As you might imagine, rolling out an all-encompassing intranet in the largest hotel company in the world, with over 100,000 staff operating in more than 150 countries around the world, is a pretty big deal. As the Development Director for Merlin, IHG’s corporate intranet, Leah has spent most of the last year of her life doing just that. In this presentation Leah will offer insights, advice and some of the hard lessons learned straight from the coalface of one of the biggest and most business critical projects IHG have undertaken in recent memory. She will discuss technology decisions, supplier relationships, user engagement, and why communications planning and internal stakeholder management are crucial to success.

1. Lessons from the coal face:
launching a corporate intranet
Leah Raper, InterContinental Hotels Group

2. 4,700
hotels
100+
countries
686,873
rooms
9 brands
1,120
hotels in
development

3. 350,000
colleagues worldwide

8. Our Merlin Philosophy
Keep it simple
• One click
• One view
• Moving into the 21st century!
“a one-stop-shop
to connect our
hotels to the tools
they need to run
their operations”

9. #1 have a vision everyone can share

10. #2 talk to everyone

11. #3 keep your promises

12. #4 always have some sound bites

13. #5 deliver something

14. #6 think about the numbers

15. #7 stabilise as fast as you can

16. The biggest lessons I learnt:
#1 have a vision everyone can share
#2 talk to everyone
#3 keep your promises
#4 always have some sound bites
#5 deliver something
#6 think about the numbers
#7 stabilise as fast as you can