Intranet Blog

Intranet design

Toby Ward — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:22:39 -0800

This is the story of a very profitable, successful, large enterprise that spent over $2 million on their intranet. When the intranet launched, it crashed in seconds. It has never gone live again (more than a year later).

Leaving an intranet design to the whim of a designer, a creative agency or any individual not working from a sound blueprint represents poor judgment, management, and is a recipe for disaster.

Sound intranet design follows a process that incorporates:

1- Business requirements (as expressed by management)
2- User requirements (as expressed by employees)
3- Strategic & functional planning
4- Governance
5- Best practices & usability

The process for arriving at the stage where a designer applies color and images to a design concept is one that should be taken seriously, and if done properly, may take a number of weeks. This process is the underlying foundation of a successful intranet design, one that is examined and outlined in the webinar Intranet Design – A Business Approach to a Winning Design.

Intranet Design – A Business Approach to a Winning Design

View more presentations from Toby Ward.

Note: not all 25 intranets profiled during this webinar, but not are available for distribution.

The story of the failed intranet, and the squandering of more than $2 million and years of worker hours, is ultimately a story about a failure in planning. Without sound requirements that drive a thorough intranet blueprint, culminating in the intranet design, your intranet risks failure.

Read More on Intranet Design:
Leading an intranet redesign
Intranet redesign: rolling content inventory
Intranet redesign: building a business case
Building an intranet blueprint

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SharePoint for ECM: 5 big enhancements

Toby Ward — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:05:42 -0700

(LAS VEGAS) Lest you be tingling with excitement about the potential enhancements to your less than spectacular content management system, there are two realities for SharePoint 2010: what is promised, and what is hoped for.

Those working with MOSS 2007 can be forgiven for the vacuous deflating sound from their proverbial balloons – those familiar with 2007 promises that don’t materialize as promised (e.g. People Search); others attending the annual SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas can be forgiven for their rapid inhalation of hot air as there is great reason to be optimistic, even excited.

Nonetheless, I’ve been both impressed and underwhelmed with what I’ve seen, but more time is needed for Microsoft to complete the beta testing and final refinements before 2010 ships to customers in the spring of 2010. When I asked SharePoint chief Tom Rizzo to explain how he thought the content management functionality compared with other market leaders, Rizzo – speaking as a proud, if not slightly defensive father – instead turned the question back on me: “I challenge all of the other vendors to offer as comprehensive a platform as SharePoint – nothing comes close.” Touché!

Here are five of the biggest impact, promised improvements to enterprise content management (ECM) that I’ve seen with my own two eyes, and even used (albeit with mixed success as the ‘lab’ demos are not all working as promised, and a demo is in fact just a demo):

1- Publishing platform – the entire publishing platform is, in essence, a wiki. You can choose to lock down wiki or public authoring rights, extend them to some, or extend them to all. However, it is possible to create sites as wikis. The wikis come with complete version control, history and permissions, and the rich editor or “ribbon” functionality (as seen in Word 200).

2- Web content management (WCM) – communications professionals rejoice: publishing news and other static content just got a lot easier. The new publishing includes the new “ribbon” user tool that opens when you click on a page or a document, or you simply hit the edit button at the top of a page. Instead of opening a content ‘template’ the new publishing features in-context editing: click on whatever piece of content you want to “edit”, and edit right there on the page (just as you would a wiki). New image tools allow for better control and manipulation of photos, and you no longer have to make the extra step of uploading a photo to a document library before you input it into the page – you can now pull images right from your hard drive, or a website URL.

3- Records management (RM) – Microsoft has invested a lot of money in improving RM in 2010. Among the many features that have impressed, users or administrators (or someone else that has permission to do so) are able to lock down a document in a document library, as a record. And with a right click, can send that document to a Record Center with confirmation. Additional Life Cycle controls have been added.

4- Digital asset management (DAM) – yes, SP 2010 actually includes DAM – you no longer have to use a third-party option to professionally manage images, video and other multimedia.

5- Taxonomy & meta data – perhaps the single, most impressive upgrade or enhancement to SharePoint is the addition of true taxonomy and meta data controls. All content now comes with a Managed Meta Data Service Term set that can be inherited from the global taxonomy (site collection), can be built upon or controlled by an administrator, or open to all users (or a combination). In other words, when content is created, be it a page, document, wiki, meta data can be added on the spot, as determined by the publisher or limited to a pre-determined set or tree of terms that is locked down. End readers and users can ‘tag’ the content as well with term tags, ratings (1-5 starts) and “I like it.” What is most encouraging about the use of meta data is that it can be “forced” or a “mandatory field” for all content (we all know that most organizations have options to input meta tags on content, but most content authors ignore it if given the choice).

Other taxonomy features:

· Term ‘nesting” or “threading”(think of the tree with parent & children categories)

· “Fill-in” choices as an option in locked-down taxonomies

· Different taxonomies at different levels: site collections, sites, libraries, etc.

· Managed meta data service can be consumed by multiple farms

· Multilingual taxonomy support (taxonomies using multiple languages)

· Taxonomy workflow (invite specific people to contribute or review the taxonomy)

· View and filter documents by term:

o Geography

o Product Category

o Vertical Industry

o Content Type

o Deal Size

o Folders

o Etc.

While not all of these promised improvements were working in the hands-on labs in my time spent using MOSS 2010, this is in-fact only the beta version (in fact, one of the MS officials helping me through the hands-on labs told me that some of the tutorials are in fact still alpha versions. In fact, the first time I used the new wiki I was convinced it was the 2007 version as I could see not a single improvement to it). There is still some 6 or 7 months still to pass before Microsoft has to work out all the bugs, kinks, and refinements (planned release to existing MOSS 2007 customers is at the end of April, though I would not expect something for installation much before the summer; new customers will have to wait even longer).

Finally, it’s worth noting that MOSS is a massively complex, and powerful system. It’s to be expected that some of the promised functionality may not work for some time, or without serious additional development and customization. In fact, any organization considering an upgrade may do well to wait until after the first service pack, or simply trial the new SharePoint Online which will have close to feature parity with the installed, on premises version.

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UPDATE: Introducing SharePoint 2010: learnings from SPC09

Toby Ward — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:03:35 -0700

(LAS VEGAS, NV) If there was one, overarching message delivered by CEO Steve Ballmer in his keynote unveiling Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (at the annual SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas): SharePoint is no longer just an intranet solution, it’s been architected for all forms of web scenarios.

“SharePoint is one of my favorite Microsoft products…. It’s true,” says Ballmer. “SharePoint, in my estimation, is kind of magical. I don’t think there’s anything like it in the market. It has become a platform for a whole big set of scenarios that were served by niche (products).”

New scenarios include all of the typical intranet scenarios, but all the Internet scenarios they can attack. To drive the point home, Ballmer cited many companies already using MOSS 2007 for their public website including:

· Kraft Foods (consolidated 200 websites to a single platform saving $2 million per year)

· Volvo (36 languages, 70 countries)

· Pfizer

· Library of Congress

· Hawaiian Airlines

· Kroger

· Conservation International

However, it remains to be seen whether the improvements to MOSS’s web content management will be sufficient to quell the traditional content publishing and management concerns of marketing and communications managers who operate external websites. The new UI for web content management is a marked improvement – in-context editing deploying the ‘ribbon’ UI introduced in Office 2007.

Ballmer announced that MOSS 2010 will public beta test this November (no specific date was delivered). The MS chief also spent a lot of time talking about “the cloud” and was even so bold as to state that “SharePoint is in the center of the cloud.”

“It’s all in the cloud–we certainly agree with that,” said Ballmer, who stressed that SharePoint Online has more than 1 million online users (and 7,000 partners). “SharePoint is more capable, more extensible, more Internet & cloud focused. It’s an amazing product.”

NEW FEATURES / TOOLS:

· “Ribbon” interface (in-context editing)

· "Visual web parts” (“no more hard-coding of web parts”)

· Supports development / design on Vista & Windows 7

· Access services (publish Access dbases through SP)

· New sandboxed solutions

· Integrated rich media & Silverlight

· Improved Visual Studio & SQL

· Upgrades from 2007 will include a complete migration of an existing home page design / UI to 2010

· Improved social computing (blogs, wikis, tagging, ratings, etc)

· Improved search algorithms and FAST Search integration

· New site scenarios for:

o Pricing analysis

o Hiring processes

o Citizen management (citizen portals)

o Project tracking

o Sales reporting

o Conference planning

o Delivery scheduling

o Compliance review sites

SOCIAL COMPUTING

“We needed to facilitate this next generation of social computing,” stated Ballmer, though not convincingly, when asked about the improvements on social media – a notorious weakness of the MOSS 2007 platform. “We’ve done this with My Sites, mashing-up, etc. I think we’ve moved towards 3.0.”

Improvements to the highly criticized social computing of MOSS include:

Better blogs, wikis, calendars
Co-authoring
Content tagging
Tag clouds
Ratings
Bookmarks
MySites “Smart Profiles” and feeds
Browse colleagues and experts
“Share This Site.”

“There isn’t an enterprise on the planet that doesn’t want to embrace social computing, but they worry about how to do it,” explained Ballmer. “If we can show a path to CEOs and CIOs that we can let people interact with each other the way they want to (and still protect privacy and security) then they will embrace social computing.”

CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Improvements to ECM include:

· Document management: The ceiling limit on a document library moves to 10 million, and within a site collection, to hundreds of millions of documents; no longer will you have to right click to bring up the actions / options of a document, the ribbon hosts all of the options / actions the user needs

· Taxonomy management: you will be able to have consistent content types taxonomy across server farms (applied at the document level)

· Pictures: photos no longer have to be in an SP library, but can be uploaded from your hard drive

· The addition of true Digital Asset Management

GOVERNANCE

Perhaps the biggest criticism or flaw of SharePoint has been the issue of governance, which Microsoft has only addressed half-heartedly, as reflected in Tom Rizzo’s comments: “There’s a lot we’re doing on governance, but its only 20% software, and 80% process,” says Rizzo, Senior Director, SharePoint. “We’ve invested a lot in best practices, centers of excellence. We’ll continue to invest, but I think we’re still need near the beginning, than the end.” In other words, governance is more the client’s responsibility than Microsoft’s.

SHAREPOINT CONFERENCE STATISTICS:

· 7.5 miles of network cable

· 7,400 participants (up from 3,800) – 94% growth

· 297 world class speakers

· 70 countries

· 165 sponsors

· 300+ hours

· 240 sessions

· 45+ hours of hands-on labas

· 18 customer sessions (Delloite)

· 2 SharePoint marriages

· Biggest Beach Party ever by Mandalay with Huey Lewis & The News

Follow my SharePoint conference updates on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TobyWard #spc09

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Intranet governance begets intranet success

Toby Ward — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:29:31 -0700

As is the case with most websites or intranets it is simply impossible to achieve any long-lasting success without a clearly defined ownership and management structure. Intranet governance provides clarity and rules: namely the titles, roles and responsibilities of its owners, managers, stakeholders and contributors. However, at the heart of a successful model, is a powerful executive with purse strings, supported by a solid intranet team.

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding governance and a successful intranet, culled from the Q&A of my webinar on Intranet Governance (the highest attended webinar to date) last month:

Q- How do you define what a great intranet is?

A – A great intranet:

operates from a thorough, well defined plan;
is managed by a rigorous governance model supported by a powerful senior executive and a solid management team;
has a reasonable budget for both technical and content development;
features solid, purposeful content and tools that actively support the day-to-day work of employees; and
delivers a solid return on investment in the form of cost savings / cost avoidance and increased sales.

Down the complete Good to Great Intranet Matrix (a guide for evolving your intranet from good to great).

Q - What is the governance model that fits companies who have made the move to social media on their intranet?

A – Governance depends on the culture, company and the management and stakeholders involved. Social media MUST have governance though it should fall under the central intranet governance unless the social media tools are purely separate and owned separately from the intranet / portal home.

A successful social media governance model requires:

A defined owner with clout
Defined roles & responsibilities for all
Policies (rules) for contributing content
Terms of use

Q - Can you talk to setting up a steering committee in more detail, especially when all stakeholders feel that it is their intranet?

A – Follow a proper intranet assessment to ensure that all key intranet stakeholders (managers and executives with a full, partial or perceived ownership stake in the intranet or its major sections and tools) have a formal opportunity to provide input and to itemize their key requirements. From assessment you move into intranet planning that actively engages these key stakeholders and culminates in the development of one of four key intranet governance models that all (or at least most) agree to adopt for their own.

They key is building consensus. If the stakeholder environment is particularly fractured and not given to teamwork, or have competing priorities, then a third-party, non-partisan can help facilitate the process and break down the political barriers.

Intranet in the cloud

Toby Ward — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:36:50 -0700

You’ve probably seen the term, or heard it bantered about by geeks, or maybe your head is in it… but you may not fully understand the term “cloud” or “SasS” (software as a service) or perhaps just think its another catchy marketing acronym like MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server).

The “cloud” refers to cloud computing that at the risk of over-simplifying is simply hosting – computer, server, software, and other hardware and infrastructure hosting. You’re already a cloud customer, probably many times over (someone is hosting your email, website, blog, etc. In fact, 56% of internet users use webmail services such as Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo! Mail – hosted email in the cloud).

In short, hosting is provided as a service over the Internet. SaaS is simply hosted software that could include your website content management system, search engine, CRM (Salesforce.com), etc. The cloud is merely a metaphor based loosely on those computer network diagrams that so cleverly depict little computers with wires running between each other, servers, firewalls, etc.

I was recently pressed on the subject of a “hosted intranet” and why an organization shouldn’t outsource their intranet to “the cloud.” God forbid we let professionals who know what they’re doing maintain our second-rate, after-though, cost-center of an intranet!

It is baffling to me that the intranet isn’t hosted externally for more organizations. Well, I’m well versed with clueless executives with knee-jerk reactions around “security”, privacy, and “the way things have always been done” but I guess I’m naïve to have faith that more would start to embrace the 21st century. If these dolts can Facebook then surely there’s hope, right?

The biggest obstacle blocking the migration of more intranets to the cloud is culture and fear of the ‘unknown’. If the host has proper security does it matter if it’s hosted elsewhere? We do our banking online now – we can’t access the intranet over the Internet?! Most of our benefits and compensation systems are now hosted elsewhere in the cloud – we’re talking about people’s pay, insurance and benefits!

In fact, if it costs me less money and I don't have to worry about the maintenance then you better believe I choose hosted – and I have told clients the same. Its one of the reasons the "cloud" is expanding so fast. It would be 10 times the size if people would just get beyond the knee-jerk reaction to have everything in-house where it costs more, and probably enjoys less security than the top of the line that many hosts employ.

The downside to avoiding the cloud can be far more expensive: I have one client (identity protected) who spent well more than $1 million on a new intranet design and platform and it crashed in the first few minutes, never to go live again because the organization didn’t have the proper infrastructure. One-and-one-half years later, the intranet is still not live. This would never have happened had it been turned over to a host. Instead, millions of dollars have been lost, and countless thousands of employee hours.

Has your organization embraced the cloud, or are you wasting valuable time and skills on hosting and maintenance?

NEXT WEBINAR:

What do the best intranets look like? What are the best practices and principles for redesigning an intranet? Having designed and re-designed dozens of intranet sites (and websites), Prescient Digital Media’s Toby Ward and Catherine Elder will draw on their experiences to provide best practices in approaching intranet design.

Reserve your spot for: Intranet Design – A Business Approach to a Winning Design

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Top 5 intranet KPIs

Toby Ward — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:35:53 -0700

In many ways, websites and intranets are like telephone systems – they assist us in accomplishing mission-critical work all the time but their true value is rarely measured.

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Most people and organizations inherently know and understand the value of the telephone and don’t require a detailed ROI balance sheet before buying a phone. Like the telephone, most organizations inherently understand the value of an intranet, but don’t truly measure its value beyond HITS.

Failure to measure your intranet’s performance above and beyond simple analytics (e.g. HITS and page views) is a failure of responsibility (particularly in this economy where most organizations are looking cut costs wherever they find them).

Here are five noteworthy key performance indicators (KPIs) that you need to adopt:

Sales – if you’re intranet is not helping your organization increase sales, then you’re missing out. It’s far too easy to accomplish with a little planning and execution. Among the benefits:

Provide the sales team with better information, more efficiently
Solicit and reward employee leads & referrals

Additional reading:

Intranet Insider World Tour: Sodexho USA

User satisfaction – more important than what employees are reading, and how often / much, is their satisfaction with the intranet. How happy are they? In particular, user satisfaction with:

Design
Content
Navigation
Tools
Search

Among the satisfaction metrics BT tracks on their intranet (see Satisfied BT Intranet users « Mark Morrell):

83% satisfied with the intranet (down 3%)
42% extremely/very satisfied with the intranet (down 3%)
6% are dissatisfied with the intranet (up 2%)
79% satisfied with BT Homepage (new design) the corporate intranet portal (down 3%)
43% extremely/very satisfied the BT Homepage (down 5%)
3% dissatisfied with BT Homepage (no change)

Productivity – the intranet can significantly boost employee productivity and their ability to find information and tools to complete their work. Among the productivity metrics that Microsoft, IBM and BT track:

33% of Microsoft employee survey participants (33%) agree completely that the Microsoft intranet (MSWeb) saves them time
27% agree completely that MSWeb has helped to improve their productivity (8 or 9 on a nine-point scale)
80% IBM employees visit w3 (the intranet) at least once per day
68% view the intranet as crucial to their jobs
52% are more satisfied to be an IBM employee because of information obtained on w3
48% agree the BT Intranet improves everyday working life
57% agree the BT Intranet saves me time in my working day
59% agree the BT Intranet helps me to be more efficient in my job

Additional reading:

Intranet 2.0 case study: BT

Leading intranet case study: IBM’s W3

Stakeholder satisfaction – a far more critical and discerning audience are those managers and executives (stakeholders) that have a hand in or ownership of the intranet. Our intranet consultants (Prescient Digital Media) have solicited and surveyed stakeholders for their opinions and ratings of the for more than 100 intranet clients. Why? It’s not just about making users happy, but also making management happy.

Additional reading:

Creating A Measurable Intranet Strategy Prescient Digital Media (PPT with case study from PNC Bank)

Cost savings – why have an intranet if it’s not saving your organization money? Improved communications and HR are nice, soft benefits, but if the intranet is delivering those benefits, then it’s probably delivering cost savings that you just haven’t measured. Everything from paper, software, technology, administration, distribution / delivery, and travel costs to just about anything under the sun. There are hundreds of areas to save money with your intranet.

Additional reading:

Finding ROI: Measuring Intranet Investments (free white paper)

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Intranet Assessment

Toby Ward — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:26:15 -0700

An intranet or website is more than a project or a piece of technology; it’s a mission-critical business system and a significant investment that requires proper planning.

Many intranets begin without a plan; many are redesigned without a plan. An intranet is far too expensive to leave to guess work, intuition, or a single-minded purpose such as communications or HR. In order to truly realize the full value of the investment the intranet must have a proper plan that accounts for all aspects of the business – including HR, IT, communications, operations, finance, etc. A proper plan begins with a thorough assessment.

Prescient has a five-phased approach or methodology that our Intranet consultants use to creating highly effective intranets and portals. The first phase of this methodology is the Assessment phase, where the business and functional requirements of the intranet or website are determined and documented.

Prescient's unique intranet project methodology

Despite the traditional focus on technology and integration, the most critical phases are the initial ones: Assessment and Planning. At the heart of an intranet's success is the strength of the plan that governs it, and a successful plan begins with a website or intranet assessment.

ASSESSMENT

Before undertaking any website plan or build, an extensive needs or business requirements assessment is necessary to identify, develop, prioritize, and document goals and current practices.

The assessment should include stakeholder interviews and input, as well as user research, and possibly stakeholder workshops. When building a leading-edge website, a detailed strategic blueprint can be crafted with the acquired data and knowledge including:

Creative
Information architecture
Technology
ROI plans

It is recommended that any organization consider engaging a third-party or consultant to conduct the assessment. While the cost may be prohibitive for organizations with tight budgets, a third-party may be more successful in gathering sensitive opinions and feedback as a third-party, unlike stakeholders, have no personal attachment or stake in the intranet and do not have any political agendas.

It is important to gather the needs and requirements of stakeholder and users, at the risk of failure; a representative sampling of user opinions is crucial to gathering an accurate reading on user needs and requirements.

Engaging Users, Identifying Needs

The first two phases, assessment followed by planning, are perhaps the two most important phases: without undertaking rigorous and thorough assessment and planning stages, the subsequent three phases will not realize their potential. The purpose of the assessment is to identify the organization’s needs and requirements. Steps in the assessment phase should include:

Current state site evaluation
Business requirements interviews
User surveys
User focus groups
Review of existing research (surveys, etc.)
Benchmarking (best practices)
Usability testing

Business and needs assessment

The assessment serves two important needs: it documents the needs and requirements of the user population, for the purpose of answering those needs.Before undertaking any site or portal design or redesign, regardless of the size of the project, a requirements assessment is necessary to identify, develop, prioritize, and document goals and current practices. As mentioned above, each engagement begins with an assessment that concretely identifies and documents the project’s goals and objectives, aligns those objectives with those of the sponsoring department and the enterprise as a whole, as well as documents the needs and requirements of the user audience and stakeholders.

Armed with the acquired data and knowledge, a detailed strategic blueprint – including creative, information architecture, and ROI plans – can be crafted to build a leading edge site. Individual modules in the Assessment Phase may include Stakeholder Engagement, User Research Review, User Survey, User Focus Groups, Benchmarking (sometimes conducted in the Planning Phase) and the delivery of the Key Findings Report.

FREE WEBINAR:

Online registration is now open for Intranet Governance: How to Run An Intranet

(Sept 23, 12pm EDT)

ADDITIONAL READING:

Intranet Evaluation

The Intranet Plan

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Intranet Governance: Ownership, Management & Policy

Toby Ward — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:09:34 -0700

Who should own the intranet? Communications? IT? HR? All of them? You may be shocked to learn that many companies don’t know the answer; in fact, many organizations can’t clearly answer with any confidence whom is the present intranet owner.

As is the case with most intranets it is simply impossible to achieve any long-lasting success without a clearly defined ownership and management structure. Far from being a buzz word or jargon, intranet governance provides clarity and rules: namely the titles, roles and responsibilities of its owners, managers, stakeholders and contributors.

Sample governance model – large-sized financial services firm

(Source: Prescient Digital Media)

Simply put, governance defines an intranet’s ownership and management model and structure including the:

Management team
Roles & responsibilities of contributors
Decision making process
Policies & standards

Like the content of your website or intranet, planning and governance is technology agnostic; whether it’s SharePoint, IBM or another portal or content management system, the necessity for and the approach to governance is the same. Given its technology neutral status in governance is largely applicable to any technology platform.

POLITICS

Politics and the issues of control, ownership and standards go hand-in-hand with intranet management and perhaps these issues, more than any other, have driven the requirement for planning and defined governance models. 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.

Politics will kill your intranet. Without a well defined governance model (and should your intranet survive the naturally occurring politics of competing priorities amongst various stakeholders – communications, IT, human resources, various business units, etc.) then the value the intranet or portal delivers will be severely hampered.

OWNERSHIP

“If you don’t have structure, you’re going to constantly run into politics,” said Terry Lister, Partner and Leader of IBM Canada’s Business Consulting Services. “Without a governance structure with standards, different silos try to do something in parallel (their own thing) and it costs more… and will lessen the user experience.”

Much of the problem lies in the immaturity of this nascent intranet technology. With the rational consolidation of intranet sites and services under a central site or portal, disparate departments and stakeholders such as corporate communications, human resources, IT and varying business units now must cooperate under a lone umbrella with a single intranet home page. Along with this ‘forced’ cooperation comes the predictable politics and competition for ownership of the intranet (and competition for valued home page real estate).

The problem lies with the traditional growth and evolution of the intranet. Initially, when intranets first came online in the early to mid-1990s, they were nothing more than a web brochure (a.k.a. ‘brochureware’) that sat on a small server under the desk of a Web developer who served as designer, writer and Webmaster.

GOVERNANCE MODELS

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)

COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE

The most common governance model in recent years, in medium to large-size organizations, has been the collaborative model. The collaborative model is most often focused on a cross-representative steering committee representing the major functional stakeholders:

Communications
Human Resources
Operations
Information Technology
Business units / departments

This model is most successful when the committee is championed by one or two key executives, often the CIO, the head of Communications, or HR. Instead of no owner, or one single owner, a collaborative team governs the intranet through the application of policies, standards and templates. This committee is typically responsible for the direction, vision, prioritization of projects, and future evolution.

About two-thirds of medium to large-size organizations have some form of collaborative governance and some form of intranet ‘steering committee’ or council. They typical committee has 6-10 individuals (mostly from IT, HR & communications) and is focused on:

Mandate and vision
Business objectives
Policies and standardization
Project prioritization
Trouble-shooting and conflict resolution

HYBRID, CENTRALIZED GOVERNANCE

The hybrid, centralized governance model is one that combines elements of all three previous models:

Centralized ownership
Centralized policy making and future development decision-making
Centralized technology and content management platforms
Decentralized content publishing and ownership
Decentralized application ownership / management

The hybrid model is very closely aligned to the collaborative model, with two significant exceptions: there is often a supporting steering committee, but it falls under a single intranet owner (or co-owners); and the role of IT is usually reduced from a collaborative owner to a committee member without ownership, but rather a support or enabler role for the business owner (often communications or HR). So while the collaborative model has a committee as the end intranet owner, the hybrid model puts the committee under an owner (though sometimes this business owner is in fact IT).

FREE WEBINAR

Learn more about intranet governance during the free, one-hour webinar on September 23 (12pm EST). Contact us directly to secure an advanced spot on the webinar.

ADDITIONAL READING

Intranet Governance

The Politics of Intranet Ownership

Collaborative Intranet Governance (Intranet Politics Part II)

Intranet management is plural

Why is the intranet so political?

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Social Media Becoming Mainstream on Corporate Intranet

Toby Ward — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:53:06 -0700

I recently received a copy of the Intranet Global Survey from Toby Ward, CEO of Prescient Digital Media. The headlight quote was encouraging, “Employees want to work for progressive and innovative organizations, and expect 2.0 environments from employers of choice.” The study included input from 561 organizations of all sizes from across the globe and the results reveal rapid adoption of social media on the corporate intranet in the past year.

The breakdown of specific types of social media on intranets include:

47% have wikis (10% have no plans or interest)
45% have blogs (11% have no plans or interest)
46% have discussion forums (9% have no plans or interest)
37% have RSS (12% have no plans or interest)
23% have podcasts (30% have no plans or interest)
9% have social networking (20% with no plans or interest)

I am not sure which is better the high numbers who have already adopted or the low numbers with no plans or interests. The study concluded that an organization without Intranet 2.0 tools, or plans to use them, risks being out-flanked by their competition.

Read Bill Ives' complete column from (New Study Finds Social Media Becoming Mainstream on Corporate Intranet)

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Intranet Report Podcast: Intranet 2.0 findings & learnings (July 2009)

Toby Ward — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:22:09 -0700

The Intranet Report Podcast by Toby Ward from Prescient Digital Media. This podcast is 4 minutes long.

This month I discuss the findings of the Intranet 2.0 Global Study. Specifically:

The proliferation levels of blogs, wikis & social networking on the corporate intranet
Using intranet 2.0 to increase employee engagement
The corollary between intranet 2.0 investment and user satisfaction
Social networking on the corporate intranet.

LISTEN NOW TO THE INTRANET 2.0 PODCAST: or click on the play button below.

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PLAYBACK URL: http://prescient.podbean.com/2009/07/29/intranet-20-global-study-findings-learnings/

Intranet 2.0 increases employee engagement

Toby Ward — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:52:38 -0700

Employee engagement is the top priority and the organizational coup de grace for many HR practitioners in both the private and public sectors. However, corporate communications plays one of the most important catalytic roles in determining employee engagement, and the intranet is increasingly the most important catalyst in heightening engagement levels, which in-turn improves HR metrics such as employee recruitment and retention (even customer service).

Read my full article Intranet 2.0 Increases Employee Engagement (Insidedge newsletter)

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Intranet 2.0: The investment vs satisfaction corollary

Toby Ward — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:48:58 -0700

Like anything, you get what you pay for. However, that doesn't mean a social media or Intranet 2.0 solution can't be an inexpensive solution, but it does require proper planning & governance, and usually some customization.

According to the results of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey (561 organizations of all sizes from across the planet), 46% of those with 2.0 tools have spent nothing or very little on the solution:

46% have spent $10,000 or less
35% have spent between $10,000 and $100,00; 19% have spent $100,000 or more

It should probably come as no surprise then that satisfaction levels with 2.0 tools is also quite low:

Satisfaction rates with executives is dangerously poor: 38% of executives rate the 2.0 tools as poor or very poor; a lowly 23% rate them as good or very good
Employee satisfaction is almost poor: 35% of organizations say employee satisfaction with the 2.0 tools is poor or very poor; only 27% rate the tools as good or very good
Only 29% of organizations rate the tool functionality as good or very good; 24% rate them as poor or very poor

In short, organizations are spending very little on their 2.0 initiatives, and the satisfaction levels are correspondingly low. Investment doesn't necessarily deliver satisfaction, but a look into the technologies used reveals some further insight. The vast majority of organizations with 2.0 tools use free, open source solutions or those bundled with a platform solution like SharePoint:

48% of organizations use SharePoint
20% of organizations use Facebook
17% of organizations use MediaWiki
16% of organizations use WordPress

There isn't a single, dedicated 2.0 licensed solution used by more than 13% of organizations. The vast majority use free, open source with the exception of SharePoint which sports 2.0 tools that leave very little to be desired (although the social media components in SharePoint 2010 are supposed to be spectacular, and represent a heavy portion of the investment in the SharePoint upgrade).

Two lessons are worth noting:

1 - Vanilla solutions will deliver vanilla results (without customization tailored to the target audience.

2 - Change management is tantamount to success. These tools require promotion, education, and communications. If you build it they will not come necessarily, employees need to be instructed accordingly.

ALSO READ:

Intranet 2.0 Becomes Mandatory

THE INTRANET 2.0 GLOBAL SURVEY:

The findings of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey are highlighted in the report "Intranet 2.0: social media becomes mainstream on the corporate intranet."

To download a free, summarized version of the Intranet 2.0 report please visit:

http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/download-summary-report-of-intranet-2-0-global-survey

To purchase the full, 44-page Intranet 2.0 report of analysis & recommendations please visit: http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/purchase-intranet-2-0-global-survey-report

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Intranet 2.0 Becomes Mandatory Webinar

Toby Ward — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:07:17 -0700

Latest presentation on Intranet 2.0 with new data, examples & insights. A sneak preview of next week's webinar Intranet 2.0 Becomes Mandatory.

Intranet 2.0 Becomes Mandatory

View more presentations from Toby Ward.

Reserve a spot on the free webinar, Intranet 2.0 Becomes Mandatory.

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What every intranet team should know

Toby Ward — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:04:10 -0700

Step Two's James Robertson has released a handy new paperback book, “What every intranet team should know for only.”

This is the definitive ‘quick start’ guide to intranets, providing intranet teams with a to-the-point overview of how to plan, design, manage and grow intranets.

A beautifully printed A5-sized 110-page book, this volume covers key topics for every intranet team:

Six phases of intranet evolution
- 1: The intranet is born
- 2: Rapid organic growth
- 3: Repeated redesigns
- 4: Intranet usability
- 5: Useful, not just usable
- 6: Business tool
Four purposes of the intranet
How to find out what staff need
How to design the intranet
How to deliver great content
The role of the intranet team
How to plan intranet improvements

Few teams have time to read a weighty tome on intranets, and what is needed is a clear ‘map’ for delivering a successful intranet. Drawing on experience from intranet teams across the globe, every page of this book provides key insights, ideas, models and methodologies.

“What every intranet team should know” is perfect for a first-time intranet manager, an inexperienced contributor, or for someone who is just plain stuck or frustrated with the lack of direction for their intranet. The book is a short read, and a good value at only $US89 – a great bang-for-the buck, how-to resource for intranet managers and consultants.

“This is, quite deliberately, a slim volume,” says author James Robertson. “We have distilled our knowledge to a few key concepts, to get you kick-started on the journey to a remarkable intranet.”

Review & purchase What every intranet team should know for only US$89.

FREE WEBINAR:

Intranet 2.0 becomes mandatory Open Webinar (July 21, 2009, 12 pm EDT)

Once a nice-to-have or a future wish, Intranet 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and other vehicles have become mainstream, and are present in nearly 50% of organizations (regardless of size) in the Western World.

This open, free webinar will review the findings of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey and offer attendees a chance to learn why 2.0 has become an imperative, and what to consider / plan when implementing these social media tools.

Reserver your spot for Intranet 2.0 becomes mandatory Open Webinar

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Innovate or die

Toby Ward — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:34:45 -0700

If you're not innovating, you're dying. Death may be slow, and take a few years, but it will come.

Don't take my word for it, or the findings of the Intranet 2.0 Global study, take management guru Peter Drucker's word, or any of the leading business gurus of the last century. Those that don't take innovation seriously, are cast aside or merged into others. Most of the S&P 500 in 1970 don't exist anymore (they're assets & intellectual property gobbled up long ago by another, bigger, faster competitor).

Here are some social media numbers, not in the Intranet 2.0 Global stud y, to consider:

About 90% of adults under the age of 40 are on Facebook (higher in Canada & Northern Europe, a little lower in the US)
39% of employees under the age of 25 would consider leaving their job if their company banned tools such as Facebook

How can a company survive without attracting and keeping the next generation of employees? How can a company ignore the 2.0 revolution -- a revolution that has permanently changed the Internet, which permanently changed business as we know it -- while the competition embraces it? According to the Intranet 2.0 Global stud y about 50% of organizations have deployed social media (blogs, wikis, social networking) on the corporate intranet. Those that have not, are missing out on the party.

The biggest catalyst for innovation is the c-level suite. And the biggest barrier to innovation is the c-level suite. The Intranet 2.0 Global Study found that the biggest barrier blocking the adoption of social media for employees is the "lack of executive support." The arms of executives are needed to fully embrace the 2.0 revolution.There's no better way to get an executive's attention by saying "the competition is doing it and if we don't we risk losing out." Point to some of the case study examples I've documented on this site (e.g. Sabre, BT, Placemaking, Janssen-Cilag and others) as proof, and cross-reference those against the adoption rates and findings in the study.

I wrote that "an organization without a 2.0 strategy risks being left behind, or outright failure (though death may be slow)." Once consultant responded that I was using "scare tactics" when writing about the necessity of 2.0 and social media. Are Peter Drucker's words "scare tactics"? Warren Buffett has echoed these same sentiments; as do employees who want to work for progressive and innovative organizations, and expect 2.0 environments from employers of choice.

The question is not whether or not an intranet or 2.0 is important to companies, the question is your company part of the revolution or being left behind?

About the Intranet 2.0 Survey

The findings of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey are highlighted in the report "Intranet 2.0: social media becomes mainstream on the corporate intranet." 561 organizations took part in the survey.To download a free, summarized version of the Intranet 2.0 report and survey findings, please visit:

http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/download-summary-report-of-intranet-2-0-global-survey

To purchase the full, 44-page Intranet 2.0 report and full survey findings, analysis and recommendations, please visit:

http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/purchase-intranet-2-0-global-survey-report

The latest update of the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) is now available from the WIC blog site. Since April 1^st, over 5200 intranet users from 16 organisations have participated in the WIC.

Some of the findings include:

The overall average perception of intranet value is: 2.77 out of 4 (69.0%)

If we only look at those responses where people:

Complete common work tasks such as applying for leave or booking travel more than once a day, the average valueincreases to 3.06 (76.5%)
Spend less than 1 minute a day on the intranet: 1.54 (38.5%)
Spend between 1-2 hours each day on the intranet: 3.13 (78.3%)
Strongly agree with the statement 'I can find the information I need on the intranet' 3.24 (81.0%)
Use the intranet to publish content more than once a day: 3.07 (76.8%)
Disagree with the statement 'Pages on the intranet load quickly': 2.61 (65.3%)

For more information about the WIC or to register for the WIC, check out the CIBA Solutions web site. Please let me know if you have any questions.

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Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure

Toby Ward — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:41:47 -0700

An organization without a 2.0 strategy risks being left behind, or outright failure (though death may be slow). Employees want to work for progressive and innovative organizations, and expect 2.0 environments from employers of choice.

561 organizations of all sizes from across the planet participated in the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey and the results reveal rapid adoption of social media on the corporate intranet in the past year.

Intranet blogs, wikis and discussion forums are quite pervasive, while other less common tools such as podcasts and mashups remain an after-thought at most organizations:

47% have intranet wikis (17% enterprise deployment); 10% have no plans or interest
45% have intranet blogs (13% enterprise deployment); 11% have no plans or interest
46% have intranet discussion forums (19% enterprise use); 9% have no plans or interest
46% have intranet instant messaging (29% enterprise use); 21% have no plans or interest
19% have intranet social networking (6% enterprise use); 20% have no plans or interest

Microsoft dominance

Microsoft is leading the 2.0 charge and dominating all competition. For those organizations that have deployed 2.0 tools inside the firewall, about half of all organizations have SharePoint (in some shape or form):

48% of organizations use SharePoint
20% of organizations use Facebook,17% of organizations use MediaWiki,16% of organizations use WordPress

Cost of Intranet 2.0

Intranet 2.0 is cheap. Of those organizations that have implemented 2.0 tools, almost half have spent $10,000 or less on these tools:

46% have spent $10,000 or less
35% have spent between $10,000 and $100,000,19% have spent $100,000 or more

Poor execution

Sadly though, despite the low cost of entry and ease of technology, satisfaction levels with Intranet 2.0 tools are dangerously low:

Only 29% of organizations rate the tool functionality as good or very good; 24% rate them as poor or very poor
Satisfaction rates with executives is dangerously low: only 23% of executives rate the 2.0 tools as good or very good; 38% rate them as poor or very poor

To download a free, summarized version of the report please visit:

http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/download-summary-report-of-intranet-2-0-global-survey

To purchase the full, 44-page report of analysis & recommendations please visit: http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/purchase-intranet-2-0-global-survey-report

-- 30 --

For more information please contact:

Toby Ward, CEO

Prescient Digital Media

416.926.8800

toby@prescientdigital.com

About the Intranet 2.0 Survey

561 organizations took the survey:

36% come from the U.S; 24% from Europe; 11% from Canada; 11% from Australia / New Zealand; 10% from UK
61% have more than 1,000 employees; 32% have 6,000 or more employees; 39% have less than 1000 employees
53% of organizations have had an intranet for 7 or more years; 17% of organizations have had an intranet for 2 years or less
13% of the organizations are government; 13% from technology; 12% from financial services; 6% from healthcare
The survey was led by Toby Ward, President, Prescient Digital Media

About Prescient Digital Media

Prescient Digital Media is a group of senior intranet and Internet consultants that provide strategic Internet and intranet consulting, planning and communications services to organizations of all sizes. Our clients include: Amgen, Covidien, CBC, CIBC, HSBC, Liberty Mutual, Manulife Financial, Mastercard, Nintendo, Pepsi, RBC Financial Group, TD, and more than 100 others. Prescient’s focus includes the assessment, planning, technology selection, content and launch of intranets, websites, and web-based tools. For more information please contact Prescient Digital Media through the website at www.PrescientDigital.com or phone 416.926.8800.

Additional reading

Intranet articles & case studies – www.IntanetBlog.com

Join the Intranet Global Forum on Facebook – www.Facebook.com/group.php?gid=2723005032

View our presentations on intranets on our SlideShare channel – www.slideshare.net/prescient

Watch Toby discussing the future of intranets – www.YouTube.com/watch?v=kaTMOTpRVQk

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Intranet Trends & the 2009 Global Intranet Strategies Survey

Toby Ward — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:49:15 -0700

(NEW YORK, NY) Jane McConnell's 2009 Global Intranet Stategies Survey is now live (until the end of August). This is the 4th annual survey; last year 226 organizations participated. The survey has become the reference for knowing what is happening in intranets. Participants will receive a complimentary copy of the "Global Intranet Trends for 2010" which will be published in the second part of October.

See the topics covered in this year's survey.

Among the learnings last year:

C-level executives now participate on the intranet steering committees of half of the respondent companies that have a steering committee (about 1/3 of the respondent companies have a steering committee; roughly 1/6th of the total respondents therefore have a senior executive actively involved)
Only 45% have networks or communities of practice for content contributors
Only 36% of the organizations have “clearly designated business owners for content”
only 1% stage 1 intranets have wikis in general use (optimized); 35% are testing intranets (n some parts)
10% of stage 3 intranets have wikis in general use (optimized); 74% are testing intranets (in some parts)
2% of stage 3 intranets have wikis in general use (optimized); 30% are testing intranets (in some parts)

Here's what other readers of the report have said:

"Great survey, really got me thinking about the Intranet and portal. Just answering the questions felt beneficial - so I really, really cannot wait for the report!"
"Not only this is a moment when we pause and realize what we do, but it's also food for thoughts, research and projects." from a 3-time participant
"With the help of my colleagues we have completed the survey. We all found it very interesting and it has also provided us with some helpful self-analysis questions. It will be interesting to see the consolidated information."

Sign-up to parcipate in the 2009 survey and receive a free copy of the in-depth research report.

Additionally, if you want a focus on social media and intranets (Intranet 2.0) download Summary Report of Intranet 2.0 Global Survey.

ADDITIONAL READING ON INTRANET TRENDS:

Intranet trends

Intranet statistics

Learning from the best intranets

Selling an intranet redesign

A Measurable Internet Strategy & Intranet 2.0

Toby Ward — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:10:07 -0700

How long is a piece of string? How deep is half a hole?

"These philosophical riddles leap to mind when approaching the subject of a measurable Internet strategy," writes Prescient Digital Media GM Carm Porco in this month's Intranet Insight. "As with the two aforementioned riddles, I have seen numerous clients struggle to find the answers when defining success for their web endeavors. Organizations typically have not defined what success looks like and have no measurable goals or key performance indicators (KPI's) in place.

Read Creating a measurable internet strategy >>

Additionally, here's a sneak preview of my presentation "New Dimensions in the Era of Web 2.0 (Intranet 2.0)" at the Conference Board in Manhattan on Friday, June 24, 2009.

New Dimensions In Web 2.0: Intranet 2.0 & Employee Engagement

View more OpenOffice presentations from Toby Ward.

Note the findings of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey. If you're a participant, links to the final results datasheet and full, 44-page analysis report "Intranet 2.0: Social Media becomes mainstream on the corporate intranet" should be in your Inbox.

Only participants get the final results datasheet, but a Summary Report of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey Results can be downloaded from the Prescient Digital Media home page. Non-participants of the survey can purchase the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey Report for $79.95.

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Website strategy

Toby Ward — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:09:44 -0700

I spend a lot of time talking about intranet planning and straregyAn all too common complaint from web managers is that their website does not enjoy the support from executives it deserves.

But is lack of support the fault of the executives who fail to grasp internet value, or the web manager who fails to talk their talk and present the website value in a concise, impactful way that will motivate executives to support the web?

The fault lies squarely with the web manager, according to a practical, helpful white paper “Best Practices for Creating a Web Strategy: What Web Managers Need to Know,” produced by J. Boye, a vendor-neutral analyst firm.

Website strategy best practices

Intranet (and intranet portal): a definition

Toby Ward — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:19:25 -0700

It comes up less frequently in 2009 then it first did when I formed North America's first intranet consulting firm (Prescient Digital Media) in early 2001, but the definition of an intranet is still debatable.

Toby Ward's definition of an intranet (first committed to paper in 2001 in the Finding ROI white paper):

A private network, similar to the Internet and using the same protocols and technology, that is contained within an enterprise. It may consist of many inter-linked local area networks (LANs), desktop computers, websites and portals, and email system(s). However, in common vernacular, the intranet is the internal website home page that is for employees only -- and the other internal websites that link to it.

Wikipedia definition of an intranet:

An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securely share any part of an organization's information or operational systems with its employees. Sometimes the term refers only to the organization's internal website, but often it is a more extensive part of the organization's computer infrastructure and private websites are an important component and focal point of internal communication and collaboration.

No surprises, really.

Another term that causes confusion, more so than the intranet, is “portal” or “corporate portal” (sometimes referred to as an “enterprise information portal”).

Toby Ward's definition of an intranet portal (first committed to paper in version 2 (2003) of the Finding ROI white paper):

A primary website on the enterprise intranet. A web-based gateway to most, if not all, tools and information on the enterprise intranet. The portal can be a ‘catch all’ for all of the intranet, or a business unit or function specific portal (i.e. Sales or HR portal). The characteristics that best distinguish it from a standard intranet home page include:

1- application integration

2- advanced security (authentication / authorization / personalization)

3- enterprise search (search that extends beyond the intranet home page, but doesn't necessarily search every single shared drive, email folder & enterprise database).

Wikipedia definition of an intranet portal:

An intranet portal is the gateway that unifies access to all enterprise information and applications[1] on an intranet. It is a tool that helps a company manage its data, applications, and information more easily, and through personalized views. Some portal solutions today are able to integrate legacy applications, other portals objects, and handle thousands of user requests. For enterprise user, it is also known as an enterprise portal.

Now the lines blur somewhat as different consultants and vendors use different definitions (mostly to serve their sales needs). I've never seen a portal that “unifies access to all” enterprise information and applications, though “unifies access” is open to interpretation. If a simple hypertext link to a database qualifies as unified access then perhaps this is true. However, this is why my definition for the past 6 years was written to say “most, if not all, tools and information.” I don't think a portal is an “all” or “nothing” scenario, but it certainly seems to fit if the portal unifies “most” information and applications.

Why are we even talking about this?

The question once again arose last week when I wrote about the importance of strategy and planning for an intranet (see Intranet strategy & execution). An intranet strategy (which may include one universal plan or multiple plans) should encompass all internal facing websites, and apply standards across the network, including all social media, email and related systems.

The intranet strategy should include the use of a portal (where applicable), internal websites, social media, shared drives, and related knowledge management systems. Exclusions might include specialized applications that are for a small, minority audience such as senior executives and the finance team (e.g. Oracle financials, board of directors extranet, CRM system, etc.)

Here's the rub: regardless of your definition, you require a solid intranet strategy that defines what can be done by whom (roles and responsibilities) and according to defined standards (rules).

Get the funding your intranet needs: Winning support for your intranet/intranet 2.0 initiative (free webinar)

Having trouble selling an intranet redesign? Or securing funding for a new CMS or social media tool?

During times of economic downturn, organizations are seeking to discover new ways to make the most of their investments, but too many fail to understand the intranet's value and potential to increase business performance.

Join this free webinar to learn how to convince executives to cough up the cash for your intranet redesign.

Date: June 25, 2009
Location: Free Webinar 12 pm EDT

See Winning support for your intranet/intranet 2.0 initiative (free webinar)

SharePoint strengths & weaknesses (video)

Toby Ward — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:55:16 -0700

This video will create some diverging opinions and controversy, just as my presentation “SharePoint Pros & Cons” did when I delivered it in Denmark. This on-camera interview was conducted in Copenhagen immediately after my presentation (at IntraTeam). Granted I was severely jet-lagged and suffering from exhaustion when I did the interview, but I stand my words and assessment: SharePoint (MOSS 2007) is a fantastic solution, but it is not the best solution for every scenario, and every organization. Anyone who argues this should throw-away the Kool-Aid.

As I stress in my comments, SharePoint is ultimately what you make of it, and you can do some amazing things with it, at any organization. However, success with MOSS is a function of time and money. The out-of-the-box solution is not appropriate for all business scenarios in all companies. But it is an excellent solution for a small to medium size business, or as a department-level solution in a larger enterprise. Given the cost and complexity involved with customization, I don't believe it makes sense to use it as a large, enterprise intranet be-all solution for larger organizations; its possible to make it so, but what is the opportunity cost versus other portal or ECM solutions?

Feel free to comment and weigh-in with your opinions, but no flame mail please (I will just embarrass you for doing so). If you're a Microsoft employee or partner, then please disclose that you rely on SharePoint to make a living. Ditto if you're a Microsoft customer or independent consultant.

Keep in mind, I too am a SharePoint user, but we (Prescient Digital Media) also uses other CMSs, portals & social media solutions too. We are strictly technology-neutral with no reseller agreements. I have no agenda or ax to grind; I merely seek to inform my readers and clients about the strengths and weaknesses of the superb, but not perfect solution that is MOSS 2007.

ADDITIONAL READING:

Advice for SharePoint customers

SharePoint overview (pros & cons, MOSS)

The SharePoint Plan (MOSS)

SharePoint governance & intranet ownership (MOSS 2007)

SharePoint requires proper architecture & governance

Why you should or shouldn’t choose Microsoft Sharepoint

Planning for SharePoint success

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What every team should know

Toby Ward — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:00:00 -0700

The only book of its type in the world, What every intranet team should know provides a succinct overview of managing and growing intranets. A must-have for every intranet team, whether just starting or looking for fresh ideas.

This is the definitive ‘quick start’ guide to intranets, providing intranet teams with a to-the-point overview of how to plan, design, manage and grow intranets.

A beautifully printed A5-sized 110-page book, this volume covers key topics for every intranet team:

Six phases of intranet evolution
Four purposes of the intranet
How to find out what staff need
How to design the intranet
How to deliver great content
The role of the intranet team
How to plan intranet improvements

Get your copy of What every team should know

Intranet strategy & execution

Toby Ward — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:00:53 -0700

Like any business, an intranet without a strategy is an intranet looking to die. Although an over-arching business strategy should be highly complex that takes into account many external factors and variables (e.g. competitive assessment), an intranet strategy is not as complex nor time-consuming.

An intranet strategy has definition, is well documented and shared by all stakeholders, and has key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics. The strategy provides direction for executable actions (in the context of this article, we will treat strategy as synonymous with plan, though a strategy in the broader definition might contain many plans). For an intranet, a typical strategy would include the following elements:

Vision
Mission
Target audience definition / segmentation
Governance
Goals
Objectives
Action plans
KPIs (or CSIs)

Methodology

When looking at strategy at it relates to the process of developing or redesigning an intranet, strategy encompasses the first two phases of Prescient Digital Media's Intranet Project Methodology © 2009, Assessment & Planning.

1- Assessment – understanding the needs and requirements for the intranet

2- Planning – strategy development including the governance model and design

3- Technology – where execution begins with the selection of the technology

4 – Implementation – “the rubber hits-the-road” execution of the strategy

5- Marketing – communications, change management, and promotion

Execution

“A very general definition of the term “implementation” is execution of an idea, plan, design, model, standard, algorithm, or policy,” writes Prescient Digital Media's Cathy Mcknight in Implementing your intranet plan and other dastardly deeds. “In the realm of information technology, an implementation is the realization of a technical specification as some type of computer related system or applications. The key words being; plan, specification and realization.”

In short, if your plans are sound, then execution is relatively straight-forward: everyone knows their job, the schedule, and the budget. This of course is easier said than done and requires strong project management to ensure that all plans are executed as directed. Of course, even the best plans and projects have hiccups; all technology projects hit barriers and are challenged by problems (technology is imperfect, almost as imperfect as the people implementing the technology). To overcome these problems and challenges requires the aforementioned detailed plans, and a strong project manager or three that has experience steering intranet projects.

The intranet is not just a piece of technology; not merely an IT project, nor is it a communications vehicle or channel; the intranet is a business system that should represent and support all areas of the business. In fact, the intranet is one part technology, and many parts people and process, that requires a detailed strategy (plans) to ensure all work in tandem. No complex system such as an intranet can adequately support a company and a workforce without a thorough strategy.

Read more on intranet strategy: Intranet strategy - planning a successful intranet

Read more on implementation: Implementing your intranet plan and other dastardly deeds

Toby Ward, a former journalist, prominent writer, speaker on intranets and intranet planning, is the President of Prescient Digital Media. To learn how to undertake effective intranet strategy please see our intranet service offering The Intranet Strategy , or download the free Good-To-Great Intranet Matrix. For more information, contact Prescient directly.

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Delivering a high-performing intranet (Case Study with Iron Mountain)

Toby Ward — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:54:31 -0700

“There is an enormous thirst for communications... we really dedicate almost the entire home page of the intranet to communications,” Cheryl Travis, intranet manager, Iron Mountain.

Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE:IRM) helps organizations around the world reduce the costs and risks associated with information protection and storage. The Company offers comprehensive records management, data protection, and information destruction solutions along with the expertise and experience to address complex information challenges such as rising storage costs, litigation, regulatory compliance and disaster recovery. Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain has 20,000+ employees and is a trusted partner to more than 120,000 corporate clients throughout North America, Europe, Latin America and the Pacific Rim.

The following is a summary of the “Delivering a high-performing intranet (Case study with Iron Mountain)” intranet webinar on May 28, 2009, with Cathy Mcknight and Cheryl Travis.

6 stages of project management (Cathy Mcknight, Prescient Digital Media):

1- Enthusiasm

2- Depression

3- Panic

4- Search for the guilty

5- Punishment of the innocent

6- Rewards for the non-participants

Planning:

“Failing to plan is a plan for failure.”
“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”
“Ensuring you have key planning documents in place (be it the style guide, or content plan)... it's absolutely critical, and its saved my (intranet) project in many ways,” Cheryl Travis, Iron Mountain

Planning involves understanding

business needs
functional needs
the right technology needs
resources (internal and external)
budget

Planning is done – now what?

Governance

Governance structure
Roles and responsibilities
Supporting documentation

Communications

Engaging leadership
Engaging content owners & publishers
Pre-launch employee communications
Launch
Ongoing communications (keeping momentum)

“We certainly need to engage leadership because frankly these are the people that fund the intranet,” Cheryl Travis, Iron Mountain

Content

Content audit
Content ownership
Approvals and publishing
Creating and repurposing
Translation
Archiving
Reviewing and updating

Technology

System requirements
Resource requirements
Ongoing support

(Note: Iron Mountain uses SharePoint for their intranet, Scout)

Site Build

IA
Wireframes
Design

“For information architecture (IA) and wireframes you can't rely on your own internal team because they live the company everyday,” says Cheryl. “You want the IA to live no matter how your organizations changes. To have a 3^rd party to structure your IA is critical.”

Lessons learned at Iron Mountain

Engage content owners at the start
Rely on your independent resources
Trust your sixth sense
Keep communications lines open

“The sooner you communicate with them (content owners), the better,” Cheryl Travis, Iron Mountain.

The intranet gap

“What the business wants and what IT delivers can be two different things,” Cathy Mcknight, Prescient Digital Media. “An intranet is a process, not an event.”

“Its really good to have an outside expert to apply best practices,” says Cheryl “They have the clout and experience to do this (Prescient Digital Media).”

Intranet 2.0 becomes mainstream

Toby Ward — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:24:55 -0700

Social media adoption has accelerated on the corporate intranet, led by blogs, wikis and discussion forums. Despite a low cost of entry—often below $10,000—adopters are not reporting outstanding satisfaction with the investment, especially among the executive ranks, driven by inadequate planning and weak or non-existent business plans.

This data is contained is contained in the results of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey, which included the participation of 561 organizations of all sizes from across the planet.

Intranet 2.0 Global Survey Results

“Once a nice-to-have or a future wish, Intranet 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and other vehicles have become mainstream, and are present in nearly 50% of organizations (regardless of size) in North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand,” says Toby Ward, the study author, and President, Prescient Digital Media.

To download a free, summarized version of the free report Intranet 2.0: Social Media Becomes Mainstream on the Corporate Intranet report or please visit:

http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/download-summary-report-of-intranet-2-0-global-survey

To purchase the full, 44-page Intranet 2.0: Social Media Becomes Mainstream on the Corporate Intranet report of analysis & recommendations or please visit:

http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/purchase-intranet-2-0-global-survey-report

Read about the results Intranet 2.0 becomes mainstream

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SharePoint website case study: Alfa Laval

Toby Ward — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:48:13 -0700

(PHILADELPHIA, PA) External website case study using MOSS 2007 presented by Pernilla Webber, Alfa Laval, at J. Boye – Philadelphia 2009.

“SharePoint has handled it very well (external website and extranet).”

Overview

Business to business company founded in 1883
Services: heat transfer, separation, fluid handling (heat exchanges, etc.).
Revenue: $2.7 billion Euros in annual sales.
Employees: 10,500 in 60 countries
Public website luanched in SharePoint in May 2008
Extranet planned for June 1, 2009
Intranet pre-study started for launch in 2010

Public website (www.alfalaval.com)

3000 pages
25 languages
60 country sites
Pre-study: 1-year (planning, etc.)
Implementation: 1-year (launched May 2008)
Project team of 5 people
50% of money on external dollars; 50% internal time and resources

Implementation strategy

Standard SharePoint
Limited external application integration
One platform for public website, extranet and intranet
- Strategic direction
- Operatonal efficiency
- Functional development
- Governance and resources (single governance structure for all sites)

Challenge / problem: Variation system

Custom development to allow for
Submit variation to slected country sites
Reject/Accept a submitted variation
Submit variation' doesn't work for web parts
Reuse of language versions not possible

Challenge: separating language/locale

Only one language version
- Spanish in Spain, Chile, Colombia, etc.
- English in UK, India, US
Many languages are supported – but its not supported to have one language for the CONTENT and another rfor the authoring environment

Challenge: Image management

Where is a particular image used? What pages?
Different versions of the same photo are not grouped together by type
Overly basic / simplistic

Challenge: creating forms (complicated for authors)

Challenge: formatting is difficult with standard editor (reusable cotnent doesn't work with the RadEditor)

Integrator: Fishbone Systems AB

Analysis: well this blows out of the water the notion that SharePoint shouldn't be used as an external website platform. The Alfa Laval site is impressive – with 60 sites in 25 languages. Microsoft would do well to add this to their case studies alongside Hawiian Airlines.

Visit the website: www.alfalaval.com

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SharePoint Confessions – stories from life on MOSS

Toby Ward — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:48:22 -0700

(PHILADELPHIA, PA) Presented by Dorthe R. Jespersen, J. Boye, at J. Boye – Philadelphia 2009.

Key recommenations:

Don't assume that because its used for the intranet, it will be good for the Internet
Compare with alternatives
Manage expectations
Keep it simple
Have a strategic plan
Get to know your IT
Focus both on micro and macro governance
Stay updated with service packs
Follow best practices
Pay attention to release information

Notable client quote: “Only after implementation did we start to learn about what the system could do. In hindsight we should have utilized the integration with office Word. Also, we are beginnning to rebuild our templates, as we didn't hink through the advanced features SharePoint offers the first time.”

Other learnings:

“It's free!” - WSS is free, MOSS 2007 can be very expensive (particularly customization)
Training is required and costs money, as does maintenance
All Microsoft parnters are not created equal

Notable client quote: “I didn't know you could disable My Sites. Our integrator told us it wasn't possible. But you have done it already?”

Notable quote: “We are using Sharepoint 2003 and need to upgrade. But we've decided to skip MOSS 2007, and go for 2010 instead once that gets out.”

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SharePoint dissected (MOSS 2007)

Toby Ward — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:22:47 -0700

(PHILADELPHIA, PA – J. Boye) Insights from CMS Watch founder, and co-author of the CMS Watch Report, Tony Byrne.

Tony Byrne, CMS Watch:

SharePoint is part product, part platform, part ecosystem – a collection of technologies that have varying degrees of finish
Under-reported and under-appreciated dimension of SharePoint: built solidly on (almost) latest .NET platform
Be cautious of developer/integrator enthusiasm
Keep Implementation of SharePoint Simple (KISS)
Embrace configuration, some customization and integration, avoid extension (e.g. building custom applications, etc.)
The latest marketing from Microsoft is “to really finish or complete MOSS you should look to external partners.”
Oxcite, 3^rd party open source blog tool for .NET (not SharePoint)
Just because a firm is a Microsoft partner, doesn't mean they have SharePoint expertise

Cautions:

Some MS partners / vendors are in over their heads
Not all are experts in all SP services
Temptation to over-engineer
Experienced integrators are in high-demand

Caveats:

Test performance, reliability, and security features carefully
Contrast software with "consulting-ware" (developed once for a client and re-sold)

Remember: its not just another module, but another vendor

Many partners fervently hope that MS will buy them, but Redmond typically recreates rather than acquires

This can be very inconvenient for you down the road with MS upgrades SharePoint

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Intranet CMSs

Toby Ward — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:57:20 -0700

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.

ALSO...

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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Intranet 2.0 Global Survey Results

Toby Ward — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:31:55 -0700

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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