A winning intranet has many successful qualities and features. The QAS intranet is a winner at many levels – rich with tools and demonstrable, measured value.

QAS is a World leader in address management and data accuracy solutions. Based on data secured from national postal authorities and other leading sources, QAS captures, cleans and enhances the integrity of name and address data. QAS has a geographically diverse set of 400 employees with offices around the globe in the U.K. (headquarters), U.S.A., Canada, Singapore, Australia, and across Europe.

A winner of a coveted 2005 Information Management Award for Knowledge Management, the QAS intranet, iQ, has many winning attributes including:

·         A well defined plan

·         Robust and flexible technology

·         Rich applications

·         Measured benefits & ROI

Read the complete case study QAS intranet case study – anatomy of a winner

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© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media

Not all companies are created equal; nor are intranets.

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Intranet as a corporate reflection pool

The structure, function and quality of the intranet is often a reflection of the organization it represents – a reflecting pool of an organization’s culture and dedication to knowledge sharing and employee communications.

Of course, this is not always the case. I’ve seen some great intranets at companies that are not fun to work at (strong execution, poor culture). Alternatively, I’ve seen terrible intranets at good companies (strong culture, poor execution).

In Health Inspectors and Corporate Intranets Jeremiah Owyang writes a good blog about the intranet’s direct reflection of the organization…

“One could learn a lot from looking at an Enterprise Intranet, think about how it is:

• Structured (Silo’d or cohesive departmental sites)
• Information Flows (top-down, bottom-up, sharing or collaboration of information)
• Efficient and effective (web usability, organized information architecture)
• Demonstrates Corporate Unity (cohesive, holistic user experience, and branding)
• Is there Love and care for information (records kept up to date, single set of data which ultimatly translates to how employees deal with customers)

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Intranet Design Wars

© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media

Short notice but Bill Ives is conducting a workshop on what Blogs Bring to the Enterprise for the SLA at Bain & Co. 131 Dartmouth St. Boston, MA:

It starts at 9 AM with registration and networking. The workshop runs from 9:30 to noon. The combination of accessibility, transparency, and archiving that blogs provide has the potential to greatly enrich business communication. This session summarizes the insights gained from our interviews for Business Blogs: A Practical Guide and other sources. It addresses the use of blogs for enterprise applications such as marketing communication and knowledge management, as well as internal communication, project management, and collaboration. I hope to see your there.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is the latest to announce their decision to build their intranet based on the open source content management platform Zope (see Royal Bank of Scotland opts for open source intranet).

RBS’s decision follows a recent string of announcements from larger organizations who chose Zope or Plone (based on Zope) to power their intranet or content management platform. Other organizations now using Plone include the BrazilianParliament, UNC Healthcare and the government of New Zealand (see www.e.govt.nz and Ministry of Women's Affairs).

Plone is emerging as the real leader in open source web platforms. Plone features enterprise content management with workflow, role-based content, a search engine and even a wiki application. Non-techies can easily use Plone with little training. The system includes templates for news, events, documents, and photos. An additional 200+ templates and tools are also available for download.

In addition to complete platforms and content management systems, there is a plethora of open source applications for plugging into your intranet including:

• Employee directory (yellow pages)
• Project management systems
• Document management systems
• Help desk
• E-Learning systems
• And many, many more

Check out FreshMeat.net and do a search on intranet for an extensive listing of available open source intranet applications.

Caution: most open source tools are not ‘plug and play’. They require a lot of care and skilled people who know how to care for them. Nor are all open source tools created equal – extensive research and care in selecting such applications is tantamount to success.

Finally, don’t put the cart before the horse:

• Identify requirements
• Build a plan
• Develop evaluation criteria
• Rate and score solution options

If open source is a new game for you or your organization, don’t hesitate to hire an outside hand (for more information contact me through Prescient Digital Media).

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Open source intranets

© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media

The Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) has released their Intranet Design Annual 2006. Headed by the king of hyped-up claims, Jakob Nielsen, NNG claims this year’s winners to be the best intranets of 2006.

My god they’re full of themselves. The report does feature some great intranets including one of the World’s best, IBM’s W3 (see Intranet World Tour: IBM leads the World ). However, the judging is highly suspect, reliant on volunteer form submission. How could you determine whether an intranet is good or not without actually seeing it and clicking through it? Well apparently a one-sided voluntary form submission with a couple of screenshots is enough for NNG. (If I tell you to fill out a form for an award, are you going to give me the full story or tell me what you want to hear?).

Unfortunately, the Design Annual focuses on design and usability. Sadly, Nielsen et al have yet to figure out that an intranet’s design (look-and-feel) is not a requisite for success. Design is in fact, the least critical of all they key intranet mandatory assets (see The Nexus of Intranet Success). Anyone who works on or manages an intranet knows that the aspects that truly determine success include people, process, governance, standards, resources, content and tools. Even usability accounts for only about 15% of an intranet’s total value to an organization.

Nonetheless, the report does show some good screenshots and some good examples of the dos. This year’s winners include:

• Allianz Australia Insurance, Australia
• ALTANA Pharma AG, Germany
• Bank of Ireland Group, Ireland
• Capital One, USA
• IBM, USA
• Merrill Lynch, USA
• METRO Group, Germany
• O2, UK
• Staples, USA
• Vodafone, UK 

Unfortunately all the winners are big companies (median size: 62,500 employees) with big budgets. And 4 of 10 are financial service companies. If you can read such a report with a huge grain of salt, however, and you can stomach the US$148 price, then it is interesting fodder. Heck, I bought a copy.

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The best government intranet designs

© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media 

While it hopes to break even in the end, EDS’s massive $8 billion Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) project has lost a lot of money thus far. 

According to Stan Gibson of eWeek (see EDS Swabs the Decks of NMCI Mess), EDS has been losing up to $800 million annually on the project that is due to complete in 2007…

No turnaround at Electronic Data Systems Corp. would be possible without first clearing away the wreckage of by far the worst deal in the company's history: the Navy Marine Corps Intranet contract.

Signed in 2000, the $7 billion contract for the world's largest intranet was costing EDS $800 million annually at its low point. It has taken several years to stem the losses, but this year EDS is looking for a positive cash flow of about $150 million.

"This was a going-out-of-business strategy," Mike Koehler, who is in charge of the NMCI contract at EDS, said in an interview here last month. Even though the contract is gradually becoming cash-flow-positive, EDS CEO Michael Jordan said it's unlikely the contract will turn a profit over its life span. "Three billion [dollars] has been dissipated. We won't get all of it back, but we will get a good percentage," said Jordan.

The NMCI overhaul went hand in hand with other cleanup chores carried out by Jordan. The company severed a money-losing and acrimonious outsourcing relationship with The Dow Chemical Co. in 2004, sold off subsidiary UGS in 2004 to raise cash and is in the process of selling the bulk of management consultancy A.T. Kearney Inc. to a management group.

Click here to read more about recent shakeups at EDS.

What a dog of a project. Notwithstanding the numbers, the latest D.C. lobbying scandal isn’t going to exactly boost project team morale either (see Scandal rocks world’s biggest intranet ).I can’t wait to see the complete case study on this intranet when its complete… it better be good - $8 billion good!

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Researching, enrolling and updating benefits continues to be a top task of employees on the corporate intranet (after directory, search and news which continue to be amongst the top visited areas regardless of company and industry). Yet, most benefits programs are outsourced and hosted by outside vendors.

According to a report on the BenefitNews.com highlighting the research of Forrester (EBN/Forrester Research 2005 Benefits Strategy and Technology Study), nearly one-quarter of companies in a recent survey plan on implementing a benefits portal in the next two years.

In Five steps to implementing a benefit portal (a very good article), France Lampron highlights the key five steps to implementing a portal:

Step 1: Determine organizational readiness.

Assessing the readiness of your organization will allow you to put the proper timeline in place for the implementation of a benefits portal. Does everyone in the organization have access to a PC? If you have a manufacturing plant, do you have kiosks or PCs in a private area for employees?

Step 2: Review the current benefits processes.

Whenever you consider moving any process to the Web, start with a review of the current process. Look at one process at a time by gathering the forms, the rules and reviewing the workflow to decide if there is room for improvement. If you are going to upgrade the process, now is the time. On the other hand, if your current forms are up-to-date and efficient, it is a good idea to use them for your online templates.

While a comprehensive benefits portal will address everything from open enrollment to vacation time it is open enrollment that typically drives HR to seek a technology change. Be sure to select a benefit portal that supports your organization's open enrollment.

Step 3: Think about what you need from the system.

Whether you build or buy the technology to support your benefit portal, you want to gain an interactive, secure, portal that you can update in the HR department. These are the kinds of questions to ask each vendor (or your company's IT department, if it plans to build the application):

·         Is it easy for the benefits department to make changes to the system, or do you need IT to make changes for you? Being able to make changes to the system without having to go to the IT department is a huge benefit, since in most organizations, IT is a very busy resource.

·         Will you be able to modify the system's terminology to match your company's? It's important that a new system has your company's benefit language - not the language of the technology company.

·         Are the elections "good" when the employee has completed enrollment or election changes, or will it require a benefits administrator to review the form? The most positive employee experience is when there is feedback that the elections are valid and accepted.

·         What does the system offer in terms of confirmation statements? Does it print them out for individuals? Does it interface to your ERP system?

·         Will it support optional benefits like education, health club benefits, etc.?

·         What kind of reports does the system offer? One of the major benefits of Web-based, portal technology is the real-time nature of information. There should be a number of real-time reports indicating, for example, who has completed enrollment and the percentage of employees signed up for each benefit provider. A good system will also let you write your own reports quickly and easily.

Step 4: Work with your IT department.

Once you have a strong understanding of what you would like from a functional point of view, it is time to meet with IT. The IT department is a key component to the success of this project, since it will host the new application or build the portal for you. In addition, IT offers a wealth of information, including how employees in your organization have accepted other portal projects; what it will take in terms of technical support and training; security concerns if you are allowing employees to access the portal from home, and technology issues in terms of linking with the organization's ERP system and outside benefit vendors. Ask IT for suggestions about how to deal with employee passwords for the portal and what to do when employees forget their passwords. IT can also help you determine who will be responsible for staffing technical support when the system goes live.

Step 5: Plan education and roll-out.

Your IT department can also help you with advice on training employees on the new portal. If they have implemented portals for other departments, IT can tell you what to expect. Many organizations have rolled out their new portals prior to open enrollment and had classes at the same time as they review new benefit packages. Making the portal as easy to understand as possible and offering online help as well as a call-in number during business the hours that the portal is available are very important. Keep this in mind, especially if you allow employees to access the portal from their homes.

In conclusion, organizations that have implemented a benefits portal wished they had done it sooner. The time savings, reporting capabilities and improved employee experience outweigh the adjustment period to a new technology. Many organizations are able to work ROI numbers into a purchase due to the fact that they no longer need to hire temporary help during Open Enrollment. In addition, the technology and the experience to implement benefits portals have increased over the past five years. The technology is stable, secure and cost-effective. There are a number of vendors with excellent tools and experience offering software and services to small to mid-sized organizations. Isn't it time that your organization took advantage of this technology?

Common Benefit Portal Functions At a minimum, a portal should accommodate the following:

·         Benefit plan information and forms

·         Online open enrollment

·         Signature forms for medical waivers

·         Online new hire and newly eligible enrollment

·         Online enrollment as a result of work and life qualifying events:

·         Changes within 30 days of hire or benefit eligibility

·         Return from leave notification

·         Marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of child

·         Change in spouse's employment status

·         Change in child's dependent status

·         Change of address or relocation outside of HMO service area

·         Downloading of a total compensation statement generated with information obtained in real-time from your HRMS system

·         Quick links to all benefit provider Web sites

Advantages of a Benefit Portal

·         Forms are never lost

·         Forms are always available to employees

·         HR can update forms online

·         Incomplete forms are a thing of the past

The Navy-Marine Corp. Intranet (NMCI) – the world’s largest intranet currently submitting to an $8 billion dollar facelift – is the subject of the latest lobbying scandal to hit Washington, D.C.

According to an Associated Press report in the Mercury news (Report: Congressman backed defense project critical to donors) a high-ranking California congressman is being fingered for preserving the controversial $8 billion intranet project after accepting a massive donation linked to a project sub-contractor.

Rep. Jerry Lewis, who now chairs the House Appropriations Committee, voted to preserve the intranet project despite pressures on the committee to cut monies from their budget. Rep. Lewis is denying a $130,000 donation from a big investor (Cerebus Capital Management) to one of the projects major sub-contractors (MCI) helped sway him in preserving the funding….

He said he had no knowledge of the connection between the investment firm Cerberus Capital Management and the $8.8 billion project to build a secure computer network for the Navy and Marines until he heard about it from USA Today.

"It is absolutely and unequivocally false to suggest that any decision on funding for the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet was in any way based on a lobbyist's request, or as a favor to someone who was donating campaign funds," Lewis said.

"Neither I nor my staff have recommended adding money to this program - all of the funding approved has been included in the president's budget at the request of the Navy," he said.

Lewis, 71, from Redlands, Calif., chaired the Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on defense in 2003, when the House Armed Services Committee voted to cut 10 percent from the 2004 budget for the Navy-Marine computer project.

The year before, the House Appropriations Committee had noted problems with the program, including cost overruns and delays.Lewis himself was quoted in The Washington Post saying he wasn't satisfied with the project's progress. He also voiced concern about the involvement of MCI, which was a major subcontractor on the project but was involved in an accounting scandal that caused it to file for bankruptcy in the summer of 2002.

But when the defense appropriations subcommittee, which controls defense dollars, passed its 2004 defense spending bill on June 16, 2003, money for the Navy-Marine Corps computer network was preserved.

Lewis said he changed his mind and backed the funding because the Navy asserted that the program's management had improved. On June 26, the full Appropriations Committee also approved the funding. By that time, Cerberus, a hedge fund that invests mainly in companies in or near bankruptcy, owned more than $140 million in stock and bonds of MCI WorldCom.

RSS is already changing the face of the Internet; rocketing blogs to the forefront and cementing the dominant position of portal and news giants such as Yahoo! and CNN. Not surprisingly, playing poorer cousin to their world-facing kin, the corporate portal is now beginning to use RSS, to the benefit of employees and their host organizations.

Michael Rudnick, my colleague and fellow co-host of the Intranet Insider community on Communitelligence.com, believes RSS could in fact change the face of portals.

“Organizations that deploy RSS readers for internal content enable employees to create their own personal news or content update site to keep track of changing information that's relevant or interesting to them,” says Rudnick, the Global Intranet & Portal Practice Leader at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, in his most recent article Comunintelligence.com Communications, Marketing, PR, HR Portal - Blogs. “This is the true definition of a "My Site.”

“Some basic areas where RSS is perfect include employee communications and internal news, HR communications and benefits updates (helpful for annual enrollment information, year end and new year changes), facilities information (very timely in the NY area with the current transit strike affecting business operating hours), management communications, and sales force related content (product updates, customer data, etc.).”

Michael is right. We’re going to see more and more RSS on the intranet. This in fact, could be a blow to the corporate portal vendors. If employees can customize their pages with data feeds using a free client like Feedster or My Yahoo!, then this reduces the attractiveness of an expensive portal solution like Websphere or SharePoint.

Now, freebies like My Yahoo! won’t replace a true, high-value portal with integrated applications, employee directories, etc. But these freebies could dampen the market for some lesser portal vendors. Come to think of it My Yahoo! already offers a corporate portal solution…

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