Our history

DWXS combines in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of digital workplaces with a long heritage.  

It began life in 2009 as the Worldwide Intranet Challenge, the brainchild of Australian intranet expert Andrew Wright. Over the following 12 years hundreds of organisations ran the survey to get fast, employee-led insights on their internal digital content and tools.

In doing so, this built up one of the world's most comprehensive datasets on intranet features, perception and value. We at Lithos Partners used the WIC many times as part of our discovery work with clients, as we believe it to be an invaluable way to capture the employee voice while getting objective benchmarking data. 

That same decade the intranet space evolved to become the digital workplace, encompassing collaboration, transactional tools and knowledge management alongside communications. And as remote and hybrid work became mainstream, organisations began to prioritise digital employee experience as a key part of their employee brand and value proposition. 

So in 2022, Lithos Partners took on the WIC with the task of updating it to reflect this evolution, while staying true to the WIC heritage.

The methodology remains the same. A survey of your employees, designed by experts, run by you, giving you quick, detailed insights to prove the value of your work of build a business case for change.

But we developed and a new set of questions, covering collaboration, knowledge management, transactional services and the digital employee experience as well as communication.

We tested this - along with our process and tool - with a small pilot group of organisations to refine, and have re-launched as the Digital Workplace Experience Study.

We’re believe that every digital workplace journey starts with data and a solid understanding of employee needs. So we’re excited to launch DWXS to give every organisation detailed, actionable employee-led insight to drive improvement in the modern digital workplace. 

Sign up today

Meet the Team

Sharon O’Dea and Jonathan Phillips are the team behind DWXS and Lithos Partners, a world-leading digital workplace consultancy. With more than 40 years of collective experience in digital communications, collaboration, digital experience and the future of work, Sharon and Jonathan are ready to help with your projects.

  • Sharon is a digital workplace and future of work expert. Over the past 15 years she’s advised some of the world’s best-known firms on digital workplace.

    As co-founder of Lithos Partners, she advises large and complex organisations on the tools, practices and capabilities they need to be engaged and productive.

    Recently named by Onalytica as one of the world’s top 10 influencers on the Future of Work, Sharon is a regular writer and speaker at conferences worldwide, as well as host of a podcast series.

    A champion of diversity and equity, Sharon is co-founder of 300 Seconds, which helps under-represented groups in digital to find their voice.

  • Jonathan Phillips is a digital strategy consultant, focusing on communication, collaboration and digital workplace technologies. With 20 years blue chip experience, he is a regular keynote speaker, contributor to the digital community and a recognised global expert. 

    Jonathan is co-founder of Lithos Partners, helping organisations with their digital communication and collaboration. 

    He is a communication advisor to UK government and the University of Bristol, charity chair, non-exec director and co-founder of Intranetizen.com.