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Creating an Engaging, Modern
Intranet Experience for 10,000+ Employees at GMG

A Brief Glimpse Into Our Client

GMG is one of the top 50 retail enterprises in Dubai. They operate multiple locations with a workforce of over 10,000 employees. GMG is a major player in the retail industry. That’s why they place high importance on seamless internal communication and employee engagement. Focusing on those areas allow them to support their wide-reaching operations and dynamic business environment.

Our client requested for a Sharepoint portal revamp. Their old system was in Classic SharePoint and they wanted to have it in Modern SharePoint. So, at Brainium, we assigned a dedicated team for the project with the sole intention of redesigning the whole portal for them.

Industry

Retail

Tech Stack

SharePoint Online, SharePoint Framework (SPFx), Power Automate, Microsoft Viva Engage, REST API, PnP JS

Country

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The Challenges We Faced Along the Way

GMG approached Brainium with a clear objective: revamp their existing SharePoint intranet portal. The previous version was built on Classic SharePoint. Considering the growing business needs and technological advancements happening, the Classic SharePoint became outdated very soon. The portal was also inflexible and not aligned with the company’s evolving UI/UX expectations. Thousands of employees rely on the portal for news, events, and internal engagement. As a result, the stakes were very high.

The key objective was to transition to a modern SharePoint experience that would offer the following -

Intuitive navigation
Dynamic content delivery
Visual consistency

While the client had a strong vision, it included complex and frequently evolving UI requirements that required our team to stay nimble throughout the engagement. The client needed a team capable of not just technical execution but also ongoing design iteration, responsiveness to feedback, and efficient delivery within tight deadlines. Brainium took on the responsibility of providing this dedicated team for the project.

Our Primary Approach for This Project

We began with a series of collaborative meetings involving GMG’s technical and business teams to understand their needs in depth. Since GMG opted for a dedicated development team model to achieve their vision, we selected some of our resources to work on the project. The team consisted of the following experts -

UI/UX designers
SharePoint developers
Project coordinators

These experts work as an extension of their internal team. In order to ensure seamless collaboration, hacking the communication game was essential. The team focused on agile iterations and the ability to pivot quickly based on feedback from GMG’s technical and business stakeholders. We made sure that the team would focus on flexibility. That was the only way they could handle UI complexity, ongoing design suggestions, and the evolving expectations throughout the project.

Our Primary Solution for This Project

In order to bring GMG’s intranet vision to life, we built a robust, modern SharePoint portal. This portal was grounded in user-centric design and powered by Microsoft’s latest technologies. Our goal? To create a centralized, intuitive, and interactive platform that could handle high employee traffic while keeping engagement at its core. The key features included the following aspects -

Dynamic Home Page Components
Our team added engaging components on the home page, such as the following -

Carousel for announcements
Quick links
Event listings
Image galleries
Searchable FAQ system

We built all these components using SPFx to ensure dynamic, real-time updates.

Employee Engagement Tools
We created a vibrant digital community by adding the following features -

Birthday and anniversary highlights
A social feed powered by Viva Engage
New joiner spotlights
CSR highlights under “GMG Cares”

Custom Header and Footer
Our team decided to go for a custom header and footer for brand consistency and easy navigation. We implemented this using SPFx Application Customizer to appear across all portal pages.

Seamless SharePoint List Integration
We structured all data (FAQs, events, etc.) using SharePoint lists, enabling non-technical staff to easily update content without developer assistance.

Automation with Power Automate
We implemented Power Automate flows to fetch and push the top Viva Engage posts into the SharePoint feed. Our goal was to ensure relevant and timely social content on the portal. It was a resounding success.

Mobile-Responsive and Future-Ready Design
The team optimized the portal for both website and mobile. This step guaranteed easy accessibility and usability for employees across all GMG locations.

Results

The successful revamp of GMG’s intranet portal showcased the true potential of a dedicated team model. The collaboration led to measurable improvements in usability, engagement, and internal communication.

60% Boost in Employee Productivity

Employees now have a single, intuitive platform for accessing company updates, event photos, and essential documents.

100% Modern Infrastructure Upgrade

Our team made sure that the platform is scalable, maintainable, and future-proof by building it on Modern SharePoint and SPFx.

3x Increase in Employee Engagement

Features like Viva Engage posts, social corners, birthdays, and anniversaries made the portal more personal and interactive.

High User Adoption

Thanks to the intuitive design and custom features, the portal received positive feedback from employees and achieved strong adoption rates.

Fulfilling Client Needs One Step At A Time

GMG trusted Brainium to handle the portal revamp work, and the team delivered in spades. We transformed the outdated intranet portal into a modern, engaging, and efficient digital workspace. The flexibility, expertise, and collaboration offered by the dedicated model played a pivotal role in the project’s success, helping GMG meet its employee experience goals without overextending internal resources. This case is a testament to how the dedicated team model can drive high-impact results for large enterprises aiming for digital transformation.

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Hear What Our Clients Have to Say

We loved working with Brainium on this project. The developers understood the assignment from the get-go and we didn’t have to micromanage them at every turn. We’re looking forward to future collaborations with the team.