Intranet Blog

Innovate or die

Toby Ward — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:34:00 -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.

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". 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?

Read Intranet 2.0 Becomes Mandatory

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.

Technorati Profile

Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure

Toby Ward — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:41:00 -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.

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.

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

Technorati Profile

Intranet Trends & the 2009 Global Intranet Strategies Survey

Toby Ward — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:49:00 -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 13:10:00 -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.

Technorati Profile

Website strategy

Toby Ward — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:09:00 -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 13:19:00 -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 11:55:00 -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

Technorati Profile

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 13:00:00 -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.

Technorati Profile

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

Toby Ward — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:54:00 -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 11:24:00 -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.

Read about the results Intranet 2.0 becomes mainstream

Technorati Profile

SharePoint website case study: Alfa Laval

Toby Ward — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:48:00 -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

Technorati Profile

SharePoint Confessions – stories from life on MOSS

Toby Ward — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:48:00 -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.”

Technorati Profile

SharePoint dissected (MOSS 2007)

Toby Ward — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:22:00 -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

Technorati Profile

Intranet CMSs

Toby Ward — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:57:00 -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.

Technorati Profile

Intranet 2.0 Global Survey Results

Toby Ward — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:31:00 -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

Technorati Profile

5 major problems killing Twitter

Toby Ward — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:11:00 -0700

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

Technorati Profile

Intranet statistics

Toby Ward — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:50:00 -0700

(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:

email
intranet
elevator screens
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

Innovation & productivity
Talent Attraction & Assimilation
Integrated Communications
Talent Retention
Knowledge Preservation
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

Technorati Profile

Sales intranet case study: IKEA

Toby Ward — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:21:00 -0700

(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:

An emphasis on the power of people.
Decentralization works!
The Intranet is part of a total information landscape.
It’s good to be a passionate fanatic!
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).

Technorati Profile

SharePoint Planning & Governance

Toby Ward — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:57:00 -0700

Planning For Sharepoint Success

View more presentations from Toby Ward.

Technorati Profile

Planning for SharePoint success

Toby Ward — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:55:00 -0700

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).

Technorati Profile

Intranet personas

Toby Ward — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:12:00 -0700

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.”

Creating Personas Prescient Digital Media 09

View more presentations from Toby Ward.

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

Technorati Profile

Intranet case study: Sprint

Toby Ward — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:23:00 -0700

Overview

“Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two wireless networks serving nearly 51 million customers.”

Intranet: i-Connect

HQ: Kansas City

Owner: Communications

Vision

“Always on, always accurate, always easy…wherever you need it.”

Purpose

The online home for fast, easy access to the essential Sprint tools, information and personal connections you need.

Sprint intranet home page, i-Connect

Intranet Success Standards

Usage: The primary resource for internal Sprint information
Content: Content is relevant, accurate and updated
Navigation: Navigation is simple and associates quickly find what they are looking for
End User Engagement: End users participate in the process of updating content and recommending changes
Client/Business Partner Relations: Clients and business partners entrust us as the stewards of i-Connect and its users
Overall Satisfaction: End users are satisfied

Survey Results Key Findings: Satisfaction

“In the last six months, how satisfied have you been with i-Connect as your online

home for fast, easy access to the essential Sprint tools, information and personal

connections you need?”

Search
Navigation (Department Pages, My Work & Our Company)
Consolidation/better integration of web tools
Log-In
Customization
Outside sources “scoop” internal news on occasion

Key Intranet Features:

Comprehensive news center
Blogs
Discussion forums
Project sites
Company calendar
My profile (my site)

To learn more about the Sprint intranet, and other top-rated intranets showcased at The Intranet Insider World Tour Live (NYC April 16 – 17). Register now for the Intranet Insider World Tour LIVE (only $800 for 2-days of jam-paced learnings).

Some of the other top rated intranets being showcased at this year's conference:

Sprint Nextel
Con Edison
IKEA
Siemens
IBM
Deloitte
Thomson Reuters
And more!

Technorati Profile

5 reasons why Twitter will overtake Facebook

Toby Ward — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:02:00 -0800

Different platforms, with different approaches, serving different needs... but both are highly viral and are used for social networking. Facebook is the most successful social networking website / platform and, depending on the rankings, the 2^nd - 5^th most visited website on the planet. Well down the traffic rankings list is Twitter at somewhere around 200^th on the list (see Alexa.com for rankings).

However, it incresingly clear that Twitter will one day soon overtake Facebook as the social networking champion for a number of obvious reasons...

1- Connections - Its much easier to add connections (followers) on Twitter. With a click you can see 30 or more followers of any one person and by reading a Tweet or two, determine whether you want to follow them (and often, by custom, they will automatically follow you... opening up exponential connecting opportunities amongst respective followers). Additionally, Tweeps don't have to ask for permission to follow someone, its automatic with no approval process. Typically, Facebook friends know each other in real life... this is not the case on Twitter.

2- Security – Twitter doesn't breed the same security and privacy concerns that are associated with Facebook and the Facebook platform. Tweeps only post one photo, often an icon, or representative image rather than themselves, and a very short bio with a link. Facebook openly encourages you to share as much about yourself as possible and encourages the use of applications that want to grab as much personal information about you as possible.

3- Interface – The Twitter user interface could hardly be easier to use: quick hit posts or micro or mini blogs, a quick glance at other Tweets, and you're out. Facebook is increasingly heavy and cluttered: a myriad of applications, information feeds, photos, ads, etc.... one is left wondering where to look. I have no clue where my “Wall” is anymore, and I now find it stressful to look at Facebook as there's simply too much to digest, and I can no longer do it at a glance.

4- Big brother – Facebook's ownership and management has made conspicuous effort to get tough with its members in recent months. Rather than listen, read or watch what users want, Facebook had decided to do what it wants, in spite of its users. Recently there was the infamous new Terms of Service that implicitly said, “Screw you guys, we'll do what we want with YOUR content.” Follow that up with recent changes to the interface despite massive outcries and user complaints, and Facebook has taken on a reputation of being a bullying 'big brother'... and some members have started deleting their accounts.

5- Applications – There are thousands of Facebook applications, but so many of them serve little or no value, are frequently invasive, if not down right abusive. I have no interest in chomping vampires, finding out “what kind of sandle” I am (are you frickin' kidding me?!), or surrendering my soul for a cheap IQ test, let alone selling all of my personal information for free. Twitter applications are fewer and far-between, but can be tremendously helpful. Tweetdeck is a god-send to Twitter, its founders, and users – it has quadrupled the Twitter experience for highly active Tweeps (ask anyone who uses it). Those that operate multiple Twitter accounts swear by the Twhirl application; and the Tweetpic is now taking Twittersville by storm.

There's another key differentiator: people "join" Facebook, but they "use" Twitter. That's not to say that people don't "use" Facebook, but most are passive members that check the site when they get a note or a friend invite, or once-in-a-while to see what people are doing. Twitter's community however is extraordinarily active -- the average Tweep is on the site several times per day (or using an application that connects to the site). So while Facebook will continue to have a larger membership, Twitter will grow at a faster rate, but will be far more heavily used. Additionally, the mobile use of Tweeps who Tweet from their PDA will begin to skyrocket and far eclipse anything Facebook has ever seen from mobile users.

Facebook is great social networking, but Twitter is more viral, and better used -- it will overtake Facebook someday soon....

Toby Ward is an Internet & intranet consultant, writer and speaker, and the Founder of Prescient Digital Media. Feel free to look him up on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @tobyward.

Need help working with or implementing social media? See Prescient Digital Media's Web 2.0 Blueprint.

Technorati Profile

SharePoint: the Swiss Army Knife of portals

Toby Ward — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:02:00 -0800

If there's one general theme that many outside observers and experts say of MOSS, is that it tries to be “everything for everybody.” It is an exceptionally powerful and complex platform, but it is not good for all web or intranet-based scenarios. It is good for a lot of things, but not all things.

“One common element from all of the discussions is the frustration nearly all of these organization have with their experience with Microsoft SharePoint 2007,” says Thomas Vander Wal, Principal of InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. “The comments are based on those spending one month to a year with the tool (the six month to one year club with tools offer best insight).”

“SharePoint does some things rather well, but it is not a great tool (or even passable tool) for broad social interaction inside enterprise related to the focus of Enterprise 2.0,” adds Thomas. “SharePoint works well for organization prescribed groups that live in hierarchies and are focussed on strict processes and defined sign-offs.”

SharePoint is by far and away the hottest enterprise technology in the World today. With a penetration rate of about 50% of all medium to large-scale organizations in the Western World, more than a few experts have analyzed MOSS and weighed-in with their expert opinions.

Read more on SharePoint: the Swiss Army Knife of portals

Technorati Profile

Developing personas

Toby Ward — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:26:00 -0800

Is your website or intranet organized and designed for your audiences to achieve the results that they want and you need?

Prescient's Catherine Elder highlights some of the common audience challenges on a website or intranet:

Senior staff want something to go on the home page, and then something else and something else and so on

2. Users complain that they can’t find information or that it is buried deep within the bowels of the site and it takes forever to find it or is impossible to remember where it is

Both these problems are being experienced not only on intranets but also on external websites.

Read all of Catherine Elder's article on Developing personas

Mashup the intranet

Toby Ward — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:16:00 -0800

You've heard of it... but aren't exactly sure what it is. A mashup, far from being a cross between a high-school dance move and the whipped potatoes mama used to make, is typically represented as a single web page that combines or “mashes” together data or content and tools from multiple sources.

Google Maps is an example – it draws all the listings and information from many different sources without having to use an expensive piece of portal technology. These are quite simple to do, and for some represent most of the desired content for integration into a single view or portal.

Even though most don't use or understand mashups (sometimes spelt with the hyphen 'mash-up') , this nascent technology is about to break-out on a corporate intranet near you:

mashups will be a $682 million industry in the next 5 years (Forrester)
64% of companies are already adopting mashups or plan to within the next two years (Economist Intelligence Unit)
Web mashups, which mix content from publicly available sources, will be the dominant model (80%) for the creation of new enterprise application by 2010 (Gartner, which also cites mashup technology as a top 10 'disrupting' technology over the next 4 years)
RSS (the dominant technology delivering data to mashups) has been adopted by 37% of organizations; an additional 53% of organizations plan to or are considering their options for adopting RSS (Intranet 2.0 Global Study)

“Mashup technologies can and will disrupt enterprise applications,” says Renat Khasanshyn, author of the Naked Open Source blog and CEO, Altoros Systems, LLC. “During the next three years, mashups will open up a new enterprise application market, providing business users and IT departments with a quick and inexpensive approach to develop and implement applications. And during the decade following 2010, maturing mashup building technologies will shrink the enterprise application market.”

In other words, the mashup provides a light-weight alternative to portals and personalization features (see Alternatives to intranet personalization).

On the corporate intranet, a mashup would typically combine information and data from two to six different sources and might include:

a news feed
sales figures
a widget that displays the most recent comments posted to the CEO blog
inventory levels delivered from a back-end database
a map pinpointing active client projects

InformIT, republishing an original article in SOA magazine, offer six major characteristics to an enterprise or intranet mashup (see Enterprise Mashups Part I):

Collaborative - Mashups are designed to be tagged/searchable/shared with others. User tagging, often called a 'folksonomy', helps users put meaning for themselves and others.

Have a face - Mashups usually have a face and the face is a widget. Just like mashups are "micro", so are the applications that front-end them. If the user is the recipient of the mashup, it's only natural for the user to be given a way to interact with the data.
Focused on the 'pack' - Mashups are typically created, used, and shared among a small number of related individuals. Knowledge workers collaborate in small packs. Although they may be part of a larger group, they usually function as small teams when it comes to discrete information needs.
Time-sensitive - Users need data now. Mashups usually have near real-time delivery requirements. They don't have time to wait for IT to "pre-integrate" data so they can get at it. The Web is real-time and business users have evolved to expect the same inside their enterprises.
Non-invasive - There's no need to bring in a whole new set of infrastructure, as enterprise mashups run inside the current enterprise stack. This includes both mashup sources (databases, SOA services, etc.) and mashup destinations (portals, blogs, wikis, email, spreadsheets, etc.).
Limited cleansing - The amount of data cleansing and normalization needed should be comparable to the amount of cleansing and normalization a user does in Excel. If there's more, you have a bigger problem that should be addressed concurrently with your mashup initiative.

Have you considered intranet mashups? Are you using a portal for intranet home page customization / personalization? Have you considered RSS? Continue the discussion on the Intranet Global Forum (Facebook community).

Wondering how to use mashups and other 2.0 technology on the corporate intranet? Have a look at the Intranet 2.0 Blueprint.

Technorati Profile

Intranet Insider World Tour Live

Toby Ward — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:41:00 -0800

As an intranet consultant who's seen hundreds of intranets, I've found there's nothing better for learning about intranets than seeing other intranets. This of course isn't easy to do, so the best avenue for doing so is attending a conference on intranets.

If you're in North America and didn't make the IntraTeam Event in Denmark earlier this month, the next great intranet conference is coming-up next month: The Intranet Insider World Tour Live, New York City, NY, April 16 – 17.

Here are some of the intranets being showcased at this year's conference:

Sprint Nextel
Con Edison
IKEA
Siemens
IBM
Delloite
Thomson Reuters
And more!

I'll be co-chairing this 2-day conference in NYC (April 16 - 17) that showcases some of the best intranets going. This intimate and interactive conference event builds on the webinar and brings together the experts and practitioners from leading intranets.

This conference is taking into account the global financial crisis and is AMAZINGLY INEXPENSIVE (only $900 for 2-full days!).

Don't miss the best buy of the year and Register now for the Intranet Insider World Tour LIVE.

Building Employee Engagement With Internal Social Networks

Toby Ward — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:56:00 -0800

(TEL AVIV, Israel) Employees want to connect with each other, and more importantly, they want to connect with the company and senior management. A study by Towers Perrin found that employees overwhelmingly want to know “that leadership is interested in them.”

Social media on the corporate intranet (Intranet 2.0) presents a unique opportunity for all employees at all levels and geographies to better connect, and share information and knowledge they might not otherwise share or learn. In fact, distance – both geographical and intellectual – between these connections is often significant with little if any filtering from one side to the next; an information gap that is not easily bridged in larger, dispersed organizations. For example, the Towers Perrion study also found that:

43% of employees do not feel they know enough about their own customers
65% of employees do not feel they know enough about the competition to be fully effective
Only 39% of employees feel they are informed about the differences between their company’s products and the competition

Keep reading... Building Employee Engagement With Internal Social Networks

SharePoint for Communicators

Toby Ward — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:39:00 -0800

Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) is becoming the dominant intranet technology platform with nearly half of all large to medium-size organizations using it (or the previous version) to power some or all of an intranet’s components.

Here are some stats:

55% of organizations have implemented or are considering implementing SharePoint (Global Intranet Trends 2009 report - 227 participant organizations)
46% of those companies using social media on the intranet are using SharePoint(Intranet 2.0 Global Survey – 430+ participant organizations)
Only 47% of organizations have a defined governance model (Intranet 2.0 Global Survey)
70% use at the department level; only 38% use it at the enterprise level (AIIM)

Many communications professionals have asked, “Is SharePoint good for my company intranet?”

SharePoint for Communicators is a webinar answers the question with advice on how to proceed.

In this five-week online workshop, we’ll examine MOSS as a technology platform, and as a communications platform for managing content including news and social media. MOSS is not known as a strong solution for a large-size enterprise intranet. But it is good starting platform in a Microsoft environment, and is very good for team and group collaboration. This workshop will consider all of the pros and cons of MOSS, with expert opinion and advice for non-techie business users and communicators. Included in this Webinar will be:

Introduction to MOSS—An overview of the technology in non-techie language.
Pros and cons of MOSS for communicators—The good, bad and the things Microsoft won’t always tell you.
MOSS for content management—The elements and functionality of the content management system and how it compares to other systems.
Planning & Governance—MOSS can in fact create more problems without the necessary planning and governance. We’ll tell you what you need to prepare.
Plug-ins and alternatives to MOSS—MOSS is a very complex platform, but there are many additional modules and plug-ins that can enhance it greatly… We’ll also compare MOSS to other alternative solutions.

Webinars are asynchronous-you participate when it’s convenient for you. A new text-based lecture is posted each Monday morning, but you can take advantage of it whenever you have the time. Be sure to watch the video demo of the webinar format to determine if it’s right for your professional development needs.

Technorati Profile