rsl lifecare - intranet implementation

Transforming Aged Care Communication: RSL LifeCare and Synergy Deploy a Powell-Based Intranet

RSL LifeCare is a leading charitable organization in senior living, dedicated to providing high-quality personal home care, retirement villages, and aged care homes to over 13,700 residents across NSW and the ACT, empowering veterans and the wider community with professional and compassionate support since 1911.

OVERVIEW:

RSL LifeCare partnered with Synergy to modernize their intranet, enhancing accessibility, engagement, and streamlining operations for their extensive workforce. As a charitable organization committed to providing care to over 13,700 residents across retirement villages and aged care homes in Australia, RSL LifeCare sought a robust and user-friendly intranet solution to support their century-long legacy of excellence.

Leveraging Synergy’s expertise, the intranet modernization project incorporated advanced site templates and intuitive navigation tailored to RSL LifeCare’s unique needs. This upgrade facilitated improved communication and collaboration among staff, ensuring that vital information and resources were easily accessible. The transition was executed efficiently and with minimal disruption, effectively addressing challenges associated with outdated systems and enhancing the overall reliability of the platform.

The new, user-centric intranet empowered RSL LifeCare’s distributed workforce with seamless access to essential tools and information, significantly boosting operational efficiency and employee satisfaction. By partnering with Synergy, RSL LifeCare not only modernized their internal communications infrastructure but also reinforced their commitment to delivering high-quality home care and aged care services to veterans and the broader community, securing their legacy of service for the future.

Goals / Challenges:

RSL LifeCare, a leading aged care provider, was facing growing pressure to modernize its outdated on-premises intranet. The legacy system, accessible only within the corporate network, created major obstacles for a highly mobile and distributed workforce—particularly for Home Care staff who needed reliable access to documents in the field. With increased compliance demands—such as those stemming from the Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care—the urgency to centralize and streamline policy communication became critical.

Beyond accessibility, the organization also sought to strengthen engagement among employees across its 28+ locations, including remote and deskless workers, by creating a more connected, responsive digital workplace.

Key goals included:

• Ensuring easy, secure access to policies and documents from any location or device

• Empowering staff at all levels to contribute to intranet content

• Connecting a distributed and deskless workforce through a modern, mobile-ready platform

• Improving the speed and consistency of urgent organization-wide communications

Solution/Approach:

To modernize its digital workplace and better support frontline staff, RSL LifeCare partnered with Synergy to implement a Powell Intranet solution built on Microsoft 365. Designed to be both accessible and engaging, the new intranet—branded as “Your Cooee”—serves as a centralized entry point to essential tools, documents, and organizational updates.

The phased implementation strategy allowed for testing, user feedback, and a smooth rollout. Migration of policies and resources was carried out carefully over several months, ensuring relevance and accuracy across departments.

With Powell’s user-friendly design and seamless Microsoft 365 integration, “Your Cooee” provided a branded, intuitive experience that connected staff across locations and job functions—whether working on-site, remotely, or in the field.

Key solution components included:

• Designing and launching a modern Powell Intranet on Microsoft 365

• Migrating and updating policies over a 6–9 month period to ensure accessibility and compliance

• Phased rollout, starting with a soft launch in one department to gather feedback

• Full deployment of the branded “Your Cooee” intranet across the organization within four months

[Your Cooee] is that central repository and fountain of knowledge…[RSL now has] better systems and processes in place to deal with maintaining files.”

– Ainslie Page, Digital Marketing Manager, RSL LifeCare

The Results:

The launch of the “Your Cooee” intranet has transformed internal communication and access to information at RSL LifeCare. Employees can now retrieve vital documents and updates from any device, improving efficiency and supporting remote and frontline teams.

Engagement has significantly increased, with departments taking ownership of their pages and contributing content regularly. Streamlined communication ensures all staff—on-site or remote—stay connected and informed, which proved especially critical during events like the COVID-19 lockdowns.

The platform has unified the organization, fostering a more inclusive, agile, and connected workforce.

INDUSTRY	GEOGRAPHY	CONSULTING	software
Senior Living and Aged Care	Australia	SharePoint Consulting Custom Intranet Implementation	SharePoint Powell

Ready to Empower Your Deskless Workforce?

At Synergy, we help organizations like RSL LifeCare build accessible, branded intranet solutions that connect teams across locations and job roles. Whether you're supporting frontline staff, managing compliance, or looking to modernize communication, we’ll help you create a digital workplace that works for everyone.

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