National Museums Liverpool

National Museums Liverpool is the largest group of national museums based wholly outside London. They look after national collections which are among the most important and varied in Europe. Containing everything from Impressionist paintings and rare beetles, to a lifejacket from the Titanic.  

They regularly host world class exhibitions, public lectures, and activities for people of all ages. NML consists of eight museums and galleries, with more than 600 employees based at multiple sites. The organisation has charity status and all of the museums and galleries are free to the public. They are a true cultural powerhouse. 

We have worked with them on training their people how to use technology to enable even greater collaboration across their different sites. 

The relationship between Hable and National Museums Liverpool started back in May 2019. We have trained their employees, transitioned them to Microsoft 365, and have had the opportunity to get to know their brilliant company culture.  

The skill level, confidence and availability of technology was unknown at the beginning of the project. And training sessions had to be scheduled so the delivery did not impact the museums’ operations. It meant the move to Microsoft Teams has to be as seamless as possible. It was completed just before lockdown, enabling them to continue their work at home. 

We provided a large-scale training programme on Microsoft 365. From administration and governance to training tailored for the frontline staff. We supported over 640 members on training for Microsoft Teams. And provided support and training on building a SharePoint intranet, as well as training on PowerApps and PowerBI.  

To help them really use the technology to its full potential, we developed a suite of custom PowerApps solutions. Including Staff Suggestions, Teams Training, Good Deed Feed, Small Ads.  

The benefits unlocked were impressive. Departments were able to use Teams to deliver content to external contractors which had been too large for email. We saw major reduction in staff workload and frustration. 

 Data gathering through a third party was replaced by Forms, which delivered a significant cost reduction. And Organisational news became available to all staff through Teams. With not all staff having email access this resulted in staff feeling much more informed.  

“We can now share our information and documents much more effectively. We can carry out training across a large team, where people can dip in and out of it when it’s convenient to them. We just feel more connected as a team. We have over 20 buildings that the team work across, and all of a sudden we feel like one team working for one organisation.” 

 – Sandra Penketh, Executive Director for Galleries and Collections Care 

We’ve found NML completely embraced the potential of every tool they’ve encountered. Since the lockdown, it has been hugely rewarding to see the tools and technology which we all worked so hard to put in place, prove their value. 

Working with National Museums Liverpool was so rewarding. We loved enabling the organisation to bring all of the people across their offices, galleries and museums together in a more collaborative way.  

Improving collaboration at National Museums Liverpool - watch the video