A collaborative intranet to facilitate information sharing and centralize document management

Founded in 1991 in France, Abalone is an expert in human resources. Through its network of employment agencies, the Abalone group's HR experts support their customers in their job search, career development and temporary and/or permanent recruitment needs, whatever their field of activity. The agencies are located throughout France, in the heart of employment areas, and are staffed by 100% local personalities who know their sector and its specificities inside out.

Thanks to integrated partners, Abalone provides a full range of services in training, IT solutions and data hosting.

A family-run, independent company, Abalone is now well established in France, and has been expanding in Europe for several years, particularly in Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Abalone's communication tool had become updated, and were no longer adapted to current usage or to the size of the rapidly expanding group.

Abalone's priority was to animate the agencies network in line with the group's values, and to have a centralized internal communication tool enabling its 350 employees to find useful information for their daily work, as well as group and agencies news.

Abalone was looking for a sovereign, on-premise solution, to guarantee control over its data. The chosen solution also had to:

• Have a multi-country dimension (France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland)


• Be easy-to-use and accessible to everyone, from agency business experts to head office support departments


• Integrate chat and videoconferencing features

Abalone chose eXo Platform for several reasons:

• It’s a sovereign and on-premise hosted solution. Data control is a strategic priority for Abalone.


• The platform's ease of use.


• The tool's capacity to evolve, with, for example, engagement programs or internal challenges to animate the platform.


• The close support, active attentiveness and goodwill of the eXo teams, who were able to guide Abalone throughout the project and help it make the right choices.

The project was built step by step, in close collaboration between Abalone and eXo teams. Once production was up and running, videoconferences were organized over several slots to train all staff in the use of the new intranet. Within a few weeks, everyone was up and running. Today, every new employee is given a discovery session to get to grips with the intranet, a tool that has become central to the group's daily operations.

The platform is used for a year now, and the benefits were immediately there: smoother communication between the various departments and agencies, and rich exchanges of best practices and tips, particularly on sales topics.

To facilitate adoption, the intranet is automatically launched when the computer is opened. Dedicated spaces have been created to give business experts easy access to useful information throughout the day. The tool is also continuously enriched with group news and business information concerning both sales and recruitment.

Abalone has also chosen to integrate its internal processes on the platform, which has significantly reduced email.