Unified Comms is the employee engagement module within Metro and provides each user with personalised communications, tasks, and compliance activities via personalised homepages.

Our dynamic and responsive digital workplace delivers content, tasks, social communications, messaging, feedback, performance, and more. Metro Unified Comms is available directly from RMS or via the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. 

Content Management - Managing the efficient delivery of content to target audiences is key to keeping your workforce informed and engaged with relevant information while avoiding relevance fatigue. All types of content are supported within Unified Comms, from written content in Word, Excel and PDF to more engaging and dynamic formats like Video, Voice, Instant Messaging, and Social Media.

Directory - The Unified Comms directory displays key contact information for colleagues to find with a simple search function. User Names, Preferred First and Last Names, Contact and Extension numbers, Job Titles, Roles, Departments, and Line Manager information can all be displayed along with a user’s profile image and any other information they wish to share.

News - The News function enables the publishing of newsworthy content to selected users. With a simple and intuitive interface, all news items contain valid from/to dates along with newsworthy from/to dates (i.e. the dates that an item is to be displayed within the news section), a powerful audience picker, a FAQ section, and the ability to format content and include images, attachments and enable social comments and reactions.

Tasks - The task function highlights key tasks due that day that require preparation or are overdue and outstanding. Task types can include sub-tasks, non-completion reasons and links to other forms or applications needed to complete the task. When creating tasks, a range of features are available to ensure activities are targeted and include all necessary information to complete the task efficiently.

Image Verification - If requested or to provide visual evidence that a task has been completed, images can be uploaded within Unified Comms for verification against a control image (for example, a product display) or be viewed by the task owner.

Links - Metro is designed to be the one place for all users to receive and access the information they require to do their jobs. Creating links provides users quick access to areas within or outside the Metro eco-system, with access being assigned to specific colleagues as necessary so that 3rd party applications can surface their content within the Unified Comms workplace.

Calendar - The calendar function provides users with multiple calendar views so that they can see tasks and entries relevant to only them or to wider teams and locations (dependent on permissions). Each task includes a simple RAG indicator to show its importance and can include icons to indicate what the activity is related to. As tasks are completed, a line strikes through the activity marking it as complete.

Planner - The planner functionality provides a daily, weekly view of the Store/Location planned activities, i.e. key dates, actions, notes etc. Planner entry types are configurable by the business.

Journal - The Journal is a configurable electronic diary for recording daily events and acts as a store or site handover function as well as a historical record of events. Information such as weather, trading performance and more can be captured and emailed, if necessary, to line managers at the press of a button.

FAQs - Frequently asked questions is a function within Unified Comms where lists of questions and answers relating to subjects can be quickly searched and found. FAQs also form part of content or task creation workflow, so users can see FAQs relating to anything they are being asked to do or know where to find additional support.

Employee Engagement - Unified Comms delivers social communications and instant messaging as part of its overall employee engagement functionality. Users can engage with communications in several ways, such as leaving comments or reacting to posts using a range of emoticons. These comments and reactions are available for review on a simple dashboard so that content creators can see what information is being well received or where there is potential discord.

Surveys - The survey tool allows setting up targeted and ongoing surveys for location/store/individual completion. A range of survey question types are available, including radio buttons, drop-down lists, matrices, checkboxes, dates, YES/NO, and standard text boxes. Once surveys are completed, the results can be automatically collated and extracted for further review.

Forms Generator - The Forms Generator module provides enhanced features over that of the Surveys module by providing a powerful workflow engine with conditional questions, answer calculations and alerts. A range of question types are available, including radio buttons, drop-down lists, matrices, checkboxes, dates, YES/NO, and standard text boxes. Once a form has been completed, the results can be collated and extracted for further review.

Compliance Dashboards - Compliance dashboards show real-time compliance of tasks and activities across the business, with each view being personalised to the user. Users can quickly see whether tasks have been completed, are in progress, have not been started, or have been completed due to other reasons. Users have the ability to target each status with new tasks, messages, surveys, etc., as required.

Mobile - Unified Comms is available on all smartphone devices regardless of operating system (Android or IOS). Whether information is surfaced within a browser or App, all content is optimised according to the screen real estate available.

Notifications - In conjunction with Metro’s Self-Service and Teams integrated toolsets, notifications can be delivered within apps or a range of common browsers.

KPI - A simple to configure and use KPI toolset is available to display critical business data to users. KPIs can be used to illustrate any information style, and a range of KPI types are available. In addition, KPIs can be updated in real-time from a live data feed or updated via batch uploads.

League Ladders - League Ladders are a further extension of the KPI toolset and are configurable based on any data metric, visibly identifying their ranking and position movement within the league table to the user.

Messaging - The messaging function provides an alternative email function within the Unified Comms application. Messages can be created, sent and saved within the tool. Additionally, instant messaging is available via our Employee Engagement modules.

Drive Storage - Drive Storage is a secure way to store and share information and files from within Unified Comms.

Video Media -Use high-definition video encoding and streaming services to reach your user audience on the devices they use/prefer. Unified Comms Video Media is delivered using Microsoft Media Services, ensuring an optimised viewing experience regardless of device and connection speed.

Video/Chat - Metro uses Azure Communication Services to enable video/chat sessions from within the Unified Comms task calendar.

Metro Assist/BOTS - Users can check compliance, see their tasks, and create incidents and accidents using a chatbot-style interface.

Metro 365 - Users can now access a subset of Unified Comms functionality from the O365/M365 eco-system.