Intranet on Liferay basis

Based in Graz, Merkur Versicherung AG was founded in 1798 and ranks among Austria's oldest insurance groups. More than 900 employees make it one of the largest Austrian health insurance companies. Moreover, it offers services in the fields of life, accident and property insurance.
In Austria, the company runs 8 state offices and 45 branches. On the international market, Merkur is active through subsidiaries in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Serbia and Montenegro.
As the company grew and became more international, the requirements towards cooperation and information provision have changed. The market getting more dynamic and digitised also requires the company to make decisions and provide information faster and more efficiently.
Generational changes in the employee structure also transform what workers expect from a contemporary workplace.
Adding to this are IT developments that provide easier-to-use systems that can be optimised to accommodate individual customer requirements quickly. High availability and optimal usability support the acceptance of new solutions among all user groups. Due to these developments and considerations, Merkur Versicherung AG planned to implement a modern Intranet that would offer employees across the corporation simple, logical and fast access to important internal guidelines and regulations. Another focal point of the Intranet solution was the improvement of internal communication.

What does modern information provision & communication look like? Simple, logical and fast!
We all want to remain informed. All the time and wherever we are. In our private lives and at work. This is why demands towards the simplicity, clarity and logical structure as well as its speed are central criteria when it comes to Intranet solutions. Meeting these demands significantly influences the success and acceptance of the developed IT solutions among employees.

Where can I find up-to-date, valid information? On the Intranet.
On Merkur's Intranet, employees are able to find all relevant information they need – i.e. information on the company, on events and location-specific information.
Country and user specific criteria are taken into account by the system automatically to give all employees access to documents that are important to them as well as valid.
Applications and IT systems used by the workers every day are summarised in a link list on the portal and can thus be accessed from a central location.
Multiple language support is another important factor when it comes to portals for such international companies as Merkur. That's why the menus and content are available to the workers in German and English, making the portal a central information hub, particularly for international business units.
Apart from company information, personal information is also a big part of daily work on the portal. Telephone numbers, room numbers and their colleagues’ departmental affiliation are information that facilitate and accelerate daily tasks.
The Works Council, HR Department and Merkur Sport are also present on the Intranet, supplying the workers with news on internal job postings as well as sporting and other events.

Varied requirements
Accompanied by DCCS's consultants, several workshops were held during which the Merkur project team developed the Intranet concept together with DCCS's portal experts. Among others, they defined that multiple languages, a role and authorisation concept and the integration of applications are essential features.

A powerful, future-proof solution
The Merkur portal is based on Liferay, one of the leading open source portal technologies according to Gartner.
Liferay makes it possible to develop tailored portal solutions with very little individual development effort. This allowed Merkur to optimise its Intranet in a cost-efficient way and align it with its corporate design.
Another benefit of Liferay is the fact that it allows for functions requested by the customer to be added to its standard functions with little effort. These functions include a dynamic regulation display that shows the respective regulations relevant to the employee's location in the menu.

Benefits of the Merkur Intranet solution for corporate communication
A modern Intranet offers a company and its employees massive benefits.
Merkur's Intranet is a uniform and safe internal communication platform. It allows the company to distribute information at all times.
Authorised employees can access this information from any location at any time.
Thus, the Merkur Intranet also significantly improves cross-location communication.