Articles by Month: August 2007

Will podcasting survive?

Alex Iskold has written an interesting article that asks: will podcasting survive? To quote:

What is going on with podcasting in general? We certainly no longer hear about it as much as we did in the past. Is it because it simply became part of our culture that we take for granted? Unlikely. It seems that podcasting has not really made it into our daily lives. In this post we look at podcasting and try to decipher why it never got big.

Posted by jamesr at 10:58 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Registration has opened for Oz-IA/2007

It's just been announced that registration is open for the Oz-IA/2007 conference (Sydney, September 22-23). This is a remarkable practitioner-led conference, the only one of its kind in Australia. If you are an information architect or usability specialist, this your best chance for professional development (and some serious networking!). Plenty of stuff for those looking to build their skills also...

There are discounts for members of IAI, WIPA and AWIA.

(We're proud to be one of the sponsors of the conference again, and I look forward to seeing you there.)

Posted by jamesr at 09:57 AM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Where collaboration tools fit in (Brisbane, September 12)

Are you thinking of installing SharePoint, QuickPlaces, or equivalent? Do you already have these types of collaboration tools in your organisation, but are struggling to work out how they relate to your intranet, document management systems, etc?

With the rapid spread of collaboration tools, the opportunity for new approaches to intranets and information management are being explored. More immediately, organisations are confronted with the fundamental question: where do collaboration tools fit in?

Are they a replacement for intranets and document management systems, or do they sit alongside? Where should initial projects be focused?

This industry briefing provides simple but effective models for answering these questions, as well as helping to target collaboration efforts for greatest impact.

The next session is to be run in Brisbane, as follows:

Date: Wednesday 12 September 2007
Venue: Rydges South Bank, Brisbane
Times: 2.00pm to 3.30pm, refreshments from 3.30pm
Price: $100.00 (free for members of the Intranet Leadership Forum)
Full event details
Note: this event is strictly vendor-neutral.

(This will also be run in Sydney and Melbourne later this year.)

Posted by jamesr at 03:05 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Intranets: getting senior management's attention

Gerry McGovern has written an article on gaining senior management support for intranets. To quote:

Intranets are still struggling. Senior management does not see them as being business critical. If the intranet is to get respect and proper funding, it must prove that it is improving productivity and efficiency.

The one thing that the intranet can truly deliver is time. It can make it quicker for staff to carry out basic tasks such as finding product information; finding experts; locating forms and processes.

Posted by jamesr at 10:56 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Global intranets - more on paths, strategies and global integration

Jane McConnell answers more questions about her models of global intranets, including how they evolve. To quote:

In my experience, the majority of USA companies who expand abroad do so by following the path started at point 2A. They "impose" their intranet structure in a natural way (passing through the 2B cookie cutter stage) as they grow gradually. They usually have a strong IT culture and a high degree of self-confidence or "we prefer what is invented here" and are thereby able to achieve the move to an integrated portal relatively easily.

European companies already have a strong sense of diversity, primarily coming from the geographical proximity of highly different cultures and ways of doing things. Personally, I have never seen the cookie cutter approach coming from a European headquartered multinational or global company.

Posted by jamesr at 05:37 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Resolving group name differences in a KJ analysis

Jared Spool has written an article about running KJ analysis sessions, and overcoming common issues. To quote:

We're big fans of the KJ Technique, a method that helps teams rank the important issues for a focus question, such as "What are the most important usability problems we need to fix in this version of the design?" or "Which user populations are most important to our business?"

In the method, teams brainstorm on potential answers to the focus question, group the answers, name each group, then vote on the group names that best answer the question. The method, in less than 45-minutes, allows teams to come to a democratic consensus on an answer, avoiding endless discussion for elements that turn out to be unimportant.

Posted by jamesr at 05:09 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Workshop in Denmark

As noted earlier, I'll be back in Europe in November. I'll be running a half-day workshop at cmf2007 (Aarhus, Denmark) on Designing innovative intranets. Details as follows:

Designing and structuring an intranet isn't easy. This workshop explores key principles, introduces innovative new approaches and highlights the latest research results. The workshop will also feature examples from the winners of the global Intranet Innovation Awards.

Whether building an intranet for scratch, or looking for ways to enhance an existing site, this workshop will provide a wealth of new and practical ideas.

Topics covered:

• revisiting home page design
• information scent, and other IA principles
• exploding design myths, such as the 3-click rule
• innovative design elements, including examples from Intranet Innovation Awards winners

The soon-to-be-announced Intranet Innovation Awards winners cover a huge range of great ideas. This will be the only time in Europe that screenshots from the winners will be presented, so you don't want to miss out.

Posted by jamesr at 12:53 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

IABC Communicators' Day Out (Sydney)

Just a quick note to say that I'll be running a mini intranet workshop at the IABC Communicators' Day Out, 22-23 November in Sydney. This will be a 1.5 hour session on intranet strategy, targeted particularly at those communication folks responsible for running a corporate intranet.

Should be a good fun session...

Posted by jamesr at 11:03 AM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Upgrading my blog

Ok, that's it, I can't take it any more. I must have commenting on my blog again, as I'm really feeling like I'm missing out on valuable discussions.

Now, I'm stuck on an ancient version of Movable Type, which can't cope with the comments spam. Thus I had to turn off commenting some years back.

What I need is an in-place upgrade of Movable Type to the latest version, fixing the performance problems, and re-enabling commenting. (And no, this is not the time for me to move to another blogging platform, although I'd certainly consider that for the future.)

So: can anyone recommend a Movable Type guru who I can engage for a day or so to get the upgrade done?

Please email me any suggestions...

Posted by jamesr at 10:10 AM | Permalink
Categories:

Program finalised for Oz-IA

The program has just been published for the Oz-IA conference, to be held in Sydney on September 22 and 23. This is a great conference, with a depth of material for information architects that can't be obtained anywhere else. So if you want to build your IA expertise, you won't want to miss out on this!

(We're supporting the conference again this year, and were the primary sponsors for the inaugural event last year.)

Posted by jamesr at 09:55 AM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

Intranets: what staff really want

Gerry McGovern has published the results of a survey looking at what staff really want from an intranet. To quote:

Staff overwhelmingly want a better organized intranet where they can quickly find people, policies and procedures, and forms. In July 2007 we carried out an intranet survey using our Customer Carewords approach. We gave people a list of intranet tasks and also a list of things they might like to see improved on their intranet.

I would make a couple of observations:

• The results certainly accord with our experience in many different organisations. In many ways, though, this can all be summarised as part of the three purposes identified for intranets, so I don't think we're finding out anything really new here.
• I don't think we've ever had a problem describing what an intranet should be, but the real question remains: how do we get there? This is hard, and where the real work needs to be done.
• I always recommend against asking "what users want", as this type of question has many problems. Not least that the answers will typically be defined in terms of the current site, so it's often a self-referential form of investigation that doesn't identify innovative approaches.

Still, more data is always better than less, so many thanks to Gerry for conducting this survey and so generously sharing the results...

Posted by jamesr at 10:36 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Banner blindness: old and new findings

Jakob Nielsen has written an article on banner blindness. To quote:

At all levels of user engagement, the finding is the same regarding banners (outlined with green boxes in the above illustration): almost no fixations within advertisements. If users are looking for a quick fact, they want to get done and aren't diverted by banners; and if users are engrossed in a story, they're not going to look away from the content.

The heatmaps also show how users don't fixate within design elements that resemble ads, even if they aren't ads (and thus aren't shown within green boxes above).

Posted by jamesr at 04:13 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

An introduction to Split A/B testing

Lisa Halabi has written a brief introduction to A/B testing. To quote:

Following on from any website usability study a number of usability problems are usually found. There can often be debate within any organisation as to the best solution for each problem, with no one really knowing the optimal solution. Rather than letting the person that shouts the loudest get his or her own way, a better solution can be to test two solutions in a live environment. Whichever performs the best is clearly the superior solution. Welcome to split A/B testing!

Posted by jamesr at 04:05 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Brisbane get-together for intranet managers

Intranets are now a business critical part of the organisation landscape. As intranet teams the challenge is to ensure that your intranet is effective for your organisation.

Step Two Designs Brisbane office is holding an informal get-together over breakfast for Brisbane intranet managers.

Date: Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Time: 7.30am
Place: Brisbane inner city cafe (exact location to be advised depending on numbers)

So if you would like to meet other intranet managers and find out about the first workshop for the Intranet Leadership Forum in Brisbane (October 2007) please send Rebecca Rodgers an email.

Posted by jamesr at 11:53 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranet Leadership Forum

UCD blogging in Australia?

Something struck me today about the prevalence of blogging amongst the user-centred design community in Australia.

Now, I've been blogging for a touch over five years. I find it an invaluable mechanism for sharing my thoughts, the articles that I'm reading, and the articles I'm writing. From the feedback I receive, I believe that this is an extremely worthwhile way of spending some of my time.

In the US, there is very strong blogging within the UCD community, with many of the most experienced experts and consultants regularly posting their thoughts. Individuals in my blog feed include Lou Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, Joe Lamantia, Jeff Veen; company blogs include Adaptive Path, UIE and Blue Flavor.

While there are a number of excellent Australian-produced UCD blogs, these are primarily by individuals, with very few companies (or individuals representing companies). Very few of these blogs are by the "thought leaders" in our industry. While I follow many of these blogs, the most insightful posts still seem to be coming from overseas.

Am I right on this? Is the UCD community within Australia backwards when it comes to using this now-standard communications channel? Or have I missed many of the best blogs in my own backyard?

As they say, answers on the back of a postcard please...

Posted by jamesr at 01:10 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

Some comments on enterprise 2.0 and intranets

Oscar Berg has written a post on enterprise 2.0 and intranets. To quote:

With the adoption of Web 2.0 applications and technologies within an enterprise context (Enterprise 2.0), the old intranet sites will be replaced by or transform into a network of hyperlinked resources that connect people as well as content resources with each other. The enterprise portal serves as the entry point and provides enterprise users with a single gateway to wikis, blogs, web based productivity tools, collaboration and communication tools as well as to enterprise applications and content sources. Although all applications are not executed and all content is not displayed within the context of the enterprise portal, all the resources that are available to the employees can be found via the portal.

Posted by jamesr at 01:00 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information management, Intranets

Our intranet, the wiki: case study of a wiki changing an enterprise

Nathan Wallace has posted an excellent case study of the wiki-based intranet at Janssen-Cilag. To quote:

Janssen-Cilag is one of the fastest growing, research based pharmaceutical companies in Australia. It has more than 300 employees, split across Australia and New Zealand with around half based in the field. It is one of 250 Johnson & Johnson operating companies, which total about 121,000 employees across 57 countries.

In 2006, Janssen-Cilag completely replaced our simple, static HTML intranet with a Wiki solution. Over the 16 months since launch, it has dramatically transformed our internal communication and continues to increase in both visits and content contributions each month.

Posted by jamesr at 12:26 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Centralized or distributed?

Alan Pelz-Sharpe has written an item on centralised vs distributed approaches to ECM. To quote:

I was trawling through some old presentations the other day - when I came across a couple that were given at crisis points in major ECM implementations. What struck me about these was the focus on the architecture of the ECM system. In particular whether it should be centralized or distributed (most of my clients have been very large and often global in nature). The pro's and con's of federated ECM - the issues of replication etc are well understood. But what I think is less understood is the impact that this architectural approach has on ECM as a practice.

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

A lexicon for document analysis

Tony Byrne has written an article on the confusion of terminology in the content management industry. To quote:

One of the challenges of any content technology project is standardizing on a particular set of terminology. Without that, you risk confusion among the business users, developers, managers, vendor staff, and consultants who may all participate in your project.

And one area where I see a lot of different terminology is in the domain of content analysis. Content analysis is becoming increasingly important, particularly on the web, where more enterprises want to take advantage of the latent structure of some of their online information to better re-use information across locales and channels.

Posted by jamesr at 11:58 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Book review: The Myths of Innovation

I've just had my book review of The Myths of Innovation published on Boxes and Arrows. To quote:

Innovation is a hot topic at the moment. Actually, innovation has been a big thing for last hundred years or more, but perhaps we needed the profusion of business magazines and books to bring this observation into sharp focus. With the tech sector on the ascendancy (again), driven in part by the Web 2.0 movement, examples of innovation are everywhere. We've moved beyond the notion of the knowledge economy to recognize that innovative ideas can be the foundation for disruptive business models. This factor makes Berkun's book timely, as it sheds light on the underpinning truths that surround innovation. This is what the dust jacket promises:

In The Myths of Innovation, bestselling author Scott Berkun takes a careful look at innovation history, including the software and Internet ages, to reveal how ideas truly become successful innovations--truths that you can apply to today's challenges. Using dozens of examples from the history of technology, business, and the arts, you'll learn how to convert the knowledge you have into ideas that can change the world.

So, does it deliver?

Posted by jamesr at 11:43 AM | Permalink
Categories: Book & product reviews

UCD in Australia: demand exceeds supply

I find it remarkable that I've seen nothing written about the current state of the usability and IA industries in Australia. This is the busiest that the industry has ever been, driven by the slow but inevitable acceptance of the need for user-centred design (UCD) as part of web and intranet projects.

To say things are busy is an understatement. Every consulting firm is busy, every freelancer is occupied, and every contractor working on client premises. To state this most clearly:

At present, demand for UCD services far exceeds supply.

Even with all hands on deck, it isn't possible to meet all the needs of clients within Australia at present. And this isn't going to change anytime in a hurry.

There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, organisations have quietly taken heed of the importance of UCD and have, without anyone really noticing, started incorporating these activities into many of their web projects. Making matters dramatically worse are a few of the big media companies building huge UCD teams to support their strategic projects.

Thats the demand side of things. On the supply side, there haven't been a lot of new specialists coming onto the market over the last 5 years. With few (if any) formal ways of learning these skills, UCD specialists are grown, not educated. It's also a much smaller market than the US or UK.

So, what does this mean in practice? A few things:

• For clients, it's become very hard to get hold of good UCD specialists, particularly for mid-term contract roles.
• There's also going to have to be a shift in the way that UCD services are obtained. In the past, organisations could put out a small RFP for a usability consultancy, with the expectation that the winning firm could start "right away". Now, every firm is booked up for at least the next month or two, so clients are going to have to be more patient.
• The lack of experience UCD specialists is driving more work to less experienced staff. Anecdotally, this is impacting the quality of a lot of the work being done at present.
• It's virtually impossible for consulting firms to grow in this space, due to the shortage of new staff. This is now a strategic consideration, and firms such as ours are taking serious steps to attract the best talent. (In our case, this involves offering an unique consulting model, and the opportunity to write articles and reports, present at conferences and run workshops.)
• The market value of experienced UCD specialists is growing very rapidly, and salaries are rising quickly.
• This is putting a big squeeze on consulting firms, who are seeing their costs enormously. With many firms competing on price, this is impacting on many companies profitability, and something will have to give. (We are taking a different route on this issue.)
• Ultimately, the basics of marketplace economics suggest that the costs will ultimately have to be passed on to clients, although this is always a difficult and uncertain process.

Anyway, that's my view of the world, and there's no doubt it's an interesting time at the moment. Apologies again for the lack of comments (must upgrade my blogging software!), but feel free to email me your observations and thoughts. I'll then collect these together and blog a summary...

Posted by jamesr at 05:16 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

NZ dates for Intranet Leadership Forum

The Intranet Leadership Forum is up and running in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney and is about to launch two new chapters in Wellington and Auckland. The Forum will be kicked off with free information sessions in Auckland and Wellington:

Wellington: Friday, 24th August, 1-3pm, followed by afternoon tea
Location: Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Auckland: Monday, 27th August, 1-3pm, followed by afternoon tea
Location: University of Auckland

Each session will cover how the Intranet Leadership Forum works, as well as a special presentation on how to build innovative intranets:

• screen shots and out-takes from the 2007 Intranet Innovation Awards
• intranets of companies from around the world
• how intranets are the center of organisational change initiatives
• the best of the best staff directories, calendars and on-line sharing

Come along, meet up with other intranet mangers in your area and see examples of what is happening around the world with intranets. To register for a session send an email to catherine@steptwo.com.au stating which city you are in.

If you would like more information or want to organise a one-on-one catch up with Cairo Walker and Catherine Grenfell whilst they are in New Zealand please also contact catherine@steptwo.com.au or +61 2 9319 7901 or +61 420308071.

Posted by jamesr at 04:58 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranet Leadership Forum

Keeping track of discussions at Hewlett Packard

Bill Ives reports on the measurement of collaboration at HP. To quote:

Stan Garfield, Worldwide Consulting & Integration Knowledge Management Leader, Hewlett-Packard, recently shared the metrics his firm uses to keep track of all threaded discussion forums:

New Threads
Replies
Total Posts
Total Subscriptions
Number of Forums
Consulting & Integration Participants
% of Participation

Posted by jamesr at 05:42 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Using research to end visual design debates

Nick Myers has written an article on research underpinning good design. To quote:

If you've ever had to present visual design to a group, you probably have your own collection of similar horror stories. But why is it that a group of otherwise level-headed adults can't seem to have a productive meeting about visual design? The short answer is that in the absence of clear context about what they are evaluating, most people don't know how to objectively evaluate visual design, so they rely instead on subjective intuition.

Posted by jamesr at 05:27 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Elements of collaboration

Lars Trieloff has published a periodic table of collaboration. To quote:

The aim of "Elements of Collaboration" is to give an overview about current collaboration techniques and technology and to show how better collaboration can lead to improved workflows and higher productivity.

[Thanks to Patrick Lambe.]

Posted by jamesr at 05:19 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information management, Knowledge management

Creative thinking hacks

Scott Berkun has written an article on creative thinking hacks. To quote:

All of us, except my idiot cousin who still eats glue, possess everything necessary to be more creative. The problem is we've been trained away from our creative instincts by schools, parents, movies and workplaces. The word creativity is frequently inflated by association, frequently appearing with overused, hype-laden words such as genius, brilliance, revolution and innovation. Hype mongers and creative intimidators throw those labels around like candy, scaring most people out of their own natural creative instincts. This essay, a high speed hack-centric interpretation of the creative thinking course I taught at the University of Washington, offers both concepts and tricks to help anyone be creative at any time.

Posted by jamesr at 01:18 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Would you like me to drop by when in Europe?

I'll be back to Europe in early November, to speak (and run a workshop) at the always-excellent cmf2007 conference in Denmark.

Now, it's a long way to come for just a three day conference, so I'm planning to stay a little longer. So if you'd like me to drop by for some consulting, mentoring, or an in-house workshop, just send me an email. I'm happy to visit anywhere in continental Europe or the UK...

Posted by jamesr at 07:48 PM | Permalink
Categories: Conferences & presentations

If it doesn't get you kudos, it doesn't count

Something has really crystallised for me over the last few months in my discussions with many intranet teams. More often than not, these teams are quietly working away, delivering valuable but unseen improvements to the intranet. This includes implementing a new CMS, cleaning up content, developing taxonomies and adding search functionality.

All of these activities are valuable, and probably necessary. They are also invisible and often unrecognised within the organisation as a whole. Now I've talked often about the importance of focusing on tangible and visible improvements, but let me state that more bluntly:

When it comes to improving intranets, if it doesn't get you kudos, it doesn't count.

At a time when intranet continue to struggle to get the support and resources they need, I have little patience for intranet teams who choose to labour away on unseen tasks. How can we expect organisations to recognise the value of our work, if we focus on activities that are almost impossible to explain or quantify?

This is not about self-serving promotional activities, or "blowing your own trumpet". It's about choosing activities that won't just benefit the organisation, but will also help the intranet team to deliver further improvements. Or at least, structuring or designing activities in ways that can be more easily promoted. Oh, and then actually promoting the improvements once they are delivered.

Anyway, that's just my thoughts on a Friday afternoon...

Posted by jamesr at 06:57 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

6x2: a new approach to planning

Intranets have now grown to be core tools for most organisations, tools they cannot do without. Despite this, it is still a struggle for intranet teams to gain the resources and support they need to sustain and grow their sites.

In general, it is not hard to describe what the 'perfect intranet' looks like, and each intranet team can generally paint a clear picture of their desired future site. What is needed, however, is a roadmap that helps intranet teams to get from 'here' to 'there' within current resource limits and other constraints.

The 6x2 methodology provides a powerful new way of planning that gives intranet teams a concrete and constructive way of tackling the growth of their sites. Taking a very different approach to the planning process, the 6x2 methodology focuses on the coming six months, asking the question: what are we going to deliver by the end of this six-month period?

By focusing on criteria (why would we pick a given activity?) and constraints (what is restricting potential activities?), this approach identifies activities that are both doable and worth doing.

Beyond intranets, the 6x2 methodology is also being applied to information management planning, and other similar domains.

This article will provide an overview of the 6x2 methodology, including a summary of each of the steps and examples of criteria and constraints.

[August KM Column, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 10:58 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information management, Intranets, James' articles

Your new site will be 20% different from current site

Implementing a new website or intranet is a unique opportunity to work with new functionality and ideas and push the bounds of what the site will do. When a new underlying platform is being implemented, such as a content management system or portal, the scope for rethinking the site can be increased further.

Yet, despite all of this opportunity for change, the simple rule of thumb is that the new site will be at best 20% different from the current site.

There are fundamental reasons for this, which will be explored in this briefing. The implications of the rule for the design and technology aspects of the project will also be discussed.

New ideas

'Blue sky thinking' explicitly provides scope for rethinking the purpose and design of the site, allowing radically new approaches and ideas to be considered. Even without this, any site redesign allows for some reconsideration of how the site is designed and delivered, along with a concrete opportunity to implement these changes.

When the underlying technology is also being changed (such as installing a new content management system), the opportunity for change is even greater. High ambitions combined with an opportunity for reworking the site, can generate the desire for significant site changes, such as:

• Reworking the entire site as a 'web 2.0' platform, where content will be actively provided by users.
• Reworking the static CMS-based intranet into a dynamic, personalised portal that will target information to specific staff roles.
• Creating a dynamic, data-driven website that will use user profiles to deliver targeted information and functionality.

These three examples have been drawn from real projects. While desirable in vision, such ambitious goals will always need to be tempered into a concrete scope for the project, and into a clear design for the site.

[CM Briefing 2007-14, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 10:51 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information management, James' articles, Web development

Apply IA techniques when creating taxonomies

Taxonomies define the structure that underpins document and records management systems, knowledge management projects and more. Considerable effort goes into developing these taxonomies, with the goal of creating a common structure that will benefit the whole organisation.

The challenge, however, is to ensure that these taxonomies work well for staff, beyond any organisational benefits that are sought. It is here that taxonomies often fail. If not designed well, taxonomies can become 'white elephants', too hard to understand and too complex to use. At their worst, poorly designed taxonomies are the direct causes of project and system failure.

The field of information architecture (IA) has much to offer those creating taxonomies, including a range of structured techniques for building and testing their effectiveness. This briefing outlines some of these approaches, and encourages creators of taxonomies to retain a clear focus on usability throughout the design process.

Building taxonomies

Taxonomies are typically drawn from a number of sources, including existing industry-wide classification schemes, business functions and structures already in place within sections of the organisation.

These are pulled together to create a larger or more complete taxonomy. Testing of this taxonomy usually relies on internal review, discussing the taxonomy with staff, and gaining input on areas of strength and weakness.

While effective for gaining broad user and stakeholder input, this kind of review is very shallow, and is not sufficient to ensure that the taxonomy can be used in practice. Instead, structured techniques must be used, getting beyond staff and expert opinions.

[CM Briefing 2007-13, read the full article]

Posted by jamesr at 10:45 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, James' articles, Knowledge management

Confirmed: outside consumer forces drive enterprise technology

Joe McKendrick has summarised recent research on enterprise technology adoption. To quote:

Ben Worthen, writing in the Wall Street Journal's business technology blog, cites a new study from Yankee Group, which confirmed that 86% of employees say that they "use at least one consumer-oriented tech tool that isn't supported by the IT department -- things like instant messaging, USB drives, and iPhones -- in the workplace, with the average employee using four."

Posted by jamesr at 05:46 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information management

The CMS marketplace is starting to crystallise

"We're extremely busy, and so are all the other vendors."

This is what I heard from a number of the vendors at the recent Open Publish conference in Sydney. More than just being busy, many vendors now have their "pipeline" of work fully committed through to October, or beyond.

As a consequence, many of the vendors are now focusing their efforts on just a few market segments, whereas previously they would've taken on any work that came their way. They are now passing up work because it doesn't fit with their core focus or strategic direction. They are also consolidating their existing customer base (whether it be local councils, state government, marketing websites, etc).

This is something that I've been predicting for some time now. Whereas some of the industry analysts have been claiming that the marketplace is consolidating and converging, I've been seeing the opposite. Vendors (and their products) are still diverging, each looking for the "killer feature" that will knock off their competition.

Instead of consolidation, what we're now starting to see is crystallisation. Individual vendors will group around specific market segments, so there becomes the six major vendors each for healthcare, intranets, events, etc. By necessity, this must be an organic process, in the absence of any overarching marketplace strategy.

This crystallisation will take some time, will be painful and confusing, but inevitable. It is simply not viable for each vendor to try to see to all prospective customers, when there are so few good channels to raise the visibility of products.

I'll watch with interest over the coming year to see how this unfolds...

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

Lazy web: docking Mac laptops

Invoking the "lazy web" for the first time:

We're idly considering switching our boring Dell laptops for sexy new MacBook Pro laptops. I think we've worked through most of the issues, but there's one big one left.

For our Dell laptops, we have a lovely Dell docking system, allowing us to easily connect our laptops to a full-sized keyboard and screen. This actually works very well, particularly as we spent at least as much time in our office as we do on the road.

So, my question: is there any equivalent for MacBooks? Either Apple or third party?

Please email me any tips or trips, I'll be eternally grateful.

Posted by jamesr at 04:08 PM | Permalink
Categories:

It costs $5mil to write a CMS

There are a lot of content management system (CMS) products in the marketplace, over 140 in Australia alone. There are new products springing into existence even as this is written. As discussed by Seth Gottlieb, there are also an uncounted number of homegrown CMS packages, developed by individuals for one-off projects.

There is a lot that goes into a successful CMS, something that is often taken for granted by both developers and purchasers. Having spent a lot of time talking with local vendors, I would estimate that it costs at least $5 million to develop a fully-functional CMS.

This is real money (cash) that needs to be found and spent by vendors, to produce an acceptably good mid-market solution. This isn't a all-singing-all-dancing product we're talking about here, but rather a CMS that just "works right", and meets the expectations of most purchasers.

This is a lot of money.

There are some natural consequences and observations that arise from this:

• If you're thinking of taking your home-grown solution and making it into a commercial product, you need to be able find $5 million. That's the price of entry into this marketplace now, and the minimum requirement for commercial success.
• A lot of this money is not spent on implementing functionality, but on improving performance, fixing bugs, handling special cases.
• There's a lot of difference between the maturity of products, between CMS solutions that work to a point, and those that have spent the time (and money) to "dot the i's and cross the t's".
• While all the products can probably "tick the boxes", you want to purchase a solution that has devoted sufficient resources to get their product to an acceptable level of stability, functionality and maturity.
• The $5mil is just the beginning, as the bar is being raised all the time for "best in breed". So vendors have to keep spending a significant percentage of their income on R&D, just to keep up with their competitors.
• While $5mil is a fair bit of money, this is still quite achievable by hundreds of vendors, so it doesn't naturally mean that only the big players will survive. (Particularly as the general selling price of products has fallen five-fold over the last 3 years.)
• And no, don't try to build a solution yourself. Trust me, buy a product from a vendor that has already spent this money on your behalf, to build a solution that really works.

Posted by jamesr at 12:51 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Global intranets - different challenges, different paths

Jane McConnell has written an excellent entry on detailed evolutionary models for global intranets. To quote:

The Centre will try to take control of the situation. I've seen a wide variety of methods ranging from creating a global intranet team (the white hat approach) to decreeing rules from HQ and sending them out as an attachment to an email signed by the CEO (the black hat approach).

Some of the landscapes will evolve to a more or less standardised family of intranets with agreements on roles and scopes for each (1C). In today's world of information overload and web 2.0 opportunities, they may eventually move to a single-point of entry, possibly even a truly integrated portal over time (1D) but it will take time.

Posted by jamesr at 10:20 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets