Social media and intranet case studies, best practices, & evolution by Toby Ward.

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Web Development & Design Blogs - Blog Top Sites © 2009 Toby Ward. All rights reserved.
View Article  Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure
An organization without a 2.0 strategy risks being left behind, or outright failure (though death may be slow). Employees want to work for progressive and innovative organizations, and expect 2.0 environments from employers of choice.


561 organizations of all sizes from across the planet participated in the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey and the results reveal rapid adoption of social media on the corporate intranet in the past year.


Once a nice-to-have or a future wish, Intranet 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and other vehicles have become mainstream, and are present in nearly 50% of organizations (regardless of size) in the Western World.


Intranet blogs, wikis and discussion forums are quite pervasive, while other less common tools such as podcasts and mashups remain an after-thought at most organizations:


  • 47% have intranet wikis (17% enterprise deployment); 10% have no plans or interest

  • 45% have intranet blogs (13% enterprise deployment); 11% have no plans or interest

  • 46% have intranet discussion forums (19% enterprise use); 9% have no plans or interest

  • 46% have intranet instant messaging (29% enterprise use); 21% have no plans or interest

  • 19% have intranet social networking (6% enterprise use); 20% have no plans or interest


Microsoft dominance


Microsoft is leading the 2.0 charge and dominating all competition. For those organizations that have deployed 2.0 tools inside the firewall, about half of all organizations have SharePoint (in some shape or form):


  • 48% of organizations use SharePoint

  • 20% of organizations use Facebook,17% of organizations use MediaWiki,16% of organizations use WordPress


Cost of Intranet 2.0


Intranet 2.0 is cheap. Of those organizations that have implemented 2.0 tools, almost half have spent $10,000 or less on these tools:


  • 46% have spent $10,000 or less

  • 35% have spent between $10,000 and $100,000,19% have spent $100,000 or more


Poor execution


Sadly though, despite the low cost of entry and ease of technology, satisfaction levels with Intranet 2.0 tools are dangerously low:


  • Only 29% of organizations rate the tool functionality as good or very good; 24% rate them as poor or very poor

  • Satisfaction rates with executives is dangerously low: only 23% of executives rate the 2.0 tools as good or very good; 38% rate them as poor or very poor


To download a free, summarized version of the report please visit:

http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/download-summary-report-of-intranet-2-0-global-survey


To purchase the full, 44-page report of analysis & recommendations please visit: http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/purchase-intranet-2-0-global-survey-report


-- 30 --


For more information please contact:


Toby Ward, CEO

Prescient Digital Media

416.926.8800

toby@prescientdigital.com


About the Intranet 2.0 Survey


561 organizations took the survey:

  • 36% come from the U.S; 24% from Europe; 11% from Canada; 11% from Australia / New Zealand; 10% from UK

  • 61% have more than 1,000 employees; 32% have 6,000 or more employees; 39% have less than 1000 employees

  • 53% of organizations have had an intranet for 7 or more years; 17% of organizations have had an intranet for 2 years or less

  • 13% of the organizations are government; 13% from technology; 12% from financial services; 6% from healthcare

  • The survey was led by Toby Ward, President, Prescient Digital Media


About Prescient Digital Media


Prescient Digital Media is a group of senior intranet and Internet consultants that provide strategic Internet and intranet consulting, planning and communications services to organizations of all sizes. Our clients include: Amgen, Covidien, CBC, CIBC, HSBC, Liberty Mutual, Manulife Financial, Mastercard, Nintendo, Pepsi, RBC Financial Group, TD, and more than 100 others.  Prescient’s focus includes the assessment, planning, technology selection, content and launch of intranets, websites, and web-based tools. For more information please contact Prescient Digital Media through the website at www.PrescientDigital.com or phone 416.926.8800.


Additional reading


Intranet articles & case studies – www.IntanetBlog.com

Follow us on Twitter – www.Twitter.com/Intanet2

Join the Intranet Global Forum on Facebook – www.Facebook.com/group.php?gid=2723005032

View our presentations on intranets on our SlideShare channel – www.slideshare.net/prescient

Watch Toby discussing the future of intranets – www.YouTube.com/watch?v=kaTMOTpRVQk

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View Article  SharePoint strengths & weaknesses (video)

This video will create some diverging opinions and controversy, just as my presentation “SharePoint Pros & Cons” did when I delivered it in Denmark. This on-camera interview was conducted in Copenhagen immediately after my presentation (at IntraTeam). Granted I was severely jet-lagged and suffering from exhaustion when I did the interview, but I stand my words and assessment: SharePoint (MOSS 2007) is a fantastic solution, but it is not the best solution for every scenario, and every organization. Anyone who argues this should throw-away the Kool-Aid.



As I stress in my comments, SharePoint is ultimately what you make of it, and you can do some amazing things with it, at any organization. However, success with MOSS is a function of time and money. The out-of-the-box solution is not appropriate for all business scenarios in all companies. But it is an excellent solution for a small to medium size business, or as a department-level solution in a larger enterprise. Given the cost and complexity involved with customization, I don't believe it makes sense to use it as a large, enterprise intranet be-all solution for larger organizations; its possible to make it so, but what is the opportunity cost versus other portal or ECM solutions?


Feel free to comment and weigh-in with your opinions, but no flame mail please (I will just embarrass you for doing so). If you're a Microsoft employee or partner, then please disclose that you rely on SharePoint to make a living. Ditto if you're a Microsoft customer or independent consultant.


Keep in mind, I too am a SharePoint user, but we (Prescient Digital Media) also uses other CMSs, portals & social media solutions too. We are strictly technology-neutral with no reseller agreements. I have no agenda or ax to grind; I merely seek to inform my readers and clients about the strengths and weaknesses of the superb, but not perfect solution that is MOSS 2007.


ADDITIONAL READING:

Advice for SharePoint customers

SharePoint overview (pros & cons, MOSS)

The SharePoint Plan (MOSS)

SharePoint governance & intranet ownership (MOSS 2007)

SharePoint requires proper architecture & governance

Why you should or shouldn’t choose Microsoft Sharepoint

Planning for SharePoint success

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View Article  Intranet 2.0 becomes mainstream
Social media adoption has accelerated on the corporate intranet, led by blogs, wikis and discussion forums. Despite a low cost of entry—often below $10,000—adopters are not reporting outstanding satisfaction with the investment, especially among the executive ranks, driven by inadequate planning and weak or non-existent business plans.

This data is contained is contained in the results of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey, which included the participation of 561 organizations of all sizes from across the planet.


Intranet 2.0 Global Survey Results

Once a nice-to-have or a future wish, Intranet 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and other vehicles have become mainstream, and are present in nearly 50% of organizations (regardless of size) in North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand,” says Toby Ward, the study author, and President, Prescient Digital Media.

Read about the results Intranet 2.0 becomes mainstream 

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View Article  SharePoint website case study: Alfa Laval
(PHILADELPHIA, PA) External website case study using MOSS 2007 presented by Pernilla Webber, Alfa Laval, at J. Boye – Philadelphia 2009.


SharePoint has handled it very well (external website and extranet).”


Overview

  • Business to business company founded in 1883

  • Services: heat transfer, separation, fluid handling (heat exchanges, etc.).

  • Revenue: $2.7 billion Euros in annual sales.

  • Employees: 10,500 in 60 countries

  • Public website luanched in SharePoint in May 2008

  • Extranet planned for June 1, 2009

  • Intranet pre-study started for launch in 2010


Public website (www.alfalaval.com)

  • 3000 pages

  • 25 languages

  • 60 country sites

  • Pre-study: 1-year (planning, etc.)

  • Implementation: 1-year (launched May 2008)

  • Project team of 5 people

  • 50% of money on external dollars; 50% internal time and resources


Implementation strategy

  • Standard SharePoint

  • Limited external application integration

  • One platform for public website, extranet and intranet

    • Strategic direction

    • Operatonal efficiency

    • Functional development

    • Governance and resources (single governance structure for all sites)


Challenge / problem: Variation system

    • Custom development to allow for

    • Submit variation to slected country sites

    • Reject/Accept a submitted variation

    • Submit variation' doesn't work for web parts

    • Reuse of language versions not possible


Challenge: separating language/locale

    • Only one language version

      • Spanish in Spain, Chile, Colombia, etc.

      • English in UK, India, US

    • Many languages are supported – but its not supported to have one language for the CONTENT and another rfor the authoring environment


Challenge: Image management

  • Where is a particular image used? What pages?

  • Different versions of the same photo are not grouped together by type

  • Overly basic / simplistic


Challenge: creating forms (complicated for authors)

Challenge: formatting is difficult with standard editor (reusable cotnent doesn't work with the RadEditor)


Integrator: Fishbone Systems AB


Analysis: well this blows out of the water the notion that SharePoint shouldn't be used as an external website platform. The Alfa Laval site is impressive – with 60 sites in 25 languages. Microsoft would do well to add this to their case studies alongside Hawiian Airlines.


Visit the website: www.alfalaval.com


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View Article  SharePoint Confessions – stories from life on MOSS
(PHILADELPHIA, PA) Presented by Dorthe R. Jespersen, J. Boye, at J. Boye – Philadelphia 2009.


Key recommenations:


  • Don't assume that because its used for the intranet, it will be good for the Internet

  • Compare with alternatives

  • Manage expectations

  • Keep it simple

  • Have a strategic plan

  • Get to know your IT

  • Focus both on micro and macro governance

  • Stay updated with service packs

  • Follow best practices

  • Pay attention to release information


Notable client quote: “Only after implementation did we start to learn about what the system could do. In hindsight we should have utilized the integration with office Word. Also, we are beginnning to rebuild our templates, as we didn't hink through the advanced features SharePoint offers the first time.”


Other learnings:


  • It's free!” - WSS is free, MOSS 2007 can be very expensive (particularly customization)

  • Training is required and costs money, as does maintenance

  • All Microsoft parnters are not created equal


Notable client quote: “I didn't know you could disable My Sites. Our integrator told us it wasn't possible. But you have done it already?”


Notable quote: “We are using Sharepoint 2003 and need to upgrade. But we've decided to skip MOSS 2007, and go for 2010 instead once that gets out.”


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View Article  SharePoint dissected (MOSS 2007)
(PHILADELPHIA, PA – J. Boye) Insights from CMS Watch founder, and co-author of the CMS Watch Report, Tony Byrne.

Tony Byrne, CMS Watch:

  • SharePoint is part product, part platform, part ecosystem – a collection of technologies that have varying degrees of finish

  • Under-reported and under-appreciated dimension of SharePoint: built solidly on (almost) latest .NET platform

  • Be cautious of developer/integrator enthusiasm

  • Keep Implementation of SharePoint Simple (KISS)

  • Embrace configuration, some customization and integration, avoid extension (e.g. building custom applications, etc.)

  • The latest marketing from Microsoft is “to really finish or complete MOSS you should look to external partners.”

  • Oxcite, 3rd party open source blog tool for .NET (not SharePoint)

  • Just because a firm is a Microsoft partner, doesn't mean they have SharePoint expertise

Cautions:

  • Some MS partners / vendors are in over their heads

  • Not all are experts in all SP services

  • Temptation to over-engineer

  • Experienced integrators are in high-demand

Caveats:

  • Test performance, reliability, and security features carefully

  • Contrast software with "consulting-ware" (developed once for a client and re-sold)

  • Remember: its not just another module, but another vendor

  • Many partners fervently hope that MS will buy them, but Redmond typically recreates rather than acquires

  • This can be very inconvenient for you down the road with MS upgrades SharePoint


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View Article  Intranet CMSs
How many organizations are using a CMS for their intranet? What about a portal solution?


Respondents to the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey provide (530+ organizations ranging from small to huge, in all corners of the globe: 36% come from the U.S.; 24% from Europe; 60% have more than 1,000 employees; 32% have 6,000 or more employees) some very good insight into the use content management systems (CMSs), as well as portals and Intranet 2.0 tools.


Key findings:

  • Less than 2/3s of organizations use a CMS for their intranet (62%)

  • 24% use a custom built CMS (home grown CMS)

  • 25% use an off-the-shelf solution

  • 11% use a portal solution

  • There is no dominant CMS solution – no one vendor has more than 20% market share

    • Microsoft SharePoint is used by 20% of those that use a CMS

    • Interwoven, Documentum and Vignette each have 4% market share

    • No other solution was cited by more than 8 organizations (2.5% share)


Clearly SharePoint's dominance in the market is showing here. Though only 20% of the respondents are using it as a CMS. For those that have implemented Intranet 2.0 tools, SharePoint (MOSS 2007) is present in 46% of the organizations (though some organizations are using multiple tools including SocialText, Confluence and MediaWiki). In other words, SharePoint is being used as a CMS, but its not its strength which is collaboration sites, document sharing, and portal functionality / features. SharePoint is more often being used for collaboration and portal functionality.


My full presentation on the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey findings is next week at J. Boye – Philadelphia 2009. There are still spots left if you want to register now (and some great case study presentations as well). The full study findings will be sent to survey participants only in mid-May (TBA) followed by a participant only webinar (yes you have to take the survey to get the results).


Speaking of intranets and measurement this is a great free webinar with a terrific case study from PNC Bank: Measuring Intranet Success in the Real World (Case study with PNC Financial Services group) Date: Thursday, 12pm EST – Register Online.


ALSO...


Social Media Webinar for Educators

This webinar is free and designed for university professors, instructors, and students. Topics for discussion include the role of the new media, how the Web is evolving, and what to expect in the future. Best practices and tips for how to engage with others and build trust in a virtual world will also be discussed. Hosted by Plank Center, the one-hour discussion and presentation is on May 1, at 1:30 CDT.


Moderated by Keith Burton, President, InsidEdge, presenters include Robert French, Instructor, PR & Digital Media, Auburn University; Jeff Beringer, SVP, Dialogue/GolinHarris, and Toby Ward, Founder and CEO of Prescient Digital Media.


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View Article  SharePoint Planning & Governance

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