FDBusiness.com

Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard, has launched an innovative solution for a brand and manufacturing business to bring all its employees online on sites from Orkney to Plymouth.

It has just replaced its traditional internal website with a new digital hub that supplies a bespoke mobile website to tablet computers enabling all its employees, including around 50% which are not office based or who do not have their own personal computer, to access a broad range of company news and information from its 29 sites in the UK.

Content for the new site has been the subject of a dynamic new approach. Video and interactive features figure strongly and are easily consumed with the Samsung Galaxy S3 device chosen for distribution to all employees. Key business updates and administrative information are combined with a ‘Community Spirit’ section that allows employees to update each other about activities away from work such as fundraising and social clubs including the company’s sailing club and golf society.

The new site, whilst optimised for mobile devices, also becomes the digital hub for all company computers. The project will substantially streamline Chivas Brothers’ internal communications replacing a number of channels such as magazines and newsletters with a single digital channel offering instant access for employees and instant updates from the company. IT services and solutions provider Kelway Ltd, which supplied the tablets, have also been commission to provide a helpdesk for the company’s 1600 employees who are now digitally connected.

The tablets, issued to every employee by the start of 2015, will also provide access to information and internal websites from the company’s parent group, Pernod Ricard, connecting Chivas Brothers employees with colleagues around the world and a view of how and where the company’s revered portfolio of high quality Scotch whiskies and gins are sold and consumed.

“Through this initiative we wanted to better connect our teams together, everyone in every department, in every location, from the north of Scotland to London and Plymouth. Each and every member of our team makes Chivas Brothers a dynamic, innovative and thriving business. Now we have a single digital home to celebrate and take pride in our achievements and continue to improve our communication, efficiency and our dynamic approach to producing some of the world’s most highly regarded and successful Scotch whiskies and premium gins,” says Laurent Lacassagne, chairman and chief executive of Chivas Brothers.

A version of the digital hub also replaces the company’s corporate website, utilising the same mobile optimisation and bringing its media centre, Magazine (showcasing the company’s innovations and brand campaigns) and corporate updates to an important stakeholder audience.