Hy-Vee installs a corporate portal for 46,000 employees and vendors

Supermarket chain Hy-Vee Inc. has deployed a web-based employee portal for 46,000 employees in 216 stores in seven Midwest states. Using Plumtree Software Inc.’s portal system, Hy-VeeNet, as the company is calling the portal, will be available on kiosks and work stations at all stores. Employees will have access to such information as sales, expense and inventory reports, HR services, personnel directories, and calendars.

The portal also will be available to outside suppliers to assist in promotion planning and other marketing initiatives.

Hy-Vee, which has annual sales of more than $4 billion, says it expects timelier corporate communications, faster HR transactions and dramatic reductions in the amount of paper flow to stores.

Hy-Vee has integrated Stellent’s content management system into the portal to convert store reports up to thousands of pages in length into PDFs indexed in the Plumtree Document Directory. Hy-VeeNet’s directory currently houses more than 110,000 PDF reports and electronic forms, replacing faxes and e-mail messages.

Hy-VeeNet assigns users one of 50 job role- and location-based security profiles to control access to reports. Among the information at the portal are:
--company expenses sorted by type, store, quarter and percent change
--sales and inventory performance tracking
--current job postings and job opening alerts
--electronic job application submission
--job performance review forms
--employee wage verification
--product catalogs
--company, store and promotions calendars
--phone directories.