When an ageing intranet reached end of life, The University of Western Australia needed more than a replacement — they needed a platform their people could rely on.
About UWA
The University of Western Australia is one of Australia’s leading research universities, with a large and diverse community of staff and students spread across multiple schools and campuses. Their staff intranet sits at the heart of how people find information, access services, and stay connected to the University.
The Challenge
UWA had been running on a third-party intranet product that had reached end of life. The platform no longer aligned with UWA’s governance and security standards, external support to maintain it had become scarce, and the risk of the legacy platform falling over was growing. With roughly 14,000 users depending on the system, any transition needed to be carefully planned – particularly because the platform also served as a major internal communications channel and service directory.
Why Huddler
Choosing a new platform meant thinking beyond the initial implementation. UWA needed confidence that their next solution would continue to evolve and be supported well into the future, not just at go-live, but for years to come.
Huddler stood out for exactly that reason. With an active development roadmap, backed by a team with genuine commitment to long-term partnership, it gave UWA the assurance that this was a platform built to grow with them.
The Solution
UWA chose Huddler Hub as their new intranet platform, built on top of their existing Microsoft 365 environment, meaning no new ecosystem to learn, and no ripping out what already worked.
Three Hub capabilities made a particular difference:
- Page Wizard gave UWA’s content creators a simple, governed way to build and maintain intranet pages using consistent templates, reducing reliance on technical staff and putting ownership back in the hands of the people closest to the content.
- Huddler Search replaced the legacy search experience with customised verticals and results layouts, making it significantly easier for staff to find what they needed, when they needed it.
- Huddler Custom News Display rounded out the solution, providing a tailored news experience that wasn’t possible with the standard SharePoint news web part. News is automatically displayed in the right location on the homepage based on category, creating a more seamless experience for staff while reducing manual effort for the communications team.
The rollout was staged across the ~14,000-user community, supported by training for Content Creators and IT Administrators to ensure UWA’s team could confidently own and manage the platform themselves from day one.
The Outcome
UWA now has a modern, supported intranet that fits within their existing Microsoft 365 environment and meets their governance and security standards. The risk of running unsupported software is gone, search is meaningfully better, and UWA’s administrators have real ownership of their digital workplace.
For an organisation of UWA’s size and complexity, the transition landed smoothly.
With around 14,000 users relying on UWA’s staff intranet, getting things right really mattered. Huddler provided a solution that met the IT team’s governance needs while giving the communications team real ownership of the environment. The smooth transition was a success!
Rebecca Vincent, Senior Consultant and Huddler Product Manager
