Rani Plast

Rani Plast was founded in 1955 and specializes in the production of industrial and agricultural packaging films. The company operates two film manufacturing plants in Finland. Across the company and its subsidiaries in Finland and Europe, approximately 500 people are employed, just over one fifth of whom are white collar employees.

In summer 2021, Sulava began implementing a broad modern work project for Rani Plast. The goal was to modernize the working environment and redesign previous ways of working into an efficient whole that improves communication and simplifies document management.

Identification of needs and goals for the renewal

Rani Plast had already had Teams licenses in place for a few years, and Teams calls and chat were used internally within the group. Internal and partner meetings were also held via Teams. Internal and customer communication, however, was handled mainly by email, and the company did not previously have an intranet. Even internal communication related to, for example, customer complaints was carried out by email.

Based on the initial interviews conducted during workshops, it became clear that employees were receiving too many emails and attending too many meetings. The official document storage location—an internal folder structure known as the K drive—and Rani Plast’s own Rani Management System were also perceived as difficult to navigate. The project team jointly concluded that internal communication needed to be streamlined and modernized.

In the project kick off workshop, the schedule, project group and responsibilities were agreed on. After this, we facilitated three role based workshops for the project team, identifying communication and collaboration challenges related to different employee roles and their daily work.

The design of the digital working environment was divided into several workshops, during which the vision for document management was outlined and ground rules were set—for example, what information is created and shared in Teams, how Teams supports the intranet, and what role each tool plays in the overall environment. During the workshops, it was determined that instead of building a Teams structure based on the organizational chart, the most effective solution for Rani Plast would be a process driven channel structure, enabling all employees involved in each process to collaborate easily. Teams was rolled out to all white collar employees, marking a significant shift from the previous closed and siloed working environment.

The transfer of information to the intranet elevated information access — and communication — to an entirely new level

Rani Plast had not previously used an intranet, so the SharePoint based intranet was built from the ground up. The entire structure was designed to be an intuitive environment for communicating important matters and for making information easy to find.

“Your specialist led the intranet project extremely well and guided the work throughout. Together we considered what kinds of components the intranet should include and what it should look like. We went through daily routines and agreed on where different types of information are shared and which tool is used for each task,” says project manager Minna Knutar from Rani Plast’s IT department.

“General information flow has shifted from email to the intranet and Teams, and emails are now received only very rarely. Information is easy to find in the intranet,” ICT Manager Jari Ehrström comments.

We also produced a modern work playbook for Rani Plast. It contains information about the company’s new ways of working, the used tools, and the benefits these bring together. The playbook is available in Rani Plast’s intranet, allowing for example new employees to easily familiarize themselves with the work environment’s functionalities and guidelines. When everyone shares the same practices and rules, a significant amount of time is saved and work becomes more efficient.

Designing the digital work environment: a process driven Teams structure supporting the intranet

One of the key drivers of the intranet project was the need to find a new documentation solution to replace the previously used K drive. The aim was to migrate, among other things, Rani Plast’s quality documents to the new documentation platform. Some information was transferred into a shared document library structure created in the SharePoint intranet. A significant part of the solution was Teams, as it allowed all necessary information to be stored centrally and made document retrieval easy.

Rani Plast’s Teams environment is built around processes: for example, the supply chain has its own team with channels for each step of the process, and similarly, dedicated teams were created for marketing and sales. Most teams are public, while more sensitive information is handled in private teams. In some Teams channels, message threads play a larger role, whereas others focus more on supporting documentation work.

With the renewed solution, handling customer complaints has also become faster, and messages are easier to locate since the process was moved entirely into Teams.

“The complaints process is inherently somewhat complex, but moving communication to Teams has allowed us to step away from the sprawling mass of emails. A specific complaint can now be found easily either through Teams search or the intranet search,” Knutar explains.

Teams’ structure and its use as a communication platform were a completely new way of working for many employees. Our specialists trained the staff in how to use Teams and shared best practice tips. One particularly important practice at Rani Plast is “pinging” in Teams, which helps employees quickly access information relevant to them. People have learned this well, and also that they don’t need to react to topics that aren’t relevant to their own work.

Teams and the creation of new channels are managed by the IT department to keep the structure clear and to prevent an unnecessary proliferation of new groups. The need for new teams has been very low, thanks to the thoroughly planned structure from the start.
“Your specialists’ knowledge of Teams structures and of the appropriate number of Teams and channels helped us significantly,” Ehrström says.

Cloud agents supporting the rollout

To support the adoption and daily use of Rani Plast’s new digital work environment, a group of “cloud agents” was formed from within the organization. Applications for cloud agents were collected through the intranet, and ultimately a team of 12 volunteers signed up. They acted as support resources for the rest of the staff and helped colleagues in adopting and using the new tools and working methods. The cloud agents represented a wide range of functions, including sales, product development, environment & quality, administration, production, and maintenance.

We assisted in creating the training plan and organized training sessions for the entire staff across different topics. The cloud agents were trained first, focusing on their role in the organization as well as the contents of the modern work playbook. They also received comprehensive hands on training so they would be well equipped to support and guide other Rani Plast employees.

The cloud agents remain experts on the renewed digital environment and ways of working, and they can still be approached for help when challenges arise. Members of the group continue to be active in discussions and share their expertise in everyday work.

The project delivered with a firm and steady approach

The extensive modern work project was completed within the agreed schedule. With the introduction of the new intranet and Teams, both information flow and information access have improved significantly.

“I appreciate that your specialists challenged us on matters such as licensing, information structures, and security, and provided suggestions for improvement. We took the challenges on with a positive mindset,” Ehrström comments.

“Managing permissions and documents has significantly eased the workload of the IT department. When information sharing flows smoothly in Teams, IT no longer has to constantly worry about access rights. When everything is open, information sharing has turned completely upside down,” Ehrström adds.

Rani Plast’s next goal is to make information easily accessible also for factory workers, and the company is exploring different solutions to achieve this.

Writer: Merja Turpeinen
Published in April 2023