Bayer’s Sitecore-powered intranet delivers €600k yearly savings

Bayer is one of the world’s leading life sciences enterprises operating in health care and nutrition and its mission is 'health for all, hunger for none.' Driving forward that ambition are 90,000 employees spread across 80 countries around the world. To support its employees, Bayer provides a comprehensive information and communication intranet. But it had become costly and difficult to deliver the resources a diverse, multi-language employee community needed.

To try and meet the requirements of such a broad mix of locations, divisions, functions, and even individuals, the company was using 300 portals across four CMS solutions. But this meant static homepages, extensive and complex navigation, and localization that only reached down to country level. Employees were frustrated and effective communication was under threat. At an operational level, analytics were limited, there was no global internal editorial processes, there was disconnect between intranet management and IT, and costs were difficult to control.

Bayer aimed to ensure every employee is offered a personalized mix of the information they need for their location, division, or function, creating a unique experience for each employee with content that matters to the individual.

Bayer used a Sitecore-powered DXP to unify 300 portals and four CMS solutions into a single platform it calls BayerNet. The solution was deployed by Bayer, Sitecore, and Sitecore business partner, Tata Consultancy Services. The new intranet integrates with other key business systems such as SAP, ServiceNow, and Microsoft. A key part of the development process was building a cross-functional team between IT and intranet management including internal staff and implementation partners.

Using Sitecore has enabled Bayer to establish a single global editorial process which unifies and optimizes editorial operations across various countries and functions, ensuring consistent and efficient content management. Better analytics provide valuable data-driven insights for informed decision-making, transforming the organization's approach to content strategy and performance evaluation. By consolidating intranet operations, delivering continuous improvement by one cross-functional team, and bridging the gap between communications and IT, Bayer is successfully driving collaboration and eliminating siloed operations.

Now BayerNet ensures every employee gets a personalized homepage based on their division, function, country, or site, as well as personal interests which helps to enhance engagement and efficiency. Navigation is tailored for each employee, so they get seamless access to dynamic content such as their latest service requests on their homepage. An automated weekly newsletter delivers individualized, relevant content to each employee for more personalized communication.

By using Sitecore to create the single-platform intranet and content creation and management function, Bayer has cut annual costs from €1.3 million to €700,000—a reduction of 46% and a saving of €600,000. And the transformation is also gaining recognition externally. Leading market research institute, Psyma, named BayerNet as Best in Class in six out of nine categories of its latest Intranet Benchmarking report. Meanwhile, global digital media publisher Axel Springer’s enterprise intranet benchmark scored BayerNet 41.5 compared to the average score of 38.1.

A centralized, enterprise-wide management function increases consistency and eliminates content duplication, leading to a 70% reduction in total content. It has also made personalization easier, faster, and more targeted. For example, news for pharma marketeers in Germany and the US can be configured in the backend then delivered to the homepages of those employees. This streamlines communication processes and enhances relevant information delivery.