Communicating More Effectively With An Enterprise SMS Communication Web Application
Results
ChenMed leadership can communicate directly and conveniently with their growing staff
Focus
Challenge
In a growing company, the challenges of staying connected with staff can be daunting
Solution
Leverage Drupal 8, Workday, and Twilio in a custom application to directly message specific groups of employees by SMS
Project Approach
A Drupal 8 Platform with a Workday and Twilio Integration.
COLAB’s task was to create a solution using technology to facilitate targeted, customizable messaging across the client’s growing and diverse group of employees in a way that maintained a personable feel.
Getting the Data Right
Once the source of employee information was structured and mapped, our team had to determine the best method of communication. Since employees already used company mobile phones, we decided SMS messaging would be the best way to reach employees. COLAB evaluated a variety of technologies and determined the cloud communications platform Twilio would be the best tool to facilitate and manage the messages. COLAB specifically chose Twilio for its ability to scale beyond SMS messaging, that way our team could build a scalable and flexible platform that would allow for future enhancements.
Finding a Scalable Messaging Service
Once the source of employee information was structured and mapped, our team had to determine the best method of communication. Since employees already used company mobile phones, we decided SMS messaging would be the best way to reach employees. COLAB evaluated a variety of technologies and determined the cloud communications platform Twilio would be the best tool to facilitate and manage the messages. COLAB specifically chose Twilio for its ability to scale beyond SMS messaging, that way our team could build a scalable and flexible platform that would allow for future enhancements.
A Platform Integration to Tie It All Together
With Workday providing the necessary data and Twilio providing the SMS messaging services, the next step was to build a platform that could integrate all of these tools into one system. COLAB chose Drupal 8 as the integration platform because it is an easily extensible CMS for integrating other services and data.
Within Drupal, COLAB created an administrative interface for a web application that enabled ChenMed to select individuals based on location, title, or other attributes (all being pulled realtime from Workday), compose a message, preview the message, send a test message, and then queue it up in a delayed sending system which would allow for edits or recalls before being sent. We also built in detailed analytics from Twilio that allowed ChenMed to track delivery and receipt of text messages.
COLAB built an award-winning corporate messaging system. I’d highly recommend them to any business.
Jess Timmerman
VP of Marketing
Immediate Return on Investment
By integrating Twilio, Drupal, and ChenMed’s Workday data, COLAB created a powerful platform that could directly message the whole company or discrete groups of employees as needed. Our custom application improved communication speed and efficacy across the company, even allowing the company to successfully implement an emergency evacuation of their facilities across South Florida during Hurricane Irma.
COLAB was able to leverage the client’s existing technology, connect it with a cutting-edge communications platform, and help our client further their mission of maintaining a family-oriented environment.
Crediting our ChenMed partners for the great idea in maintaining communications over a large organization, our work together won a 2017 Acquia Engage Award for best Community application.
To learn more about our integrated relationships with our clients and partners, you can check out our case study on our ChenMed relationship or learn more about our digital partnerships.
