Challenges
- Create multiple sites to reflect transition to an international energy group
- Subsidiary sites had to reflect the unique culture of each company yet still be part of the larger group
- Build a powerful and appealing intranet to forge a cross-company culture
- Put in place flexible and powerful tools for content creation and sharing
- GEB is constantly scrutinized by investors and regulators so security and reliability were non-negotiable.
Project Summary
- Bogotá’s leading web development company - and Ibexa partner - Aplyca was brought on board to develop, host and manage the UI of the sites
- Parent site created on Ibexa DXP 3.3. The group’s other websites, including the intranet, are built off this single instance
- Development of intranet sites on Ibexa DXP 3.3; integrations with active directory
- Re-brand rolled out successfully.
Business Benefits
- Creation of strong brand identity across group
- Corporate governance and sustainability policies communicated consistently
- Flexible content creation enables subsidiaries to contribute actively to group sites
- Sites easier to navigate and guide users to find the content more efficiently.
- Modernized software architecture
- Greater efficiency and performance
- Displays better on different mobile devices
Aplyca is an international web development firm specializing in complex DXP development and operations with headquarters in Bogotá, Colombia. The firm specializes in providing digital agencies and development partners with expert DXP talent for client projects. Working with Aplyca enables agencies to streamline their development and operations capabilities and allows agencies to add value with Ibexa DXP through an expert nearshore DXP partner.
The Grupo Energía Bogotá needed its digital presence and branding to reflect its transition to a leading Latin American energy group. The multi-site solution built in Ibexa DXP had to provide a secure, robust and agile foundation to satisfy investors, regulators and the general public while engaging employees with the culture and brand messaging to consolidate the group. This multi-site portal was launched in February 2022 with on Ibexa DXP 3.3.
The Colombian Securities Exchange recognized GEB as one of the best regulatory-facing sites in its jurisdiction; the intranet sites across the group proved very popular: more than 80% of employees engage with it on a regular basis.
GEB’s growth path beyond Colombia
The history of Grupo Energía Bogotá (GEB) is closely linked with the history of Bogotá itself. In 1886, Colombia’s capital city founded its own public utility company, the Empresa de Energía de Bogotá, which illuminated the city streets when public lighting was introduced three years later. This electricity provider grew into one of Latin America’s largest energy holdings, and Colombia’s eighth largest company by market cap. The District of Bogotá holds a 65% stake in the public-quoted group and GEB is one of its most significant sources of revenue.
While GEB retains its roots as an energy transmission company it has transformed itself into a Latin American energy group beyond electricity and natural gas businesses with holdings in Peru, Brazil, Guatemala and Colombia itself.
The communications challenge of a multinational group
The group’s expansion and transition from the energy transmission business to an energy group was at the heart of the project.
This presented a cultural as well as technological challenge.
In 2012, GEB turned to Aplyca, a specialized web implementation and operations firm which recommended that GEB deploy Ibexa DXP as its CMS. Aplyca’s founder and CEO, Felipe Jaramillo, comments: “GEB recognized the combination of a solid technical platform in Ibexa DXP with Aplyca’s implementation skills for large and complex web projects. It’s been great to be a key element to the group’s communication strategy”.
Ibexa's technology has helped us to clearly and objectively communicate the work we do in our business. This in addition to being able to offer our different stakeholders a site with a better user experience to find information and interact with us.
Building the core solution CMS solution
During the first phase that lasted a year, the parent site was built in Ibexa DXP along with blueprints for business unit sites. These formed the basis to include Contugas, a Peruvian natural gas transporter, Tresca, a power transmission business in Guatemala, and TGI a natural gas distributor and processor in Colombia.
Permissions in Ibexa establish the editorial access of the overarching business group; content creators at the business units have a virtual editorial independence but can only work in their domain. However, segmentation does not mean separation. The flexibility of the multi-site structure in Ibexa means that content, design and site development can be easily leveraged across the group. This increases engagement as well as brand consistency.
Regulators and investor relations
The demands of regulators and investors for absolute security and absolute robustness guided the decision to adopt Ibexa technology.
In 2017, the Bogota Stock Exchange designated GEB as one of the best regulatory-facing sites active in Colombia, awarding it with its official “seal of approval”.
Other markers for investors and regulators include consistent corporate governance policies, ambitious sustainability targets, and solid content governance. These have to be communicated effectively and consistently across all the business units to tick another corporate box: engagement.
Internal communications to solidify company culture
The creation of the business-to-employee sites – the intranet – is one of the cornerstones of the GEB /Ibexa project. The company had been using Sharepoint for its internal communications but felt it needed something much more engaging.
It is a communication platform. It includes a Covid-19 area, as well as other important employee security information.
A lot of HR functions are performed through the system, such as holiday entitlements, maternity leave, pensions policy, onboarding of new employees (with videos showcasing new colleagues) and so on. The system is integrated with HR and Active Directory so upcoming birthdays are flagged up.
As a group, we are offering our stakeholders a tool that allows them to have up-to-date information and to search for information of their interest. It also allows them to share the content on social networks. We are also centralizing the information officially.
Company celebrations are filmed, photographed and posted on the intranet, and are very popular. The trade unions use the intranet to communicate with their members, while the local business units as well as the group post news on change management or organizational changes.
The homepage has links to the local weather, the GEB share price and exchange rates. There is a workflow system in place for active dialogue with the communications departments through likes, comments and suggestions.
Shared innovation towards better experiences
The multi-site structure in Ibexa also helps build this larger company identity. “Part of the advantage of Ibexa is that the sites don’t all have to move together,” says Jaramillo from Aplyca. “So you see some sites innovating rapidly, while others don’t – because they don’t have to. But all the sites draw inspiration from each other. All this is underpinned by the parent site that was first built eight years ago. It demonstrates the longevity of the Ibexa solution.”
