The client
Olymel
- Sector: Manufacturing - agri-food
- Size: Enterprise, 11,000+ employees
- Region: Québec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta
Olymel, a Canadian leader in pork and poultry processing (11,000 employees, 30+ sites across Québec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta), was looking for a Microsoft partner able to deliver a modern, bilingual, accessible SharePoint intranet — without slippage. io4 coordinated the project end to end with a focus on rigor, governance and change management.
Results at a glance
Key figures.
11,000+
Employees served
Multi-province sites, French- and English-speaking
100%
On-time delivery
Delivered with no schedule overrun
FR / EN
Natively bilingual intranet
Compliant with Canadian language requirements
30+
Operational sites covered
Production, distribution, administration
The challenge
Olymel needed to modernize its internal communication across a bilingual, multi-site, multi-generational workforce (production employees without a dedicated computer, plus administrative staff). The goal: make Agora the new go-to source of information — without competing with legacy channels (emails, physical postings in the plants).
The project had to deliver a modern experience (powerful search, mobile-first, Microsoft 365 integration) while meeting strict constraints: Canadian language compliance, accessibility, and performance on connections of variable quality in the regions.
The io4 approach
io4 ran the initiative as a full program: SharePoint Online architecture, document governance, experience design, change management, and training for editors distributed across the sites.
- Scoping with communications, HR and IT leadership: alignment on success KPIs (adoption, satisfaction, search performance).
- Hub-and-spoke SharePoint architecture with communication sites per division and collaborative sites per team.
- Bilingual page templates (FR/EN) with an integrated language-validation process.
- A distributed-editor program: 30+ contributors trained on publishing best practices.
- Change management: a multi-channel launch campaign, video tutorials, and hands-on support during the first weeks.
The results
Agora became the daily entry point for a significant portion of the 11,000+ employees. The rollout met both schedule and budget despite the multi-site complexity.
- Went live within the initial timeline — a rarity on intranet projects of this scale.
- A natively bilingual intranet, compliant with Canadian requirements.
- Fast adoption on administrative sites; a dedicated rollout program for production sites underway.
- Decentralized but governed editorial management — content quality maintained across 30+ contributors.
“A project run with rigor, precision and excellent coordination. Special mention to Jeanne Peronne, who showed great attentiveness and a keen understanding of our needs, which contributed greatly to the success of our intranet rollout.”
Microsoft technologies used
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