PLEASE NOTE THE CORRECTED DATE. THIS WEBINAR IS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2006.

A successful intranet requires a lot of smart work, hard work, planning and technology. Verizon is a company with an intranet that embodies this success, but not at the expense of innovation.

The giant U.S. communications company has a cutting-edge “technology digital workplace” that allows its geographically dispersed employee base to access corporate news, information and other important work tools via multiple online channels, including:

·    a voice-recognition portal that allows employees to get news, find out about jobs and send/hear emails over the telephone;

·    collaborative web conferencing;

·    and employee-managed forums, blogs and wikis.

The Verizon intranet

The new intranet or “workplace” has evolved well beyond a traditional intranet where employees click and pull information. Verizon’s Digital Workplace offers multiple access points to make it easier for employees to meet and do business. It's a place where access to information is unprecedented and geographic boundaries are eliminated. Verizon’s Digital Workplace is the total environment where employees create, innovate and communicate on all aspects of the business without the limitations imposed by divergent resources, face-to-face interaction and four walls.

If you’d like to learn more about Verizon’s success and its leading-edge innovation then tune into the next Intranet Insider World Tour: Verizon, Digital Workplace from Communitelligence.com and hosted by Verizon’s intranet guru Donna Itzoe and myself as the facilitator.

Intranet Insider World Tour: Verizon, Digital Workplace

Thursday, November 2

2-3:15 pm Eastern

• Find out about how Verizon provides multiple online gateways to access to applications and systems, news, project information and other tools that employees need to do their jobs.
• Learn how employees use a voice-recognition portal, instant messaging, blogs, wikis, text messaging, email and, of course, authenticated and unauthenticated web sites to collaborate and communicate real-time.
• Discover how Verizon breaks down the internal digital divide using by integrating new technologies integrated with innovative communication techniques

Reserve your spot on this key 75-minute Webinar: Intranet Insider World Tour: Verizon, Digital Workplace

Boo! Okay, really, that’s about as scary as I’m going to get here. After all I am talking about intranets... dull, boring, uneventful intranets. Hell, I may be passionate about them but I’m also a realist...

On the eve of Halloween, and having seen so many hundreds of intranets, I thought it would be fun to relate my top 5 scariest moments in my intranet years. Of course, intranets can’t really be scary in the literal sense so when I say ‘scary’ I’m really meaning ‘stupid’.

Warning: the following contains scenes with little or no graphic violence, some suggestive language and only hints of nudity and explicit conduct. Caution: Stupid managers and executives who can relate to these should hide under a blanket or shiver with embarrassment. (Some of these stories I’ve related over the years but are too amusing not to relate again...)

·    A COO who berated me for making her intranet manager cry when I gave their intranet an evaluation score of 3.5 our of 10 (when asked to rate the intranet themselves, her senior management rated the intranet even worse: 3 out of 10). Man, I’m a cruel bastard!

·    A CEO of a major financial services company with a horribly pathetic intranet with a a zero-dollar budget and was looking to cut funding further... “I think we’ve invested too much in technology already.” Blood from a stone anyone?

·    An intranet manager who put an animated cartoon caricature of a jogging Bill Clinton on the intranet HR home page. Said the intranet manager when asked the value to the business of an animated U.S. President, “... he’s sooo cute!” I guess Dick Cheney wasn’t sexy enough...

·    A Director of Human Resources: “I don’t understand why we need an intranet... I mean we have a pretty good phone system that cost us a lot!” Forget the phones; I think ‘telegrams’ are due for a comeback.

·    Any company, at any time, that chooses an intranet consultant based on a blindly designed mock-up. Forget about a plan, employee productivity, or ROI, what kind of colors and stock images will you use?!?!?!

Any scary or stupid tales to relate? Let me know and I’ll give it ink!

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