(CALGARY, AL) Do you have a strong sales intranet, but would like to enhance it by learning how other sales intranets are delivering value?

I'm looking for, on behalf of a client, organizations that have a strong sales intranet or sales home page on the intranet and are willing to information share and trade with others -- strictly confidentially, of course. Information will be treated as confidential and for information purposes only.

Specificially, I have a client that is a world-leading sales organization with a very strong intranet that is looking to share their intranet practies and best practices on:

o  Sales tools and applications
o  Sales processes on the intranet
o  Sales collaboration
o  Sales information sharing
o  Sales information structure and use
o  Sales activities on the intranet that lead to improved sales and time-to-    market

If you have or know of a strong sales intranet or culture that would like to confidentially share best practices information please contact me directly (Toby Ward - 416.986.2226 - or toby{at}prescientdigital{dotcom}

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A reader recently asked me how to find and test a potential candidate to run internal communications and the corporate intranet.

I’ve helped a few clients hire an intranet manager and here are some of the key duties and skills that I suggest are necessary – based on a job posting for the slightly more prolific Editor-in-Chief (feel free to take out some duties and skills for a less prolific position):

Duties:

• Provide the editorial leadership for Intranet, editing and overseeing daily content and news production.
• Support alignment of timely and effective Internal Communications by developing and maintaining an editorial schedule and by being a key writer of homepage content including corporate news and polls.
• Develop, maintain and manage the necessary infrastructure for content publication including policies, process and procedures.
• Create and maintain standards to ensure quality control of the content on the Intranet, working in partnership with Business Unit and Divisional site administrators and content owners to enforce content-editorial policy and corporate identity guidelines.
• Chair the Intranet Editorial Board and be an active member on the Intranet Council.
• Partner with the Intranet Council, IT, Business Units, web administrators, content owners and project stakeholders to identify opportunities and implement solutions that drive usage, streamline processes and facilitate communications, ultimately developing goals and strategies for future content growth.
• Review and analyze employee feedback and site metrics on an ongoing basis, taking action where appropriate to drive usage and enhance content.
• Support the implementation of the Intranet revamp launch communications plan. 
• Support the implementation of employee communication initiatives including quarterly employee updates, employee cascades, electronic newsletters and special projects. 

Qualifications:

• Accomplished and fluent business writer and editor, preferably with experience working in a daily newspaper, publication, news, business Internet or Intranet environment
• Experience in communication management of Intranets including the use of Content Management Systems (CMS), internet content presentation and web writing style
• Familiarity with web technology and how it can be leveraged as a communication/business tool
• Strong relationship building and negotiation skills
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment with the ability to adapt to change and meet timelines without sacrificing quality
• Basic knowledge of HTML and ASP and some experience in design software and web implementation tools/languages: Photoshop, Illustrator/Freehand, Flash, html,dhtml, javascript 
• Post secondary training or a degree in a related field
• Effective interpersonal, communication, time management and collaboration skills
• 5+ years applicable experience

Keep in mind that the Editor-in-Chief is more than a writer. The Editor-in-Chief is a manager – they manage people, apply standards, and know a thing or two about stick-handling through corporate politics. Writing skills are important, but less important than management skills.

There are a number of personality and management tests that could be employed for testing these skills. My suggestion and one of my favorites is the DISC Profile Personality Test. This is to test apptitude, personality, and management skills. Other writing and skillset tests would be above and beyond this DISC profile test.

HP has been an innovator for decades. With 150,000 employees in 170 countries supporting thousands of different projects, the intranet has to be solid and a unifying force in such a diverse and disparate company.

@hp is the unifying center of the employee intranet experience – the portal for all employees – with one-stop access to 1,850 intranet applications.

Please see the complete article on the Intranet Insider on Communitelligence.com: Intranet case study: HP.

Also note the next Intranet Insider World Tour stop is British Airways on February 21st... please see Intranet Insider World Tour: British Airways.

The world’s biggest intranet, the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI, with a total price tag of about $10-billion) serves more than 500,000 users – mostly marines and sailors in the field.

The end users are happy with the intranet – whether its dependability, support, or the ability to find information – user satisfaction is about 70%. Mission accomplished. Or is it…

NMCI is viewed as a failing project. A report by the Government Accountability Office (see GAO-07-51) is critical of NMCI for never implementing a plan developed in 2000 to measure and report project progress. GAO says that NMCI intranet has met a paltry three of 20 performance targets set for the intranet.

"By not implementing its performance plan, the Navy has invested, and risks continuing to invest heavily, in a program that is not subject to effective performance management and has yet to produce expected results," auditors said.

But the real damning evidence is from management. In two different satisfaction surveys with naval and marine commanders, the intranet was shot to pieces.

“Specifically, on a scale of 0-3 with 0 being not satisfied, and 1 being slightly satisfied with the contractor’s support in meeting the mission needs and strategic goals of these organizations, the average response from all organizations was 0.65 and 0.76 in September 2005 and March 2006, respectively. The latest survey results show minor differences in the degree of dissatisfaction with the four types of contractor services addressed (cutover services, technical solutions, service delivery, and warfighter support),” says the GAO report.

Users can find information and do most of the things that they want, but the intranet is failing to live up to its purpose. If an intranet fails to achieve business objectives and deliver on the priorities of management, then the intranet fails. It’s money wasted, and opportunity squandered.

Design and usability are important, but both are tertiary values compared to planning, performance and content (including governance, process and resources). Despite the incredible hype and emphasis on look-and-feel and usability testing (specifically these ridiculous awards reports and ceremonies), colors, pictures, blogs, and podcasts are all for nothing if the intranet does not have well executed plan that supports management objectives.

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For more intranet news visit www.IntranetReport.com

© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media

I’m not a big fan of predictions and soothsaying, but I still read those that are well thought.

Tony Byrne has developed his Predictions for 2007 which include:

• Google de-googles its appliance
• AJAX UI backlash
• Web managers embracing the delete key
• Falling seat prices
• Rediscovery of workflow
• Portal platforms will diversify

I agree with most of Tony’s predictions, but I think there are bigger ones at play. I know I said I don’t do these predictions but since my company is called ‘Prescient’ I feel compelled to become a hypocrite.

The year 2007 will see:

• Microsoft crank-up the marketing of Sharepoint leading to more and more customers buying without seriously examining alternative solutions
• Standalone portal products will continue to be considerably out-done by CMS solutions
• More vendors delivering a complete all-in-one solution that includes robust content management, search and portal functionality
• Continued market consolidation with many more CMS vendors being bought, merged or disappearing
• Dramatic growth in open source implementation and increased profile and functionality for bigger name solutions such as Zope, Alfresco, OpenCMS, and Plone
• More and more organizations will convert PDF and MS-Word forms to online submission forms with a mixture of in-house and outsourced solutions
• The search engine market will experience less growth than previous years as more organizations realize their current engine suffices and instead focus on content tagging, categorizing, process and policies
• Discussion and focus on Knowledge Management (KM) will continue to decline as more organizations instead narrow their attention to specific tools such as Web 2.0 applications
• More organizations will implement blogs and wikis, but they will still be part of a minority group; social bookmarking and podcasting will still remain little more than a fad on the intranet

Agree? Disagree? What other predictions will come true? Post your comment or question below.

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For more intranet news visit www.IntranetReport.com

Intranets don’t deliver good ROI; applications deliver great ROI. Or so we’re told.

Why do stores like the Gap, Target, Nordstrom’s, etc. locate in malls? Malls exist because they attract a lot of shoppers and therefore retailers like the Gap are willing to pay a lot of rent to realize the sales and ROI that come from those shoppers. If the shopping mall doesn’t exist, a lot of retailers lose out. The stores don’t get the sales, and they don’t get the ROI.

The intranet benefits applications as the mall benefits stores. Intranets drive traffic to applications which reap the big ROI.

One of my favorite application ROI examples is the fantastic SuperSleuth sales lead tool on the SodhexoUSA intranet (see Best practices case study: Sodexho USA). SuperSleuth is an intranet application that encourages employees to submit sales leads and prospective clients via the intranet. Successful leads submitted via the SuperSleuth intranet page generate cash rewards of up to $1000 for the person making the submission. Sodexho says it has contributed to a 100% increase in sales leads in the past year and led to US$90 million dollars in managed volume (net client sales including sales by client).

The Sodexho intranet home, compliments of SodexhoUSA

("Revolutionizing Employee Communication", Angelo Ioffreda, Sodexho USA)

SuperSleuth is an intranet based tool that would be no means receive that volume of leads nor generate the dollars it does without the intranet to drive those leads. The intranet home page promotes the tool and generates the traffic that reaps the reward.

It’s no longer acceptable for an accountant or techie to tell you that you can’t count the ROI on the employee directory, or online expense form, or sales lead generator as intranet ROI. The intranet begets the tool that delivers the value and as such should be recognized as a successful delivery platform that delivers ROI.

While some tools like online benefits enrollment might still generate a high ROI without the foundation that is the intranet, others like SuperSleuth depend on the intranet. It’s fair to say, based on my anecdotal and measured observations, that many applications owe 50% of their value to the intranet.

Without the mall, many stores would scramble for customers – many enterprises are without a business model. Like the mall, the intranet ensures the success of its application stores and makes possible a business model that wouldn’t exist without a supporting foundation.

To measure and increase the value of your intranet, please dowload the free white paper, Finding ROI.

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For more intranet news visit www.IntranetReport.com

© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media

The start of a new year brings a lot of hype – the promise of bigger, better, faster; predictions and prognostications for the future; and the annual Intranet Design Annual by Jakob Nielsen et al.

While we’re only 15 days into 2007, the report is hyped as “the 10 Best Intranets of 2007.” I’m not sure how that’s possible, but Nielsen is a master at hyping his own work – which is very, very good. Nielsen is a true thought leader and, by all accounts, a genius. Usability and design is his tapestry and laboratory. And marketing is one of his gifts.

But beware the hype. Only a small fraction of an intranet’s value is design and usability – tertiary aspects to the larger value delivered by content, planning and resources. This value appears to be an afterthought to the authors of the report in years past, but at least they are forthright in promoting the report for what it is: a ‘design’ annual.

The report though is very well written and there are some great case studies and screenshots. At US$179, the report is great value. (Funny, I promote this report every year and despite all my readers I’ve never  gotten a note for them… no response ever. Perhaps I’m too frank and not selling it hard enough… though I’d be surprised if this column delivers no less then a few dozens sales for them. Am I becoming an intranet snob?!? J).

This year’s winners (keep in mind that these aren’t really the best of the year, just the best of the submissions and screenshots that Nielsen Norman received) include:

• American Electric Power (AEP), United States
• Comcast, United States
• DaimlerChrysler AG, Germany
• The Dow Chemical Company, United States
• Infosys Technologies Limited, India
• JPMorgan Chase & Co., United States
• Microsoft Corporation, United States
• National Geographic Society, United States
• The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), United Kingdom
• Volvo Group, Sweden

Here are some interesting tidbits from the report offered up in Nielsen’s latest column 10 Best Intranets of 2007:

• Dow uses English for most global content, but translates the most important content into six other languages (Dutch, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish). It also translates selected content into Chinese, Greek, Japanese, and Thai.
• The most-used products were: Windows Server, Google Search Appliance or Google Mini, SharePoint, SQL Server, Google Maps, Omniture, and Vignette
• Across the first three Intranet Design Annuals (2001-2003), the winning intranets were 4.3 years old on average. Across the three most recent Annuals (2005-2007), intranets were 7.5 years old on average
• Across the first three Design Annuals (2001-2003), the average intranet contained 200,000 pages; across the three most recent Annuals (2005-2007), the average intranet contained 6 million pages
• This year’s intranet winners have the following owners: 35% were in Corporate Communications, 27% were in Information Technology or Information Systems (IT/IS), and 19% were in Human Resources (HR)
• Comcast's marketing extranet has reduced versioning and distribution costs by 50-60% and reduced delivery time even more
• Infosys has experienced a 65% drop in help desk calls since launching its redesign

OK here’s the big free plug you can bank on Jakob: you can buy directly online the 360-page Intranet Design Annual with 199 screenshots.

What is the difference between a good intranet and a great intranet? What do you do to get to great?

There is no simple answer. In fact, using the Prescient Digital Media intranet methodology of rating and scoring an intranet out of 10, I estimate that to advance a 6 out of 10 intranet to an 8 out of 10 requires twice the effort and much more intelligent thinking.

In preparing a magazine article on great intranets I developed a success factor comparison matrix on good and great intranets based on real experience with both good and great intranets with an average of 5,000 employees. The following is a summary of the complete table to be published in a couple of months:

For the complete table or more information on evolving your intranet from good to great then please contact me directly: toby{at}prescientdigital{dot com}.

The intranet is not a communications tool; nor a technology. And it’s certainly not just a website. The intranet is a business system to support the entire company. It touches and represents all facets of the business, and if executed properly, improves all aspects of the business.

A successful intranet improves:

• employee communications
• business processes
• time-to-market
• sales and revenue
• operations
• human resources
• financial administration
• information retrieval
• employee self-service

More and more often the intranet is being owned by or driven by communications. However, to properly steer the intranet, one must ditch the communicators hat and don a management cap.

The leader(s) of the intranet requires a multiplicity of talents:

• build and secure internal consensus
• sell and market the benefits of the intranet to senior management
• evangelize the use and involvement to employees
• advocate and secure funding
• understand and deploy technology platforms and applications
• track and measure costs and benefits
• manage and train managers
• write and edit for the web 

A such, the internal communications role is evolving, if not dying.

“Internal communication people need to stop thinking about ourselves as internal communicators. Because we’re simply not anymore. And we shouldn’t be,” says Keven Keohane, Head of Engagement Consulting for global brand agency.

“It’s no longer about crafting the right messages, ensuring they are delivered using the right channels at the right time, and getting feedback and “engagement,” writes Keohane Enterprise IG in The end of internal communications (www.simply-communicate.com).

“Internal communicators need to start thinking of themselves as business process support (and in some cases, design) experts and part of the team that directly enables the organisation and its stakeholders to deliver the best possible customer experience.”

Read the full article The end of internal communications

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For more intranet news visit www.IntranetReport.com

© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media

Employee satisfaction used to matter. In fact it still does at most organizations, however, employee satisfaction is a dying metric.

In a new analysis (Making Employee Engagement a Focus) by research firm Ipsos, “there is a very poor correlation between employee satisfaction and bottom line results (see “Shattering the Myths of Customer Loyalty”). Sometimes the connection is there, but just as often, it isn’t.”

Instead, some experts maintain that organizations should shift their focus from satisfaction to employee engagement.

There are of course differing definitions of employee engagement, but in essence, an engaged employee is one that is committed to personal growth and the growth of the organization, and acts accordingly.

The Wikipedia entry on employee engagement:

“Employee engagement is a concept that is generally viewed as managing discretionary effort, that is, when employees have choices, they will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests. Engaged employees feel a strong emotional bond to the organization that employs them. (Robinson) This is associated with people demonstrating a willingness to recommend the organization to others and commit time and effort to help the organization succeed. (Harter) It suggests that people are motivated by intrinsic factors (e.g. personal growth, working to a common purpose, being part of a larger process) rather than simply focusing on extrinsic factors (e.g. pay / reward). (Ryan) The concept has gained popularity as various studies have demonstrated links with productivity.”

An engaged employee is more likely to:

• Understand and support through action a company’s vision and goals
• Recommend the company’s products and services to friends and family