Articles by Month: April 2007

Intranet Planning Day (22 June, Brisbane)

Chart a course to a more successful intranet, and take a fresh look at what it takes to be a more effective intranet team. This one day masterclass is the latest in a series of events run throughout Australia (and internationally), further enhanced with the addition of the brand-new '6x2 methodology' for intranet planning.

The masterclass will be presented by James Robertson, recognised as an international authority on intranet strategy and design. Drawing on experiences gained in many organisations and the best thinking from overseas, James will challenge current thinking as well as providing practical solutions.

It's been a while since we've been to Brisbane, so don't miss out!

Intranet Planning Day
Friday, 22 June 2007
Rydges South Bank, Brisbane

To be successful, the intranet must become a valuable business tool that delivers tangible and visible benefits for the organisation as a whole.

While many organisations have an intranet, all too often they are struggling due a lack of resources, and may not be much more than a publishing platform for static information, or a "dumping ground for second hand documents".

This one day masterclass provides intranet teams with an opportunity to focus exclusively on the strategy and planning aspects of intranets. Current directions will be challenged, and new techniques and approaches provided to deliver a more effective site.

This masterclass is suitable for both experienced managers of long-standing intranets, as well as those managing intranets in the earlier stages of development. It is particularly valuable for intranet managers who have recognised the common challenges and are looking for solutions and answers.

Topics covered during the day:

• model of intranet evolution, explaining why intranets are the way they are
• creating an effective "sales pitch"
• identifying staff needs (including techniques such staff interviews, workplace observation, contextual inquiry and task analysis)
• intranet management model, based on the Intranet Roadmap™
• positioning the intranet as a business tool
• leading successful intranets and gaining management support
• redefining the role of intranet teams

Full event details

Posted by jamesr at 03:01 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations, Intranets

Innovative Information Management Planning (27 June, Sydney)

In this one-day masterclass, Cairo Walker will present an innovative methodology for information management planning that will ensure that above-the-waterline benefits will be realised within the first six months. Drawing on extensive IM and project management experience, this masterclass will present practical solutions to real-world situations and challenges.

Innovative Information Management Planning
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Mercure Hotel, Sydney

To be successful, information management initiatives must quickly become valuable to the business, delivering tangible and visible benefits. This is particularly challenging when information management projects are large and complex, with the goal of addressing problems that have not proven easy to solve in the past.

Approaches often start with 100-page strategy documents or detailed project plans, moving into content and systems audits or the end-to-end mapping of complex business processes. By the time these activities are completed, they are already out of date.

This one-day masterclass provides information management teams with an opportunity to focus exclusively on information management strategy and planning. Current directions will be challenged, and new techniques and approaches provided to deliver above-the-waterline benefits within the first six months.

This masterclass is suitable for experienced information management practitioners, as well as those managing initiatives in the earlier stages of development. It is particularly valuable for those managers who have recognised common challenges and are looking for solutions and answers.

Topics covered during the day:

• traditional approaches to information management planning and why these haven't worked
• the ten principles for effective information management
• creating an effective 'sales pitch'
• identifying staff needs (including techniques such as staff interviews, workplace observation, contextual inquiry and task analysis)
• putting in place a realistic information management roadmap
• positioning information management as an effective business tool that contributes to organisational goals and bottom line results
• leading successful initiatives and gaining management support
• redefining the role of information management teams

The workshop will also explore the brand new 6x2 planning methodology, developed to give information management teams a practical approach for information management planning.

Full event details

Posted by jamesr at 01:44 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations, Information management

Taxonomy and metadata strategies for effective content management (June, Australia)

Taxonomies are a hot topic at present, with many organisations exploring how these can be used to coordinate practices across organisations and to integrate business systems. While the word 'taxonomy' is often used, it is often less clear what this means in practice, and how to make it all work.

For this reason, Step Two Designs is bringing out Joseph Busch to Australia, as the recognised taxonomy expert from the United States. Uniquely, Joseph combines this with an in-depth knowledge of content management and how to implement taxonomies in real-world settings.

Taxonomy and metadata strategies for effective content management

• Melbourne (Crowne Plaza): 7 June 2007
• Sydney (Mercure Hotel): 12 June 2007
• Canberra (Hyatt Hotel): 15 June 2007

In these one day masterclasses, Joseph will provide practical answers to core taxonomy questions such as:

• What is a taxonomy?
• How do you get one and does it really make a difference?
• How do you organise user tests and use the results in a CMS implementation?
• How do you get content tagged up using a taxonomy?

Joseph will then go on to provide answers to the hard questions about enterprise content architecture strategies, including:

• What does every content manager need to know about taxonomies and metadata?
• How can a taxonomy and metadata model drive successful search, workflow, content re-use, and the automation of content production processes?
• What are the critical elements of a business case for a content architecture?
• What are the critical do's and don'ts of designing a metadata and taxonomy model?
• How do you test a taxonomy's effectiveness with users?

These are Joseph's first events in Australia, and they are relevant for every team tasked with designing or implementing a taxonomy.

Full event details

Posted by jamesr at 12:13 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations, Content management, Information architecture, Information management, Intranets, Knowledge management

Only two weeks left for Intranet Innovation Awards

It's only two weeks until entries close for the first annual Intranet Innovation Awards. This is a great opportunity to get some recognition within your organisation, as well as in the wider community (nothing beats having an award-winning intranet!).

It's worth highlighting again that entries are for specific improvements (no matter how small), and not for intranets as a whole. Here's some ideas to get the creative juices flowing:

• innovative staff directory (phone directory) capabilities
• effective personalisation of the site to target key user needs
• innovative delivery of policy and procedures
• improvements to the design of the home page
• innovative search engine
• effective navigation
• innovative use of team-based collaboration tools
• implementing knowledge sharing facilities across multiple business areas
• innovative approaches that enhance corporate culture
• integration of instant messaging or SMS into the intranet
• effective use of wikis, blogs or other collaborative writing tools
• provision of news channels or RSS delivery mechanisms
• creation of an innovative call centre knowledgebase
• delivery of powerful functionality to target a key staff role
• use of mobile devices to help field staff
• creation of tools that aggregate key information to support day-to-day work by operational staff
• innovative online forms capabilities
• effective online travel booking system
• powerful self-service HR capabilities
• implementing highly-usable portal capabilities
• seamless integration of key applications into the intranet

The awards are global, open to organisations in the public and private sectors. So get working on your submissions, you've only got two weeks!

Posted by jamesr at 03:54 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Mass adoption of social software

R. Todd Stephens talks about the application of the 1% participation rate to enterprises. To quote:

To keep the math simple, let us assume that we have 100,000 employees. Based on the Wikipedia numbers, we might expect to have 1,000 people updating content. Of course, that would only be in a perfect world. The actual number may only be around 100.

Posted by jamesr at 09:24 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information management, Intranet Leadership Forum, Intranets

How to improve your site's internal search & lift ROI

MarketingSherpa has posted an interview with Martin White on how to improve site search. To quote:

Getting search right is critical to reaching your customers and prospects, but the challenge isn't limited to commercial search engines. The most important searches are often the ones users perform on your own website.

MarketingSherpa data reveals that 43% of visitors who land on a website go immediately to the search function. And customers who use the search box on ecommerce sites convert at nearly three times the rate of general browsers.

How can you improve your internal search features? We asked an expert for his top nine suggestions.

Posted by jamesr at 09:03 PM | Permalink
Categories: Search tools

Methodology for web 2.0 collaboration experiments (in reluctant organizations)

Dave Pollard has written an article providing a methodology for web 2.0 experiments in corporations. To quote:

... any methodology that hopes to help improve collaboration in an organization needs to be very adaptable, modest in resource demands, sponsored, and attuned to the complexity of collaboration challenges. I think I've come up with a methodology that meets these requirements, and it's illustrated above.

Posted by jamesr at 08:40 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information management, Intranets, Knowledge management

Knowledge strategy - three journeys

Shawn Callahan has written an entry on knowledge strategy, consisting of three separate journeys. To quote:

We've learned that top down strategies don't work. For one thing they typically rely on extrinsic motivations (rewards -- do this and you’ll get that) which I'm learning from Alfie Kohn is an intrinsic motivator killer (I've got to share some of the experiments Alfie talks about in a future post). So our approach to knowledge strategy is to first view the activity more as a verb than a noun. That is, it is better to strategize that the develop a strategy. The get things moving in an organisation we've developed what we call the three journeys approach.

Posted by jamesr at 08:33 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Searching the whole site

Lynda Moulton has written an entry on how users expect search to cover the whole site. To quote:

However, an organization's intranet portal with a free-standing search box comes with a different expectation. Most people assume that search will find content anywhere in the implied domain, and for most of us we believe that all content belonging to that domain (e. g. a company) is searchable.

Posted by jamesr at 09:07 PM | Permalink
Categories: Search tools

Measuring the success of a classification system

Iain Barker has written an article on measuring the success of a classification system. To quote:

I developed the following enhancement to Donna Maurer's card-based classification evaluation technique as a direct response to a client that wanted to engage with the process of restructuring their content-heavy intranet. My client knew the current classification structure was ineffective at enabling users to find the information they required, but they felt the process of developing an alternate structure would be complicated and contentious due to differences of opinion between senior stakeholders. My client requested quantitative data to validate that the proposed classification system was an improvement on the existing structure. They also had tight timescales and budgetary constraints.

Having previously used card-based classification evaluation to obtain qualitative insights into labeling and the general effectiveness of a classification system, I felt there was an opportunity to enhance the technique and deliver just the kind of information my client demanded without breaking their budgetary constraints.

Posted by jamesr at 08:28 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

What is web 2.0 CMS (part 2)

Seth Gottlieb and Brice Dunwoodie continue their series on web 2.0 CMS. To quote:

In the first article in this series we discussed in practical terms our take on meaning of Web 2.0 as it relates to content technologies. In this article, we describe the three key constituencies of Web 2.0 Content Management Systems and the functionalities needed to serve them well.

Posted by jamesr at 05:17 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Breaking news: exhibition dates in May

How is this for exciting news: two of the Step Two team are exhibiting their art at a gallery in May. I'm showing my photographs, while Cairo Walker is showing her paintings and drawings. Details as follows:

James Robertson 'Emergence' photographs

Cairo Walker 'It's all about you' paintings and drawings

Wednesday 30th May to Sunday 3rd June, 9am to 5:30pm

Simmer on the Bay
Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay
Hickson Road, Dawes Point
Sydney, Australia
(Next to the Sydney Theatre Company)

If you'd like details on the opening night, send an email to artbytwo@googlemail.com. Spread the word to anyone you think would be interested...

Posted by jamesr at 04:08 AM | Permalink
Categories: Photos

Rich stonework

Rich stonework (XI)

The Ali Ben Youssef Madersa is a recently restored Islamic school in Marrakech. The richness of the stonework and woodwork is breathtaking, and it must've been an inspiring place to learn...

Posted by jamesr at 10:46 PM
Categories: Photos

Companies slow to adopt advanced portal technology

Toby Ward shares that companies are slow to adopt advanced portal technology. To quote:

According to a new Gartner report on portals, "Portals Are the Swiss Army Knives of Enterprise Software," more than 50% of portal deployments (70% probability) are first generation portals with technology and features developed in the late 90s (no personalization, and little or no application integration).

Posted by jamesr at 12:04 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Information management, Intranets

What is web 2.0 content management? (Part 1)

Seth Gottlieb and Brice Dunwoodie have written an article on web 2.0 content management. To quote:

With all the hype that Web 2.0 has gotten, many companies are now looking at their existing Web CMS and wondering whether it meets the new paradigm's needs or merely traps them in an earlier age of the Web, thereby missing new business opportunities and making them appear dated.

Companies currently looking to acquire a new CMS want their new software to be "Web 2.0 enabled". But what does this mean in real terms?

Posted by jamesr at 11:39 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Melbourne "kick-off" session

The Melbourne Chapter of the Intranet Leadership Forum is about to kick-off with a session on the 3rd May, 2007. In this session the members will:

• meet each other
• review the past Sydney workshops
• brainstorm key areas to focus on in the Melbourne workshops
• build the Melbourne workshop schedule
• and have an open discussion on, "Gaining management buy-in for our intranet"

So if you are about to join and are keen to provide your input please let Catherine know so we can include you on the 3rd May. For more information, see the Intranet Leadership Forum website.

Posted by jamesr at 11:33 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranet Leadership Forum

A kind face in Marrakech

A kind face (III)

I spent four days in Marrakech (Morocco) on my way to Europe, having a holiday and taking too many photos. This old man was sitting beside one of the city gates, and made eye contact with me, inviting him to take a photo of him. He had such a kind and gentle manner, I had to thank him for the opportunity to take his photo.

Posted by jamesr at 03:05 AM
Categories:

Enterprise IA methodologies: starting two steps earlier

I've just had an article published on Boxes and Arrows titled Enterprise IA methodologies: starting two steps earlier. This follows on from my talks at both the IA Summit and Oz-IA events, and to quote:

Information architects working within enterprises are confronted by unique challenges relating to organisational culture, business processes, and internal politics. Compared to public website or interface design projects, key aspects differ in the application of IA discipline relating to uncertainties around the exact nature of the business problems being solved.

Posted by jamesr at 02:49 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Information management, Intranets, James' articles

Sorry for the period of quiet

PS. sorry for the gap in posts, not only am I currently in Denmark (having been in Marrakech and London), but my blog broke. Hopefully everything is working now, and I'm catching up on my backlog of posts...

Posted by jamesr at 02:13 AM | Permalink
Categories:

Four words to drop from your RFP -- and one to add

Tony Byrne has written a post on four words to drop from your RFP. To quote:

In product selection, as in life, the key to differentiating among possible alternatives is precision. Vague, wordy RFPs (or "tenders" for our international readers) beget vague, wordy responses. Taking a scenario-based approach can help you make very specific assertions and requests. You can also help your enterprise by removing conveniently ambiguous buzz-words. Here's four that I think you can safely drop from any RFP.

(This is something that I've written a lot on, and focusing on "how" rather than "what" when it comes to a CMS is tremendously effective.)

Posted by jamesr at 02:08 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

How to improve your site's internal search & lift ROI

MarketingSherpa has posted an interview with Martin White on how to improve site search. To quote:

Getting search right is critical to reaching your customers and prospects, but the challenge isn't limited to commercial search engines. The most important searches are often the ones users perform on your own website.

MarketingSherpa data reveals that 43% of visitors who land on a website go immediately to the search function. And customers who use the search box on ecommerce sites convert at nearly three times the rate of general browsers.

How can you improve your internal search features? We asked an expert for his top nine suggestions.

Posted by jamesr at 01:16 AM | Permalink
Categories: Search tools

When observing users is not enough: 10 guidelines for getting more out of users’ verbal comments

Isabelle Peyrichoux has written an article on effective questioning of users, beyond just observing them during usability testing. To quote:

While some usability professionals might claim that you cannot rely on what users say -- and there are some risks in relying on users' comments -- there are means of avoiding or minimizing those risks. To understand these means, we must leave the realm of objective science and enter the realm of human relationships and empathy.

(Note that this article is written to target narrow usability testing professionals. For the rest of us, we're probably already using most if not all of the questioning techniques as part of standard practice.)

Posted by jamesr at 01:09 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Blogging (internally) for three years

I've just realised that our internal blogs within Step Two were setup in April 2004, making it three years this month. Each team member has an internal blog, and we use them in a number of ways:

• summary of all the proposals that we send out, so everyone knows what's in the pipeline
• updates on projects as they are unfolding
• new ideas and interesting tidbits that we come across
• updates on business development activities, including monthly financial reports
• internal broadcast messages and requests for help

These have proved to be extremely successful, with the primary goal being to share awareness (rather than knowledge). As long as everyone has a vague recollection that they saw something on the blogs, they can search the blog archive, and then go and chat directly to the person in question.

The great thing is that any of us can be out of the office for a week or two, and still have some idea of what's happening. It's also more efficient for reaching all staff, rather than flooding everyone with emails.

So, three years on, the blogs are still going strong and they have a long life ahead of them...

Posted by jamesr at 06:51 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

North Window through the South Window

North Window through the South Window

This is one of the classic views in Arches National Park. It involved rising pre-dawn, and shivering through sub-zero temperatures after clambering up onto a narrow platform of rock. But the view was worth it!

Posted by jamesr at 09:58 AM
Categories: Photos

Search help and usability

Lynda Moulton has written a post on search usability. To quote:

Two results remain consistent: less than 1% of the searchers place a phrase inside quotations, even when there are multiple words; word are often truncated but do not include a truncation symbol (usually an asterisk, “*”). Both reveal a probable lack of search conventions understanding, a search literacy problem. Here are a couple of possible solutions.

(The design of search is something that I've written a fair bit about, including a previous article and a full report.)

Posted by jamesr at 12:02 PM | Permalink
Categories: Search tools, Usability & user-centered design

Enterprise 2.0 - to be or not to be? Depends on how you approach it...

Jane McConnell has written an entry on enterprise 2.0 and intranets. To quote:

You can drive organisational change through meeting user and business needs and 2.0 will sometimes be the best way forward. I have devised the following 5-step process for organisations considering 2.0. The order of the steps and the function-based approach lower the risks of failure or stagnation.

Posted by jamesr at 01:09 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information management, Intranets

A quick note on multi-lingual entries to the Intranet Innovation Awards

As noted before, we've got a great list of supporters for the Intranet Innovation Awards, from across the globe. With supporters located in places such as France, Switzerland and Denmark, the question naturally arises regarding multi-lingual submissions to the Awards.

After some discussions with our supporters, this is how it will work:

• The Intranet Innovation Awards have been established to be global awards recognising innovative approaches to intranet delivery.
• Entries from all countries are strongly encouraged, regardless of the language the intranet is published in.
• The entry form must be submitted in English, to allow us to review and judge the entries.
• The screenshots can be in any language, as long as they are annotated in English to allow us to assess the designs and ideas.
• The annotation can be done in any way that makes sense, as long as we have images that are suitable for inclusion in the awards report.

So in summary: entries are welcome from all countries! As long as we can judge the entries, we'd love nothing more than to give awards to intranet teams based in Europe, Asia, Africa or South America.

Posted by jamesr at 12:52 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

The no-knead approach to information architecture (#3 of 5)

Lou Rosenfeld has continued his series of articles on a no-knead approach approach to IA. To quote:

Determine who your most important audiences are. Many organizations -- academic institutions, for example -- already have an excellent grasp of who their primary audiences are, but you'd be surprised at how many don't. Ask yourself right now: do you know who they are?

Posted by jamesr at 11:15 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

IntraBranding: why your intranet needs its own personality

Garth A. Buchholz has written an article on intranet branding. To quote:

The next time you work on an intranet project, whether for private- or public-sector organizations, ask your client or manager about branding. Usually, the answer will be another question, "Why do we need to worry about branding?" After all, this is an internal site, for employees only, or -- in the case of extranets -- for contractors and partners, as well. If users are on the intranet, why do they need to be reminded about which organization owns it?

Posted by jamesr at 03:20 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Workshop on innovative intranets

In light of this months' article on innovative intranets, it's probably worth mentioning again that I'll be running a European workshop on this topic in a few weeks. The Building innovative intranets workshop will be held in Denmark on April 18th. (The workshop will be in English.)

There are already a number of participants coming from outside Denmark, and with the cheap flights that are available, anyone from continental Europe (or the UK) should consider attending. (It will be at least 6 months before I run another European workshop.)

Posted by jamesr at 09:56 AM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Intranet teams must cover the three purposes

The earlier article Three fundamental purposes of an intranet identified that there are three main aspects that must be addressed for an intranet to be successful:

• content
• communication
• activity

Content refers to the traditional role of the intranet as a repository of corporate information, while the intranet can also be an effective communications channel, and a mechanism to provide task-oriented tools and systems.

The challenge for organisations is ensuring that all three purposes are addressed, for any one in isolation is not enough to build a sustainable and effective intranet. This briefing builds on the earlier article, to explore what this means for intranet teams on a strategic and day-to-day basis.

Many possible owners

Intranet teams may be located within a number of possible areas of the organisation, including:

• IT
• communications or marketing
• KM or IM
• business area (such as HR)

As discussed in the earlier article Who should own the intranet?, it doesn't matter where the intranet team sits as long as they have the right skills and focus. The challenge is that the intranet team will naturally be influenced by the area of the business that they sit within.

[CM Briefing 2007-05, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 11:18 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, James' articles

Three fundamental purposes of an intranet

Intranets often focus on one or two key aspects, depending on who is running the site. The intranet maybe established as a communications channel, or as a repository for corporate content. When tackled in this narrow way, intranets often struggle to be sustainable and successful in the longer term.

To be truly effective, intranets need to address three fundamental purposes:

• content
• communication
• activity

This briefing will explore each of these purposes, and will outline how all three elements are required if the intranet is to be effective.

Content

The intranet's role as a repository for corporate information is well understood. Disciplines such as usability and information architecture have done much to improve the ability of staff to find required information on corporate intranets.

Considerable effort is put into maintaining the intranet as a content repository, including implementing a content management system, establishing authoring processes and defining intranet governance policies.

While the intranet will always play an important role in delivering content, this is not the aspect that will drive the success of the site. As a 'place for reading things', the intranet is only accessed when needed, often only every week, month or quarter.

[CM Briefing 2007-06, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 10:57 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, James' articles

Building innovative intranets

The concept of innovation, and the advantages it can deliver, have come to the forefront in many organisations. With organisations as recognising that market opportunities can be generated through business innovation, it is natural to ask whether the intranets that serve these organisations can themselves be innovative.

In many ways, it is vital for intranets to innovate if they are to prosper in the long term. As things currently stand, intranets are often seen as 'dull but useful', which can make it difficult for intranet teams to gain the resources they require.

Building more innovative intranets gives the opportunity to demonstrate the value that intranets can deliver for an organisation more clearly and powerfully. The obvious question is how can intranet teams most effectively make their sites more innovative?

This article explores a number of approaches that can be taken to build innovative intranets, all of which will help intranet teams to move beyond just maintaining their current sites.

What should be highlighted from the outset, however, is that innovation is not primarily about new technologies. While these do play a role, the evolution of intranets into more effective platforms is much more about following innovative approaches than in implementing the latest tools.

This article will therefore focus on providing a holistic approach to innovation, covering people, process and technology.

[April KM Column, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 10:48 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, James' articles

Setting up business stakeholder interviews (part 2)

Michael Beavers has delivered the second part of an article on stakeholder interviews. To quote:

Whatever the problem, you can often identify key breaking points: where do your stakeholders have deliverables that contribute to or influence the user experience? This can include people who review work at different stages, create content, measure user response, or hit the "publish" button on a web page content management system.

Posted by jamesr at 10:17 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

IA Summit talk on search analytics

Rich Wiggins and Lou Rosenfeld have published the slides from their talk on search analytics at the IA Summit. To quote:

Rich Wiggins and I presented on search analytics at the recent IA Summit in Las Vegas. The talk was quite popular; it was one of five that attendees asked to have repeated. And in the week or so since we posted it on SlideShare, it's had over 1,200 views and has been favorited 20 times.

Posted by jamesr at 05:30 PM | Permalink
Categories: Search tools

Bryce panorama (I)

Bryce panorama (I)

After the IA Summit, I went on the three-day road trip to visit some of the most spectacular national parks in Utah. I was hit by a sudden snowstorm driving into Bryce, but when I arrived at the lookout the clouds parted. The sun shining onto this landscape was one of the most remarkable sights I've ever seen. (You'll want to view this panorama very, very big.)

Posted by jamesr at 05:15 PM
Categories: Photos