Intranet Blog

Fixing a broken intranet

Toby Ward — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0800

Redesigning an intranet does not mean you are fixing it; a broken intranet requires a lot of work and design is one of the smallest components.

While important, even technology is not the most important ingredient. Far more important to the success of any intranet is people and process.

There’s a process that should be followed for redesigning any intranet – a process that is focused on people, and grounded in the needs of the business. The process or methodology applied to a redesign is best summarized in the following flow-chart from Prescient Digital Media:

Intranet Project Methodology - Prescient Digital Media

I’m not going to drone on about this process and the importance of people and business requirements in a blog article. Sufficed to say however I’ve built a business around this methodology and worked with many dozens of companies that understand the need to align the business with the intranet and to demonstrate measured value. Initiating an intranet redesign begins with the people and documenting their requirements and that of the entire business.

Speaking on a similar topic at KM World & Intranets 2006 this past week in San Jose, my colleague Carm Porco met Nicole Engard, Web Manager for the Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia. Nicole actually has a pretty good little blog (What I Learned Today) where she’s published a very detailed, lengthy and worthwhile case study documenting the complete redesign of their intranet.

“While the design was important, we saw an opportunity for a complete redevelopment. After researching what other libraries were doing with their intranets, we decided to use read/write Web or Web 2.0 technology,” writes Nicole in her posting Intranet 2.0: Fostering Collaboration with a Homegrown Intranet. “In May 2005 we offered an introduction to the read/write Web for our staff. We defined terms like blog, wiki, and portal, then pointed them to Wikipedia [www.wikipedia.org], encouraging them to edit articles that interested them so that they could get used to wiki technology and syntax.

Once we had a direction, we needed to decide whether to use a prepackaged site or develop something in-house. We wanted more than just a wiki; we wanted blogs (one for news and inter-department communication, and several for ongoing projects), a Web-based helpdesk, and a shared calendar. Most importantly, we wanted to be able to easily link to our homegrown modules. At first we looked at free and low cost portal/content management packages, but nothing lived up to our expectations. In the end we decided to build our own site using PHP and MySQL.”

Jenkins intranet home

The case study focuses a little too much on tools and design and barely touches on the needs of the organization and how performance will be gauged and measured, but it is a pretty good illustration that the efforts involved in a redesign are very significant.

Read more on the process and requisites for building a successful intranet: Intranet Planning: An Intranet Model for Success.

To learn about Prescient's intranet planning services, please see our Intranet Blueprint service.

Toby Ward, a former journalist and prominent writer and speaker on intranets and intranet planning, is the President of Prescient Digital Media. To learn how to undertake effective intranet planning, or to get our free intranet white paper, Finding ROI, please contact us directly.

Embracing Enterprise 2.0

Toby Ward — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:43:35 -0800

“When properly rolled out, social media and Enterprise 2.0 tools can help companies meet their No. 1 internal communication goal — engaging employees,” said Michael Rudnick, global intranet and portal leader at Watson Wyatt (see Social Media: The Next Frontier In Employee Communication).

“Instead of simply mass e-mailing information or posting to an intranet in hopes employees will see it, social media tools help employees actively participate in creating and sharing information. This shift to employee-generated content has resulted in employees’ becoming more engaged online.”

Michael is a pretty smart guy and he’s bang on. As he and his Watson Wyatt clients can attest employee communications (internal communications) is a synchronous or two-way street that requires active participation and dialogue between management and employees. The new Enterprise 2.0 or Intranet 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis are excellent tools for promoting this dialogue.

And yet, the adoption rate of social media tools within the enterprise continues to be startlingly low despite all the press and fanfare of the past 3 years.

Writer Nic Patton rightly asserts, in his article the article Employers must learn to love social media (Management-Issues.com), “Instead of trying to crack down on workers' use of new social media and Web 2.0 technology, employers should be embracing it as a way of creating better workplace communities, engagement and communication.”

Rudnick says these concerns are reminiscent of the productivity fears raised, and subsequently disproved, when the Internet was introduced into the workplace in the mid-1990s. The way for employers to address these concerns is to do just as they did 10 years ago — setting clear guidelines for acceptable use while adopting social media for a productive, internal purposes.

In Your employees love to surf porn, among other things I highlighted far greater concerns and risks than those posed by social media – namely surfing porn and general goofing around by employees. If staff can find ways to do this, what makes anyone think a wiki, which is self-policing by the entire employee population, is any worse?

Verizon has hundreds of discussion forums, blogs and wikis that are entirely self-policing and they’ve never had to censor or remove any content or would-be inappropriate postings (see Verizon's Digital Workplace). Why would your organization be any different?

Prescient Digital Media has just launched a new Intranet 2.0 service for those companies looking to examine, plan and rollout new Enterprise 2.0 tools. The offer includes:

Requirements analysis
Intranet 2.0 plan
Blogs and wiki policies
1-2 trial wikis (with several options, features and content focuses)
1-2 trial blogs (with several options, features and content focuses)

If you’re interested in this new Intranet 2.0 service, please contact us directly (through the website) or give me a shout at 416.926.8800.

UPCOMING WEB 2.0 & INTRANET 2.0 EVENTS:

Southeast Asia:

If you’d like to learn more about Intranet 2.0 and Web 2.0, and you’re in the Southeast Asia area (kiwis and aussies welcome too!), then you should definitely attend my half-day workshop on Web 2.0 as part of a three-day workshop in the 2008 Deploying First-Class Web Content Management For World-Class Websites (Ad Astra) in Hanoi, Vietnam from April 23 – 25.

I’ll be repeating the workshop April 28 – 30 in Jakarta. These workshops will be three full-days and promise a lot of learning, examples and hands-on work. To register for either please phone (65) 6334-9828 or email sales@adastra.com.sg

North America:

My colleague Carm Porco is chairing the 2008 Social Media Summit Canada Conference (Advanced Learning Institute) in Toronto, ON from March 31 - April 2, 2008. Three days of Web 2.0 best practices, case studies and learnings for which you can Register Online.

BOOKMARK THIS:

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Upcoming intranet events

Toby Ward — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:54:14 -0800

Some of the upcomign conerences and seminars dedicated to intranets:

10th Annual Intranets for Corporate Communications (Federated Press)

February 11, 2008 Toronto, ON

Contact Federated Press to register

IntraTeam Event 2008 (IntraTeam)

March 5 – 6, 2008 Copenhagen, Denmark

IBF North America Member Meeting

February 26, 2008 Philadelphia, USA

Contact IBF directly to register as a member

Some of my upcoming speaking engagements are not dedicated subject matter on intranets, but all have intranet components – particularly my 3-day workshops in Hanoi and Bali that are very intensive and detailed (and highly recommended):

2008 Social Media SummitCanada Conference (Advanced Learning Institute)

Toronto, ON March 31 - April 2, 2008

2008 Deploying First-Class Web Content Management For World-Class Websites (Ad Astra)

Manila, Philippines April 23 - 25

To register phone (65) 6334-9828 or email sales@adastra.com.sg

2008 Deploying First-Class Web Content Management For World-Class Websites (Ad Astra)

Bali, Indonesia April 28 - 30

To register phone (65) 6334-9828 or email sales@adastra.com.sg

2008 Corporate Communication & Technology Conference: Using Social Media (Conference Board)

New York, NY May 15 - 16, 2008

If you have an upcoming conference, workshop or seminr (webinar) on intranets, then please feel free to send me an email or post the event details with a link in the comments section below.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE: I appreciate everyone’s patience with my lack of writing as of late. Between the holidays, vacation, travel and a heck of a lot of work running a company and a household, there’s not been a lot of time to write! However, that will change and you’ll find that I will be writing with a lot more frequency and plan a lot of exceedingly good articles (fraught with spelling errors mind you), case studies and insights through the spring.

BOOKMARK THIS:

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Global Intranet and Portal Strategies Survey

Toby Ward — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:00:00 -0700

The second annual Global Intranet and Portal Strategies Survey is now open. The 2007 survey covers a range of intranet/portal topics. It has been enhanced with suggestions from 2006 participants, and includes good practices, lessons learned and an in-depth section on the use of web 2.0 technologies behind the firewall.

If you manage an intranet or portal and would like to participate, contact Jane McConnell (jane@netjmc.com) who will send you an invitation with a personalised link to the on line survey platform. The survey is open from June 15th to August 15th. All survey participants receive a free copy of the report which will be published early October.

In 2006, over 100 organisations around the world participated in 2006. You can read a summary of the key findings in 2006 on the Globally Local blog.

There is more information about the survey on the NetStrategy/JMC web site.

Founder Meeting: IBF North America

Toby Ward — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:00:00 -0700

London-based Intranet Benchmarking Forum (IBF) is looking for a few more participants for its Founding Meeting of IBF North America. There is capacity of no more than 20 organizations to attend - all must be Fortune 500 or equivalents and those attending already include Intranet and Portal Managers from HSBC, Procter & Gamble, Visa, Swiss Re, JP Morgan Chase, Chubb and Gillette.

There is no charge for attending this Founders Meeting. The meeting features:

Two "live" intranet tours by HSBC and Swiss Re - both IBF Members
Focus from Gillette on "Second Life" and its implications for intranets
Review of IBF NA services for 2007 – 2008 through interactive session and discussion
Hot topic member "open space" knowledge sharing.

This IBF North America Founding Meeting establishes a new division of IBF focused exclusively on the US and Canada and will comprise only major North American organizations. A full agenda is here and those attending plan also to stay over if needed at the Millennium Plaza Hotel. If you would like to attend then please request a place by completing the online booking.

IBF is the world's leading intranet and portal benchmarking group and has established industry standards for intranet performance and management. Founded in 2002, IBF has grown to almost 60 major organizations globally including ExxonMobil, Unilever, Kellogg's, AstraZeneca, Cadbury Schweppes and GlaxoSmithKline.

Intranet Innovation Awards

Toby Ward — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:13:53 -0800

The Intranet Innovation Awards are global awards that celebrate new ideas and innovative approaches to the design and delivery of intranets. I’ve agreed to lend my name and Prescient Digital Media’s support to these first annual awards as I customarily highlight and regularly document and write about award winning intranets on this site.

The goal of the awards is to recognize innovative intranets (whether large or small), and to share them with the wider intranet community. Uniquely, these awards recognise individual intranet improvements, and not intranets as a whole.

The Intranet Innovation Awards are now open for submissions, which must be received by 15 May 2007. Full details on the awards (including the entry form) are at: http://www.steptwo.com.au/iia/index.html

The Intranet Innovation Awards have been created by Step Two Designs, a recognised thought-leader in intranet strategy and design. These are also truly global awards, supported by a network of intranet-savvy organisations from the US to the UK, Europe and beyond.

“Intranets must innovate in order to prosper; they must constantly grow and evolve to better meet the needs of the organisations they serve,” says Step Two’s James Robertson. “While there can be no single 'best intranet', there are innovative ideas and approaches that warrant recognition.

The Intranet Innovation Awards have therefore been established to celebrate the great work done by intranet teams across the globe, to give them the recognition they deserve.

Gold Awards are given across four different categories, each focusing on a specific aspect of intranets. Platinum Award winners are then chosen to recognise the most extraordinary entries for the year.

These awards are about improving all intranets, by increasing the pace of innovation across the whole of the intranet community. Every idea, no matter how small, adds to our understanding of what it means to have a successful intranet.

Selling a new intranet (Feb. 27, 2007)

Toby Ward — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:04:40 -0800

Getting the necessary support and funding for an intranet redesign is usually a struggle at most organizations, particularly when most view the intranet as a cost center – a necessary evil. To change this mindset, intranet managers need to show them the money.

Senior management are much more likely to invest in an intranet if they can see it delivering measurable returns, such as increased business efficiency, reduced overheads and enhanced customer satisfaction. Increasingly the intranet manager will need to put in place viable processes for recording and reporting intranet value, in short demonstrating a return on investment (ROI) and employee productivity.

Presented by Prescient Digital Media and Summers Direct Selling A New Intranet to Senior Management is a webinar to arm you with invaluable ideas and steps for building a business case for redeveloping or redesigning your existing intranet.

Date: February 27, 2007 & Time: 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. (EST)

Specifically, we’ll teach you:

Priorities for building a business case
How to measure return on investment
How to identify very specific measurable benefits
Best practices & case studies that measure ROI

To register phone 1-866-869-7969 or e-mail register@summersdirect.com

NOTICE: The British Airways intranet webinar has been rescheduled to March 15, 2007. See Intranet Insider World Tour: British Airways.

Infant intranets need executive loving

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Upcoming web and intranet events

Toby Ward — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 21:23:26 -0800

Learning from best practices and case study leaders is highly important to delivering highly effective intranet and Internet websites.

Here are just some of the conferences, seminars and webinars on both intranets and Internet websites that I or one of my colleagues at Prescient are conducting over the next few weeks:

(Vancouver) The Best Intranets of 2006 (BC Communications Forum)

January 29, 2007 Vancouver. BC

(Vancouver) Social Media: Are you in?

UBC Robson Square, Vancouver BC, January 30, 2007

(Calgary) Social Media: Are you in?

The Fairmont Palliser, Calgary, AB, January 31, 2007

(Toronto) Managing Change using Intranets, Blogs and Wikis - What the Professional Communicator needs to know Toronto, Ontario, February 6, 2007

Intranet Insider World Tour: British Airways

Webinar (Communitelligence.com), March 15, 2007

2nd Annual Alberta Communications Forum

Calgary, Alberta, March 1st, 2007

IntraTeam – Event 2007

Copenhagen, Demark, March 08, 2007

Selling A New Intranet to Senior Management

Webinar (Summers), February 27, 2007 (Download the registration form)

Social Software: Assessing the Value to MyBusiness

Toronto, ON March 7, 2007 (Download the registration form)

Attracting Site Users and Improving their Online Experience

Toronto and Vancouver, March 15, 2007 (Download the registration form)

Kudos to my friend and colleague James Robertson for promoting his upcoming events and availability for clients during his next European trip. As for my availability for other speaking events or consulting to your organization, please contact me sooner than later (particularly for my upcoming European trip starting in Denmark) as I’m 85% booked over the next 8 weeks.

Toby Ward is an intranet consultant (Internet consultant too) and the founder of Prescient Digital Media. He has worked with and improved many, many company intranets including Amgen, HSBC, Mastercard, Manulife, PepsiCo, Royal Bank, etc. Toby and his company are consultants for hire and can help improve your intranet… if given the right amount of time and motivation J You can e-mail him at toby{at}prescientdigital{dot-com}

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