As I highlighted in “Selling an Intranet Redesign”, too many organizations fail to understand the intranet's value and potential. “While there is hope that more executives will realize the intranet's value to their organization, there is still a pause for concern. The Global Intranet Trends 2009 report study finds that only 14% of the respondents consider the intranet as ‘business critical.’ And yet, companies like IBM, Cisco, and Oracle attribute billions of dollars in benefits to their intranets. Even small little-known companies like QAS, Placemaking, 1UP.com, and many, many others profiled on this site have shown positive ROI.

Now is the time to take advantage of the economic downturn, and to use the intranet as a competitive advantage to help drive:

• increased sales

• operational efficiencies

• improved communications

• enhanced collaboration

• faster time-to-market

• efficient human resources

• better employee productivity

Who could say no to any of the above? And yet, the intranet can delliver all of the above with a little care, direction, and senior management support. Now is the time to seize the opportunity and demonstrate how an intranet can enhance a corporation's position in the marketplace. Read on... Julian Mill's column The economy and your intranet: make the connection.

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INTRANET ROI WHITE PAPER:

Download a free copy of Finding ROI: Measuring Intranet Investments (arpx 60 pages).

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Gerry McGovern says that you will earn more money if you start proving the value of the intranet. Sounds like something I would say (yeah, I know, a broken record).

Gerry is a firm believer “if you are in charge of your company's intranet you are in pole position to further your career.”

The bottom line: the vast majority of executives think the intranet delivers little value for the cost – and some believe it’s a waste of money. But most of these suits aren’t ignorant fools, they’re just ignorant. They need a sheppard to show them the way – to show them the money (see Measure your efforts).

Watch the vlog-like video clip Intranet Task Master with Gerry talking about the value of intranet measurement.

Every intranet should have a business case; a justification for being, including metrics that prove its worth. Along with user satisfaction, traffic metrics, and ROI, benchmarking information (what others are doing) is also important to know.

For the best possible data, the 2007 Global Intranets Survey (hosted and conducted by Jane McConnell) needs your participation. If you are an intranet manager or consultant then it’s in your best interest to spend 30 - 60 minutes completing this survey.  Every respondent will receive a complete report of the findings – which is very good intelligence for your intranet business case.

To participate in this year’s2007 Global Intranets Survey pleaseContact Jane McConnell.

The 2006 Survey revealed a number of key trends:

• 13% said their senior management perceived the intranet as "business critical
• 55% said their employees would be disturbed in their work if the intranet "went down" for 1 to 2 hours
• 60% say the main obstacle preventing the intranet from achieving its potential is that it is "too communication" and lacks integrated applications
• 70% say that a "lack of awareness of the potential role of the intranet" slows down strategic decision making
• 47% expect their intranet budgets to increase over the next 2 years
• Only 26% are required to measure ROI to justify new or current investments.
• Only 28% have implemented internal blogs and/or external blogs and/or wikis

Take the 2007 Global Intranets Survey by contacting Jane McConnell.

The 1980s and 1990s were tough times for British Airways. The new millennium was not kind either when in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, some analysts began to wonder if BA would survive at all and talked openly about bankruptcy for more than one airline.

Since 2002, the company has re-engineered an impressive turnaround with an aggressive focus on cost-cutting and productivity. In late 2002 its share price had slumped to below £100; today BA’s share price is hovering around £500.

One catalyst for change during the impressive turnaround, in a hugely challenging business and environment, is the BA intranet. In 2001, BA put in place an ambitious plan for a low-tech intranet with lofty targets. Building on what some would call an antiquated platform, Lotus Notes and Domino, BA built an intranet that is delivering a measured value of £55 (more than US$100 million) per year.

“I have to admit I do get envious when I hear about all the technology that others (companies) are using,” confesses Alan Huish, BA’s manager of employee self-service when asked about using Lotus Notes. “But you cannot argue with our results.”

Read my complete case study feature Low-tech, high-value intraneton Communitelligence.com

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.

RELATED READING:

Selling the intranet to senior management

Infant intranets need executive loving

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Despite the advances in technology and the potentially massive benefits and impressive ROI accrued from converting paper-based forms to online submission, many intranets still host a majority of their forms in MS-Word and PDF.

James Robertson writes in Automating three types of forms that “the ‘rule of thirds’ can be used to categorise the different types of forms within organisations:

• One third are very simple forms, with no logic or complex rules.
• The second third have some underlying rules, such as simple workflow or basic form logic.
• The final third are best considered as applications, such as employee self service (ESS).”

The first two types, in Robertson’s estimation represent about two-thirds of all forms to be found on the intranet, are either very simple or somewhat simple to implement. The third tend to be more complex applications that often get the bulk of attention.

HP’s intranet features 1,850 “e-services” and application. Just about any form you can imagine is an online service. Despite having a remote workforce that is mostly traveling, British Airways employees complete most of their forms online… many in the form of applications:

·         100% of internal (and external) recruitment is done online

·         100% of employee travel is booked online

·         75% of pensioner (retiree) self-service is done online (wow!)

·         80% of employees update their own contact information online (from 10% in 2003)

The number one application is e-Pay where employees access their paystub – delivering savings of $180,000 per year. These forms and applications are the primary drivers of $80 million in savings in the past year for British Airways.

Online forms make sense for a lot of reasons including making better the lives and jobs of employees. And they deliver a lot of savings and ROI.

Read James Robertson’s full article Automating three types of forms.

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The value of a really good intranet is considerable and immense. While usage, ROI, and employee satisfaction are typical and traditional performance measure for the intranet, the intranet is also leading to improved retention and job satisfaction.

At HCL Technologies, the intranet is a key component of its employee retention program (see Employees first` is the new mantra!, Business Standard).

Read my complete piece Intranet is key to good HR (Communitelligence.com)

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

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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