In Flanders, MyFamily is one of the organizations that provides families with a child benefit package, known as the 'Groeipakket'. These packages include various types of allowances and rules. They are also subject to legal policy and therefore constantly evolving. To handle things correctly, MyFamily employees need to consult, process, share, and maintain a great deal of information.

In 2020, MyFamily, as part of Xerius, took an important step towards digital modernization. They migrated their on-premises data and document library to Microsoft 365. Information processing in Outlook, SharePoint Online, and Teams shifted into a higher gear.

For MyFamily's quality coordinator, Hilde Coddens, and SharePoint Business Owner, Tars Boons, it became clear that MyFamily needed an updated governance strategy to let information flow smoothly and encourage collaboration. “When we stored data on-premises, people had a classic document library as their single source of truth. We started by replicating that structure on SharePoint Online. But soon the same information was also circulating through Outlook and Teams, which led to information overload, confusion, and frustration.”

By 2022, Hilde and Tars realized that expert guidance for their information management could drastically improve things. That's why they turned to Xylos to develop a watertight information management strategy.

Eddy Feys, M365 Functional Expert at Xylos, was the right person at the right time to get things moving. In a kick-off workshop with MyFamily, the various governance approaches and possibilities with Microsoft 365 were covered, along with the do's and don'ts, the opportunities and the pitfalls.

After mapping out MyFamily's as-is architecture, his experience allowed him to quickly uncover that MyFamily was using only a small fraction of the potential Microsoft 365 had to offer them. Great news, because it meant they had the opportunity to get a lot more out of their IT investment.

MyFamily was intrigued by the possibilities. That's why Xylos set up a basic governance plan, along with a mechanism for continuous improvement during the process. The next step was identifying and understanding specific pain points and information needs. That's why Eddy reached out to employees at various regional offices in Hasselt, Kortrijk, and Antwerp.

In principle, MyFamily has two types of digital employees. On one hand, there are those who create, publish, and manage information: lawyers and project managers. On the other hand, there are people who consume that information. They also manage MyFamily customers' files. They often have very valuable input from their daily practice to improve the documentation. However, uncoordinated efforts to provide input meant that more and more document versions kept appearing, and it became unclear which were the final versions and which weren't.

Tars Boons adds: “Another common problem was that certain information was often relevant to different topics, resulting in a separate document for each topic in our document library. Eddy made it clear that we could solve this problem by using Microsoft 365 more effectively.”

“Essentially, people at MyFamily needed a clear distinction between information or work in progress, versus 100% validated information. We had to create a new single source of truth, regardless of which angle someone accessed the information from. And there's no better tool than SharePoint Online to do that,” says Eddy Feys of Xylos.

Xylos designed a complete SharePoint site with a clear governance strategy. That makes the search functions more effective, so users can find the right information more easily than ever.

Once the right information architecture and policies were in place, Tars and MyFamily could start building the actual SharePoint site. The minimum viable product, or in other words, 'the first layers of the solution', has been ready and in use since July 2022. Thanks to the roadmap, MyFamily keeps building effectively. In his role as governance expert at Xylos, Eddy has also been a valuable asset in communicating with the IT department of Xerius, the owner of MyFamily's IT infrastructure.

“Xerius is a large group with many important priorities. Thanks to Eddy, we really got the trust and autonomy we needed to make things work,” says Tars Boons.

In addition to a step-by-step plan, MyFamily also relied on Xylos's renowned human approach. A Digital Coach from Xylos guided MyFamily's SharePoint administrators through the setup. He also organized sessions with tips and tricks to anticipate potential obstacles. Hilde Coddens praises how well Xylos sensed MyFamily's needs: “Xylos knew how to strike the balance between a solid plan, truly listening, and a tailor-made solution for us.”

While the new SharePoint site now held all validated information and documents, Teams became the place-to-be for collaborating on documents under revision. Based on the knowledge gained during the sessions with Xylos and the chosen governance plan, Tars, MyFamily's SharePoint Owner, is now also able to make the Microsoft 365 groups as effective as possible.

That means, for example, that groups need to be formed with the optimal number of people to promote collaboration on files, and that relevant roles need to be assigned to each of them. This way, the right people contribute to work-in-progress versions of documents, and monitor and safeguard them where needed.

As Quality Coordinator, Hilde noticed improvements early on: “The interaction between our document authors and consumers is increasingly starting to look like a symbiosis. Our information consumers are genuinely motivated to contribute to improvements, because their input is effectively processed. That makes our information and documents more relevant and more complete.”

A new information architecture for an organization like MyFamily has an incredible amount of impact on every employee involved. It requires them to embrace change. Simply informing people about the change is not a sustainable approach. That's why Renaud Dejonghe, Change Manager at Xylos, developed a change and adoption plan based on the ADKAR approach, including a communication strategy, learning initiatives, and a sponsorship program.

“Renaud made sure we involved everyone from the very start. I think that's one of the reasons we were able to build a shared expectation among all users to make the best possible use of the available tools. He also insisted that we treat the project as an ongoing work in progress. We kept sight of both reinforcing expectations and the learning process. The result: we now have a culture of collaboration. Our information consumers know they can actively and efficiently contribute to improving our documents. Nobody waits for the document owners to solve everything.”

The MyFamily project was a successful symbiosis of people, strategy, and technology — a hallmark of the Xylos approach. In short, thanks to Xylos, MyFamily has addressed and resolved its employees' frustrations and productivity barriers.

The organization now has a functional, future-proof SharePoint Online architecture backed by a solid governance strategy. There is an efficient SharePoint site that meets expectations, now and in the future, as MyFamily keeps building on it. What's more, employees have truly adopted a more effective way of collaborating. The organization's digital workplace is, and will undoubtedly remain, one of strong employee engagement.