Kansas City Southern Intranet

Kansas City Southern Railway has been providing reliable rail shipping services since 1887. Their employee intranet, Inside Track, hasn't been around quite as long, but it was starting to feel that way. KCS was in need of a new intranet experience.

The End of the Line

Like many companies with intranets built on SharePoint 2010, KCS was facing an "end of life" situation. SharePoint 2010 was going out of support and needed to be upgraded. They also struggled with other common intranet issues: lackluster visuals, low usage, and content in need of cleanup and reorganization. The company's culture is rich and vibrant. Their intranet was not.

Community, Culture, and Communication

As they prepared for the SharePoint upgrade, KCS decided it was time to take on a full intranet redesign as well. We spoke with them at length about their goals. The company, which operates in both the United State and Mexico, had a lot of good stories to tell about their diverse culture and community spirit. Unfortunately, their internal news presentation wasn't helping much. The intranet home page had a small space for news headlines and no opportunity to post accompanying pictures.

The intranet supported content in both English and Spanish, but the freshness, quality and organization of content in both languages varied widely from section to section. We established a network of subject matter experts in both countries to help us clean up and organize information into task-based navigation. We proposed a fresh look and feel to modernize the experience.

Last and certainly not least, the company wanted to make the intranet mobile-enabled, for the vast portion of its employees who don't sit in front of a computer all day.

Full Speed Ahead

The KCS intranet launched with new features that support the company's desire for a richer digital experience. Subject matter experts continue to monitor and maintain content to keep it fresh and up to date. And, for the first time, field employees can access the intranet both via mobile and via a secure, non-VPN connection, using SharePoint online. For a railroad workforce, that's a critical part of keeping everyone on track.