San Antonio, TX- Adopting Igloo Software’s intranet solution platform, the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC) saved hundreds of travel dollars, saved time, and was able to collaborate with people from across the country working on projects in changing and improving cancer care.
Nicole Beben, vice-president of strategy of CPAC, said during an interview that after taking a poll of everyone using CPAC’s hubs using Igloo’s platform, 94 per cent said they saw an increase in their knowledge for information needed to do their job and 84 per cent said they made new network connection across the country with people doing similar projects.
The Toronto-based organization has 130 employees, but it is partnered with other organizations to work on projects that yield to investments in change efforts, and those change efforts are program initiatives and a national vision “for what best in the world cancer care looked like.”
Right now, there are 50 ongoing projects with a total of 2,500 members from across the country working.
During an interview at Igloo’s ICE conference in San Antonio, TX., Beben said since using Igloo’s software three years ago, CPAC was able to save money on travel costs, which was a core aspect of the organization.
“There is no substitute for in-person [meetings] so one of the things our organization does is invest in making sure those people are sitting in the room and getting that face-to-face time, but there is no question there have been efficiencies so we don’t have to bring together people as often,” she said.
The collaborative organization is also the “originator of the hub” model that Igloo now calls Networked Enterprises, Beben said.
Networked Enterprises are a way to organize intranet hubs for large firms that have regional offices and a central headquarter that need to be connected.
That service was launched to Igloo’s larger enterprise clients with thousands of employees working at different locations on Sept. 12.
The Canadian Association of Provincial Cancer Agencies, the Canadian Partnership for Quality Radiotherapy, and the University of Toronto’s Division of Palliative Care are just among the groups that CPAC works with within the many hubs.
And Beben said that the organization has really helped her feel like everyone working on different projects interacted like they were all working for the same organization.
“When I start hearing about the names of consultants as if they’re people working in our organization, that’s something that catches my attention. Particularly when it’s not just someone who is working with the executive team, but working with more junior folks on work.
“That was a signal, the number one thing that something was different here in terms of the level of integration and that commitment to the success of the organization,” Beben said.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for CPAC before though.
Beben said that most interactions were ad hoc and ineffective.
She said her organization really made the investment to bridge the communication and collaboration gap.
“It was about both making investments in our own organization to make sure we had community managers, and a global digital strategy. This was the piece of puzzle…and it took some recognition on our part to make it work more effectively. But it was also very much in partnership with Igloo.
“It was very much that they were involved in the success of our organization as much as we were so that made it easy for our employees,” she said.
Beben noted that while the platform proved successful for the multiple projects that CPAC collaborated on, CPAC was still trying to figure out how the platform can be beneficial to internal employees.
“We are at a good level with our external partners, but we have work to do internally about digital engagement,” Beben said. “It’s the idea of our business is always about the partners but now it’s probably time to turn our attention inward a little bit to make sure our employees are fully engaged and operating in that way.”
She said that because most of the projects CPAC is involved with deals with funding initiatives and that gets people involved, but Beben challenged Igloo to help figure out how it “can help us…use this type of technology to engage people on things we are not necessarily funding on.”