If you want to see a great employee portal in action, plan to attend Communitelligence.com’s webinar Intranet Insider World Tour: GM’s mySocrates (this Thursday, June 1).

mySocrates was launched in 2001 for GM employees and contractors in the U.S. Human Resources, Information Systems and Communications joined forces to deliver secure access to communications and self-service applications enabling access to the intranet from any internet machine 24/7. Since initial launch the portal continues to transform to provide role/location based access to tools and information to GM employees throughout the globe.

Today, the mySocrates corporate team is led by people from HR, Communications and IT. Each of GM’s global functions also have people working on intranet integration. Socrates has solid tendrils into every key process, function and location of GM. Everything from benefits enrollment to supply ordering to 360-degree performance management can all be done online. 

Socrates took two giant steps at the end of 2001. A fully-personalized portal was deployed (SunONE) and the company provided low-cost home intranet access for all U.S. employees. Since its launch, mySocrates has been governed by the Intranet Strategy Board. Business and IT stakeholders from all functions and regions work together to establish web strategy and develop and implement enterprise approaches to increase business effectiveness and efficiency.

Take the Intranet Insider World Tour -- a unique teleseminar series from the Comunitelligence Learning Academy. See behind the firewall and pick up tips, techniques and secrets for maximizing the value of your intranet or portal. You and your intranet team will have a chance to dissect and discuss what makes each intranet world-class. Most important, you’ll get to ask real-world questions from intranet insiders and see best practices that could work on your own intranet.

Learning Topics

• History/evolution of mySocrates - and integration of business teams into process and portal
• Role-based publishing
• Governance and globalization – importance of involving right level of leadership with the appropriate areas of focus
• News Publishing on Socrates
• employee Marketplace
• My Authorization
• GM Drivetime daily video newscast
• Collaboration and Knowledge-Sharing Tools
• Socrates Metrics
• Intranet ROI

This webinar is presented by Laurel Castiglione, Manager – Intranet Governance, Globalization and Marketplace for General Motors. As the business leader of the mySocrates Globalization Project she is responsible for deployment of the mySocrates to portal to employees and contractors in 38 countries , 13 Global Process Teams enabling an integrated portal across business sectors. She has successfully implemented a governance board which involves stakeholders from all levels of the organization. She is also responsible for deployment of the employee Marketplace.

To register for this see Intranet Insider World Tour: GM’s mySocrates

The intranet is only as good as the people that run it. The technology is secondary and only an enabler.

Transforming the intranet is the new intranet manual by Melcrum. It’s really a must have if you’re connected to managing or planning any intranet. However, if you don’t have $395 and don’t have time to read this news blog on a regular basis, then Shiv Singh’s recent article Value-driven intranet design is a good synopsis:

"Within most corporations, taking ownership of an intranet is an unglamorous, exhausting, and thankless job for a new intranet manager. Many corporate intranets lack thoughtful, focused, and disciplined design and are often extremely large and unwieldy. Fixing these intranets can seem an impossible and futile task.

Furthermore, with new terminology proliferating from the armies of IT consultants, software vendors and business professors in the marketplace, it is becoming even harder to define an intranet, determine what it should accomplish, and measure those accomplishments. In the domain of company intranets, terms like empty portals, peer-to-peer sharing, smart enterprises, digital dashboards, social networks, taxonomy design, and knowledge management all come together and compete for attention and dollars. These buzzwords capture the imagination of senior executives who force you to devote dollars to intranet-related initiatives that the organization may not be ready for or that do not benefit the employee community."

Shiv specifically offers some advice regarding defining and measuring the intranet’s value, as well as managing and nurturing intranet talent and consultants. Nice addition.

What is often overlooked by most articles, case studies and manuals is the issue of people. People make the intranet work. The degree of their ability and effort determines the end value of the intranet. A content management system or portal may certainly bolster this intranet – but it could also hinder the intranet if not used properly

For more intranet news visit www.IntranetReport.com

© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media