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Column Two
News and opinion on all things KM & CM |
James Robertson
Step Two Designs
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Written by James Robertson Step Two Designs |
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Articles by Category: Intranets
How to improve intranet content? (a mindmap)
There are many ways of improving the quality and value of intranet content. To progress discussions on this topic, we've produced a mindmap that brings together almost a hundred ideas. Download the PDF (72kb), and print it on a big piece of paper. This can be used in a number of ways:
This is version 1.0, released in the spirit of helping all intranet teams. It's also helped us to get all our ideas on a single piece of paper. Please do send us a message if you have any comments, suggestions or ideas. We'll then incorporate these, and released updated versions when appropriate. Posted by jamesr at 01:24 PM
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Intranets are not information dumpsGerry McGovern has highlighted that intranets should not be information dumps. To quote: Maybe we distribute information so that people can become better informed. But what are these things we want people to become better informed about? And why aren't these things we want people to become better informed about connected with productivity or collaboration? Posted by jamesr at 09:11 AM
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Don't try to boil the content oceanThe phrase 'trying to boil the ocean' refers to tasks that are clearly and heroically impossible. This is exactly what most teams take on when they try to get every intranet page up to the same high standard. In the earlier article titled Intranet authoring: a hobby?, the role of intranet authors was explored, highlighting that many are required to maintain their content 'on the side', with little training or support. Most intranets struggle to deliver consistent, accurate, readable and valuable content. Despite this, the goal of many intranet teams remains to deliver universally 'good' content. This briefing will discuss common approaches to improving content, focusing on those that have failed. Suggestions will then be made on ways to target efforts for best effect. Failed: content cleanups Many teams attempt a content cleanup on a regular basis, perhaps every year or two. These involve reviewing most sections of the site, and the content contained within. These reviews are looking for ROT (redundant, outdated or trivial), generating 'hit lists' of content that can be removed. While these very easily remove hundreds or thousands of pages, the long term impact is negligible. As fast as content is reviewed by the central team, more is published by decentralised authors. The process drains the energy of the intranet team, and often frustrates content owners. Even after a major cleanup, the intranet rapidly accumulates more content problems, and reverts to its previous state. [CM Briefing 2008-06, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 08:45 AM
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Searching more is not always betterThe rise of enterprise search has put an increasing focus on searching ever broader collections of content and documents within organisations. While enterprise search projects generally start with simple intranet search, attention quickly moves to searching document management systems, collaboration tools, business systems and fileshares. Underpinning this work is the belief (or hope) that business value will be delivered to users by deploying a more extensive search tool. Unfortunately it is often the case that searching more is not better than searching less. This briefing will look at some of the challenges involved in implementing enterprise search, and provide practical tips on how to proceed. Relevance and value The fundamental goal of any search tool is to provide users with useful and relevant search results. Within the enterprise, this means finding valuable information across the many different repositories, sources and systems. The difficulty is that increasing the amount of information being searched almost always reduces the relevance of search results. Once called the 'Altavista effect', this was seen in the millions of hits generated for any set of terms entered into that search engine. This is equally significant within an enterprise, and the challenge is to maintain (or improve) relevance as the volume of information grows. Consideration also needs to be given to user needs and expectations. What types of queries are being entered into the enterprise search, and what sorts of results are expected? Gaining a deeper understanding of these questions helps to shed light on what to search, and how. [CM Briefing 2008-05, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 08:34 AM
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Intranet (re)design wrap-upSo you're sitting at your desk and you have to redesign your intranet (or design one from scratch). Where on earth do you start? By any measure, this is no easy task. The multitude of factors that need to be taken into account can be overwhelming. Over the years, we have published a vast amount of information on intranets, offering the benefits of our experience and giving practical advice on intranet management, information architecture and content management. In this article, we attempt to wrap up all the activities that form part of an intranet (re)design into one concise checklist. Along the way, references will be given to our most popular articles, giving you more detail on particular topics. The goal is to give you an excellent starting point for undertaking an intranet (re)design and also to provide support throughout the process. User-centred design methodology As a basic framework for this article, a simplified intranet (re)design process has been devised, illustrated in Figure 1. Before going through each of the steps in order, it's important to point out that best practice for designing interactive information systems -- such as intranets and websites -- involves using a user-centred design (UCD) methodology. This simply means that input from the people who will actually use the intranet is given equal weighting with the business objectives and the information (aka content). [May KM Column written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 08:00 AM
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Intranet questions (Wellington, NZ)The last two days I've been running a workshop in Wellington, New Zealand. A great group, and very vigorous discussions and debates. As ever, for the record, these were the "big questions" raised by participants at the beginning of the workshop:
Posted by jamesr at 01:06 PM
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Wikis in the EnterpriseWikis are spreading like wildfire within organisations, driven by their quick setup and comparatively easy use. As yet, however, little has been written on how to make wikis work well. That is why the new report from J. Boye, titled Wiki in the Enterprise is so valuable. Many have written about the potential value of wikis, but this work talks about what has worked in real-life (and what hasn't). Drawing upon research done in a number of organisations, this report discusses the reasons for deploying wikis, the cavets, and how wikis meet reality. Most importantly, this reports a range of practical and pragmatic recommendations on how to setup and use wikis. These will give teams a valuable leg-up when approaching this new publishing technology. A recommended addition to the dialogue on wikis, and I'm looking forward to future reports from J. Boye. Posted by jamesr at 02:40 PM
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Comment on pilots and avoiding trainingGraham Oakes (based in the UK) emailed me a great perspective on my story about pilots and avoiding training. Here's his thoughts in full:
(Graham is a down-to-earth expert on governance, so he's worth listening to on this topic.) Posted by jamesr at 02:38 PM
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User-centric UA and entry page strategies for better findabilityJane McConnell has written about the importance of intranet IA. To quote: 1. Define top level categories ( level 1 navigation) in user terms, not in terms of the source of the content. This results in categories defined according to subject or purpose (user populations who have similar needs). Posted by jamesr at 11:39 AM
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The four purposes of an intranet [+ audio] | ViewAs you may have noticed, I've been working steadily to capture some of the key concepts that underpin our intranet work. Some of these have already been shared as articles, and most in workshops, but this is a good way of getting these useful concepts out to a wider intranet audience. This slidecast explores the four fundamental purposes of an intranet, looks at where intranets have traditionally focused, and where they should be going next if they want to demonstrate ROI. (The audio was recorded at the recent IA Summit in Miami, Florida.) Posted by jamesr at 09:39 AM
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16 days until the Intranet Innovation Awards closesIt's now only 16 days until entries for the 2008 Intranet Innovation Awards closes, on 16 May 2008. We're aware of a lot of organisations who are planning on submitting this year, so you don't want to miss out! Winners of the inaugural awards demonstrated a wide range of ideas, and have been very generous in sharing these for the benefit of the wider community. In return, they gained much-deserved recognition, including YouTube interviews, writeups in major journals, and inclusion in the Intranet Innovations 2007 report (not to mention receiving a beautiful glass trophy!). This year will be even bigger, with entries covering many individual improvements to intranets. These may include valuable staff directory enhancements, powerful search tools, delivery of information to Blackberries, interactive features on intranets, new ways of meeting frontline needs, or interesting intranet applications, just to mention a few ideas. We also have an international judging panel this year, consisting of four intranet experts across four continents:
Putting in an entry should only take an afternoon, or slightly longer if you want more time to polish. Full details can be found on the awards page. A reminder of some useful resources:
Good luck! Posted by jamesr at 11:27 PM
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5 ways to improve customer service in call centresIain Barker has written about 5 ways to improve customer service in call centres. To quote: Over the last few years I’ve conducted a number of contextual research studies in call centres. It is an interesting environment in which to conduct contextual research. Generally I’ve double-jacked in to calls, observing how the customer service consultants address the queries, and then asked a few questions of the customer service consultants. Posted by jamesr at 08:00 AM
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Pilots and avoiding trainingWhen in Melbourne this last week, we ended up in a crowded restaurant, sitting next to a pair of pilots. From one of the major international airlines, they were enjoying a 48-hour layover in Australia, between long-haul trips. Inevitably, the discussion touched upon intranets, whereopon they exclaimed: "Ours is awful! We need to get you over to fix it!". That aside, they also told a very interesting story about their training systems. Apparently a new "home study" program has been recently put in place. A fairly typical e-learning system, the pilots read through a number of screens of information, and then answer a short quiz at the end to verify their comprehension. All pretty standard stuff, and expected for a globally dispersed workplace. What was very interesting was how the pilots had reacted to this. First off, they didn't like it, and thought it was pointless. So some got their kids to click through the pages, rewarding them with sweets. The two pilots we were talking to used a tool called "auto click", which they'd downloaded off the net. This automatically fed clicks through to the web application, allowing them to go off and do something else while the e-learning system paged through. They also talked about getting to the quiz at the end, and then deliberately dropping their internet connection. This would reset the application, allowing them to go back through the information screens knowing exactly what questions were going to be asked. This highlights the huge gap that exists between corporate hopes and frontline realities. (I'm sure the e-learning program isn't cheap to run.) It also demonstrates the value of conducting "needs analysis" to understand the true issues and environment of staff. As ever, I'm also amazed at how willingly people will volunteer their actual practices when asked, despite clearly being in breach of corporate policies. This story came out in the first 15 minutes of chatting, and all it really takes is someone showing a genuine interest... Posted by jamesr at 09:40 AM
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What do innovative intranets look like? [+ audio] | ViewFor those who missed my talk at the recent IA Summit in Miami, here's my full presentation (including audio). In it, I walk through a number of the winners from the inaugural Intranet Innovation Awards, as well as answering questions on what they've done. Pointers are also given on where to focus innovation efforts, and how to deliver a more valuable intranet. (Don't forget that entries for this year's Intranet Innovation Awards are now open, with a closing date of 16 May 2008. This talk should give you some good ideas about what to submit, and you should also read through the How to win an Intranet Innovation Award presentation on Slideshare.) Posted by jamesr at 08:13 AM
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Compliance is a dirty wordAlan Pelz-Sharpe has written about the issues with compliance. To quote: If there is one word I hate to hear used in this industry it's the word compliance. Posted by jamesr at 10:00 AM
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Questions to ask before replacing corporate emailDennis McDonald has written an article on replacing corporate email. To quote: Email is not necessarily a good collaboration tool. This document discusses some of the questions you can ask about your organization’s current use of email and how improvements can be made. Also discussed is email’s impact on the adoption of new tools more suited to supporting workgroups and collaboration such as blogs, wikis, and groupsites for sharing information about people and projects. Posted by jamesr at 11:27 AM
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Language reality checkpoints - moving targetsJane McConnell has written an article containing language reality checkpoints. To quote: Language strategies are moving targets, evolving along with your enterprise strategy and business and operational changes. You need to start by asking the right questions, then once you know what you’d like to achieve, see how technology can help you, how much it will cost and what organizational changes are needed. This article proposes some “reality checkpoints” you will find helpful when analyzing your needs. Posted by jamesr at 01:07 AM
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Six phases of intranet evolution (including audio) | ViewI've been talking about the evolution of intranets for some time now, at conferences and workshops around the globe. What I haven't done, until this point, is share this model more broadly. I've now uploaded the slides to Slideshare, with a related audio track recorded at the IA Summit in Miami, Florida. This outlines the following phases:
This should give an in-depth of idea of the model, and please do leave comments with your thoughts or feedback. (If nothing else, this is the first time I've tried this format.) Posted by jamesr at 12:54 AM
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Clean up your LDAP or Active DirectoryA lot of intranet and portal projects aim to deliver functionality related to personalisation or customisation. This may involve tailoring information based on staff role, delivering news relevant for specific offices, or limiting access to information based on seniority. Any of these capabilities requires the system to know who staff are, the business unit they belong to, and where they sit in the real world. Unfortunately, too many of these projects run aground before they start because a key piece of IT infrastructure has not been correctly put in place. LDAP and Active Directory Sitting invisibly behind the scenes in organisations is the 'authentication' platform run by IT. In simple terms, this contains the usernames and passwords staff use when they log on to their PCs each morning. Over time, these details have been migrated into one of two standards: LDAP (an open industry standard) or Active Directory (the Microsoft variant of the same thing). These expanded 'directory services' have the ability to store much more than just names and passwords. If configured to do so, they can contain all the information that is in the internal phone directory or staff directory, including job titles, business unit names, locations and more. The most obvious benefit to come from putting in place these new standards is the progressive move towards 'single sign-on', allowing one username and password to be used across a wide range of corporate systems. Crucially for intranet and portal projects, LDAP or Active Directory is also the source of the information needed to drive personalisation and customisation. [CM Briefing 2008-03, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 12:08 AM
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Using cultural probes for intranet user researchOften it's difficult to tell exactly who is using an intranet, and how they are using it. Obviously, some research is required to help answer these questions, but what technique can capture the tacit knowledge without shadowing users in an uncomfortable and expensive way? A relatively recent research technique that can be very useful in this situation is known as a 'cultural probe'. In essence, the technique involves getting users to give you information without you actually being there. Often this means giving them a diary to write things down in, but the technique can make use of all manner of objects. The name of the technique usually raises some eyebrows, but it is also known by other names, such as: 'diary study', 'cognitive probe', 'reality research' and 'multimedia study'. In a departure from the typical KM column format, this article follows an interview with well-known proponent of probes, Gerry Gaffney, founder of Melbourne-based user experience consultancy Information and Design. Step Two Designs recently talked with Gerry about his experience in using cultural probes, in particular for intranet design research. S2D: What are cultural probes? GG: First of all, I don't like the term probes. It's not a very client friendly term. To me, it's a bit like saying 'heuristic evaluation' -- while practitioners might have some idea what we mean by those terms, and even that in my experience is not a given -- clients certainly don't know what we mean by it. Having said that, 'cultural probe' is actually a very good description of what these things are about. If you think about a probe as something you send off into the unknown -- typically I use the analogy of a space probe like Voyager -- it's something that goes somewhere where we can't go ourselves and transmits back data. So 'probe' is a very appropriate word. And 'cultural' is a very appropriate word too, because it is looking at culture in terms of the way people act, behave and what their beliefs are. But while it's a very accurate name, it's still rather obscuring. I would typically use the term 'diary study' when talking to a client because people will know what you mean, which is you give people a diary and ask them to fill it in every day, or whatever. That's essentially what a cultural probe is about, you give people the materials to enable them to self-report and send information back to you. [April KM Column written by Patrick Kennedy, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 12:04 AM
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A case for Movable Type as your IntranetGadgetopia have written an article on using Movable Type as your intranet. To quote: Here’s a fact: intranets don’t have to be crazy-complicated. Intranets are fundamentally about sharing simple information, which is not as hard as some people make it out to be. As simple as this is, most organizations either have no intranet, or a smattering of HTML pages someone threw together with Front Page that no one looks at. I’m all for keeping intranet technology simple, but I think this article misses the point. I’ve previously identified four fundamental purposes for an intranet:
I would see a lightweight publishing solution such as Movable Type as being a pretty good fit for the communication component, but perhaps not the rest. The content aspect needs to be supported by decentralised authoring, and MT just doesn’t support this in a scalable way. The collaboration aspect pretty much always needs to be supported by additional software, whether it’s wikis or SharePoint. The activity aspect is the big gap, as it is for most intranets. If the intranet is just a “place for reading stuff”, it won’t succeed. Instead, it also needs to be a “place for doing stuff”, and this obviously isn’t MT. In summary, we need to take a broader view of intranets, if they are to be valuable and used. This doesn’t necessarily mean more complex (or more expensive!) software, but it does mean we need to be careful about not getting trapped in one particular box. PS. you can read an earlier article describing was then the “three purposes of an intranet”. In the way of these things, collaboration was (sensibly) added shortly after this article was released, giving a much more complete picture. Posted by jamesr at 11:45 AM
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Communicating with employees who are not connected to the intranetJane McConnell has written a post on communicating with employees who are not connected to the intranet. To quote: Technology has advanced since then, and companies are doing things ranging from employee radio (a large bank in France is experimenting with this), videos in places where people collect, external web sites (Arcelormittal's webTV is an example), screen-savers for office-based people and same content short messages on TVs around the factories, and so on. Posted by jamesr at 09:40 AM
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Exploring the Intranet Hive (part 2)This is the second of a two-part article on the Intranet Hive. For a complete view of the Intranet Hive, the two articles should be read together. The Intranet Hive is a new concept that provides awareness of the activities that underpin the ongoing management of an intranet. The Hive informs teams about the six broad areas they must work through in managing their intranet. These six areas are:
Within each of these broad categories the Hive outlines six specific activities. The total of 36 provide a firm basis for long-term intranet success. Intranets are complex and without some guidance even identifying the wide range of necessary activity is difficult. The Hive is not a linear model; teams should begin by performing a self-assessment across the six areas so that they know their current capabilities. Teams should focus on the areas of most need for their given situation. Last month's KM column explored the strategy, design and content sections. This article examines the remaining three areas: change and communications, technology, and team. [March KM Column written by Cairo Walker, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 02:49 AM
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Spam from corporate communications?Jane McConnell has posted an interesting observation on "spam from corporate communications". To quote: This is the second firsthand anecdote I have heard recently where intranet users have complained about "spam from corporate communications". In the first case, a few months ago, it was an IT person who told me that the number of "deleted without being read emails" from corporate communications to employees was in the high 80-90%. A figure like this should make people stop and think about what their "all" email policies are. Posted by jamesr at 01:02 AM
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Awards ceremony in the USI'm pleased to announce that we've organised an awards ceremony for the Intranet Innovation Awards, to be held at the KMWorld & Intranets 2008 conference in the US (San Jose, September 23-25). This will give a great opportunity for winners to showcase their work at one of the leading intranet conferences in the world, and maybe even a chance to fly into the US for some serious shopping! Another reason to get your entry in before 16 May 2008... Posted by jamesr at 07:03 AM
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Staff directories report second edition - have you got a good case study?We are currently working on a second edition of our Staff Directories report. As part of this, we are looking for further examples of good design and functionality, to include in the report. In particular, we are seeking:
All those that provide examples used in the report will receive a complementary copy of the report. They'll also gain some valuable visibility for the work that they've done. Contact Rebecca Rodgers if you'd like to help out with this. Posted by jamesr at 05:10 PM
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Presentation: Understanding staff needs and how to meet them | ViewThese are the slides from my keynote presentation at the IntraTeam conference in Copenhagen today. 200+ intranet folks made for a great event, with some good questions and discussions. Jane McConnell's presentation was also a highlight. Posted by jamesr at 02:41 AM
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How to win an Intranet Innovation AwardWe received a hugely diverse range of entries for the inaugural Intranet Innovation Awards in 2007. To make things easier, we've pulled together some observations and suggestions for this year's entrants. Browse through this presentation to obtain tips and guidance on how to win an Intranet Innovation Award in 2008. Above all, it's the outcome and value delivered that counts, not the technology, size or cost! Posted by jamesr at 04:55 AM
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2008 Intranet Innovation Awards are now open for entries!
All intranet teams are encouraged to enter their innovative approaches to the design or delivery intranets. This may be may be an entirely new piece of intranet functionality, or a good idea implemented particularly well. Uniquely, these awards recognise individual intranet improvements, and not intranets as a whole. Submissions can be made across four categories:
Winners will be showcased in the Intranet Innovations report, as well as in articles, YouTube interviews, online presentations, international conferences and major industry journals. The inaugural Intranet Innovation Awards in 2007 attracted entries from across the globe, uncovering and sharing many great ideas. Winners came from Italy, USA, UK, Denmark, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. Fiat Automobiles, the platinum winner, used their "Avanti e Veloci" web portal to help turn around the fortunes of their whole business. The Environment Agency developed a rich set of personas to support the delivery of better intranet content and functionality. City of Casey and SunGard AvantGard innovated the traditional staff directory. Perkins Eastman created active collaborative communities, while Nycomed brought product information together in a single location, no small challenge for a global pharmaceuticals business. QBE created an interactive 'Investigator Wizard' to assist in assessing insurance claims. With entries open for the 2008 awards, this is another opportunity for intranet teams to have their time in the light. Visit the Intranet Innovation Awards page for full details, including an entry form. Posted by jamesr at 04:50 AM
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Intranet migration: 5 questions before moving dayPaul Chin has written an article on intranet content migration. To quote: Intranet owners, like these migratory tenants and homeowners, must occasionally go through the very similar and unavoidable process of system migration. Intranet migrations are undertaken for a variety of reasons, the two most common being site consolidations and modifying or upgrading system architecture . But before packing up all your digital belongings and carting everything from one location to another, there are five key questions intranet managers need to answer. Posted by jamesr at 06:00 PM
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Gaining intranet stardomBeing an intranet star isn't easy, as any intranet manager overwhelmed with the underwhelming response from authors and managers will agree to. Nevertheless with some fearless counsel and a good measure of bravery on the part of intranet managers it can be done. There is precious little guidance on the necessary behaviours in this area. This briefing seeks to redress this shortfall. Seize power It can often be the case that in all matters intranet, the organisation just doesn't have the 'right' kind of focus. When I was much younger, a particularly well-weathered project management veteran, to whom I was grumbling, told me to get over myself and said "power's not given, it's taken". He was right, it was up to me to take the initiative. Often we expect others to take the initiative in and to know how to go about doing things, yet we are the experts. The organisation looks to its intranet staff to provide that expertise and leadership. If knowledge is power and intranet managers have this knowledge then it follows that they have also have the power. [CM Briefing 2008-02 written by Cairo Walker, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 09:12 AM
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Exploring the Intranet Hive (part 1)Those managing an intranet will find they are in a unique role in their organisation, as there are few if any others who touch the corners of an organisation the way those on the intranet team do. From the CEO to the staff member at the front line, everyone has a stake in the intranet. While this certainly provides great opportunity and insight into the organisation for the canny intranet manager, it also brings its own unique set of challenges. On any given day, an intranet manager may spend time wrangling with content authors, working out how best to support the organisation's latest strategic initiative, communicating the CEO's latest message, training new content authors and developing new intranet functionality. Just as there are few other roles that cut across the organisation, there are few who will be asked to deal with the same degree of complexity and diversity as an intranet manager. In order to be successful, intranet managers must work across strategy, design, content, change and communications, technology and team. Teams are often skilled in one or two areas and lack expertise and awareness elsewhere. The Intranet Hive is a new concept that can provide awareness of all the activities that need to maintained. Most of the literature to assist teams with the ongoing running of intranets has focused on the maintenance of the information architecture and the various technical components of the site, such as search. Whilst these are certainly important, there is a great deal more to running a successful intranet; the Intranet Hive recognises this and puts forward a more complete model for intranet management. What is the Intranet Hive?
The Intranet Hive is a model that outlines 36 activities that underpin the ongoing management of an intranet. This article provides an overview of these activities in order to raise the awareness of intranet teams of the many activities that must be undertaken. The Intranet Hive is being developed into a suite of products that includes heuristics for self-assessment so that teams can identify where they are today, a tool kit for each area so that teams can build their skills and an overall model to identify blind spots. This is the first article in a two-part series on the Intranet Hive. [January KM Column written by Cairo Walker, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 07:49 AM
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Complete Intranet Management (Melbourne, May 9)
The Intranet Hive was first created for an intranet team within a large Australian financial services organisation. Led by an experienced intranet manager, the team was effective and successful. They recognised, however, that they had ‘blind spots’, and some areas were being managed better than others. From within the team, it was hard to identify these strengths and weaknesses. We were therefore asked to create a model that would help the team to conduct a self-assessment of their ongoing intranet tasks. Some months of thinking later, the Intranet Hive was born. Since that time, the model has been steadily evolving based on the input of the whole Step Two team. While a comprehensive information pack will be released in due course, we felt it was important to share the model sooner rather than later, to better help teams in their day-to-day management of intranets. Cairo Walker is therefore running a one-day Complete Intranet Management workshop (featuring the Intranet Hive) in Melbourne on May 9. I'm really excited to get this live, and we'll only be running this workshop twice in 2008, with the second venue yet to be determined. So you won't want to miss out! Posted by jamesr at 03:47 PM
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Brisbane intranet managers get together 20 February 08Our Brisbane office, run by Rebecca Rodgers, is holding its second informal get-together for Brisbane intranet managers. Details as follows:
If you would like to meet other intranet managers and see what it takes to have an award winning intranet, email Rebecca by Friday, 15 February 2008. Numbers are limited and attendance will be on a first response basis. Posted by jamesr at 07:26 AM
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Consistency at heart of award-winning Australian intranetMelcrum have written an article on the award-winning Department of Primary Industries intranet. To quote: Despite a difficult beginning – the challenge of a 4-department merger in 2004 dictated the need for a centralized channel to keep information flowing – InSite's strength is in its usability. Posted by jamesr at 08:00 AM
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Intranet Planning Day (Canberra, 4 June 2008)I've just scheduled another one of my Intranet Planning Day workshops, for 4 June in Canberra. As ever, I've packed all my best thinking on intranet management into this workshop, including my unique '6x2 methodology'. I'm only running two of these in Australia this year, so you won't want to miss out. To quote: Intranets must succeed. Hidden behind the firewall, however, intranet teams often find it hard to identify the best practices and latest thinking. This workshop on intranet strategy provides practical insights into managing intranets, including the unique '6x2 methodology'. Presented by James Robertson, recognised as an international expert on creating and managing intranets, this workshop has been run across the globe. Don't miss this opportunity to hear James share his thoughts on making intranets work. [Full workshop details and registration form] (340k PDF) Posted by jamesr at 10:05 AM
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Changing nature of intranet contentRichard Dennison writes about the changing nature of intranet content at BT. To quote: ALL content is collaborative - what varies is the degree of collaboration involved in the four steps outlined above. So, even content that we had previously defined as 'static' (e.g. an HR policy document) will have involved collaboration in its generation and should have an element of collaboration during its consumption phase (i.e. users should be able to comment on it and/or rate its value in terms of meeting users' needs). What's interesting, is that the pre-publication collaboration used to be done off-line (in meetings or via e-mail) which is why it appeared 'static', but is now likely to be done on-line, for example, in shared workspaces in wikis, which now makes it appear to be 'collaborative' content. Posted by jamesr at 08:07 AM
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Delivering better intranets in 2008 | ViewFor the start of 2008, we have further grown the Intranet Leadership Forum, the professional community for intranet teams in Australia and New Zealand. Following requests from current Forum members, we have now established two levels of membership:
This change allows organisations with larger or more dispersed teams to involve more staff in the Forum, thereby sharing the benefits more widely. Both levels of memberships continue to provide year-long support for the price of a single conference. For more on this, and on the Intranet Leadership Forum in general, browse through the slides embedded above. Don't hesitate to contact Catherine Grenfell on (02) 9319 7901 or catherine@steptwo.com.au if you have any further questions. Posted by jamesr at 12:34 PM
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BT Intranet strategyRichard Dennison has written about the BT Intranet strategy. To quote: We’ve made a big effort in the last year to ensure our intranet strategy is very closely aligned with BT’s overall business strategy. We looked at the work in this area of the Intranet Benchmarking Forum, and then crafted a set of short-term objectives (1-2 year) and a set of medium term objectives (3-5 year). Without going in to too much detail, these objectives are grouped into four strategic areas, which are: Posted by jamesr at 07:33 AM
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Perkins Eastman: Practice Area Communities
This is the last of the video interviews with the inaugural Intranet Innovation Award winners. This interview is with the Gold Award winning Perkins Eastman (USA), introducing their use of "practice area communities". Covered in this video:
(Yes, that's New York traffic noise in the background.) Posted by jamesr at 07:46 AM
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Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum 2008 (Sydney, February)Ross Dawson of Future Exploration Network will be hosting the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum 2008 on February 19 in Sydney. Enterprise 2.0 is an important topic for many organisations, but the challenge is finding how best to deploy these new technologies and ideas. Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum will provide a pragmatic overview of how Web 2.0 and social media technologies are being applied inside the enterprise to create business value. This unique half-day event will be centred on case studies of how leading Australian and global organisations have benefited from these technologies, and the key factors in successful implementation. Ross Dawson is a leading thinking in this space and a truly compelling presenter. He has also assembled a stellar cast of thought-leaders and implementers:
Step Two Designs is a supporter of this event, and I can personally recommend it to anyone looking to explore these ideas. Not to be missed! Posted by jamesr at 02:33 PM
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Enterprise intranet predictions for 2008Toby Ward writes his intranet predictions for 2008. To quote: Your intranet home page is poorly designed and far too busy (well, for most). Employees are screaming for simpler home pages, with fewer links, more white space, and less color. Time and time again when I test different home page designs and concepts in employee focus groups the most simple designs test highest. Posted by jamesr at 08:00 AM
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What is an ‘intranet’?Richard Dennison asks the question: what is an 'intranet'? To quote: The idea behind such a broad ranging definition is that when a BT person turns on their PC, they should be offered an integrated, seamless on-line experience - essentially, they don’t care what is or isn’t part of your intranet (depending upon the definition you choose to adopt), nor who manages what bit of your on-line estate … it is all the same to them and should meet the same standards of design, information management, usability etc. Posted by jamesr at 07:00 AM
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Self-service publishing: Implement with careAbigail Lewis-Bowen writes about carefully implementing wikis and other enterprise 2.0 tools. To quote: First of all, it's important to provide Wikis and Blogs only after processes for publishing “formal” information channels to the Intranet are well established. If the right people are publishing to the right place on the Intranet, and there is good editorial workflow and governance, then the Intranet is sturdy enough to add an open, less-structured layer of content. If there are no good controls in place, then handing everyone a Wiki to use will blur the lines between informal and formal communication. What’s worse, it may threaten the information structure needed to support robust personalization and effective information discovery. This is an interesting post, and I agree with Abigail about the potential dangers of collaboration tools (see my article Collaboration tools are anti knowledge sharing?). Abigail also makes some excellent, and very practical suggestions. Yet I was also uncomfortable about the overall approach. Thinking about it further, these are my concerns:
Again, though, some great suggestions. The more we discuss these topics the better... Posted by jamesr at 07:30 AM
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Intranet resources: numbers, ways of working, what next with 2.0?Jane McConnell has written a post on the size of intranet teams, in comparison to the overall size of the organisations they serve. To quote: The third source is my own Global Intranet Survey of 2007 where I reached the average of 1 headcount for 2,300 employees. This is based on data per size category going up to very large organisations of over 100,000 people. When I look at the smaller sizes within the survey population, the figures are similar to StepTwo and IntraTeam. Posted by jamesr at 07:35 AM
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Look how far intranets have come...Paul Miller has written on the history and growth of intranets. To quote: At the start of 2008 we have already seen a good deal of trends and predictions from the intranet industry (from myself included) but it strikes me that before the year gets into full velocity, this is a good time to reflect on just how far intranets have come in the past 10 or so years. Posted by jamesr at 07:00 AM
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BT web 2.0 adoption case studyRichard Dennison has written about the adoption of web 2.0 at BT. To quote: The power of social software is undeniable in the free, anarchic world of the global internet. But what happens when you bring these tools into the constrained, policy-driven, risk-averse world of the corporate intranet where the user population is small, where expressing oneself as an individual and on a personal level can feel threatening, and where management is watching your every move? Well, that’s just what one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions, BT, has chosen to do. Richard Dennison, BT’s Internal Programme Manager, tells the story. [Thanks to Alex Manchester.] Posted by jamesr at 06:20 AM
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Nycomed: product collaboration
The third in the series of video interviews of the Intranet Innovation Award winners... Products are clearly the core of any pharmaceutical company. When the business is global in scale, however, it can be almost impossible to bring together all the relevant product details in a single location, and to present them in a coordinated way. The team from Nycomed did exactly that. Working closely with teams in research development and marketing, the intranet team was able to assemble a single, cohesive set of product documentation. While plain in design, this nonetheless represents a valuable innovation for organisations of this nature. For more information, obtain a copy of the Intranet Innovations 2007 report. Also see the previous videos on the award-winning entries from Fiat (Avanti e Veloci portal) and Environment Agency (personas pack). Posted by jamesr at 08:42 AM
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Attitudes & activities for intranet managers in 2008Jane McConnell has written an entry on attitudes & activities for intranet managers in 2008. To quote: As an intranet manager, you are in a unique position: you may well be one of the few people in your company who realise the full potential value of the intranet, how close your organisation is to achieving this or how far away you are. Above all, you have a good idea of what can be done to transform the intranet into the strategic asset it should be. Posted by jamesr at 11:01 AM
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10 best intranets of 2008Jakob Nielsen has announced the winners of their intranet awards for 2008. To quote: Consistent design and integrated IA are becoming standard on good intranets. This year's winners focused on productivity tools, employee self-service, access to knowledgeable people (as opposed to "knowledge management"), and better-presented company news. It's particularly pleasing to see Kate Needham from New South Wales Department of Primary Industries on the list, amongst large international corporations. Kate is a member of our Intranet Leadership Forum, and it's always great to see the such hard work being recognised. Well done Kate! Posted by jamesr at 06:31 AM
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Preparing content for an intranet redesign projectSimon Goh write about preparing content for an intranet redesign. To quote: In my experience, preparing content authors through web writing trainings and briefings on how and which templates they should be using is not enough. Most content authors will normally chuck what they have learn aside, and if we're lucky, they give us content based on the correct template. When this happens, an unplanned web editor needs to emerge to make it all right! Posted by jamesr at 10:04 AM
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Why intranet news is under threatPaul Miller writes about the decline of news on the intranet. To quote: My prediction for 2008 is that communicators and those generating news specifically will be under mounting pressure to prove the business value of news in intranets. I also predict that many people in these roles will fail to show real value and that news and news generation roles will decline steadily in 2008 - 2009. It's always interesting to look at news on the intranet homepage. What's the primary purpose of the homepage? Navigation. What gets the most space? News. This mismatch can't continue forever, and Cairo has written an a great article on this. I think we will definitely see a slow (very slow) shift in the use of intranet homepages, but resisted by tradition and some internal comms teams. Posted by jamesr at 09:32 AM
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Is Facebook in the enterprise an oxymoron?Tony Byrne has written an article on Facebook as an enterprise solution. To quote: The dramatic rise of Facebook among professionals has called the question on "Enterprise 2.0" long before many people were ready or able to confront it. Some enterprises block Facebook.com on their networks. Others have embraced Facebook as their Intranet. Most others remain ignorant of the phenomenon, but probably not for long. Facebook is more than a website though. It's a byproduct of a broader phenomenon. Enterprises should embrace the concepts behind it, but not fall head over heels for any platform that isn't authentically embraced by rank-and-file employees. There are many wise words in this article, and it should definitely be read by anyone rushing into the idea of "Facebook as the intranet". To Tony's points, I would also add the following: What about the content? While Facebook recognises that relationships exist between people, something that most enterprise solutions have failed to do, there still remains the "content" needed by staff. Do we really see HR policies being copied onto Facebook and somehow propagated virally as Facebook apps? Are we going to use Facebook to submit expense claims? Of course not. Yet, this is seems to be the argument presented by those who ask "why would anyone still be doing intranet 1.0?" The reality is that there is a much richer information ecosystem than just relationships (Facebook) or content (intranets), and we need both. "Facebook as the intranet" is therefore simplistic at best, or misleading at worst. Posted by jamesr at 12:08 PM
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Promote intranet successesAs discussed in the earlier article Every intranet has its successes, there are few intranet teams who are not steadily delivering valuable improvements to their sites. Despite this, many intranet teams are almost invisible within their organisations, with little recognition for the new enhancements and functionality they have delivered. This must change, if intranet teams are to obtain the resources and support they need. Part of the solution is for intranet teams to be more proactive and effective in communicating their successes. This briefing outlines a number of practical ways of promoting success stories, drawn from the real-life approaches taken by intranet teams across a variety of organisations. Track successes The first step is for intranet teams to be more disciplined in tracking intranet changes and new functionality. At the simplest level, this could just be a document listing the improvements in each month. Even this simple document can be very effective at communicating to management (and the broader group of stakeholders) what the intranet team 'has actually been doing'. This type of tracking also demonstrates the volume of work that is done by the intranet team, which is important when justifying existing team resources, or requesting additional staff. [CM Briefing 2007-23, read the full article] Posted by jamesr at 02:04 PM
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Fiat: "Avanti e Veloci" portal
Following on from the earlier Environment Agency video, we now have an interview with the Platinum Award winners of the Intranet Innovation Awards. Fiat Automobiles won the main award for creating a web portal that helped to turn around the fortunes of the whole business. The numbers speak for themselves: from a 2 million euro loss per day, to a 5 million euro profit per day! This 5:45 minute video covers:
(For full details on this extraordinary case study, obtain a copy of the Intranet Innovations 2007 report.) Posted by jamesr at 02:12 PM
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Environment Agency: Personas Pack
The winners of the inaugural Intranet Innovation Awards were announced in November 2007. As it turned out, I was able to hand over most of the trophies in person as part of my recent Europe/US trip, which was wonderful. It also gave me a chance to record interviews with a number of the winning teams, and the first of these is now finished. This is a video interview with the Gold Award winning team from Environment Agency (UK), sharing details on their remarkable "personas pack". The 7.5 minute video will share:
(For full details on this award winning work, obtain a copy of the Intranet Innovations 2007 report.) Posted by jamesr at 03:15 PM
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Building enterprise 2.0 on culture 1.0Nathan Wallace gives us another great update on JCintranet, the intranet built as a wiki. To quote: Over 18 months, JCintra amassed 23,335 content contributions from 239 (~70%) people. The number of contributions per month continues to increase steadily. But, JCintra continues to function as an incredibly easy to use Intranet, rather than as a genuine Wiki. In fact, 85% of our 3000 pages only have one contributing author. (Interestingly, this behaviour occurs even at Atlassian, who build Wiki software as their business!) Posted by jamesr at 06:42 AM
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Content approval workflow for the intranetSimon Goh asks: do we need workflow for intranets? To quote: In my opinion, organisations need to adopt an open culture towards the sharing of information. A culture that permits mistakes and then improvements as a collective organisation. And in an Intranet environment, this means no content approval workflow. I agree completely with this, and I think a well-used intranet where mistakes are quickly corrected is more effective than a rigid pre-publishing approval process. Posted by jamesr at 07:19 AM
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2007 Global Intranet SurveyJane McConnell has released the results of the 2007 Global Intranets Survey. This is a magnificent piece of work, and one that possibly sheds more light on the 'state of the nation' of intranets more than any other report, survey or research. Drawing on the experiences of 178 organisations, this research focuses specifically on the challenges of large and complex intranets. Jane is the recognised guru of 'global intranets', and this shines through in this work. So many questions are asked and answered, including:
These survey results should be obtained by any organisation wrestling with the future of their intranet, or looking for benchmarking against other businesses. Shining light on the often-hidden world of intranets, the Global Intranets Survey is sure to become the standard reference for all intranet teams. This year, Jane has published the results in two parts. An overall "Trends" report (US$525) provides 95 pages of insight from the survey. A more detailed "Analysis" report (US$1175) expands on that to give 183 pages of detailed information, including a senior management assessment worksheet. These reports are worth every cent, and I would commend them to every intranet team. Posted by jamesr at 10:41 AM
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What the Google intranet looks likePhilipp Lenssen and Tony Ruscoe have posted a few tidbits about the Google intranet. To quote: What do around 16,000 Google employees stare at in the morning when they’ve arrived at the office? They might be looking at Moma, the name for the Google intranet. The meaning of the name of “Moma” is a mystery even to some of the employees working on it, we heard, but Moma’s mission is prominently displayed on its footer: “Organize Google’s information and make it accessible and useful to Googlers.” Needless to say, this has generated a bit of discussion on the blogosphere:
Posted by jamesr at 08:33 AM
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It's nice to have friendsIt's nice to have friends. Over the years, we've met a lot of people at conferences and events, and have steady readers of the articles we publish. We've also worked with a lot of organisations, or have had conversations via emails. The connections we build at conferences, however, can be lost at the end of the events. While many teams read our articles, this readership is largely invisible and unconnected. So we've created a Friends of Step Two Facebook group. Everyone is welcome, and this is for those interested in intranets, information management, usability or information architecture. We'll publish links to our regularly monthly articles, and well as cool stuff like the upcoming video interviews of the Intranet Innovation Awards winners. Beyond that, the group is entirely open. Everyone is welcome to post links, photos and videos. Let's start a conversation, we're all friendly people... Posted by jamesr at 10:28 AM
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AwayToday - useful and well lovedDorje McKinnon has written an entry on his award-winning AwayToday intranet functionality. To quote: The problem : Staff absence from the workplace due to sickness, off site business commitments or travel for work caused a communications breakdown. This had a negative impact on our business. Posted by jamesr at 03:16 PM
Intranet eating outDorje McKinnon has written an article on consuming XML services on an intranet. To quote: Business Problem Posted by jamesr at 09:30 AM
Intranet information architecture (IA)Jakob Nielsen has written an article on intranet IA. To quote: Information architecture (IA) poses a tremendous challenge in designing any navigational system. Historically, intranets have had little in terms of systematic IA efforts; designers typically "structured" intranets according to the organic growth of pages and features provided by different departments. Employees suffered the consequences, repeatedly getting lost in confusing structures with inconsistent navigation options. Posted by jamesr at 08:42 AM
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The 2008 