Most I.T. projects have some hurdles or bugs. The $9 billion U.S. Navy-Marine Corps intranet (NMCI) is no exception.

Of course the military would use an acronym like NMCI, but I was hoping that we would be privy to one of those cutting-edge mission names like Mission Intranet Freedom or Mission Global Information Dominance... Ooops! That moniker might be letting the cat-out-of-the-bag....

Speaking at a conference of 1,200 military vendors in Norfolk, Virginia, the NMCI head honcho Rear Admiral James B. Goodwin III lamented about some of the challenges. As reported in the Virginian-Pilot, some of the bugs have included e-mail problems for Admiral Michael G. Mullen, President Bush’s nominee for chief of naval operations.

Rear Adm Goodwin joked, ““Probably not the e-mail I wanted to see from my new boss, but it’s one of the realities right now.”

For those not familiar with the project, EDS was hired to work with the Navy and Marine Corps to build a "comprehensive, enterprise-wide initiative that will make the full range of network-based information services available to Sailors and Marines for day-to-day activities and in war.”

The $9 billion project is in its fifth year.

NMCI features more than your average run-of-the-mill secure access to US Armed Forces information and systems and “universal access to integrated voice, video and data communications.

While it is not complete the Navy Marine intranet will "afford pier-side connectivity to Navy vessels in port. And it will link more than 360,000 desktops across the United States as well as sites in Puerto Rico, Iceland and Cuba.”

The Navy and Marine Corps use the NMCI to achieve "a number of critical objectives:

• Enhanced network security
• Interoperability with CINCs and other Services
• Knowledge sharing across the globe
• Increased productivity
• Improved systems reliability and quality of service
• Reduced cost of voice, video and data services

Want to know more? The public can visit the intranet home page at www.nmciinfo.usmc.mil (updated URL).

HALIFAX, NS - If you build it they will not come. Of course, there will always be the curious and keeners and those that inherently understand it, but an intranet firing at maximum value requires marketing.

In a survey of 500+ intranet managers by Melcrum Research, the number four issue or challenge facing intranet managers was low take-up or usage (the number one issue was ownership/politics).

One of the reasons why even the best intranets need to be marketed to employees is that computer-based workers are often exceptionally busy and do not have time to explore and surf the intranet. They need to be educated as to what is there and why it is of value to both them as individual workers and also to the organization as a whole. Employees need to be ‘sold’.

A couple of years ago I was undertaking some research on an insurance company’s intranet. My research included a company-wide survey which included the participation of some 2700 employees. One of the key findings underscored one of the ubiquitous findings at many organizations – people like the intranet but weren’t using it. In fact, employees rated the intranet a 7.5 out of 10.

So if the intranet was rated so highly, how come employees weren’t using it? I dug deeper in employee focus groups and found the answer: the average employee had been to the intranet home page and liked what they saw but they hadn’t spent much time on the intranet and therefore didn’t know what was there. As such, the average employee didn’t understand that the intranet was a valuable resource because they didn’t know better. Mystery solved; employee use was not for a lack of value, but for lack of knowledge. The employee population needed to be better educated as to what the intranet offered and why it was of value to them. The intranet needed marketing.

In short, every intranet needs a marketing plan followed by execution with results. Sodhexo USA knows this all too well. The leading provider of food and facilities management in North America and 110,000+ employees has a built a marketing plan that is critical to the success of its intranet portal, Sodhexonet. Angelo Ioffreda, VP, Internal Communications Sodhexo USA, shares their intranet marketing plan that focuses on six major components:

1. Promote ongoing SodexhoNet name recognition and key wins.

2. Highlight the variety of useful content through on- and off-line.

3. Increase essential content and applications available only online.

4. Increase content – including fun content – that drives repeat visits.

5. Encourage continued endorsements from senior leadership.

6. Support content owners – increase skill level and enthusiasm, identify and leverage best practices.

As far as tactics go, dust out your old marketing texts. Marketing tactics could include:

·         E-mail broadcasts

·         newsletter stories

·         internal press conference

·         executive promotion

·         hosted chats with the CEO

·         posters and mousepads

·         premiums (handouts)

·         screensavers

·         etc.

A regional subsidiary of a large financial/investment services company embarked on an ambitious marketing campaign to promote the launch of their redesigned intranet portal. The campaign included an email campaign, promotional cookies for each employee, posters and even a professionally produced 10-minute promotional video replete with a famous voice as the narrator. The CEO personally launched the new intranet with an internal press conference for employees. In total, the company spent about $20 per employee on promoting the new portal.

As for results, Sodexho can bear witness. As a result of their efforts, those never using SodhexoNet dropped from 19% to 1% and registered users who visit the site monthly increased from 55% to 90% (see Best practices case study: Sodhexo USA for more details).

RELATED ARTICLES:

Nexus of Intranet Success

5 Winning Intranet Characteristics

Does Your Intranet Measure-Up?

ROI Remains Guesswork At Most Companies

UPCOMING TELESEMINAR:

Intranet Insider World Tour: IBM’s W3 – October 26

Large companies with many thousands of employees dispersed across great regions and dozens of locations require an effective intranet. Communications, connection and community are critical making the intranet a mandatory requirement for success.

Sodhexo USA provides a solid example of how to deploy just such an intranet for a large diversely situated organization – and it’s one of the biggest companies you may not know. Sodexho USA (www.sodexhoUSA.com) is the leading provider of food and facilities management in North America, with $6 billion in annual revenues and 110,000+ employees. Sodexho runs cafeterias, housekeeping in the hospitality sector, grounds keeping, plant operations and maintenance and laundry services to more than 6,000 companies principally in health care, schools, and the military.

Headquartered in Gaithersburg, MD, Sodexho has employees spread out across and in all corners of the continent. An even greater challenge than the geographic disparity of its employees is the nature of their work. The vast majority of these employees are hourly workers who are not desktop workers with their own computers – they’re on the frontlines rather preparing and serving food, cleaning, and performing site operations. The intranet home page, SodhexoNet, is a tying bond that links most of the managers and management of this diverse and disparate group.

While most employees are not registered users with access, the value of the intranet drives the growth in the number that do use the intranet. Registered users have grown from 2,000 in April, 1999, to more than 14,000 users today.

Like all effective systems, SodhexoNet has a vision: SodexhoNet is a one-stop shop for all of our managers’ information needs and an indispensable part of a Sodexho work day.”

Accompanying the vision is some practical but key goals:

·     Essential business and communications tool

·     Robust, timely, relevant, accurate content

·     Intuitive navigation

·     Quick access

·     Easy to search

·     Feedback capacity

·     Cost-effectiveness

SodhexoNet’s greatest strength however is its management team, lead by corporate communications. To be specific, the strength lies in the team’s understanding that the intranet must intimately understand its target audience and constantly measure its performance. By measuring its success, Sodhexo knows where to concentrate its efforts and resources and constantly strive for improvement.

Among the many measures the intranet team tracks (for the last year measured compared to the previous year):

·     User behavior and how usage is trending (those never using SodhexoNet dropped from 19% to 1%)

·     SodhexoNet as a “valuable resource” to employees (from 74 to 84%)

·     Registered users who visit the site monthly (from 55 to 90%)

·     Most visited pages (career center, HR, health care, phone book, and search)

·     Most searched terms (forms, recipe collection, performance appraisal)

·     Return on investment (where possible)

One of SodhexoNet’s more innovative and successful tools is its SuperSleuth sales lead program. SuperSleuth is an intranet web page and 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. Sodhexo says it has contributed to a 100% increase in sales leads in the past year. Let me repeat: a 100% increase in company sales leads. Wow!

While the site has evolved considerably and its value has grown measurably in recent years, it hasn’t been without considerable effort and some lessons learned, says Angelo Ioffreda, VP, Internal Communications.

Amongst the key lessons learned:

·     Create a vision

·     Partner with IT (“big time,” says Ioffreda stressing the importance of a healthy working relationship with IT) – and HR

·     Establish clear standards for the site

·     Make end-users the center of your universe

·     Incorporate real-time feedback from end-users

·     Track user behavior

·     Make content ‘king’

·     Involve, support, and communicate with your content owners

·     Develop an editorial / programming mindset

·     Strive for intuitive navigation

·     Improve your search and speed

·     Commit to continuous improvement in product and processes

·     Make your site a business tool

o        Reduce costs

o        Raise efficiency

o        Bring in revenue

Sodhexo also knows that just simply creating an effective intranet is not enough. Successful intranets also require marketing. More on Sodexho’s efforts and how to market your intranet in the next installment.

IBM’s intranet portal is one of my featured best intranets, and favorite intranets, at this year’s The Best of the Internet and Intranet 2005 presentation at the 2005 IABC International Conference in Washington, DC.

W3 is the intranet home page to IBM’s to approximately 300,000 employees worldwide. W3 is a key component of IBM’s “Workforce Transformation Strategy” that lists the following as key objectives:

·     Reduce complexity

·     Bring the marketplace inside

·