By Janus Boye
German software vendor Staffbase is eying the broader market for corporate communication and indeed many talks and themes on the agenda went far beyond the usual intranet topics at their VOICES 2024 conference in Berlin.
Known for changing the game with their employee app approach, Staffbase has made it to the top of the charts for delivering modern intranets in a packaged solution. Or to be blunt: An alternative to the SharePoint intranets that tend to come up short and which historically has been loved by few.
We’ve followed them since the early days a decade ago, when they were called eyo and mostly delivered features like forms, calendars, and menu plans. Still back then they did more than just ship features, but looked broadly at the pain points of internal communication.
With ‘Inspiration’ as the key theme at VOICES 2024 coupled with some major product announcements, you don't need to be a seasoned industry analyst to see that they are going after a bigger market. Also, similar to the movement we are seeing from other software companies, winning the hearts and minds of the agencies is key and Staffbase also used their conference to share a new partner program. This also resonates with customers increasingly turning to their trusted agencies to make vendor decisions.
What can you learn from German rapper Apache 207? A presentation on the main stage looked far beyond the corporate world to gain insights from the music industry.
Based on conversations and the presentations I watched in Berlin, I'll share my perspective on the conference, key takeaways from some of the major customers who shared their experiences and finally how the Staffbase narrative is changing and what it means for you.
Let’s start with a closer look at the actual conference.
VOICES, one big (internal) communicators love parade
Among the many vendor conferences out there, you can essentially divide them all in two types: Those who act as a impressive training, marketing and sales vehicle for existing and new customers and those which really aim to be different and almost entering into the vendor-neutral territory of being an industry event.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann is the leading candidate from FDP (Free Democratic Party) for the upcoming European Parliament election in June. She had the stage to herself for 30 minutes and talked about how polarisation can be a good thing (!), knowing your audience, being honest and authentic. She made the audience laugh when she mentioned her recent arrival on Tiktok and perhaps most importantly reminded us all that many are afraid of the future - that also impacts how you communicate.
With VOICES by Staffbase they clearly seem to be doing the latter, positioning it as the #1 event for internal communicators. Still, it’s not like the 2-day event was without the well-known vendor announcements, flashy marketing, product updates and the almost obligatory award ceremony, but I’ll give Staffbase that they did pull off one impressive event.
The marketplace for modern intranets, including packaged solutions and employee apps is big and growing. Clearly German-based Staffbase has come a long way in seizing the opportunity and VOICES drew more than 2,000 participants. Quite impressive for a vendor conference held entirely in German.
When the conference opened, the talk was about courage, illustrated by the memorable example of how Crocs shoes became cool again (hint: celebrity endorsements) and the event was also used as a book launch for “The Narrative Age” written by Staffbase co-founder Frank Wolf. An example from the book was one of the few times sustainability was mentioned on stage.
As you would expect from a vendor that recently bought an email tracking tool (Bananatag in 2021) and has grown big with an app story to reach non-desk workers, the VOICES experience was heavily communicated. Credit to Staffbase for using their very own tools for this, but this participant wouldn't mind a bit less communication, in particular leading up to the conference. It seems that Staffbase is going after a market where you can’t over-communicate.
Personally, I’m always curious about the customer stories, so let’s turn to them.
What might you learn from CEWE, DHL and Telekom?
The conference participants were a broad mix of communicators and the actual customer stories reflected what Staffbase has delivered so far.
German photo printing company CEWE showed how their employee app enabled creativity and going in tune with ‘Inspiration’ as the theme. They openly shared how their new internal podcasts have risen to become their most popular internal communications format.
DHL is widely known as a very large logistics company and has been a prominent Staffbase customer since the early days. With almost 20 DHL employees attending VOICES, it seems a mutually beneficial partnership, and in the DHL talk on the main stage we heard about delivering great content like Beyonce. How AI can support the internal editorial process and finishing on a high note with an urge for all communicators to fall back in love with your job. In an interesting side note in the middle of the presentation, ‘search’ was mentioned, an area where most intranets don’t meet expectations, but as was said from the stage: At DHL they are working on it.
Janine Langholz is Head of Internal Communications at DHL Express and gave a talk on how AI can improve the entire content process and she also made the good point on where AI comes up short
I’ll also highlight Telekom MMS, the consulting arm of Deutsche Telekom, which is based in Dresden less than an hour away from Staffbase HQ in Chemnitz. They’ve also been an early adopter and many key employees at Staffbase have roots at MMS. Their story at VOICES felt like a refreshing update on how to do intranets in 2024. With 250 editors they’ve implemented a front door intranet based on Staffbase and seen usage go up after their relaunch.
A changing Staffbase narrative
As expected the big talks from Staffbase management was much less about AI than last year. Vendors are now moving on and for Staffbase and their 800+ employees that means back to the roots of using communication to focus on people, to bridge divides and create a sense of belonging.
Inspiration Intelligence - the updated AI-powered approach to making communications more inspiring
We heard from Martin Böhringer, co-founder of Staffbase, that the world needs more communication and how Staffbase can help along a cycle of Connect, Act and Engage. He talked about the power of communication in a polarised world and the vision to deliver what he dubbed “Inspiration Intelligence”; An AI-powered Staffbase Companion (think: Copilot) and a way to do more with less. That’s good in a time where budgets for internal communication are not going up, but again, when is enough communication enough?
This continued on the second day where we heard about how AI changes communication, but also with a focus on how to do it without losing the human touch.
It also resonated with me to hear about how Staffbase as a large employer tries to navigate the challenge of delivering clear statements on current topics from both employers and customers. Having the right values and delivering on them is key to attracting and retaining the right people and this was also a major theme throughout the days.
Why not use a customer conference to drive up reviews? At VOICES you could get a €25 voucher if you left a review on Gartner or G2. That’s also how the analyst game works.
Staffbase also used the conference to release Mission Control, now in public beta. It’s a tool positioned as ‘the navigation system for strategic communication’ and it enables you to orchestrate communication campaigns, monitor feedback and deliver sentiment analysis. Calling it Mission Control feels like a stretch, but product naming aside, this new tool seems powerful across the entire value chain, potentially also in the hands of external communicators. On that note, CMS vendor Kontent.ai also has a Mission Control, which also lets you measure the impact of communication.
As mentioned earlier on, the Staffbase approach to partners is also getting a refresh. With a new Consulting Partner Program, and a pre-VOICES partner gathering, Staffbase is ramping up their efforts and as a customer this will hopefully provide you with more options and better experienced help down the road.
Learn more about the future of internal communication
The conversation about Staffbase and more broadly the future for internal communicators naturally continues in our peers groups and conferences. At the Boye Aarhus 24 conference in November, we have a dedicated employee experience conference track.
Staffbase is far from alone in the marketplace and we also have several customers using Haiilo, a competing German software vendor, and Unily from the UK.
Last year, Frank Wolf hosted a members call on Intranet Strategy Trends for 2023 and in a few weeks, you can join an upcoming members’ call where we do a book launch of The Narrative Age.