Greiner AG started out as a family-owned business and grew into a family-owned global organization. The multi-industry company has four operating divisions:
- Greiner Packaging
- Greiner Bio-One
- Greiner Foam
- Greiner Extrusion
With roughly 11.000 employees across 140 locations in 34 countries, Greiner AG is one of the world’s leading suppliers of plastics and foam solutions.
Searching for intranet analytics to improve communication between divisions
Greiner AG faced challenges in ensuring smooth communication across office locations worldwide. Each division under the Greiner AG umbrella used its own system to distribute information and communicate with employees. Some units still used analog technologies. The barriers were interfering with effective collaboration. To fix communication problems, the company decided to implement an intranet for the whole organization. With the virtual space, they would be able to reach all the employees as if they were located in one office, despite the physical distances separating them.
To get the most out of that investment, they knew that advanced analytics would be necessary. It would be important to track how employees consume internal documents and articles, what they search for and what sections of the intranet they visit. Without a unified intranet and analytics tracking system, it would be difficult to measure employees’ engagement and optimize the structure of intranet content.
The company was searching for intranet analytics that would go hand in hand with their internal privacy policy and meet GDPR requirements. All sensitive data had to be anonymized and stored inside the European Union.
When choosing an intranet analytics we had two options: Piwik PRO and Google Analytics. As we discovered that Google doesn’t comply with privacy laws, and we didn’t want to store sensitive data outside of Europe, we decided not to follow that path. We’ve chosen Piwik PRO because of the data ownership, ease of use and smooth integration with our internal systems.
Ease of use and a solid ROI
Greiner AG decided to go for Piwik PRO Analytics Suite – the platform was easy to navigate and had all the necessary features while also offering a clear path to a solid return on investment. They chose two modules: Piwik PRO Analytics with reports dedicated for SharePoint, and Tag Manager. The implementation of intranet analytics was a huge step for the organization because of its size and the cultural differences across countries.
Two teams actively used the analytics platform. The IT department optimized the platform’s technical side. The marketing and communication teams tracked user engagement and popular content, and passed on the results to management.
With data from Piwik PRO SharePoint analytics it’s easier to justify our internal projects and get an in depth view of what our employees search for. Since 2016 it has improved the quality of our internal processes and made global collaboration efficient.
Improvements on a global scale with Piwik PRO SharePoint analytics
With data from Piwik PRO Analytics Suite, Greiner AG improved the content structure of their SharePoint site. They had a complete picture of the user journey with information about where intranet users start, where they go after that, if they use the search feature and what they search for. The company used this information to improve site navigation, so the intranet was more user-friendly and content was easier to find, saving time for their employees.
Greiner AG added data from external systems into SharePoint user profiles. Using custom tags in Piwik PRO Tag Manager, they pulled all the information into the Analytics module, to link it with the user session data. Everything was anonymized, so they could check which branch and department a user belonged to while staying privacy-compliant. Having a complete data set about their users in one place was really helpful during the optimization process.
The COVID-19 outbreak was challenging for all of Greiner AG’s divisions. The company had to introduce new ways of working. Thanks to the intranet, they could communicate important information to employees on a global scale. With reports from Piwik PRO Analytics, the management could see that employees read the crisis board’s announcements. After the sudden switch to home office, they wanted to make sure that all the necessary information was easy to find for their employees. Piwik PRO helped them place COVID-19 related information and news in a way that ensured employees would stay in the loop. Without Piwik PRO SharePoint analytics, Greiner AG wouldn’t be able to analyze information flow in a way to ensure the success of internal communication processes. Maintaining good communication helps Greiner AG develop their business and increase employee satisfaction.
