Ascension amplifies its brand voice as leading healthcare system

Ascension Health operates more than 100 hospitals, 2,600 sites of care and employs 175K+ employees. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, the faith-based organization was founded in 1999. Their care facilities receive consistent acclaim and recognition, three Ascension hospitals ranked in Fortune’s, “50 Best Cardiovascular Hospitals” list. Their organization is dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care.

Employees:

50,000+

Services:

Internal Communications

Industries:

Healthcare

The Challenge

Ascension, one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States, sought to amplify its brand voice for internal audiences. The goal was to consolidate and elevate its intranet sites in order to more seamlessly communicate to 175,000 associates. Having one voice for communication was critical to the evolution of the Ascension brand.

LumApps helped Ascension to consolidate its legacy intranet platforms, reach employees regardless of their location or department, and capture meaningful analytics to fine tune its engagement strategy.

Previously, the Ascension team managed multiple intranet and communication platforms across the organization. These included SharePoint, Sitecore, Lotus Notes, and ColdFusion. Unifying the brand voice required a technology platform that could consolidate these platforms without losing existing features and benefits. Ascension noted that streamlining various platforms into one commonly managed platform would save time and resources and improve the employee experience.

Key success factors of this project have been to plan our navigation and architect the site framework from the very beginning. How things fit together should be clearly communicated and clearly documented, and the navigation is absolutely critical. For a good user experience, you need to think about the long term support plan because that's also very essential.

Teresa Baxmeyer

Director of Digital Workplace Solutions & Collaboration

Why Ascension Chose LumApps

In 2020, Ascension launched Good Day Ascension, a System-wide homepage for all Ascension associates along with additional sites to personalize the overall associate experience. The ability to migrate SharePoint sites, integrate with Google Workspace, and create a mix of public and private sites separated LumApps from competitors during the decision-making process.

Additionally, LumApps offered a branded design and modern user experience, and it provides native and custom integrations with third-party tools (in addition to Google).

The Good Day Ascension launch kicked off a project that will continue to migrate existing sites and amplify the Ascension brand under one voice. Additionally, the team will be launching LumApps social advocacy, an integrated social media feature allowing employees to easily share organizational news and messaging across their social networks – boosting reach and engagement.

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The Results

Ascension reported overwhelmingly positive feedback during its initial launch and ramp up period. Employees are able to navigate the user-friendly interface to find what they need. Key developments include:

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Timely and critical message delivery

Ascension can now better provide associates with valuable resources when they’re needed most. Metadata and data governance capabilities allow messages to find the right audience at the right time.

Consistent content

In addition to timeliness, messaging is delivered with a uniform style, improving the experience for all employees.

Critical information during crisis

Associates had access to important information during peak times of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the robust messaging and information delivery options within LumApps.

The launch of the Good Day Ascension Intranet, has been a culmination of the efforts to unify the Ascension brand and establish our culture as an integrated ministry. It helps us share best practices, advocate with one voice, promote innovation, and foster collaboration in support of our mission.

Jeff Hoffmaster

Senior Director of Collaboration Technologies at Ascension

Key use cases

Consistent communication

Ascension leadership teams share meaningful information with associates in a uniform style.

User directory

An accurate and intuitive user directory allows thousands of Ascension employees to find physicians, key contacts, share information and plan effectively.

Google Workspace adoption

Using Google-to-LumApps integrations, plus search and information storage features - Ascension replaced its SharePoint experience while increasing the adoption (and effectiveness) of Google Workspace.

Multi-site architecture

Using LumApps, every Ascension employee has access to an organization-wide platform, with a separate site for each of its health ministries across 19 states.