sessions to gather
insights into Groupon’s needs and offer innovative suggestions for
strategic deployment.
“7Summits offered a lot of great feedback and suggestions,”said
Mishalove.“Their team took the initiative to make sure we were
deriving the right value from the tool.Rather than merely taking
orders from us,they helped us to think about things differently and
provided guidance,not only on customization but on the strategy
behind our social business tool.”
The strategy driving the Jive customization and activation tapped
into Groupon’s skill sets and tailored the user experience to match
their brand.7Summits worked closely with Groupon to define and
implement the strategy behind Skynet’s deployment,remaining
actively engaged with the project and embracing feedback from
individuals at Groupon to confirm the tool closely aligned with
their company culture.
“Groupon is a cutting-edge company with a distinct culture, and
7Summits wanted to ensure that Skynet would embody this
culture and uphold their values,” said RJ Reimers, President of
7Summits.“Together, we shaped Jive to meet Groupon’s specific
business needs while creating an engaging environment for
their employees.”
7Summits kept the interface design simple and uncluttered,
embracing a newspaper-inspired style for the tool’s homepage,
which displays trending stories and information from across the
company to all users.The community also integrates Groupon’s
social activities into the interface,so employees can access a
dashboard displaying all of the company’s social messaging in one
place.Users can post a variety of content to the community,either
for collaboration or storage,including documents,status updates,
ideas,discussions,videos,polls,project overview pages and more.
7Summits also aided in the creation of business objectives and
use cases,which helped guide the beta launch in mid-2012
and the eventual platform rollout to 48 countries.7Summits’
continued support included refining Groupon’s user experience
by incorporating employee feedback and helping to increase user
adoption throughout the company.
An unexpected benefit of Skynet was the tool’s ability to facilitate
its own implementation.The social platform enabled members of
the Groupon implementation team to collaborate more easily with
individuals from 7Summits,streamlining the deployment process.
Once the tool was launched company-wide,users discovered new
ways to use the tool to enhance communication,which further
advanced the tool’s development.
“There were Groupon employees from various departments who
embraced the tool early on and ended up supplementing the
Skynet team’s knowledge and research,”said Mishalove.“Using the
tool,we can answer each other’s questions and find experts to help
with various aspects of the project.Leveraging the social graph is
making us stronger and more efficient as a company.”
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3. Results
Employees throughout Groupon have reported feeling more
engaged and connected with their coworkers around the globe
since Skynet’s activation.The morale boost has improved retention
and engagement across teams and fostered more meaningful
communication between executives and employees.The tool
encourages discussion and feedback so that communications from
executives can be two-sided conversations.During company-wide
meetings,for example,employees on the other side of the world
can send questions and receive answers in real time through the
social tool.
“The power of Skynet has gone far beyond what we initially
imagined it could be,” said Mishalove.“Skynet started out as a
collaboration tool and has grown into a true engagement tool,
allowing employees to communicate just as seamlessly as they
did in our early days in Chicago. The social interactions have
gone viral.”
Skynet has become a home base for Groupon employees and an
indispensable part of Groupon’s workflow.With more than 12,000
total users and nearly 100 percent adoption in most regions,many
employees rely on it to complete daily operations.Thousands
of users have posted content or liked,shared,rated,edited and
commented on others’content within the tool.Teams across the
company now share a single system of use and communicate best
practices more easily.Documents are easy to locate,onboarding
and training is streamlined and critical information is readily
available to employees around the world.With all corporate
messaging housed in the same tool,everyone has the information
they need to support key business goals and uphold Groupon’s
company culture.
The number of users who are actively participating in the system
more than tripled in the year since the launch of Skynet 2.0 in
April 2013,and Groupon looks forward to additional engagement
as they work with 7Summits to make updates and enhancements
to the tool.Plans for future releases include integrating additional
business processes into the system and adding a sales leaderboard
and metrics to motivate sales teams.Eventually,Groupon would
like to work with 7Summits to incorporate gamification and
potentially create an external community.
“7Summits has been a great strategic partner every step of
the way,” said Mishalove.“They have executed flawlessly
throughout this project, and we look forward to continuing
to enhance the capabilities of our social business tool with
7Summits as our partner.”
Copyright © 2014 7Summits
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Skynet: Welcome Page!