Case study

Bringing social media to the militaryHow the Department of Defence built its own social network

“The ideal would be for ForceNet to replace our members’ other social profiles. We want to provide everything they need online, in one secure environment.”

– Major General Iain Spence, Head Cadet, Reserve and Employer Support Division, Department of Defence

With more than 70,000 members across Australia and some of the most demanding, highly skilled roles to fill, recruitment and employee engagement have always been very high priorities for the Department of Defence.

For Head Cadet, Reserve and Employer Support Division Major General

Iain Spence, the solution to these challenges clearly lay in providing

a better online community. “We were already using Sitecore for our

Defence Alumni Network and a number of other external Defence

websites.”

Collaborating closely with the Director of Business Optimisation at

Sitecore®, Greg Baxter, Defence began to develop the concept behind

ForceNet: a military social network combining a professional and social

platform, similar to LinkedIn and Facebook, with the recruitment and

job search functionality of SEEK - in one, safe and highly secure online

environment.

Military culture

One of the most important guiding factors in the research and

development stages of building ForceNet was providing an environment

that would work well within the culture and structure of the three

services. “Defence has three different types of members”, explains Major

General Spence: “permanent, reservist (part-time workers, including

those with specialist skills such as doctors) and civilian public servants.

We also have the service divisions Army, Air Force and Navy, as well as

many different units within each of the services. The key challenge was

designing a product that would encompass and engage with all of these

different members”.

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Plan of attack

When identifying the requirements for ForceNet, it was clear that the

site had several essential organisational functions to fulfil, alongside the

overarching goal of improving communication and engagement, including

the ability to identify member skills quickly and efficiently.

To highlight the importance of this requirement, Major General Spence

recalls an example of Australia providing humanitarian aid in our region.

“Australian Defence Force members were sent out to help during the

aftermath, but it immediately became apparent that while we could

send medically skilled members to provide aid, we really needed medical

professionals who could also communicate in the local language. We knew

that we had members with both of these skill sets - but trying to track

them down quickly was difficult”.

When the issue was investigated, it became clear that the root of the

problem was the existing process for updating members’ skills. Major

General Spence explains: “One of the great things about LinkedIn is that

users can self-declare their skills, which means they’re more likely to

mention them. We realised that our existing engagement systems could

be updated only through a formal process, involving providing hard-copy

certificates, with members entering their details online. This meant that

with limited access to systems, many users failed to update their details

online. We wanted users to be able to self-declare skills on ForceNet that

could be easily searched for by career and personnel managers—a far

more proactive approach that would significantly reduce the possibility of

our missing these invaluable skills in future”.

On top of these crucial predetermined requirements, the ForceNet

development team also conducted an extensive user research phase, to

ensure that the site’s look and feel, as well as its navigation, was intuitive

and accessible. More than 200 military members from different services,

units, ranks and age groups across Australia were selected to provide

feedback, in order to ensure that the launched site was user-friendly.

Based on the user research findings, important personalised touches were

added throughout the user experience on the site. “ForceNet is mobile

responsive, and the user log-in page colours change, depending on each

member’s service (for example, Army members see a red colour scheme).

Members can also show their honours and awards as well as their defence

qualifications, which display as badges and medals at the top of the profile

page; this may seem insignificant but actually provides a platform for

reinforcing recognition and showcasing achievements”, Major General

Spence says.

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Active duty

In order to provide full support and training to new users and

administrators as needed, as well as to be able to tackle any initial

challenges quickly, the ForceNet team opted for a series of soft launch

phases, rather than one full launch, and created a series of in-depth user

guides. However, it seems that the cautious approach may not have been

necessary. “The site is so simple and intuitive that the user guides have

hardly been used and we’ve had only a handful of training requests; most

of them are very quick to resolve. On top of this, unit administrators have

found the management process extremely low-maintenance and current

reports show that they spend less than an hour per week managing site

content”.

The initial reception of ForceNet has already proved hugely positive.

Despite the first soft launch of ForceNet being rolled out to just 800

trial members across seven military units, this number had jumped to

in excess of 6000 members within nine weeks. “Like the most popular

social networks, ForceNet has seen a viral uptake—we haven’t conducted

any sort of internal promotion but, through word of mouth alone, we’ve

seen members from all levels of seniority outside of our launch groups

voluntarily signing up - from privates all the way up to star ranked

officers”, explains Major General Spence.

“We realised that in business social networks fail if senior management

doesn’t buy-in. With ForceNet we’ve seen top-down and bottom-up

adoption, which is encouraging lower ranks to sign-up - it’s an extremely

organic growth, which is really exciting see, as it means that members are

signing up because they want to use it, rather than because they’ve been

told to”.

Tactical advantage

Since the first roll-out, ForceNet has been introduced to Army reservists

in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, and the current membership

count is already in excess of 6,500, with 15,000 expected by the end of the

financial year. While the site is already seeing high levels of engagement,

some unforeseen benefits have been noted, in particular the importance

of ForceNet’s ‘events’ section.

“Previously, events, whether social or work-related, were organised over

the phone or via email. This meant that if a training session needed to be

changed at the last minute, especially over a weekend, it could be very

difficult to ensure that everyone knew about it and had all the information

they needed. It also meant it was difficult for the organiser to ensure

that they knew how many (and who) were attending and whether they

had adequate equipment prepared”, admits Major General Spence. “In

this sense, the events section has solved a problem to a higher level

“ForceNet has enabled us to engage with our workforce in a twenty-first-century approach and provided an environment our members expect.”

– Major General Iain Spence, Head Cadet, Reserve and Employer Support Division, Department of Defence

forcenet.gov.au

Case study

than initially expected. Now, members can see all the information they

need and receive event notifications in the same way you’d expect to see

on Facebook, complete with a Google map showing the location and a

full list of invitees, declines, acceptances and non-responses. It’s been a

revelation”.

ForceNet social

It seems that initial concerns relating to user uptake were baseless, as the

ForceNet team has seen user behaviour become more varied, mirroring

that of other social networks. “At first we saw mainly text updates, but

we’ve seen a gradual increase in image and video posts, which is great, as

it suggests that users are becoming more comfortable with the platform

and the idea that it is a secure place to network,” advises Major General

Spence. “We’ve also seen social user groups springing up, especially with

specialists such as medical professionals and musicians, which shows that

members are starting to see the opportunities ForceNet can provide”,

Major General Spence says.

Long road to victory

With the soft launch stages complete, the ForceNet team is already

looking into additional functionality to keep the site current and

competitive with other social networks. “People are already contributing

ideas and suggestions for future improvement, which has been wonderful

and very welcome” remarks Major General Spence. “So far, we’re hoping

to provide videoconferencing and file management functions, as well as

further personalisation—such as job alerts based on matching skills to

users via their profile.”

“On the profile page, users can choose to show or hide their other social

pages, so in future we’d like to find a way to automatically pull data from

these pages into their ForceNet account, to speed up profile page creation

and prevent duplication of information.”

“Ultimately, the ideal would be for ForceNet to replace our members’

other social profiles. We want to provide everything they need online,

in one secure environment, so that they use ForceNet as their preferred

social presence. Not only will this help us to avoid security breaches in

future but it will also hopefully continue to foster the close community we

already have within Defence and provide our members with a voice and a

forum for support.”

forcenet.gov.au

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Solution special ingredients

» Sitecore® Experience Platform™

» Microsoft SQL Server

» Apache SOLR

» Microsoft IIS

forcenet.gov.au

Forcenet forcenet.gov.au

Deloitte Digital deloittedigital.com/au

Sitecore sitecore.net

Sitecore is the global leader in customer experience management. The company delivers highly relevant

content and personalised digital experiences that delight audiences, build loyalty, and drive revenue. With

the Sitecore® Experience Platform™, marketers can own the experience of every customer that engages with

their brand, across every channel. More than 4,400 of the world’s leading brands—including American Express,

Carnival Cruise Lines, easyJet, and L’Oréal—trust Sitecore to help them deliver the meaningful interactions that

win customers for life.

Debrief

With positive feedback flooding in from its members and engagement

levels growing by the day, ForceNet has been a huge coup for the project

team. “We feel that the site has been an incredible success”, remarks

Major General Spence. “A huge part of that success has been down to

the joint approach between Deloitte Digital, the Department of Defence

and Sitecore. It’s been a true collaboration, with everyone putting in huge

amounts of effort and always willing to think outside the square while,

crucially, thinking about the needs of military users.”

“From the outset, we’ve been hugely impressed with Sitecore, not only

in terms of the technology and the outcomes it has helped us to achieve

with ForceNet but also with the level of service. We’ve never felt like we’d

been sold a product; rather, we’ve been handed a genuine solution to a

problem.”

“ForceNet has enabled us to engage with our workforce in a twenty-first-

century approach and provided an environment our members expect.

It has also helped make us an employer of choice with new recruits and

future generations of graduates, which is vital to the future success of the

Defence Force”.

Case study

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Bringing social media to the militaryHow the Department of Defence built its own social network