Oatly Globalizes Internal Communications

“With Omnia, we have for the first time created a unified, dynamic, and user-friendly global platform for internal communications. Through our much-improved digital workplace, users can also access our e-learning system, Teams, Microsoft 365, and other tools. This will significantly boost our internal collaboration throughout the world”, says Johanna Wahlberg, Communicator at Oatly. 

The company was founded in the 1990s after the discovery by a research team at the University of Lund that natural enzymes can convert fiber-rich oats into nutritional liquid food. With a patented enzyme technology for the production of oat-based food, Oatly produces a wide range of products, such as a variety of oat drinks and oat-based yogurts, creams, and ice creams. With production and global headquarters in Sweden, as well as offices and production sites in a growing number of locations around the world, the Oatly brand is available in more than 20 countries.

Previously, Oatly used an outdated Sharepoint-based intranet with unsatisfactory accessibility, functionality, and interactivity. To establish more unifying and engaging internal communication, with relevant content for the entire organization, Oatly needed to modernize the platform. 

“The former intranet was used only by a few people in Sweden and Germany. The system was neither user-friendly nor particularly appealing, which consequently generated very low usage. And it wasn’t possible to personalize the content. Moreover, we needed to match our internal communication with our external and unify our organization via a common global platform. Omnia offered a flexible and adaptable platform, fitting our needs perfectly”, Johanna explains and adds:

“Omnia is very customer- and solution-oriented and their consultants are keen to further develop the platform, which strengthened our trust in them. During the project, we have also noted that they are more than willing to listen to our ideas for improvement, while always considering the possibility of incorporating some of our suggestions into the platform for the benefit of all their customers.

”Omnia’s experts and coaches helped Oatly implement the new platform and intranet, including the development of a new unique Oatly design and information structure. The revamped intranet Oatnet is now fully implemented in all units and countries where Oatly operates.

“The new intranet makes possible more inclusive and values-based internal communication throughout our entire organization. All employees can, for the first time, access the same information at the same time. Oatnet has also made it a lot easier to contribute, comment on, and share information across unit and country borders. And with Omnia’s smart functions for targeting and personalization, the content is now much more relevant for everybody”, Johanna emphasizes.

A large proportion of Oatly’s employees are on the move most of the time. Therefore, it is of great value for them to have access to the intranet, and the information and discussions available there, via a mobile.

“Omnia’s responsive design and mobile app make it a lot easier to keep updated on things that are both good to know and nice to know, regardless of where you are. It also enables us to meet various information and communication requests from within the organization, particularly when addressing the needs of our many deskless employees”, Johanna underlines.