Hopefully there’s been a content cleanup, and a lot of the old and unused content has gone. This may still leave thousands or tens of thousands of pages to migrate.

As outlined in the previous article Content migration: options and strategies, there are three broad options for doing the migration:

1. automated migration
2. migration by hand
3. partially automated migration

These pros and cons of these options are explored at some length in the article referenced. In practice, organisations are likely to do much of the migration by hand, supplemented by automated or semi-automated migration of key content areas.

(The less difference there is between the old and new technology platforms, the greater the opportunity for automated migration.)

Regardless of the migration approach being considered, there is a clear goal: to deliver a sustainable, effective and valuable intranet.

The decisions made about the migration, and how it involves content authors, are critical in achieving this outcome. This briefing explores how.

[April article by James Robertson, read the full article]

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Over time, an organic process somewhere between glacial and viral overtakes the well designed structures (assuming they were there to begin with) and starts to clog the pathways and interfere with the effectiveness of the intranet. You may have watched this process over time or simply inherited it because of a new role, perspective or sense of responsibility.

Regardless of how you arrived here, you are faced with a significant quantity of content, but with little visibility of its structure and make up. Diving into a redesign without this visibility is both daunting and ill-advised.

But where to start?

The standard approach is to list all of the content, carve it up, distribute among assumed owners, remove the unwanted, and after several iterations of this, recombine the list. Valuable though this is in identifying ownership and reducing the volume of content, it many not have added any insight around existing or proposed structures.

When managing larger audits with many hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of items, it becomes increasingly valuable to overlay the standard process with a process to manage the audit at different degrees of granularity. Not only does this provide visibility in a dynamic way, it also simplifies the steps when conducting the design steps to follow.

[April article by Stephen Byrne, read the full article]

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While many will jump to the online training option, this doesn’t necessarily work for all topics and all audiences. Training must cater as much as possible to different learning styles and author experience levels. There is no one size fits all solution for author training.

One approach is to offer various levels of support and training depending on the task and experience of the author. This article outlines one possible approach to delivering efficient and effective author training by breaking it down into a mix of face-to-face and online modules.

Welcome new authors and get started

Arrange a face-to-face session with the intranet manager (or coordinator) to welcome new authors. This session allows the new author to make a connection with the intranet manager and broader community (where applicable) which is important for ongoing working relationships. A short one-hour session could cover:

• author role and responsibilities
• intranet governance model
• usability and accessibility
• author’s previous experience (allowing tailoring of future training)
• resources and support available

[December article by Rebecca Rodgers, read the full article]

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In this article we focus on the three tiers of action necessary to provide broader accessibility for intranets:

• strategic: making the commitment to provide an accessible intranet
• technical: building accessible components into systems
• tactical: providing education and tools for content publishers

The common definition for accessibility is that a product, service, environment, or facility should be usable by people with the widest range of capabilities. A rule-of-thumb definition for accessibility on intranets is that any staff member, regardless of disability, age, cultural or linguistic background or situation, should be able to use the intranet, and its tools.

An accessible intranet can be a fundamental part of an overall positive user experience for all staff.

International standards exist for web accessibility and these are also applied to intranets. These standards are commonly referred to as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). Within the standard there are three levels of compliance from A (basic) to AAA (highest).

[December article by Catherine Grenfell, read the full article]

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This article focuses on items that should be considered when selecting or implementing a content management system (CMS).

For those that have an existing CMS, use this article as a checklist to ensure the technology is being used to the organisation and intranet team’s advantage.

Enforce formatting through templates and stylesheets

Removing much of the need for a style guide, templates and stylesheets that enforce standard formatting allow for a consistent look and feel, and standardise placement of pages of common elements, such as related content.

Formatting controls in the CMS editing tool should also be locked down to ensure consistency. This makes it easy for intranet authors to do the right thing.

Display last modified date and owner on published pages

It is important that users are never left at a dead end on the intranet. While intranet content may answer most questions staff have, they may need clarification or more information in unusual circumstances. Displaying the owner on each page ensures that staff know where to go for more information.

Displaying the last modified date helps build trust that the content is accurate and regularly updated. It can also be a reminder and highlight content and pages that are in need of review.

[October article by Rebecca Rodgers, read the full article]

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To be of any real use, intranet content must be good content, not just poorly written materials brought together in a single location.

As stated in What every intranet team should know, good content is:

• useful
• accurate
• complete
• up to date
• trustworthy
• easy to read
• concise
• targeted to audience needs
• delivered in a suitable format
• cross-linked

Most intranets have grown organically over time to thousands or tens of thousands of pages of content, maintained by multiple authors across the organisation.

Content improvement is often put into the too-hard basket, but taking an incremental approach can produce immediate benefits with moderate effort.

There is no silver bullet that will guarantee quality content, but there are practical ways to steadily improve and maintain the quality of content. This article is the first in a series covering these approaches.

[August article by Rebecca Rodgers, read the full article]

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As one of many author resources, a simple checklist for quality content should be provided on the intranet. This checklist is a support tool for authors to use back at their desks following face-to-face or online author training. See earlier article An outline for intranet author training for more information on what should be included in training.

This article outlines possible topics to consider for your checklist. Depending on the environment, authoring experience and level of authoring complexity in your organisation, some topics may be more relevant than others. Use this as a starting point to create checklists for your authoring community.

Writing style

• content written for the target audience
• easy to scan with clear headings, sub-headings, labels and lists
• content is ‘chunked’ by topic
• inverted pyramid structure with the essential information at the top of the page
• uses familiar, easy to understand words avoiding acronyms or jargon
• uses the active voice for more direct communication
• text is concise, cutting out any unnecessary words
• summaries or tables of contents are used for long pages
• content makes sense if it is the first page a person visits (out of context)
• contains all the information about a topic and links to related content
• written to meet the intranet style and obviously up-to-date
• appropriate keywords and metadata have been included

[August article by Rebecca Rodgers, read the full article]

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Often organisations outsource training to the company providing the technical solution, which tends to result in technical focused training, losing most of your key authors in the first half hour!

This article focuses on what intranet teams can do to ensure a new technology roll out is smooth sailing for authors.

Authors are vital to intranet success

As discussed in the earlier article How to empower authors, in most organisations authors are vital to the effectiveness of the intranet. With little reward, small intranet teams rely on authors to write great content. With limited time and varied skill sets, authors need to be provided with the right tools, training and support to make this happen.

Start simple and build from there

While it would be ideal to be able to spend time writing in-house training specific to your organisation, this is not always possible. At a minimum, it is a good idea to brief the person conducting the training on the outcomes you would like staff to achieve at the end of the course.

[February article by Rebecca Rodgers, read the full article]

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The classic texts of project management outline the importance of initial planning and design activities. While they only consist of 10-30% of the project, they lay the groundwork for everything to come.

This is no different in the world of SharePoint intranets. Quite the contrary: with the breadth of SharePoint, and the effort and cost often required, it’s even more important to start with a clear plan.

(Read more about SharePoint intranet project planning, and other best practices, in our new report, Best practices for SharePoint intranets.)

Based on our experience across many organisations, this is our rule of thumb:

Spend 10-15% of the budget of SharePoint intranet projects on planning and design.

What does this mean in practice? Let’s explore a range of projects at different scales, with some example activities (these lists are not compreshensive):

Small, mostly out-of-the-box deployment

Total spend: $25k
10-15% on planning & design: $3.5k

The goal is to deploy a simple intranet using out-of-the-box SharePoint capabilities wherever possible, using configuration rather than development or customisation. Software licenses may be minimal, with external developer support around deployment and setup.

Planning and design activities should include:

• determine an overall scope (what will the intranet do?)
• confirm what SharePoint functionality will be most useful and successful
• learn lessons from past intranet projects

Medium-sized corporate intranet

Total spend: $150k
10-15% on planning & design: $20k

A typical intranet project, deploying SharePoint as the platform for a redesigned corporate intranet. Core SharePoint features are supplemented with development to deliver key capabilities. Typically involves a mix of publishing and collaboration.

Planning and design activities should include:

• uncover and confirming staff needs
• determine an overall intranet strategy and scope
• develop a concrete project plan (beyond just technical aspects)
• select key SharePoint functionality required
• target customisation and development activities
• apply best-practice techniques to determine navigation and design
• establish simple but effective governance and ongoing management

Strategic intranet project

Total spend: $500k
10-15% on planning & design: $75k

Larger intranet projects, either deploying SharePoint in big organisations, or aiming to go beyond a “standard” intranet. Significant amounts of customisation and development will be used to meet specific business needs, and to provide a strong foundation for future growth. Significant use of all aspects of SharePoint, including integration with other systems.

Planning and design activities should include:

• create a common vision amongst all stakeholders
• determine an overall intranet strategy and scope
• create a roadmap for short- and long-term activities
• establish pilots for leading-edge features
• conduct a full user-centred design process for the intranet
• establish the best project team
• build in-house intranet expertise and knowledge
• execute a change management and adoption plan
• establish robust governance
• draw on global intranet best practices

10-15% of planning doubles the business benefits

While getting the technical deployment of SharePoint right is obviously crucial, the best implementation in the world is worth nothing if it misses the mark when it comes to business and staff needs.

To often, implementation starts before the most basic of questions are answered (such as: what will the intranet actually do?). Without an overall vision, plan and scope, it becomes very difficult to make the hundreds of practical decisions that are involved in deploying a SharePoint intranet.

For this reason, this is our experience:

The 10-15% spent on design and planning doubles the business benefits delivered by a SharePoint intranet project.

Time and time again, we’ve seen a small amount of up-front planning and design work have a huge impact on SharePoint intranet projects. The project progresses faster, with less stress and uncertainty, delivering a result that works well for staff and the business.

We do the 10-15%

Step Two have been the leading experts in the intranet space for over a decade. Our role is to know what works (and what doesn’t), and to provide practical methodologies for intranet teams to follow.

In a SharePoint project, we don’t deploy or write code (there are plenty of people who do). Our role is to work with or alongside the geeks, providing the 10-15% of planning and design activities that ensures project success.

We draw on our unique experience, insight into intranet projects across hundreds of organisations, and a clear understanding of the SharePoint platform. Bringing this together, we provide the techniques, answers, examples and screenshots that maximise the value of SharePoint investments.

We can also provide ongoing support, to keep things on track, and to see the project through to a successful conclusion.

Want to know more? Get in touch

Related posts:

• Best practices for SharePoint intranets
• SharePoint intranet best practice 7/25: what roles in a SharePoint intranet dream team?

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When you want to create a new site in your SharePoint intranet, this is the page you’re presented with. It’s pretty daunting for an inexperienced site administrator or content owner:

Should I create a team site or a document workplace?
Would a social meeting workplace be more relevant than a decision meeting workspace?
Maybe I need a blog?
Perhaps just start with a blank site and build from there?

This dialog box gives few clues and little guidance. While nothing is ever set in stone, picking the wrong initial choice will reduce the chances of successful adoption and use.

While this kind of complexity is common across many products, not just SharePoint, it generally leads to patchy and inconsistent intranets that are cluttered with under-used sites.

There are three strategies that can be taken:

1. governance
2. site creation workflows
3. training and support

1. Governance

As discussed in Collaboration Roadmap written by Michael Sampson, it’s important to be clear about who has the rights to actually create a new site on your SharePoint intranet. Will every user be able to create a new site, or will this be restricted to a handful of central administrators?

While there is no one right answer, what’s needed in all cases is good governance. This provide a set of basic guidelines and processes that cover:

• creating new sites
• maintaining and ultimately closing sites
• what functionality can be used
• the rights and authorities granted to site owners

The smaller the number of staff able to create sites, the less training and support is required. (Although the result may be a bottleneck that generates widespread frustration.)

2. Site creation workflows

Another approach is to put some structure around creating new sites. This can include a tailored workflow and approval process that guides users step-by-step through the necessary decisions.

Screenshot courtesy of Coca-Cola.

For example, Coca-Cola in the US has created a “Teamsite Wizard”. This asks a number of key questions, with supporting help content. This makes it easier for staff to create a team site, while ensuring that important information is collected about each site.

Screenshots courtesy of Standard Chartered.

Standard Chartered in the UK goes a step further, creating a fully-fledged process that actively guides staff towards the right choices. Governance is covered off early in the process, and then the user is helped to choose the right template. Key details are then collected for the new site, before going into an approval workflow.

These types of approaches help to put structure around site creation, and are particularly appropriate in larger SharePoint intranet deployments where there is inherently less control around creating new areas.

3. Training and support

SharePoint is a new tool for most, and users will be unfamiliar with what it can do, and how to do it. One of the most obvious ways of addressing this knowledge gap is through training and support.

The work done by Transfield Services, showcased in the Governance and support for SharePoint teamsites report, provides a great example.

Extensive training materials are provided online, written in plain language, and supported by short training videos. Following the learning curve of new administrators, information is provided in bite-size chunks, with links to more in-depth materials where required.

While there is a growing body of excellent third-party training materials and books, Transfield chose to create custom documentation to match the specific functionality they’d turned on (and avoiding the features they turned off). This led to a highly successful deployment, with excellent levels of adoption and use.

Consider all three options

The options presented are not either-or. As the size and scale of a SharePoint intranet increases, it becomes vital to establish all three elements. Even when the IT team pre-creates a set of tailored template choices, users can still struggle to choose the right option.

Look for best practices established by other organisations, and set aside resources to make your SharePoint deployment successful, beyond just turning on the technology and hoping for the best.

What have you seen work?
What have you done on your SharePoint intranet?

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Reviewing and rewriting content is a big job and cannot be done by the intranet manager alone. But training authors to write great content is a challenge, as most have never learnt to write for a specific audience.

This article outlines ways to help authors write content that is easy to find, easy to read and easy to use.

Conduct in-house training

More organisations are now recognising the importance of good quality content and are using professional trainers to conduct in-house workshops for intranet authors. This demonstrates the organisation’s commitment to the intranet and the role authors play as well as giving authors another skill to add to their resumes.

[September article by Rebecca Rodgers, read the full article]

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This frees up the intranet team to focus on the big picture, but they still have a key role in teaching staff on how to deliver effective content.

Depending on the skills of the authors within the organisation, intranet teams may conduct training in:

• writing for the web
• the publishing process
• how to layout pages
• governance of the intranet

The intranet team may also run a community of practice, have specific sites for author support and provide ongoing ad-hoc support. Many of these options are discussed in an earlier article How to empower authors. But another way to support authors is with a drop-in centre.

A drop-in centre is regular forum for authors to seek advice without interrupting the intranet team or making an appointment.

The informal atmosphere makes learning easy, especially for those whose authoring responsibilities only form a small part of their role.

(June article by Catherine Grenfell, read the full article.)

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One question that often arises early in the process is whether the same CMS should be used for the website and intranet, or whether two solutions should be deployed.

Historically, this question was often driven by a desire to reuse the public-facing CMS for the intranet. These days, the question is equally likely to relate to reusing the intranet solution (such as SharePoint) for the website.

While there are advantages to having a single solution, this is not a ‘slam dunk’ option as this article will explore.

[May article, read the full article]

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This support must encompass content owners and authors, who are confronted by a new site structure and the requirement to deliver better content.

Training must also be provided on the new technology platform, which offers some complex and unfamiliar capabilities. These may include collaboration and social tools, which aim to change how staff work together.

Many organisations fail to put in place the necessary training and support for an improved intranet, and adoption levels suffer as a result. In the worst cases, the entire intranet project may be considered a failure when content publishers and end users alike rebel against the site changes.

These challenges make the work done by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) particularly impressive.

In the context of the merging of two federal government agencies and major changes in the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, the DEEWR team established comprehensive training initiatives and support materials.

Members of the Intranet Leadership Forum (www.steptwo.com.au/ilf), DEEWR have been generous in sharing examples of their approaches and deliverables.

[May article by Alex Manchester, read the full article]

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The problem is, not only do these simplistic approaches not work, they often make the situation worse. A few examples:

1. Let’s limit email inboxes to only 20meg

The problem: staff use their email programs as long-term storage mechanisms, clogging up servers with an immense amount of old email. The simplistic solution: limit email inboxes to a small size (say 20meg), and then delete any excess on a regular basis.

We’ve seen an organisation do this. The result was that staff saved all their old messages into Outlook “saved mail” (PST) files. When an audit was done of server space, it was discovered that 12 out of 20TB was being used by these files. They can’t be indexed, searched, or virus-checked. Chances are, they will never be opened again by the staff who saved them.

So the inboxes are beautifully small, but the overall space used is larger, and information management is worse.

2. Blow up shared network folders

The problem: there are an immense number of files stored on corporate file servers, across thousands of folders in hundreds of shared drives. The files are poorly named, hard to find, and often duplicated. The simplistic solution: install SharePoint (Lotus Notes, etc), turn off network folders, and force everyone to store their files online instead.

Faced by the prospect of files shares being turned off, staff invariably copy everything they’ve got directly into SharePoint document collections (etc). Files aren’t reviewed, documents aren’t renamed, and little old content is removed. Instead, a one-to-one copy of files simply replicates the same problems in a new space.

The result? A new technology, but the same content and information management problems. And in the process, search is broken, because every search term now returns hundreds of irrelevant files and duplicates.

3. Let’s fully centralised, or fully decentralise

The problem: intranet content is very inconsistent in its quality, currency, relevance and structure. This generates a huge amount of staff (and stakeholder) dissatisfaction. The simplistic solution: fully centralise intranet publishing, so all content is created by a central team with professional skills. Alternatively: fully decentralise, so all content is owned by the business, with no involvement from the central team (if one is left).

The difficulty is this: fully centralised is always a bottleneck; fully decentralised is always anarchy. Neither extreme will deliver a successful intranet, and a mix of strategies will be required, including both centralised and decentralised where appropriate.

4. Three clicks rule

The problem: staff can’t find information on the intranet. The simplistic solution: staff “don’t like to click”, so ensure that all pages are no more than three clicks away from the homepage.

The reality is that this simply doesn’t work, not just because you can’t fit an entire intranet into a structure three levels deep. The underlying assumption is also false: staff are perfectly happy to click as long as they are confident they’re heading in the right direction.

Beware excessive simplicity

I could share a dozen other examples of simplistic approaches, and why they don’t work. The only valid simple rule is this: “The simpler the principle, the more likely it is to be wrong” (hmm, I may be breaking my own principle there).

We should always strive to elegance and simplicity where we can find it, but not to the extent that simplistic approaches actually make the problem worse. At the end of the day, it’s our job as professionals to find strategies that work in our complex organisations, and to constantly adapt these to match changing circumstances.

What are the simplistic rules you’ve seen, and what problems did they cause?

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