executive Summary
As one of Australia’s largest industrial and safety suppliers, Wesfarmers Industrial & Safety (WIS) supports thousands of employees across Australia and New Zealand through its network of brands including Blackwoods and NZ Safety Blackwoods. But as the business evolved, its legacy intranet struggled to keep pace. Outdated technology, fragmented content, and disconnected systems made it difficult for employees to access information, collaborate, and stay aligned.
To overcome these challenges, Blackwoods partnered with Antares Solutions to reimagine its digital workplace using #Space – Antares’ SharePoint Intranet accelerator. The result… a modern, people-first intranet that brings together every team, brand, and location under one intuitive digital platform. With #Space, Blackwoods not only streamlined how information flows across the organisation, but also strengthened employee connection, engagement, and productivity – setting a new standard for how a modern industrial business works together.
More than just a platform, this partnership with Antares opens the door to ongoing innovation, exploring how technology, AI, and digital tools can continuously push boundaries and transform how work gets done.
The Challenge
As Australia’s leading industrial and safety supplier, Blackwoods depends on seamless communication and collaboration to keep its nationwide workforce aligned. However, its intranet built on SharePoint 2013 had become a legacy system: on-prem, IT-heavy, and static. Rather than empowering employees, it created daily friction. What should have been a hub for culture and connection had instead become a barrier to productivity and engagement. Leadership recognised the need for a modern, scalable intranet that could grow with the business and re-energise how employees work together.
Complicating matters, Blackwoods was maintaining four separate intranet sites with scattered content, a clunky user experience, and slow, resource-intensive updates. The business aimed to consolidate this into three intranet domains, split across two Microsoft 365 tenants each with its own unique requirements and stakeholders
The Solution
To address this challenge, Blackwoods partnered with Antares Solutions to implement #Space, our proven SharePoint Modern Sites Intranet accelerator. Antares proposed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) implementation approach, creating a clear, simplified pathway to deployment while ensuring the solution met the diverse needs of different teams. Rather than starting from scratch with a costly custom build, Antares guided Blackwoods through a structured, collaborative project that addressed both technical and business needs. The result was the deployment of three tailored intranets across two Microsoft 365 tenants in a single, seamless project, ensuring all business units’ unique requirements were met
The engagement began with hands-on workshops to understand what employees truly needed from their digital workplace, designing a solution that worked equally well for desk-based and frontline staff. Thekey features of #Space including: an enterprise-grade staff directory, a centralised content hub, global alerts, personalised toolboxes, and a scalable information architecture that were configured to enhance productivity, discoverability, and engagement. Content migration, Microsoft 365 integration, and staff training were handled with precision, allowing Blackwoods to focus on running their business while the technology transformation happened behind the scenes.
By leveraging #Space’s user-centered design, incremental enhancements, and future-proof platform, Antares delivered not just an intranet, but a flexible digital workplace foundation capable of evolving with Blackwoods’ growing needs, strengthening collaboration, and empowering employees across Australia and New Zealand.
“The upgrade to a modern SharePoint intranet has been a game-changer for NZ Safety Blackwoods. We now have a platform that is visually engaging, easy to navigate, and regularly updated—making it the go-to source for news, updates, and key documents. This has streamlined how team members access information and improved collaboration across the business. It’s saved us time and reduced confusion because everyone knows where to find the latest, most accurate content. The feedback from the team has been overwhelmingly positive, and it’s clear that the new intranet is helping us work smarter and stay connected.” – Sara Simpson, Learning & Development Specialist NZ Safety Blackwoods
The Benefits
The implementation of #Space has delivered tangible improvements across Blackwoods and NZ Safety,creating a more connected, efficient, and engaging digital workplace
- Fresh, dynamic design: A modern look and feel that reflects the company’s brand and makes the intranet more engaging for employees.
- Enhanced search functionality: Employees can quickly find the information and people they need, reducing frustration and saving time.
- Simplified administration: Content updates and site management are easier and faster, freeing IT and communications teams to focus on strategic work.
- Actionable analytics: Insightful data helps understand engagement and improve content, ensuring the intranet meets employees’ evolving needs.
- Intuitive navigation: Clean, user-friendly structure makes information easy to access, improving adoption and overall employee experience
By addressing both user and business needs, #Space has transformed Blackwoods’ intranet into a central hub that empowers employees, supports collaboration, and strengthens connection across Australia and New Zealand
