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Intranet evolution, best practices, and case studies by Toby Ward.

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Friday, September 29

Extending intranet access with VPN

by Toby Ward on Fri 29 Sep 2006 01:34 AM PDT

I’m still a little amazed that security is such a big issue for so many organizations. The technology is there, what’s the issue?

Many organizations still employ large organizations with many employees that don’t work at desktops… think car manufacturers like Ford, or airlines like Cathay Pacific, or the U.S. Army. All of those organizations extend intranet access to remote people – employees on the road, in the field or at home. If they can do it, so can you. And yet there are far too many organizations still worrying about those employees that don’t have intranet access… give them access from home!

U.S. Army Intranet… available on the public Internet

Many companies try and set-up kiosks or joint work stations. Many of those same companies have also found that they’re not used too well. (One exception is Dutch Railway company NedTrain with an employee workforce of 4,000, the majority of which do not have dedicated computers. Despite the limited computer access, the company encourages employees to use centrally located touch-screen kiosks to access the intranet. The result: an astounding 2.5 million quarterly visits – or 200 intranet visits per employee per month).

When recently visiting a client’s field office with workers that work outside and don’t have a dedicated computer, I heard a familiar tune. “We don’t use the intranet much and don’t really care… but I would if I could access it from home.”

Virtual Private Network or VPN has been the solution for many companies, for many years. I remember I was granted my first VPN access to the corporate intranet 9 years ago. For those still not familiar with it, don’t be shy – it’s largely a techie thing. You’re not alone.

VPNs are designed to provide access to the intranet and come with built in security – good ones of course have very strong security such as intrusion prevention, stateful firewall, and granular authorization. Authorization of course requires a password or a PIN. But as many of us know all to well, the most common security breaches are not because of hardware and technology, it’s because of people loosing or being cavalier with their password.

A VPN secured with “two-factor authentication” aims to overcome this problem. Two-factor authentication has the user often use a PIN (a four or six digit number) in combination with a randomly generated number from a hand held token. You may have one or see these little badges that generate a new number every 30 seconds.

So really, security isn’t an excuse anymore. The security exists. If banks offer online banking and even the U.S. Army (with all its concerns about terrorism, etc.) can put it’s intranet on the public Internet (check it out at: www.army.mil), then you can too.

RELATED READING:

Kiosk access for non-desk workers

Home intranet access

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Wednesday, September 27

Branding the intranet

by Toby Ward on Wed 27 Sep 2006 02:34 PM EDT

(New York, NY) Branding is a funny game – it’s more art than science and involves too many intangibles that cannot always be controlled. Brand is more than an image or design – your corporate brand represents the sum perception of consumer’s total interactions with the company – the intangibles that bridge a product or service promise and the customer’s demand and opinion of that promise. The Internet is one of the most important touch points. The intranet an increasingly important vehicle.

Often overlooked, as I stated today in my speech at the 2006 Corporate Reputation and Communication Conference (Conference Board), is the power of the employee in representing the corporate brand and the necessity of employee communications and the intranet in maximizing the value of your brand.

So what does the brand mean to the intranet? How do you brand the intranet? Firstly, the intranet must reinforce and support the corporate brand. The intranet is one of the most visual representations of the organization to employees on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, the intranet cannot be designed willy nilly. It must adhere to corporate branding standards and creative including:

Use and treatment of the corporate logo
Applications of color from an acceptable and complimentary color palette
Treatment of images, icons and photos that align with the corporate image

Does this mean though that the intranet home page should look like the Internet home page? No it doesn’t. It should not be a replication of the external site – there should be some distinction. However, there is a fine line between replication and reinvention. If you adhere to corporate branding standards (I’m assuming you, like most organizations, have them) then there will be some consistency with the external website (e.g. colors) but it should be at a glance visually distinctive so employees know that the intranet is just for them.

"Visual appeal can be assessed within 50 milliseconds, suggesting that Web designers have about 50 milliseconds to make a good impression," according to Dr. Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in a recent e-commerce Times article about a report published in the journal Behaviour & Information Technology.

As I’ve said time and time again, there is far too much emphasis on look-and-feel and design. “We’re doing a redesign” is a common turn of phrase meant to convey a complete restructuring of the intranet or website, but it in fact emphasizes the look-and-feel. In my experience, the user, your target audience, determines what is important.

It goes without saying that building an intranet brand is far more complex than marketing. A number of key contributors must be carefully mixed and executed to create a valued resonation:

Site design
Usability
Site layout
Content quality
Application value
Collaboration

This does not mean however that the intranet ‘brand’ should be left to chance and that it is not important. The intranet brand is very important given its profile as an ever-present representation of corporate messaging, goals and source of information and collaboration. While the design or look-and-feel of the intranet should never be done on a whim or without a plan that aligns with the corporate brand, it should not be forgotten that employees don’t go to the intranet for brand, they’re after content.

ADDITIONAL READING:

Building a web brand (Get Strategic)

Don't Shout, Listen (Fast Company_

On the Web, Branding Is Back (Business Week)

Web branding is more than skin deep (Gerry McGovern)

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Tuesday, September 19

How to fix a broken intranet

by Toby Ward on Tue 19 Sep 2006 08:25 PM PDT

I’m amazed but no longer shocked at how many poor, broken intranets there are in the corporate world. There are a lot of organizations that need help. This of course is good for our business (Prescient Digital Media), but not so good for the folks paying for and running these intranets.

So, rather than just sit back and wait for you to hire us, we’re conducting a free seminar in Toronto in October… aptly named How To Fix A Broken Intranet. In keeping with the free theme, we’re co-presenting this seminar with Optaros who’s speciality and focus is open-source software. In short,Optaros is an “international consulting and systems integration firm that provides enterprises with best-fit solutions to IT business challenges, maximizing the benefits of open source software.”

You could say that this seminar is geared towards those organizations looking for the most bang for the buck!

In this 90 minute, information packed session, attendees will see real world examples of organizations that have fixed their intranets and achieved breakthrough performance with social networking. Attendees will also gain an in-depth understanding of how open source content management solutions are ideally suited to maximize the implementation of these features cost effectively.

WHEN: Wednesday, October 11, 2006

TIMES: 8:30am or 3:30 p.m. (90 minutes)

WHERE: Prescient Digital's Training Room 180 Bloor Street West Suite 1102
Toronto, ON Canada M5S 2V6

Seating is limited! Register today for this FREE informative event at www.prescientdigital.com. Register before September 27 and be entered to win a USB watch.

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Selling the intranet to senior management

by Toby Ward on Tue 19 Sep 2006 12:23 AM PDT

You need to talk their talk. HITS just don’t cut it. Senior management want to know how the intranet delivers measurable value to the organization.

As I’ve said time and time again on this site and at many conferences I address, most senior management still view the intranet as a cost center – a necessary evil. To change this mindset, intranet managers need to show them the money. As with any critical business system, an intranet or portal must deliver measurable performance and remain accountable to the investment. If the site’s value is not being measured, then it risks failing the needs and demands of employees and management.

Senior management are much more likely to invest in an intranet if they can see it delivering measurable returns, such as increased business efficiency, reduced overheads and enhanced customer satisfaction. Increasingly the intranet manager will need to put in place viable processes for recording and reporting intranet value, in short demonstrating a return on investment (ROI) and employee productivity.

I will be delivering the keynote address on the second day of the annual Intranet Benchmarking Forum (IBF) LIVE conference, October 5, in London, UK. Building sustainable sponsorship and leadership engagement is focused on just this subject: talking the talk and selling the intranet to senior management.

The conference also features insight and case studies from advanced intranet and portals including British Telecom, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC, and others.

Additional topics being discussed and presented include:

change management
internal communications
effective search
benchmarking
culture
content best practices
business value
internet/intranet
career development

Additional attention will be focused on latest Web 2.0, social software, collaborative tools and Intranet 2.0 deployment.

I understand there are still spots to reserve and at it is very reasonably price at only £999 for members and £1399 for non-members.

Form more information view the full IBF LIVE 2006 program.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE: After an amazing sunny and warm summer the rainy season has begun a little early in Vancouver. This of course holds the promise of a great ski season, but will no doubt dampen and cut short my hiking and mountain biking season.

Nonetheless I joined a hockey team for the first time in…. well, ever. I’ve always been a casual player so I really enjoyed my first game with the Spartans and scoring our first goal J Twenty-five games (plus playoffs to go)… Playing with a two referee system was however quite bazaar. And just like the NHL refs, they're calling EVERYTHING!!

All the girls in my house are sick… I wonder how much longer I can hold out?!?! Perhaps my timing of trips to Toronto, New York, London and likely Paris too in the next three weeks are well timed! Though that’s an exhausting amount of travel and too much time away from home L

There sure was a flurry of comments on the blog during the month of August when I was on hiatus… and then very few since I returned… where’d everyone go?!?!

If you have a good intranet case study to share I’m looking for some co-presenters for the continuing webinar series The Intranet Insider World Tour presented by Communitelligence.com. The next stop is HP in November and promises to be a great webinar…

Anyone excited about the upcoming hockey and basketball seasons? Our Vancouver Canucks play in perhaps the toughest division in all of professional sports. All five teams were .500 and all will likely be there this year. I’m also looking forward to another season of impressive play from Steve Nash and the Suns… Finally kudos to Arsenal for blanking ManU at Old Trafford – without Thierry Henry!!! Woot!!

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Wednesday, September 13

CMS selection & geographically disperse intranets (intranet webinar Q&A)

by Toby Ward on Wed 13 Sep 2006 09:07 PM PDT

Today’s webinar “Top 5 Traits of A Winning Intranet” was an apparent success with a couple hundred participants. We covered a lot of ground and had a lot of questions… unfortunately we had too many questions in the short time available. But I’m glad there are so many inquisitive and capable intranet managers and consultants who are passionate about their respective intranets.

So here are a couple of questions I didn’t get to with my response:

Q: What is your recommendation for a content management system?

A: There are 2000 CMS solutions on the market so you have to be careful. And, even though one CMS works at one organization, it’s highly likely that it may not work at another. I’d suggest, once you’ve developed your plan and your content requirements, inviting 6-10 name vendors in your price range to propose solutions based on your detailed requirements. Mid-market vendors such as Red Dot, Serena, CrownPeak, PaperThin, etc. are safe bets – but it really depends on your requirements. Make the vendors work for your business by telling them what you need – in a detailed RFP.

Understanding your requirements is very detailed work. Prescient’s detailed CMS evaluation matrix covers hundreds of solution features and attributes – and weights them according to the client’s specific requirements (for more information see CMS Blueprint ©2005). The bottom line: you have to put in the work to fully understand and document all of your requirements – from publishing interfaces, to administrative features, to template creation and workflow – before you can select a CMS.

For more information on CMS solutions visit:

www.CMSMatrix.org

www.CMSWatch.com

Q: What are your recommendations in a geographically dispersed organization with regional intranets?

This depends greatly on the structure of the business, and the underlying culture. I’m a big fan of pooling resources and finding scales of economy – productivity and efficiency drives to the bottom line and puts smiles on the faces of senior management. I would like to see more organizations using a single platform and home page with a decentralized content management solution allowing regional and business unit owners to publish and manage their own content (while adhering to central policies and standards) without having to worry about servers and infrastructure. However, the business structure will determine the system. If you are in a large, decentralized company where different business units and country units operate as quasi-independent companies, it will be very, very difficult for you to build an effective, centralized employee intranet portal. You can build it, but “effective” is the key word. It is easier if there’s an edict from up high that says “thou shalt be done.”

In the absence of a direct order from the CEO, you will have to convert the masses and win fans. You will have to build it and hope that they will come. They won’t however come by merely building an intranet. You will have to sell, sell, sell. Think of it as a political campaign. You will have to sell the intranet, demonstrate its value, and make all sorts of promises and concessions… So, hire a good campaign manager J

If centralization is just not possible, then begin by striking a ‘global’ council or committee to develop standards and policies. Build in systems that enforce the standards (e.g. only sites and pages that meet the standards will be indexed by the search engine).

If you have any additional comments or questions then please feel to post a question below or e-mail me through the Prescient website at www.PrescientDigital.com

ADDITIONAL READING:

Sex, Lies, and CMS Vendors

More immaturity… from CMS to portals

CMS market evolution

Intranet excess

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Sunday, September 10

Web 2.0 hype distracts from mission critical needs

by Toby Ward on Sun 10 Sep 2006 11:49 PM PDT

I don’t know of a single communications manager or executive that doesn’t want to introduce blogging to some segment of the employee population. There are undoubtedly some, but these cautious folks are in the minority. And the cautious ones are the smart managers.

Web 2.0 or social media such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, etc. is all very interesting – and potentially incredibly powerful. I’m all for it and, as you probably know since you’re reading this blog, I’m a big advocate of social media.

Most organizations, however, have a sub-par intranet. I’m being kind of course because many, many companies have horribly dreadful intranets. If your intranet is anything but very good, you shouldn’t be wasting your energy dreaming about blogs and podcasts.

Read my complete column Web 2.0 distracts from mission critical needs (Communitelligence.com)

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Saturday, September 9

Google's instant intranet

by Toby Ward on Sat 09 Sep 2006 10:40 AM PDT

Google wants to be your intranet, too. ZDNet’s Marc Orchant gives us a sneak preview (Google's instant intranet):

On his Read/Write Web blog, Richard MacManus picks up on what he calls Google's new "instant intranet" home page. I've been using a version of this since I got my new Dell laptop a few months back as it was set to be the home page in Internet Explorer. I decided I could live with it as it is really just a co-branded version of the Google personalized home page with some Dell-specific widgets.

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Friday, September 8

Google's not so free intranet offer

by Toby Ward on Fri 08 Sep 2006 01:00 AM PDT

Google wants to give you free communications applications (chat, e-mail, calendar, etc.) for your intranet – free but at a price.

Before you jump at this ‘free’ offer, ZDNet blogger Donna Bogatin writes that “When it comes to an organization's applications hosting, Google's "free" comes at a heavy cost.”

"Google Apps for Your Domain" beta test is now taking requests for participation. Fellow ZDNet blogger Dan Farber reports on Google's latest initiaitve in "Google Office 'version 1.0' debuts":

Google doesn't yet have an Office 2.0–a full suite of hosted productivity applications aimed at the Microsoft Office crowd, especially the small- and medium-sized firms–but starting tomorrow companies or organizations can deploy Google email, calendar, chat and Web page (Page Creator) hosting for free (ad supported). The set of Google communications applications is an extension of Gmail for Your Domain, and has some limited UI customization and administration features. Later this year, Google will offer a subscription service with additional storage and support options.

For more information read Google's not so fine print: Google Apps TOS put Google first.

I don’t begrudge Google becoming the most powerful information broker on the planet (and, in my opinion, the most powerful company in the world). However, consumers and corporations alike do need to know what they’re getting into when using Google and their assorted applications. I do wish however they were more forthright about how much of people’s personal usage and information they track and store because it’s significant. Scary significant.