I
recently received a copy of the Intranet
Global Survey from Toby Ward, CEO
of Prescient Digital Media. The
headlight quote was encouraging, “Employees want to work for progressive and
innovative organizations, and expect 2.0 environments from employers of
choice.” The study included input from 561 organizations of all sizes from
across the globe and the results reveal rapid adoption of social media on the
corporate intranet in the past year.
The
breakdown of specific types of social media on intranets include:
47% have wikis (10% have no
plans or interest)
45% have blogs (11% have no
plans or interest)
46% have discussion forums
(9% have no plans or interest)
37% have RSS (12% have no
plans or interest)
23% have podcasts (30% have
no plans or interest)
9% have social networking
(20% with no plans or interest)
I am not
sure which is better the high numbers who have already adopted or the low
numbers with no plans or interests. The study concluded that an organization
without Intranet 2.0 tools, or plans to use them, risks being out-flanked by
their competition.
Like
anything, you get what you pay for. However, that doesn't mean a
social media or Intranet 2.0 solution can't be an inexpensive
solution, but it does require proper planning & governance, and
usually some customization.
According
to the results of the
Intranet
2.0 Global Survey
(561 organizations of all sizes from across the planet), 46% of those
with 2.0 tools have spent nothing or very little on the solution:
46%
have spent $10,000 or less
35%
have spent between $10,000 and $100,00; 19% have spent $100,000 or
more
It
should probably come as no surprise then that satisfaction levels
with 2.0 tools is also quite low:
Satisfaction
rates with executives is dangerously poor: 38% of executives rate
the 2.0 tools as poor or very poor; a lowly 23% rate them as good or
very good
Employee
satisfaction is almost poor: 35% of organizations say employee
satisfaction with the 2.0 tools is poor or very poor; only 27% rate
the tools as good or very good
Only
29% of organizations rate the tool functionality as good or very
good; 24% rate them as poor or very poor
In
short, organizations are spending very little on their 2.0
initiatives, and the satisfaction levels are correspondingly low.
Investment doesn't necessarily deliver satisfaction, but a look into
the technologies used reveals some further insight. The vast majority
of organizations with 2.0 tools use free, open source solutions or
those bundled with a platform solution like SharePoint:
48%
of organizations use SharePoint
20%
of organizations use Facebook
17%
of organizations use MediaWiki
16%
of organizations use WordPress
There
isn't a single, dedicated 2.0 licensed solution used by more than 13%
of organizations. The vast majority use free, open source with the
exception of SharePoint which sports 2.0 tools that leave very little
to be desired (although the social media components in SharePoint
2010 are supposed to be spectacular, and represent a heavy portion of
the investment in the SharePoint upgrade).
Two
lessons are worth noting:
1
- Vanilla solutions will deliver vanilla results (without
customization tailored to the target audience.
2 -
Change management is tantamount to success. These tools require
promotion, education, and communications. If you build it they will
not come necessarily, employees need to be instructed accordingly.
The
findings of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey are highlighted in the
report "Intranet 2.0: social media becomes mainstream on the
corporate intranet."
To
download a free, summarized version of the Intranet 2.0 report please
visit:
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:
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.
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).
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.
THE SURVEY IS CLOSING & YOUR PARTICIPATION IS REQUIRED -- THE FINDINGS ARE FREE!
500 organizations of all sizes from across the planet have participated and the findings are invaluable - and surprising. If you haven't already done so, please take 8 minutes to take the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey and you’ll get a copy of the full results including the good, bad and learned lessons. Please also direct clients and fellow colleagues. It doesn't cost anything, and I'm not charging anything.
PLEASE TAKE THE SURVEY EVEN IF YOU DO NOT HAVE INTRANET 2.0 TOOLS -- WE REQUIRE BOTH PERSPECTIVES!!
Respondents who complete the survey will be eligible to win $400 (a random email address will be drawn from all responses to the survey). All respondents will also receive a full copy of the results at no cost.
Here's a sneak preview of some of the findings so far:
43%
have intranet blogs (10% enterprise deployment); 11% have no plans
or interest
47%
have intranet wikis (16% enterprise deployment); 10% have no plans
or interest
23%
have intranet podcasts (6% enterprise deployment); 30% have no plans
or interest
17%
have intranet social networking (5% enterprise use); 20% have no
plans or interest
21%
have intranet content tagging (9% enterprise use); 24% have no plans
or interest
37%
have intranet RSS (12% enterprise use); 12% have no plans or
interest
47%
have intranet discussion forums (20% enterprise use); 10% have no
plans or interest
46%
have intranet instant messaging (28% enterprise use); 20% have no
plans or interest
8%
have intranet mashups (3% enterprise use); 46% have no plans or
interest
48%
of organizations using SharePoint for Intranet 2.0 tools
A sneak preview of the findings and some of the case study examples will be showcased at J.Boye 09 in Philadelphia (May 5-7, 2009). Register now & receive a fantastic deal on a technology / communications conference of this quality that includes multiple tracks on intranet, SharePoint, content management, user experience and more. J. Boye also features star speakers including the NY Times' David Pogue.
Twitter
earns a lot of praise and recognition for developing one of the most
powerful and popular web tools to date. However, its increasingly
visible problems are frustrating users and pundits who are demanding
satisfaction – or an alternative.
However,
Twitter's problems aren't easily fixed. In fact, there are 5 major
problems plaguing Twitter:
1-
Over capacity – how many times have you tried to access Twitter
only to be hit with a jovial cartoon whale that lamely apologizes for
denying you of your addiction? Not unlike a bloated whale, Twitter is
slowly being beach by over-capacity problems; with more and more
users come more demand which is grinding on Twitter's servers and
rejecting its fans. And yet, Twitter seems unable to address these
demands despite tens of millions of dollars in fresh financing. The
problem has forced a bottleneck for users, and some are using it less
and pining for alternatives. Fortunately for Twitter, there is no
credible alternative with a critical mass to challenge Twitter...
yet.
2-
Search – I've yet to come across a worse search engine than
Twitter's search. Try and find a person by their real name and you
will intimately understand this frustration. In fact, Twitter search
isn't even good at searching its own user names. I operate a few
accounts, and one is called “intranet2.” A search on “intranet”
does not uncover this account even though it has more followers than
most of the unknown users in its results pages (many of which don't
have the word “intranet” in their user name). As for searching
for content by keyword... forget about it; it's not worth the
aggravation.
3-
Crap, crap, crap – its becoming increasingly difficult to filter
out the crap, and the fly-by-night Tweet spammers. My favorite of
course are the Twitter wanna-be types who follow as many people as
they can come across only to quickly unfollow them in an attempt to
massage their egos by building a follower base. While Twitter
certainly doesn't force me to follow anyone it would be nice to avoid repeated emails from the “internetmarketer” who repeatedly
follows and unfollows me (I'm sure he and his partner in the Nigerian
Ministry of Finance offer superlative, sage advice). While Twitter does provide a "block" feature, it may take 3 or 4 follow and unfollows before I recognize the need (through all the clutter) to go and block a follower. Furthermore, if
Twitter had half a search engine, then I could seek out reasonable
and credible Tweeple to follow instead of having to wait for them to
find me amongst the swarms of spammers.
4- Antiquated
technology – I've been on Twitter for more than a year now (an
eternity in the world of demanding social media users) and its almost
exactly the same. While Yammer and other services beef-up their
technology and functionality, Twitter sits there and does little (or
nothing). Not only is the interface overly simplistic despite its use
and demand, there have been no upgrades (no discussion threads, no
Re-Tweet button, no bookmarking). Nowhere are the technology
limitations more noticeable than the problems with security. Hackers
have taken notice of Twitter's soft approach to technology and are
hammering it with viruses and worms. See Twitter
under attack again
(VNUnet) and Twitter
riddled with worms and scams (again)
(Register).
5-
No (visible) business model – can we please send some grey hairs
over to the Twitter HQ? Please, bring some grown-ups into the office
and develop a source of revenue already, or sell it to someone who
can. All of the above problems could be overcome or minimalized if it
had some revenue to help address these challenges. I really enjoy
Twitter, and recognize its enormous power and potential, but I'm
going to leave in a heartbeat if an alternative with critical mass
presents itself.
Different
platforms, with different approaches, serving different needs... but
both are highly viral and are used for social networking. Facebook is
the most successful social networking website / platform and,
depending on the rankings, the 2nd - 5th most
visited website on the planet. Well down the traffic rankings list is
Twitter at somewhere around 200th on the list (see
Alexa.com for rankings).
However,
it incresingly clear that Twitter will one day soon overtake Facebook
as the social networking champion for a number of obvious reasons...
1-
Connections - Its much easier to add connections (followers) on
Twitter. With a click you can see 30 or more followers of any one
person and by reading a Tweet or two, determine whether you want to
follow them (and often, by custom, they will automatically follow
you... opening up exponential connecting opportunities amongst
respective followers). Additionally, Tweeps don't have to ask for
permission to follow someone, its automatic with no approval process.
Typically, Facebook friends know each other in real life... this is
not the case on Twitter.
2-
Security – Twitter doesn't breed the same security and privacy
concerns that are associated with Facebook and the Facebook platform.
Tweeps only post one photo, often an icon, or representative image
rather than themselves, and a very short bio with a link. Facebook
openly encourages you to share as much about yourself as possible and
encourages the use of applications that want to grab as much personal
information about you as possible.
3-
Interface – The Twitter user interface could hardly be easier to
use: quick hit posts or micro or mini blogs, a quick glance at other
Tweets, and you're out. Facebook is increasingly heavy and cluttered:
a myriad of applications, information feeds, photos, ads, etc.... one
is left wondering where to look. I have no clue where my “Wall”
is anymore, and I now find it stressful to look at Facebook as
there's simply too much to digest, and I can no longer do it at a
glance.
4-
Big brother – Facebook's ownership and management has made
conspicuous effort to get tough with its members in recent months.
Rather than listen, read or watch what users want, Facebook had
decided to do what it wants, in spite of its users. Recently there
was the infamous new Terms of Service that implicitly said, “Screw
you guys, we'll do what we want with YOUR content.” Follow that up
with recent changes to the interface despite massive outcries and
user complaints, and Facebook has taken on a reputation of being a
bullying 'big brother'... and some members have started deleting
their accounts.
5-
Applications – There are thousands of Facebook applications, but so
many of them serve little or no value, are frequently invasive, if
not down right abusive. I have no interest in chomping vampires,
finding out “what kind of sandle” I am (are you frickin' kidding
me?!), or surrendering my soul for a cheap IQ test, let alone selling
all of my personal information for free. Twitter applications are
fewer and far-between, but can be tremendously helpful. Tweetdeck is
a god-send to Twitter, its founders, and users – it has quadrupled
the Twitter experience for highly active Tweeps (ask anyone who uses
it). Those that operate multiple Twitter accounts swear by the Twhirl
application; and the Tweetpic is now taking Twittersville by storm.
There's another key differentiator: people "join" Facebook, but they "use" Twitter. That's not to say that people don't "use" Facebook, but most are passive members that check the site when they get a note or a friend invite, or once-in-a-while to see what people are doing. Twitter's community however is extraordinarily active -- the average Tweep is on the site several times per day (or using an application that connects to the site). So while Facebook will continue to have a larger membership, Twitter will grow at a faster rate, but will be far more heavily used. Additionally, the mobile use of Tweeps who Tweet from their PDA will begin to skyrocket and far eclipse anything Facebook has ever seen from mobile users.
Facebook
is great social networking, but Twitter is more viral, and better used -- it will
overtake Facebook someday soon....
--
Toby
Ward is an Internet & intranet consultant, writer and
speaker, and the Founder of Prescient Digital Media. Feel free to
look him up on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @tobyward.
Need help working with or implementing social media? See Prescient Digital Media's Web 2.0 Blueprint.
You've heard of
it... but aren't exactly sure what it is. A mashup, far from being a
cross between a high-school dance move and the whipped potatoes mama
used to make, is typically represented as a single web page that
combines or “mashes” together data or content and tools from
multiple sources.
Google
Maps is an example – it draws all the listings and information from
many different sources without having to use an expensive piece of
portal technology. These are quite simple to do, and for some
represent most of the desired content for integration into a single
view or portal.
Even though most
don't use or understand mashups (sometimes spelt with the hyphen
'mash-up') , this nascent technology is about to break-out on a
corporate intranet near you:
mashups will be
a $682 million industry in the next 5 years (Forrester)
64% of
companies are already adopting mashups or plan to within the next
two years (Economist Intelligence Unit)
Web mashups,
which mix content from publicly available sources, will be the
dominant model (80%) for the creation of new enterprise application
by 2010 (Gartner, which also cites mashup technology as a top 10
'disrupting' technology over the next 4 years)
RSS
(the dominant technology delivering data to mashups) has been
adopted by 37% of organizations; an additional 53% of organizations
plan to or are considering their options for adopting RSS (Intranet
2.0 Global Study)
“Mashup
technologies can and will disrupt enterprise applications,” says
Renat Khasanshyn, author of the Naked
Open Source blog and CEO, Altoros Systems, LLC. “During the
next three years, mashups will open up a new enterprise application
market, providing business users and IT departments with a quick and
inexpensive approach to develop and implement applications. And
during the decade following 2010, maturing mashup building
technologies will shrink the enterprise application market.”
On the corporate
intranet, a mashup would typically combine information and data from
two to six different sources and might include:
a news feed
sales figures
a widget that
displays the most recent comments posted to the CEO blog
inventory
levels delivered from a back-end database
a map
pinpointing active client projects
InformIT, republishing an original article in SOA magazine, offer six major
characteristics to an enterprise or intranet mashup (see Enterprise
Mashups Part I):
Collaborative
- Mashups are designed to be tagged/searchable/shared with others.
User tagging, often called a 'folksonomy', helps users put meaning
for themselves and others.
Have
a face - Mashups usually have a face and the face is a widget. Just
like mashups are "micro", so are the applications that
front-end them. If the user is the recipient of the mashup, it's
only natural for the user to be given a way to interact with the
data.
Focused
on the 'pack' - Mashups are typically created, used, and shared
among a small number of related individuals. Knowledge workers
collaborate in small packs. Although they may be part of a larger
group, they usually function as small teams when it comes to
discrete information needs.
Time-sensitive
- Users need data now. Mashups usually have near real-time delivery
requirements. They don't have time to wait for IT to "pre-integrate"
data so they can get at it. The Web is real-time and business users
have evolved to expect the same inside their enterprises.
Non-invasive
- There's no need to bring in a whole new set of infrastructure, as
enterprise mashups run inside the current enterprise stack. This
includes both mashup sources (databases, SOA services, etc.) and
mashup destinations (portals, blogs, wikis, email, spreadsheets,
etc.).
Limited
cleansing - The amount of data cleansing and normalization needed
should be comparable to the amount of cleansing and normalization a
user does in Excel. If there's more, you have a bigger problem that
should be addressed concurrently with your mashup initiative.
Have
you considered intranet mashups? Are you using a portal for intranet
home page customization / personalization? Have you considered RSS?
Continue the discussion on the Intranet
Global Forum (Facebook
community).
Wondering how to use mashups and other 2.0 technology on the corporate intranet? Have a look at the Intranet 2.0 Blueprint.
