Electronic Arts (EA) is a leader in entertainment software, producing some of the world’s best-known games including The Sims and Medal of Honor. To stay on top in a highly competitive industry, EA must drive a rapid and increasing pace of product development. At the same time, the company works hard to maintain a creative, people-focused culture. As EA grew to thousands of employees and offices around the world, it became challenging to share ideas and expertise across the organization. It also grew more difficult to integrate new employees into the company’s distinctive culture. EA developed a solution called EA People based on Microsoft^® Office SharePoint^® Server 2007. Starting with the core functionality of the platform, EA heavily customized the user interface to make the most of the distinctive culture and skills of EA.

• Employees can quickly find colleagues with needed expertise or experience, reducing the need to duplicate work.
• Communities for new hires help them find connections and information they need to become productive more quickly.
• Features like the ability to post personal information and images on My Sites and see where colleagues are in the organization lend to social cohesion, enhancing employees’ ability to work closely together even when they are physically remote.