How many organizations are using a CMS for their intranet? What about a portal solution?

Respondents to the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey provide (530+ organizations ranging from small to huge, in all corners of the globe: 36% come from the U.S.; 24% from Europe; 60% have more than 1,000 employees; 32% have 6,000 or more employees) some very good insight into the use content management systems (CMSs), as well as portals and Intranet 2.0 tools.

Key findings:

• Less than 2/3s of organizations use a CMS for their intranet (62%)

• 24% use a custom built CMS (home grown CMS)

• 25% use an off-the-shelf solution

• 11% use a portal solution

• There is no dominant CMS solution – no one vendor has more than 20% market share

  • Microsoft SharePoint is used by 20% of those that use a CMS

  • Interwoven, Documentum and Vignette each have 4% market share

  • No other solution was cited by more than 8 organizations (2.5% share)

Clearly SharePoint's dominance in the market is showing here. Though only 20% of the respondents are using it as a CMS. For those that have implemented Intranet 2.0 tools, SharePoint (MOSS 2007) is present in 46% of the organizations (though some organizations are using multiple tools including SocialText, Confluence and MediaWiki). In other words, SharePoint is being used as a CMS, but its not its strength which is collaboration sites, document sharing, and portal functionality / features. SharePoint is more often being used for collaboration and portal functionality.

My full presentation on the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey findings is next week at J. Boye – Philadelphia 2009. There are still spots left if you want to register now (and some great case study presentations as well). The full study findings will be sent to survey participants only in mid-May (TBA) followed by a participant only webinar (yes you have to take the survey to get the results).

Speaking of intranets and measurement this is a great free webinar with a terrific case study from PNC Bank: Measuring Intranet Success in the Real World (Case study with PNC Financial Services group) Date: Thursday, 12pm EST – Register Online.

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Social Media Webinar for Educators

This webinar is free and designed for university professors, instructors, and students. Topics for discussion include the role of the new media, how the Web is evolving, and what to expect in the future. Best practices and tips for how to engage with others and build trust in a virtual world will also be discussed. Hosted by Plank Center, the one-hour discussion and presentation is on May 1, at 1:30 CDT.

Moderated by Keith Burton, President, InsidEdge, presenters include Robert French, Instructor, PR & Digital Media, Auburn University; Jeff Beringer, SVP, Dialogue/GolinHarris, and Toby Ward, Founder and CEO of Prescient Digital Media.

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THE SURVEY IS CLOSING & YOUR PARTICIPATION IS REQUIRED -- THE FINDINGS ARE FREE!

500 organizations of all sizes from across the planet have participated and the findings are invaluable - and surprising. If you haven't already done so, please take 8 minutes to take the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey and you’ll get a copy of the full results including the good, bad and learned lessons. Please also direct clients and fellow colleagues. It doesn't cost anything, and I'm not charging anything.

PLEASE TAKE THE SURVEY EVEN IF YOU DO NOT HAVE INTRANET 2.0 TOOLS -- WE REQUIRE BOTH PERSPECTIVES!!

Respondents who complete the survey will be eligible to win $400 (a random email address will be drawn from all responses to the survey). All respondents will also receive a full copy of the results at no cost.

Here's a sneak preview of some of the findings so far:

• 43% have intranet blogs (10% enterprise deployment); 11% have no plans or interest

• 47% have intranet wikis (16% enterprise deployment); 10% have no plans or interest

• 23% have intranet podcasts (6% enterprise deployment); 30% have no plans or interest

• 17% have intranet social networking (5% enterprise use); 20% have no plans or interest

• 21% have intranet content tagging (9% enterprise use); 24% have no plans or interest

• 37% have intranet RSS (12% enterprise use); 12% have no plans or interest

• 47% have intranet discussion forums (20% enterprise use); 10% have no plans or interest

• 46% have intranet instant messaging (28% enterprise use); 20% have no plans or interest

• 8% have intranet mashups (3% enterprise use); 46% have no plans or interest

• 48% of organizations using SharePoint for Intranet 2.0 tools

A sneak preview of the findings and some of the case study examples will be showcased at J.Boye 09 in Philadelphia (May 5-7, 2009). Register now & receive a fantastic deal on a technology / communications conference of this quality that includes multiple tracks on intranet, SharePoint, content management, user experience and more. J. Boye also features star speakers including the NY Times' David Pogue.

TAKE THE INTRANET 2.0 GLOBAL SURVEY

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Twitter earns a lot of praise and recognition for developing one of the most powerful and popular web tools to date. However, its increasingly visible problems are frustrating users and pundits who are demanding satisfaction – or an alternative.

However, Twitter's problems aren't easily fixed. In fact, there are 5 major problems plaguing Twitter:

1- Over capacity – how many times have you tried to access Twitter only to be hit with a jovial cartoon whale that lamely apologizes for denying you of your addiction? Not unlike a bloated whale, Twitter is slowly being beach by over-capacity problems; with more and more users come more demand which is grinding on Twitter's servers and rejecting its fans. And yet, Twitter seems unable to address these demands despite tens of millions of dollars in fresh financing. The problem has forced a bottleneck for users, and some are using it less and pining for alternatives. Fortunately for Twitter, there is no credible alternative with a critical mass to challenge Twitter... yet.

2- Search – I've yet to come across a worse search engine than Twitter's search. Try and find a person by their real name and you will intimately understand this frustration. In fact, Twitter search isn't even good at searching its own user names. I operate a few accounts, and one is called “intranet2.” A search on “intranet” does not uncover this account even though it has more followers than most of the unknown users in its results pages (many of which don't have the word “intranet” in their user name). As for searching for content by keyword... forget about it; it's not worth the aggravation.

3- Crap, crap, crap – its becoming increasingly difficult to filter out the crap, and the fly-by-night Tweet spammers. My favorite of course are the Twitter wanna-be types who follow as many people as they can come across only to quickly unfollow them in an attempt to massage their egos by building a follower base. While Twitter certainly doesn't force me to follow anyone it would be nice to avoid repeated emails from the “internetmarketer” who repeatedly follows and unfollows me (I'm sure he and his partner in the Nigerian Ministry of Finance offer superlative, sage advice). While Twitter does provide a "block" feature, it may take 3 or 4 follow and unfollows before I recognize the need (through all the clutter) to go and block a follower. Furthermore, if Twitter had half a search engine, then I could seek out reasonable and credible Tweeple to follow instead of having to wait for them to find me amongst the swarms of spammers.

4- Antiquated technology – I've been on Twitter for more than a year now (an eternity in the world of demanding social media users) and its almost exactly the same. While Yammer and other services beef-up their technology and functionality, Twitter sits there and does little (or nothing). Not only is the interface overly simplistic despite its use and demand, there have been no upgrades (no discussion threads, no Re-Tweet button, no bookmarking). Nowhere are the technology limitations more noticeable than the problems with security. Hackers have taken notice of Twitter's soft approach to technology and are hammering it with viruses and worms. See Twitter under attack again (VNUnet) and Twitter riddled with worms and scams (again) (Register).

5- No (visible) business model – can we please send some grey hairs over to the Twitter HQ? Please, bring some grown-ups into the office and develop a source of revenue already, or sell it to someone who can. All of the above problems could be overcome or minimalized if it had some revenue to help address these challenges. I really enjoy Twitter, and recognize its enormous power and potential, but I'm going to leave in a heartbeat if an alternative with critical mass presents itself.

Toby Ward is an Internet and intranet consultant who lives, blogs and Tweets from Vancouver, and client locations and conferences all over North America and Europe. He is the founder and CEO of Toronto-based Prescient Digital Media. Follow him at www.Twitter.com/tobyward

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(NEW YORK) What is the state of the intranet today? What do employees want? Where is the intranet evolving?

Statistics, findings and highlights from the Intranet Insider World Tour in New York City (April 17, 2009).

From Watson Wyatt (Michael Rudnick, presenter):

• 80% believe intranet navigation needs improvement

• 50% don't actually use their intranet on a daily basis

• 50% find search ineffective

Employees use on the intranet:

• employee phone directory

• cafeteria menu

• expense report

• pay stub

Employees use outside of work:

• 75% use Facebook

• 75% use LinkedIn

• 45% use YouTube

• 35% use Wikis

• 32% use Blogs

Intranet 2.0 used at work:

• Collaboration 34%

• Blogs 31%

• Customization 31%

What technologies are powering the intranet 2.0?

• 75% have SharePoint

• 3% have Notes Connections

• 14% have other

Intranet 2.0 Global Survey (500 organizations across the globe) findings (Toby Ward, presenter):

• 42% have intranet blogs (10% enterprise deployment); 10% have no plans or interest

• 47% have intranet wikis (16% enterprise deployment); 10% have no plans or interest

• 23% have intranet podcasts (5% enterprise deployment); 29% have no plans or interest

• 15% have intranet social networking (5% enterprise use); 21% have no plans or interest

• 20% have intranet content tagging (9% enterprise use); 23% have no plans or interest

• 35% have intranet RSS (12% enterprise use); 11% have no plans or interest

• 15% have intranet social networking (5% enterprise use); 21% have no plans or interest

• 48% have intranet discussion forums (19% enterprise use); 9% have no plans or interest

• 49% have intranet instant messaging (29% enterprise use); 18% have no plans or interest

• 7% have intranet mashups (4% enterprise use); 43% have no plans or interest

• 47% of organizations using SharePoint for Intranet 2.0 tools

Intranet ROI – cost savings attributed to IKEA intranet (Beth Gleba, presenter):

• Paper cost savings = $192,000

• Streamlining processes / Self-serve travel process saves $4,590

• Modernizing communication technologies video conf to WebEx = $90,000

• Self-service hr = $219,000

Con Edison intranet survey (Fred Leach, presenter):

• 3054 completed surveys (55% management; 45% union)

• 90% say company communications are somewhat or very helpful/informative

• Preferred communications channels are:

1. email

2. intranet

3. elevator screens

4. hard copy (print)

• 54% have seen CE eye (employee video channel; employee stories are most popular)

• Most popular video: “To Catch a Thief in Brooklyn!” (documenting how a Con Edison nabbed a cable thief in a Brooklyn sewer – including a physical wrestle, chase & scuffle!)

2009 Edelman Trust Barometer Executive (John Havens, BlogTalkRadio.com, presenter):

How a company treats its employees is tantamount in influencing the level of trust amongst its customers.

When you think of good and responsible companies how important is each of the following factors to the overall reputation of the company? (4475 people – 25-64 years of age)

• Offers high quality products & services - 94%

• Is a company that treats its employees well - 93%

5 Trends for Intranet Innovation (Amy Vickers, Razorfish, presenter):

• Attention Management – separating signal from noise

• Openess – cultivating transparency, sharing, and flatness

• Networks of Knowledge – graphing known and unknown connections

• Ecosystem Efficiency – orienting around business processes

• Back is the New Front (Office) – data and infrastructure drives innovation

How D Street Enhances Deloitte

1. Innovation & productivity

2. Talent Attraction & Assimilation

3. Integrated Communications

4. Talent Retention

5. Knowledge Preservation

6. Marketplace Eminence

Benefits of Corporate Social Networking at Deloitte Consulting (Arun Parshad, presenter):

• 8.2% increase in retention

• 10% increase in productivity

• 11.8% in new businesses

Deloitte demographic trends:

• Average new hire: 27 years old

• 65% of new hires are under age 25

• 35% work in a virtual team

• Nearly half (46%) of GenYers polled rate the availability of networking programs for enterprise as important to their job

• 75% of CIOs plan to invest in social networking tools in the next four years

D-Street social networking community at Deloitte features:

• Blogroll – blogs throughout

• Headlines – intranet news

• Snapshot – pictures from across the organizations

• Seen on the Street – external stories

• Communities

• Personal profiles

D-Street participation by employees:

• 1261 personalized profiles as of February 2006

• 19171 personalized profiles as of February 2007

• Last 6 months: 80 ad hoc communities with 1800 members

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(NEW YORK) Intranets help empower employees and sales teams to increase sales; a revenue enhancing benefit that is far too often overlooked by too many organizations.

IKEA U.S. has 37 stores, with over 12,000 co-workers; an employee audience that is both geographically dispersed, and has limited capacity to connect to the intranet. However, a challenging retail environment with a dispersed target audience and a limited attention span has not daunted the IKEA intranet team from focusing on the bottom line: decreasing costs, and increasing sales.

IKEA's intranet team began with a series of philosophies that guide their work and execution:

1. An emphasis on the power of people.

2. Decentralization works!

3. The Intranet is part of a total information landscape.

4. It’s good to be a passionate fanatic!

5. We are obsessed with impacting the bottom line!

The last philosophy 'obsession' with the bottom line has also served them well – leading to increased sales, and cost savings of more than $500,000 per year:

• PAPER COSTS = $192,000

• STREAMLINING PROCESSES / SELF-SERVE TRAVEL PROCESS SAVES $4,590

• MODERNIZING COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES VIDEO CONF to WEBEX = $90,000

• SELF-SERVICE HR = $219,000

The intranet is particularly focused on supporting the sales organization; especially sales events and the monthly “seize the day” sales. In particular, the intranet team delivers content that is highly focused on sales events with:

• Photos

• Stores “reporting in” with lots of co-worker quotes

• The good and the bad

• Employee discussion boards

• Sales number & metrics

Demonstrating their success in covering their big sales events, IKEA has consistently exceeded its sales goals since the third sales event proactively targeted by the intranet team.

IKEA's intranet team also delivers key content and tools based on personas or “key roles” in the stores. The team built manual pages called “dashboards' for role specific functions. In doing so, the intranet team hit the road and visited employees on the store floors to determine the scope and focus of these dashboards, working side-by-side with employees to understand what content and online they need.

To learn more about the IKEA intranet, and other top-rated intranets showcased at The Intranet Insider World Tour Live (New York, April 16 – 17). Register now for the Intranet Insider World Tour LIVE (only $700 for 2-days of jam-paced learnings).

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Like the content of your website or intranet, planning and governance is technology agnostic; whether its SharePoint or another portal or content management platform, the necessity for and the approach to governance is the same. Given its technology neutral status in the realm of website and intranet evolution this module on planning and governance is largely applicable to any technology platform and as such is generic to start.

While generic in nature, there are some components of SharePoint that require specific consideration, and are discussed and addressed by the interviewed subject matter experts and the included case studies (see Planning for SharePoint Success).

“Without proper architecture and governance, I can guarantee you that SharePoint will fail,” says Bob Mixon, President of Mixon Consulting, addressing the annual Enterprise 3 conference in San Diego.

In particular, the powerful Team Site features and easy deployment features (Site Collections) of SharePoint make it even more demanding of a rigorous plan and detailed governance model. While intranet governance provides clarity and rules: namely the titles, roles and responsibilities of its owners, managers, stakeholders and contributors.

Sadly, very few organizations actually have a well-defined governance model, and many of those have spent hundreds-of-thousands to millions of dollars on their website or intranet – amounting to extraordinary investments left to chance and execution on a whim.

According to the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey:

• only 47% of organizations have a defined governance model (32% have 6,000 employees or more; 11% have 30,000 employees or more);

• of the tools and platforms being used by survey participants, a whopping 47% are using SharePoint (MOSS 2007) in some shape or form.

Intranet Sprawl

As IP technology has advanced corporate intranets have become more complex and interactive including human resource and purchasing applications, collaboration tools, business intelligence and real-time reporting tools. Some organizations without intranet governance and enterprise standards (for web page and content creation) have seen the birth of individual intranets for every department and work team. “Do-what-you-like” was the only rule and the corporate network became the wild west or ‘intranet sprawl’.

'Intranet sprawl' can be a poisonous side-effect of SharePoint Team Site and site collection use without the proper “rules” for deploying and managing sites. However, its not merely a SharePoint problem. At one point at the turn of the millennium, IBM's network was choked with approximately 10,000 intranet sites before they undertook a governance process and federation (consolidation campaign) that saved the company untold millions (IBM claims its saved more than a $1 billion).

Perhaps more so than most, SharePoint (MOSS 2007 or WSS) requires a governance model. I categorize intranet governance by four broad approaches or models:

• Decentralized (no single owner; do-what-you-like)

• Centralized a single owner or department controls it all; highly bureaucratic; common in small organizations)

• Collaborative (shared ownership via committee)

• Hybrid, centralized (single owner, with collaborative accountability, decentralized content ownership)

Learn more about planning and governance for the corporate intranet, with a specific focus on MOSS 2007, during our free webinar Planning for SharePoint Success (April 13).

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Personas are nothing new, but are becoming increasingly important to intranets and managers who want to better understand employees, and their information preferences and paths on the corporate intranet or portal.

“Developing personas allows anyone developing or designing, or for that matter, writing, to focus on a person rather than referencing multiple data points,” says Catherine Elder, senior consultant, Prescient Digital Media. “People respond to people, they are easier to remember than a compilation of data. Personas help a team focus on important aspects of target users – they simplify the reference points.”

Below are the slides from Catherine's recent webinar on “Creating personas.”

For a more in-depth read, see Focusing on your website user by developing personas.

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