Despite the fractured and disparate marketplace for content management systems (CMSs), my colleague James Robertson in Australia does not necessarily believe a market consolidation is coming (despite the thousands of vendors).

In his most recent column, Will the CMS market crystalise rather than consolidate?, James surmises that crystallization will happen rather than consolidation.

“I potentially see the market crystalising around specific problem areas or vertical markets. For example, some vendors may cluster around delivering solutions to health care organisations, or universities. Others may primarily target ecommerce websites, or large intranets.

Over time, this would allow customers to more easily identify potential solutions, even as the overall size of the market continues to grow. Vendors would also be able to better target their marketing efforts.”

AUCKLAND, NZ – While at a reception here in Auckland I had the privilege to meet New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. An impressive and widely respected woman (even rival aussies that I talked to had nothing but good things to say) Clark has been New Zealand’s leader for six years.

Progressive to say the least the Right Honourable Clark (Labour Party) has formed the past three governments forming coalition (minority) governments – the current and the past governments being coalitions with the Progressive Party.

While here I wanted to see just how progressive these kiwi politicians are and so I decided to do a little research. I found an impressive and highly progressive intranet case study: the New Zealand Ministry of Health intranet (the first one I found). As far as intranets go, it certainly is progressive (it is NZ Health’s own case study that is open to anyone to read).

What is particularly impressive about NZ Health’s intranet is their dedication to people and process. Before NZ Health did anything, they undertook a consultation process to find out what the target audience wanted. The consultation involved stakeholders in five cities and not only included Ministry employees but also “Crown health enterprises and independent practitioner associations.”

The NZ Health Intranet is ultimately governed by a very effective vision statement:

"Timely, accurate and robust information appropriate to their roles and needs will be available to all individuals and agencies involved in the provision of health and disability support services, and to consumers, with the knowledge, agreement and confidence of everyone, which will facilitate the ongoing, continuous improvement in the health and disability status of all New Zealand people."

Perhaps the single best intranet vision statement I’ve seen. Most organizations don’t bother with a mission or vision statement and that’s an unfortunate mistake. If you have an intranet or portal, you need a mission or vision statement.

The process also included a privacy impact assessment, pilot phase, and a technical review prior to fully building and rolling-out the intranet in 1999, 18 months after the initial consultation process.

So there is no confusion, the purpose of the governing body must be well defined to focus priorities and to minimize politics. NZ Health Intranet has a well-defined Governance Body with a governing committee of 10 individuals represented by individuals from the Ministry, Crown enterprises and related associations. The NZ Health’s Governance Body has a focus “to ensure that the Health Intranet benefits health services delivery through improved and cost-effective communication in the health sector” and has five priorities:

• Promoting the Health Intranet to individuals and organisations in the health sector
• Determining security standards for the transfer and sharing of health information
• Accreding and managing network and certification vendors required for Health Intranet operation
• Accrediting types of applications for the Health Intranet
• Approving new members to join the Health Intranet

I’ve talked many times about the need for intranet standards which NZ Health is explicit in documenting. Intranet standards include:

• Security standards (defines six principles for ensuring security)
• Code of Practice (“An agreed set of rules that determines how information can be exchanged in the health sector. Among other things the Code defines user and supplier criteria.”)
• Technical standards (use of digital certificates, secure e-mail, etc.)

Not so much progressive as it is smart and necessary – something absent in most intranets.

AUCKLAND, NZ – Denham Grey poses an interesting question in his mot recent blog, “What exactly is the role of podcasting in knowledge work?”

“To be honest - I'm not sure - the place, value and importance of podcasting is still emerging within PKM and corporate KM.

Here are some areas where podcasting can contribute to businesses

eBriefings - from policy announcements to strategy changes - an easy way to keep employees and customers informed while on-the-go. eBusiness can profit from this genre too.

The opportunities for podcasting appear to be quite wide in the business and personal world but all applications and practices are still very new (post september 2004).”

I’ve been wondering myself… do employees want to listen to podcasts? I can see employees listening to the odd message from the CEO – certainly webcasts have become popular for those that can’t see the CEO in-person. But I doubt too many would download a podcast so that they could listen to it later on an iPod.

There is no doubt inherent value for those that are willing to listen. Some practical uses for corporate employee podcasting include:

Ø       Executive briefings

Ø       Training

Ø       Employee bios

Paul Chin has written an interesting overview look (The Evolution of Corporate Communications) at the evolution of corporate communications and with it the use of technology including the more recent use of RSS, podcasting and vodcasting:

"Communication mediums can be classified into two methods: the sender pushes the message to the receiver (e.g., sending an e-mail) or the receiver pulls the message from a source (e.g., reading an intranet post). In the '90s, the IT industry was abuzz with the concept of push technology, a method of delivering content to users' desktop without requiring them to actively seek it out. The technology, however, never lived up to its hype and communications fell back to old stalwarts: the intranet and e-mail.

But they have their problems too. Posting corporate communications on an intranet requires employees to access the system repeatedly because they won't know when new information will be posted."

One thing that can’t be stressed enough: as valuable as technology is, and despite the intranet’s pivotal and crucial role and value to the organization, face-to-face communications rules above all other media. Ask employees in almost any organization and in-person meetings – formal or informal with one’s manager – continues to be the single most important communications channel (non-leading question).

Therefore, with all of the focus and energy being spent on technology (which I fully support for good reason) a sound employee communications plan must also account for valuable manager communications in the form of team and one-on-one staff meetings.

Hey, I may be an intranet wonk, but I’d like to think of myself as pragmatic.