Cologne, 5 November 2009 – In order to communicate more effectively with its about 350 stores in Germany, retailer real,- has completely redesigned its Intranet. The new concept focuses on the needs of employees, simplifies the collection of important information and offers new opportunities for cooperation. By upgrading the Enterprise Content Management system pirobase to the latest 7.1 version, real,- has created the technical basis necessary to achieve these aims. In this way, the company can gather information relevant for the store more quickly and make it available to individual teams of employees as a foundation for their day-to-day work.

The real,- Intranet is part of the “METRO Group Networking” strategy for information and collaboration. Managed centrally, the Intranet provides the approximately 50,000 employees at the various German real,- stores with a basis of information for their work.

Incorporating employees: the real,- communication strategy
With its slogan “Einmal hin. Alles drin.” (“Just one store - you won't need more”), real,- promises its customers a holistic shopping experience. The company also sets high standards when it comes to internal communication. “Our Intranet is the central tool for providing our employees with information”, says Albrecht von Truchsess, Head of Corporate Communication at real,- SB-Warenhaus GmbH. “Here, not only the completeness and currency of the content play a role. To be able to take one look in the system and see at a glance all information that is important for me personally – this is a vital prerequisite for the success of our communication strategy.”

In order to increase the acceptance of the Intranet further and to incorporate employees in the flow of information even more effectively, real,- carried out an employee survey. This showed that, in addition to a pooling of the various information channels available – e.g. emails and public folders – employees in the stores wanted first and foremost a more team-specific approach. This means that they receive all information important for them in a dedicated team area and can work together within the store in a simple manner.

pirobase: technical basis for personalised approach
In order to design an Intranet that also meets all of the requirements in a technical respect, real,- has upgraded its existing ECM system pirobase to the latest 7.1 version. With functions such as the Smart Editor, pirobase hugely simplifies the maintenance and updating of content for authors. By means of defined workflows integrated into pirobase, the information is routed to coordinators, who check it in terms of understandability, time of appearance and correct allocation, as well as making sure that no reports occur more than once. The results include lower costs and a faster transfer of information. On the store site, the stores are recognised automatically by the system and the content adapted accordingly right through to local information. This means that it is no longer necessary to filter out the correct information.

The team boxes managed via pirobase also offer a high degree of personalisation. Every store department has its own colour, which is also mirrored by the team boxes – for example, claret-red for the electronics department or green for fruit & vegetables. The team box can be opened from any computer in the store with a simple click. Here, employees can find all of the information important for their department at a glance. The principle of team-specific information makes cooperation within the stores easier: for instance, where employees would previously leave behind notes for their colleagues on the late shift, these colleagues can now look at the deadlines and tasks centrally and can see what has already been ticked off and thus dealt with.

Tidy, effective and fit for the future – the new real,- Intranet
In summary, real,- has structured its Intranet so that it is more clearly laid out and enhanced it with local information, as well as making it more user-friendly and at the same time fit for the future. “Our new Intranet is more effective than ever as it takes into account all of the requirements of the employees involved”, in the words of von Truchsess. “Despite our particularly high technical standards, we have been able to realise all of the functions necessary. pirobase played a considerable role in this. The solution offers us the technical capacities we need in order to integrate additional functions quickly and easily in the future.”

PIRONET NDH AG offers the market a unique portfolio of solutions for handling digital content and data. This includes consultancy, software, integration and outsourcing services. PIRONET NDH AG is a corporate group that brings together five companies specializing in the five different business areas ICT outsourcing, consulting and design, content management solutions as well as IT-solutions for the industries retail / CPG and financial services. PIRONET NDH AG was founded in 1995 and is based in Cologne. Since 2000, it has been listed on the German stock exchange. The Group of companies employs more than 500 people working in 20 different countries and posted sales figures of around 60 million euros in the last financial year (2008).

Press contact:
Pironet NDH
Adrian Rosa
Press Office
Maarweg 149-161
50825 Cologne, Germany
Tel.: +49.221.56939-2406
Fax: +49.221.56939-2424
E-Mail: