ULS Coimbra Transforms with Diggspace Intranet

About the Client

The Coimbra Local Health Unit (ULS Coimbra) has achieved a significant milestone in its digital transformation journey by implementing Diggspace, a modern, people-centered platform designed to streamline communication, foster collaboration, and improve accessibility. ULS Coimbra, as a prominent healthcare provider in Portugal, serves a direct population of over 365,000 residents and provides specialized care to around 2 million inhabitants in the central region. Its extensive network includes 8 hospital units and 26 local health centers, positioning it as a national and European reference institution for multiple medical specialties.

Client Key Numbers

10000

Total Workers

2200

Doctors

3700

Nurses

1000

Technical Assistants

2000

Operational Assistants

Hospital Units

Local Health Centers

Meeting the Challenges of Legacy Systems

Prior to Diggspace, ULS Coimbra’s intranet system was complex, hard to maintain, and lacked the scalability needed to support its expanded operations post-2024.

The limitations of the previous system hindered usability, posed security risks, and made decentralized content management challenging across multiple sites. With over 10,000 healthcare professionals — including more than 2,200 doctors and 3,700 nurses — the institution required a platform to effectively meet these demands.

“There was the challenge of creating a common, collective space for communication and involvement of our professionals, in which institutional content could be centralized, such as information, Board deliberations, internal regulations, news, events and training, and that would function as a digital atrium for all employees, as a space for integration”, explains Rosário Reis, Hospital Administrator, Coordinator of Digital Transformation at CHUC.

All of this also contributes to raising the organization's levels of resilience, allowing it to better respond to situations such as mass remote/hybrid work or possible cyber attacks.

A Comprehensive Digital Workspace

Since implementing Diggspace, ULS Coimbra has created a cohesive digital workspace, fostering interaction across its extensive network of hospitals and health centers.

Key features of Diggspace include:

A personalized work dashboard and notification center,
A learning center for ongoing professional development,
Employee recognition and engagement tools,
An ideation lab for sharing and developing ideas,
Employee and application directories,
Integrated search and analytics for insights.

These tools provide a centralized platform that connects staff across all levels, from healthcare professionals to administrative teams, enhancing productivity and information accessibility. Diggspace also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and Teams, ensuring a smooth transition and familiarity for users accustomed to Microsoft’s ecosystem.

"Diggspace was presented as a ready-to-use solution that met our functional and organizational requirements. As a product available in a SaaS (Software-as-Service) model, we didn't even have to worry about infrastructure and maintenance, since these components are included in the licensing agreement. Additionally, since the first conversations, it has proved to be a close partner, capable of understanding the health context and addressing our challenges." João GomesProject Manager / Technology and Information Systems Service @ CHUC.

An Agile Implementation with Immediate Impact

The initial rollout of Diggspace was completed within two weeks, highlighting the platform’s ease of deployment and swift implementation. At launch, ULS Coimbra was able to seamlessly transition and onboard its workforce with the following resources:

Documents: 4,500
Articles: 650
Channels: 180
Applications: 40
Active Users: 1,000
Page Views (Launch Day): Over 10,000

These initial numbers underscore the immediate impact of Diggspace, which quickly became an essential tool for the organization. Since then, the platform has continuously supported ULS Coimbra’s evolving needs, leading to significant increases in content and user engagement.

Future Vision and Continued Success

ULS Coimbra’s ongoing partnership with Diggspace underscores the institution’s commitment to a modern, accessible digital environment. As a university-affiliated health unit, ULS Coimbra maintains a close relationship with the University of Coimbra, which supports advancements in research and clinical training. Diggspace will remain integral to this mission, fostering an innovative, agile, and scalable digital environment aligned with ULS Coimbra's ambition to lead in service excellence, care innovation, and employee satisfaction.

With three years of Diggspace in action, ULS Coimbra has witnessed impressive growth in engagement and usage.

Check the numbers below.

Tangible Results

Update: October 2024

+7,000

Documents

+2,000

Articles

+270

Channels

+50

Apps

+4,700

Monthly Active Users

+150,000

Monthly Page Views

+140

Ideas Generated

Courses Created

This type of challenge is a trigger for us to accelerate, together, the digital transformation at CHUC in health. Create IT proposed the Diggspace solution to modernize our digital workspace, and its adoption is in line with our expectations. We want to progressively increase its use, because we know that this leverages people’s involvement and, consequently, collaboration and productivity, with a direct impact on the quality of the services provided, in addition to consolidating the CHUC brand.

Rosário ReisHospital Administrator, Coordinator of Digital Transformation at CHUC

Diggspace has revealed innovation, agility and empathy skills that we value in our partners, being now the Microsoft partner of reference for CHUC. We still have a long way to go in terms of modernizing the way we work, from the greater adoption of current collaboration tools to the dematerialization and automation of internal processes.

João GomesProject Manager of the Technology and Information Systems Service at CHUC

The result at the end of these first months makes us anticipate new (digital) transformations, in a perspective of continuous improvement in the way of working and in the relationship with the user/citizen.

Gustavo LeitãoHead of Diggspace

Coimbra Hospital Center (ULS Coimbra)

Client Key Numbers

A Comprehensive Digital Workspace

Future Vision and Continued Success

Tangible Results