Customer Case Study
How GFL Environmental Rebuilt a 2,500-Page SharePoint Intranet on Google Sites
Steegle helped GFL preserve years of SharePoint intranet investment while moving 15,000+ employees to Google Workspace, rebuilt on Google Sites and extended with Steegle.One, AppSheet, and Gemini.
| 15,000+ Employees | 2,500 Pages rebuilt | ~100 few SharePoint sites consolidated | 7 Dedicated team | 7 mo. Programme length |
Background:
GFL Environmental is the fourth-largest diversified environmental services company in North America, with 15,000+ employees across Canada and 18 U.S. states. It didn't just need a new intranet, it needed to preserve years of investment in its Microsoft SharePoint intranet while moving fully into Google Workspace.
Over a seven-month programme, a dedicated Steegle team of seven rebuilt the intranet on Google Sites, deployed self-updating Steegle.One tools, built custom AppSheet functionality and a Gemini-powered translation workflow, and trained GFL's teams to run it independently.
GFL Environmental Vehicle Parked at Company Facility
THE CHALLENGE
An Estate Too Sprawling to Search
GFL's SharePoint intranet was mission-critical to a large, dispersed organization, including Health & Safety teams who depend on always-current information. The estate had sprawled to around 100 separate SharePoint sites, too many to carry across as is without search breaking down.
Hundreds of SharePoint Sites Connected by Searches
“I owned the risk that frontline teams would lose access to forms and critical content. Steegle brought a serious view on information architecture, not just a migration checklist.”
~100 SharePoint sites — sprawling, hard to search
A small set of well-architected Google Sites
THE DISTINCTIVE PART
Solving Specialist Translation with Gemini and AppSheet
This is the part of the programme most agencies can't replicate. Generic translation tools weren't good enough for GFL's environmental services terminology, exactly the kind of wording that has to be right in a Health & Safety document. Steegle built a custom workflow instead: AppSheet manages the review step, and Gemini powers the translation itself, with prompting built specifically around GFL's industry language.
Because it's designed around GFL's Google Workspace and AppSheet environment rather than a generic third party translation service, it improves the consistency and accuracy of specialist terminology while cutting the manual translation effort GFL would otherwise carry.
GFL Insite Page Featuring Company News and Employee Updates
WHY GFL CHOSE STEEGLE.ONE
A Cost They Could Defend, Without Leaving Google
Pino Catulli and his team ran a formal evaluation across several enterprise intranet platforms before committing to a Google native approach. The alternatives considered would have added licensing, data control, and management overhead GFL didn't need, at an implementation and ongoing maintenance cost several times higher than Steegle's. Staying Google native also meant GFL's intranet content could become part of its longer term Gemini and Google Cloud strategy.
Pino was equally clear that the move shouldn't force an unnecessarily radical shift on GFL's marketing team on top of everything else already changing, the intranet needed to stay recognizably GFL, not start over on look and feel. That was a harder ask on Google Sites than it sounds, given how much more theming flexibility SharePoint offered, and it shaped how Steegle approached the rebuild as much as the content did.
GFL Learning Hub and Employee Directory
“We had years of SharePoint investment and a clear reason to move to Workspace. The question was which option would actually deliver at a cost we could defend, without taking our data out of Google. Once the knowledge sits inside our Google environment, Gemini becomes available to us immediately, or whenever we choose to use it.”
GFL's Human Resources File Library Page
| Deliverable | Scope & Execution Details |
|---|---|
|
Full Programme Management
|
End-to-end planning, strategy, and cross-functional coordination with GFL's IT leadership team and external stakeholders throughout the migration lifecycle. |
|
Intranet Consolidation & Rebuild
|
Google Sites Architecture Consolidated around 100 sprawling SharePoint sites into a streamlined set of well-structured Google Sites. Built with modern information architecture principles rather than a straight lift-and-shift, significantly improving search and overall findability. |
|
Steegle.One Suite Deployment
|
Turnkey Workspace Intranet Deployed News, People, and Share tools to keep internal news, corporate directories, shared documents, and Health & Safety content continuously updated without needing dedicated web editors. |
|
Custom AppSheet Development
|
Low-Code Integration Engineered tailored AppSheet applications to introduce custom operational functionality that was previously impossible within the legacy SharePoint environment. |
|
Google Sites Training & Enablement
|
Delivered structured hands-on training sessions for content editors and site owners, empowering GFL's internal teams to manage, update, and evolve the intranet independently post go-live. |
WHAT STEEGLE DELIVERED
Five Workstreams, One Team
RESULTS
What changed operationally
Quickly Find Content
The information architecture rebuild was designed around findability, not just migration, addressing the risk GFL's own team owned going in.
Less Manual Upkeep
News, People, and Share content update automatically without relying on editors across a dispersed organization.
Translation Efficiency
Specialist terminology is handled by the Gemini and AppSheet workflow, reducing reliance on manual translation.
Updated Handbooks
Always up to date, teams get the latest information they need without delays from manual updates.
Consistent Navigation
Menus and site structures follow a unified design, so employees don’t waste time relearning layouts.
Scalable Structure
The rebuilt architecture supports future growth without collapsing under sprawl.
Before / After
The Steegle.One Difference
| Focus Area | Before (Legacy State) | After (Steegle Transformation) |
|---|---|---|
|
Site Architecture
|
~100 sprawling SharePoint sites, difficult to search |
Consolidated Architecture Reconstructed into a small set of well-architected Google Sites with intuitive navigation and search. |
|
Platform & Ecosystem
|
Intranet built on Microsoft SharePoint, tied to Microsoft 365 |
Workspace Native Rebuilt natively on Google Sites, fully integrated with Google Workspace and Google Cloud. |
|
Content Upkeep
|
News, people, files, and H&S content needed manual upkeep |
Automated Updates Steegle News, People, and Share keep company content current automatically. |
|
Terminology & AI
|
Specialist terminology translated manually or with generic tools |
Gemini AI
AppSheet Custom workflows built specifically for GFL's specialist operational terminology. |
|
Functionality
|
Functionality limited to what SharePoint offered out-of-the-box |
Extended Capabilities Custom AppSheet development added powerful new functional capabilities tailored to business needs. |
|
Team Enablement
|
Content management knowledge sat with a small, siloed group |
Distributed Ownership Editors and site owners across GFL fully trained and self-sufficient for long-term maintenance. |
Streamline Your Intranet Management
Discover how Steegle.One minimizes administrative overhead for growing businesses. Explore our core features, corporate benefits, straightforward implementation process, and flexible pricing models.
Why Migrate from SharePoint?
Understand the key limitations of legacy SharePoint sites and why switching to Google Workspace drives employee productivity.
Our Migration Process
Explore our step-by-step framework for safely moving complex data, pages, and workflows from Microsoft 365 to Google Sites.
Energy & Utilities Solutions
See how environmental and utility organizations streamline operational communications across distributed workforces.
Multinational Enterprises
Learn how global organizations unify 10,000+ employees, simplify multi-brand communication, and scale internal operations.
| Metric / Aspect | Project Specification |
|---|---|
|
Client
|
GFL Environmental Inc. |
|
Industry
|
Environmental Services |
|
Workforce
|
15,000+ across Canada & 18 U.S. states |
|
Content Rebuilt
|
~2,500 pages migrated and optimized |
|
SharePoint Estate
|
~100 sites consolidated into a small set of Google Sites |
|
Platform Transition
|
SharePoint / M365 Google Workspace + Steegle.One |
|
Team & Timeline
|
Dedicated team of 7 specialists, delivered over 7 months |
|
Technology Stack
|
Google Sites
Steegle.One
AppSheet
Gemini
|
KEY FACTS
GFL Environmental at a Glance
Frequently Asked Questions
-
GFL migrated from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace to take advantage of Google Cloud and Gemini. Its SharePoint intranet had sprawled to around 100 separate sites, so this wasn't a simple platform switch. Steegle consolidated that estate into a small set of well-structured Google Sites, solving the search and findability risk head-on rather than just recreating what was there.
-
A dedicated Steegle team of seven worked through a mix of content migration and manual recreation, mapping the existing SharePoint structure before rebuilding roughly 2,500 pages on Google Sites. GFL's estate had sprawled to around 100 separate SharePoint sites, so this wasn't a straight lift and shift. Steegle consolidated it into a small set of well-structured Google Sites, because at that scale, search and findability break down if the structure isn't rethought.
-
The programme ran for seven months, with Steegle's team of seven split between migrating and rebuilding content and building the AppSheet and Gemini development in parallel.
-
GFL ran a formal evaluation of several enterprise intranet platforms. Staying Google native avoided moving data outside the Google environment and a significant licensing cost increase. The alternatives considered also carried implementation and ongoing maintenance costs several times higher than Steegle's.
-
No. Steegle worked alongside StrataPrime, who handled the core mailbox and data migration. Steegle owned the intranet and employee experience workstream: content structure, the Google Sites rebuild, Steegle.One deployment, AppSheet development, the Gemini translation workflow, and editor training.
-
Steegle News, People, and Share auto-populate key content, so information stays current without relying on dedicated editors for routine updates, including for GFL's Health & Safety teams who need always accurate information.
-
GFL's specialist environmental services terminology doesn't translate cleanly with generic tools, so Steegle built a custom workflow: AppSheet manages the review process and Gemini powers the translation, with prompting built specifically for GFL's industry language. It was designed around GFL's own Google Workspace and AppSheet environment rather than a generic third party translation service.
Planning a move from SharePoint to Google Workspace?
Steegle has delivered this at enterprise scale: thousands of pages, 15,000+ users, multilingual content, AppSheet development, and Gemini-powered workflows.
Book your free migration assessment today!
Stephen Hind
Google Workspace Technical Leader
Peter Chadha
Google Workspace Transformation Leader
Contact Us
Looking for an intranet solution for Google Workspace?
Since 2008, we here at Steegle.com have been delivering intranet development solutions for Google Sites. We have developed Steegle.One intranet system which builds directly to Google Sites for Google Workspace.
As a certified Google Cloud Partner, we specialize in Google Workspace based solutions. Give us a call at US +1 (302) 672 3007 or UK +44 (207) 871 502 or contact us today to view a demo of our intranet solutions, and see how it can help increase employee productivity and save time and money. Click below to learn more about the Steegle.One Intranet solution.