We've been working on this all year, so I'm pleased to be able to finally announce that Designing intranets: creating sites that work is now available for purchase globally. With four times the content of our last book, What every intranet team should know, this is ...
Blog category: Intranets
September 15, 2010 by James Robertson
Global launch of Designing intranets: creating sites that work
Tags: book, design, Intranets, usability, user-centred design
September 1, 2010 by James Robertson
How intranet plans evolve
In our 6x2 methodology, intranet teams plan one release at a time, typically at six month intervals. Based on criteria ("why would we deliver this feature?") and constraints ("What stops us from delivering improvements?"), potential activities are ruthlessly evaluated. The result is a list of deliverables that are both ...
Tags: 6x2, intranet strategy, Intranets, roadmap, strategy
August 31, 2010 by James Robertson
How HR can leverage the intranet
Because it is a department connected to every part of an organisation, Human Resources (HR) has a unique position that can be leveraged to help underpin the intranet's value to staff. HR remains a key stakeholder of, and publisher to, the corporate intranet. Reviewing the various content and tasks available can ...
August 31, 2010 by James Robertson
Three elements of every intranet strategy
Intranet strategies vary from 100-page formal documents to informal plans that can be conveyed verbally in a lift. Some strategies cover the coming six months, while others stretch out to encompass five-year timescales. Regardless of the scope and duration of the plans, successful strategies all build on a common narrative structure ...
Tags: intranet strategy, Intranets, strategy
August 31, 2010 by James Robertson
Putting people at the centre: social staff directories
The term 'social intranet' has become popular in recent times, and describes an intranet with social media tools -- blogs, wikis, microblogs, comment functionality and more -- embedded within the core intranet software platform. However, before a social intranet can be successful, work must be done to enrich and develop ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social intranets, staff directories
August 19, 2010 by James Robertson
How did intranet homepages become so static?
Something strange has happened to intranet homepages. Despite the diversity of staff needs and activities, intranets have ended up with a fixed, static and unreactive homepage that only targets generic requirements. Having fought so hard to balance competing stakeholder demands, intranet ...
August 16, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet vs enterprise 2.0 vs social software: an obvious case of terminological controversy
Denis Zenkin discusses the confusion between intranets and enterprise 2.0. To quote: Intranet is basically a practical tool that creates a unified workplace for an organization supplying a number of benefits. In my opinion, the list of must-have features include collaboration, communications and knowledge base. I agree with Denis on this ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social intranets
August 12, 2010 by James Robertson
Discussing the length of the intranet homepage
Some while back I posted an article which asked the question: how long should the intranet homepage be? I then discused what attractive intranets look like, providing examples of modern designs, including some long homepages. This generated some discussion and debate. Most recently, it has led Toby Ward to ...
August 10, 2010 by James Robertson
To technology strategists: how to blend enterprise + business + people?
Jane McConnell has written an insightful piece on balancing three perspectives of intranets. To quote: When I work with global organizations to help them define the business objectives of the intranet, we do it from these 3 angles. The problem is when we push each dimension to its logical conclusion, ...
Tags: Collaboration, communications, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
August 9, 2010 by James Robertson
The intranet: communication portal or employee toolkit?
Christopher Swan writes about intranets becoming more than just a communications portal. To quote: Over the last year or so, I’ve seen a quiet war waging between communicators and employees. Communicators passionately want to share breaking news, org changes, evergreen stories and the not so timely letter from the ...
Tags: communications, Intranets
August 9, 2010 by James Robertson
Free-for-all intranets – how to discern the ‘correct’ info
Wedge asks how staff can discern the right information on intranets, when there's a free-for-all publishing approach. To quote: Information overload is a real risk if your strategy is to allow anyone / everyone to publish pages, documents, wikis and blogs on your intranet. And our modern, powerful search engines ...
Tags: Intranets
August 5, 2010 by James Robertson
Card sorting beauty shots
Writing a book is a funny process. When putting the final touches to Designing intranets: creating sites that work, I found myself taking beauty shots of card sorting cards: These are far ...
Tags: book, card sorting, Photos
August 3, 2010 by James Robertson
Pre-order your copy of Designing intranets: creating sites that work
Followers of our blog posts and tweats would be aware that I've been working on our next book. Called Designing intranets: creating sites that work, this is the definitive textbook for teams tasked with designing a new intranet, or redesigning an existing site. In 275 pages, this book ...
August 3, 2010 by James Robertson
5 key features to consider when choosing a social intranet
Angela Cullen lists key features to consider when choosing a social intranet. To quote: By using a forum or threaded discussion tool, you can engage your employees around specific topics and challenge them to start talking about topics that matter to them. For instance, Project Managers might discuss the ...
Tags: Intranets, social intranet
August 3, 2010 by James Robertson
IBF 24: AEP live tour
IBF are progressively releasing copies of sessions from their IBF 24 online event, and the next is the AEP live tour. To quote: In this video William Amurgis, Internal Communications Manager at AEP, gives a live tour of their intranet and a sneak preview of their new intranet design. (William is ...
Tags: Intranets
August 2, 2010 by James Robertson
Making the case for enterprise activity streams
Christopher Lynch discusses the value of activity streams on intranets and in collaboration tools. To quote: From a purely practical standpoint, various activity streams, and social software in general, are extra tools layered on top of the current systems a worker has in place. This is inherently true because we’re not ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, social tools
July 30, 2010 by James Robertson
The intranet is dead. Long live the intranet.
David Reinhardt writes about the death of intranets, replaced by social tools. To quote: Prince was wrong – it’s not the internet that’s dead, it’s the intranet. When I talk to clients about intranets as a collaboration hub they cock an eyebrow as if I’m speaking 2003 speak rather than ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social tools
July 30, 2010 by James Robertson
IntraWiki
Sean R. Nicholson and Angie Cullen have launched IntraWiki as a jumping-off point to a intranet blogs, tweets, communities and more. To quote: There are a lot of great Intranet-focused people and resources out there on the Web, but finding them can be a bit of a challenge. We have ...
Tags: Intranets
July 29, 2010 by James Robertson
How long are intranet projects?
Intranet projects are often longer and more involved than most teams expect. While no two projects are the same, and organisational circumstances vary greatly, teams should have some core expectations going into a design or redesign project. In particular, as there is often pressure from stakeholders to deliver a new site ...
Tags: Intranets, planning, project length, project planning
July 29, 2010 by James Robertson
Understanding new solutions
In today's world new solutions and applications appear every day, and some are more useful and interesting than others. It's part of an intranet team's role to know what's around and be able to make recommendations about suggested improvements. However some teams are reluctant to explore new areas such as ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, intranet teams, Intranets, social tools, web 2.0
July 29, 2010 by James Robertson
What attractive intranets look like
The winds of change are blowing for intranets. Every intranet survey run in the wider community has shown that 50% of intranet teams are planning (or hoping) to redesign their sites. With any redesign comes the opportunity for a fresh new look and feel. Drawing their inspiration from the best of ...
Tags: accessibility, attractive, design, Intranets, redesign, usability
July 28, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet Lounge
The intranet community has a new aggregator of resources and articles: Intranet Lounge. Quietly launched about a month ago, it has quickly become a tremendously useful source of intranet updates. What has surprised me is the number of blog posts and articles on intranets that I wasn't previously aware of. ...
Tags: Intranets
July 22, 2010 by James Robertson
So you think you’re an intranet manager?
Intranet Ideas explores what it means to be an intranet manager. To quote: We talked, or tweeted, to some of our intranet manager contacts on Twitter to find out whether they think that the role of an intranet manager should be focused on internal communications, tech, or both, and we ...
Tags: intranet manager, Intranets
July 20, 2010 by James Robertson
Why traditional intranets fail today’s knowledge workers
Oscar Berg has written an extensive post on why traditional intranets fail today's knowledge workers. To quote: This leads me to the changing role of intranets in knowledge-intensive businesses. These intranets need to provide flexible access to both information and people by employing pull models for serving as many knowledge ...
Tags: Intranets, Knowledge management
July 19, 2010 by James Robertson
The secret second reason why your intranet news goes unread
Wedge writes about the secret second reason why your intranet news goes unread. To quote: We know the number one reason people find your intranet superfluous to requirements; irrelevant information. The ‘news’ stories are often Company focussed (what ‘we’ need to tell ‘you’, the little people) rather than ‘people focussed’ ...
Tags: communications, Intranets, news
July 19, 2010 by James Robertson
Ideas to actions: DAFF’s innovation experience
Brant Smith write about the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry's creation of I-Gen, an intranet-based innovation generation system. To quote: I-Gen encourages staff to come up with ideas that improve the way the department works and helps them drive their ideas forward. It provides the support and tools ...
Tags: innovation, Intranets
July 14, 2010 by James Robertson
IBF 24 archive: a live tour of the SCANA intranet
IBF has started releasing copies of presentations and tours from the recent IBF 24 event. The starting point is a live tour of the SCANA intranet. To quote: If you didn’t stay up for the whole 24 hours of IBF 24, you can now start catching up on what you ...
July 13, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranets turning into marketplaces?
Jane McConnell asks the question: are intranets turning into marketplaces? To quote: A participant in one of my global intranet workshops recently said, “There’s no point in saying we have mandatory global content that everyone must see. It’s not by putting it on the home page that will make them ...
Tags: Intranets
July 13, 2010 by James Robertson
Is it time for your intranet’s annual performance review?
Sean R. Nicholson asks the question: is it time for your intranet’s annual performance review? To quote: It never ceases to amaze me how few people trust their organizational intranets. A tool that was designed specifically for the purpose of helping employees do their job better and faster is often ...
Tags: Intranets, performance reviews
July 7, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet manager role: evolve or devolve?
Jane McConnell asks whether intranet manager roles will evolve or devolve? To quote: Will it evolve? Will the intranet manager role grow deeper, go higher and become more strategic in the spirit of “survival of the fittest”? Will it devolve? Will the tasks and responsibilities be passed on to business managers ...
Tags: intranet manager, intranet team, Intranets
July 5, 2010 by James Robertson
Identifying intranet benefits – a case study from Malaysia
Martin White shares details of an intranet case study from Malaysia that quantifies intranet benefits. To quote: The authors used a sample base of around 150 managers to try to establish what the reasons for intranet user acceptance might be, using some classic user acceptance models. The paper is exceptionally ...
July 3, 2010 by James Robertson
Global Intranet Survey 2010 now open
Jane McConnell has just announced that the Global Intranet Survey 2010 is now open. To quote: We’re taking a snapshot of how organizations are moving on social media. We have investigated this for 3 years and are asking some tough questions this time around. We look at whether social media ...
Tags: Intranets
July 2, 2010 by James Robertson
Don’t change your daughter’s, or your intranet’s, name, Mrs. Worthington
Wedge writes about not changing the name of the intranet. To quote: Intranets get named at their launch; when do they get re-named? When their system is upgraded? When the business gets taken over or rebranded? When the front page gets a superficial design make-over? When is a renaming necessary? What’s ...
July 1, 2010 by James Robertson
My Beautiful Intranet
IBF has just published the results of the informal "My Beautiful Intranet" competition held during IBF24. To quote: We wanted to find the intranet homepage most pleasing to the eye. The incentive of an Ipad as a prize certainly helped the entry numbers, and we received submissions from as far ...
July 1, 2010 by James Robertson
What does the intranet look like in a social business?
Janus Boye asks the question: what does the intranet look like in a social business? To quote: Social media has evolved from distracting fun to hype to significant mainstream adoption over the last 18 months or so. Will the intranet remain unaffected by this? Or are there any emerging signs ...
Tags: Intranets, social intranet, social media
June 30, 2010 by James Robertson
Build support before an intranet redesign
p>Redesigning a well-established intranet involves major cultural change. For anything beyond the smallest of tweaks or incremental changes, reshaping the intranet will have an impact on business areas, content owners, authors, and end users (staff). One of the most common mistakes made by intranet teams is to push forward on site ...
June 30, 2010 by James Robertson
Rolling out intranet access from home
Many organisations have staff who don't sit at desks or in front of PCs. The challenge is how to give them access to the intranet, so they can easily complete common tasks, such as applying for leave. Several approaches were outlined in the earlier article Intranet kiosks or remote access?. ...
Tags: Intranets, remote access
June 30, 2010 by James Robertson
Enhancing the intranet with game theory
Compelling, creative, addictive and a key tool in improving employee engagement. This isn't the way most intranet managers would describe their sites. But that could all be about to change. The use of game theory and gaming mechanics in business application development is intensifying day by day, and there are ...
Tags: Collaboration, game theory, Intranets
June 29, 2010 by James Robertson
Many ways of creating a compelling intranet business case
Business cases can be boring. Following a corporate template, the pre-defined gaps are filled in with standard text, and the document goes to whatever committee has to sign it off. Before jumping straight into this, intranet teams can benefit from stepping back to look at the many ways a business ...
Tags: business cases, Intranets, storytelling, strategy
June 25, 2010 by James Robertson
Aligning the intranet business case against strategic priorities
A few weeks ago we ran an intranet strategy workshop for a major bank, helping them to identify approaches for their upcoming business case. Now we've been saying for a long time that strong business cases align closely with top-level organisational and strategic priorities. Beyond just "making information findable" or "creating ...
Tags: business cases, Intranets, strategy
June 7, 2010 by James Robertson
Social intranet governance
Toby Ward has written about social intranet governance. To quote: Where every organization should include specifics for social media use, if your organization does not have a separate, superfluous social media policy (that’s right, a social media policy is largely superfluous if you have proper governance and content / editorial ...
Tags: governance, Intranets, social media, social software
May 28, 2010 by James Robertson
Finding compelling examples to build the intranet business case
For many intranet teams, funding and resourcing is incredibly tight. The intranet is often a poor cousin to an organisation's public website, and its worth to the organisation is rarely demonstrated well. Intranet teams also rarely have direct lines of communication to senior management who, as infrequent users of the ...
Tags: business cases, examples, Intranets, storytelling
May 28, 2010 by James Robertson
Identifying staff tasks
Intranets are most useful when they help staff do their jobs. This includes finding a key piece of information (‘what is the address for our interstate office?’) or completing a process online (‘I need to apply for some leave over Christmas’). The best approach for helping staff is to focus on ...
Tags: Information architecture, Intranets, tasks, usability
May 28, 2010 by James Robertson
How long should the intranet homepage be?
Intranet homepages are always contentious. In most organisations, every stakeholder would like a piece of this valuable real estate, and debates rage around the overall purpose and design. Within the intranet industry, the homepage also inflames passionate debate. This is particularly true on the question of how long the intranet homepage ...
Tags: homepages, Information architecture, Intranets, usability
May 17, 2010 by James Robertson
6 ways to measure effectiveness of news on your intranet
Nancy Goebel has written a great post on measuring the effectiveness of intranet news. To quote: Below is a short list of the KPIs that I put together for them on the basis that their home page functions very much as a digital newspaper. These KPIs are intended to provide ...
Tags: communications, Intranets, measures, metrics, news
May 14, 2010 by James Robertson
Seeking a better design for intranet news
The design of intranets has been in the forefront of my thinking recently. I've been writing hard on our next book, which is specifically on intranet design (180 pages done, just three chapters to go!). This week's Intranet Leadership Forum workshop in Melbourne also had a session on the ...
Tags: communications, design, homepages, Intranets, news
May 13, 2010 by James Robertson
Social intranet vs intranet 2.0
Toby Ward outlines his take on social intranets vs intranet 2.0. To quote: An intranet that features multiple social media tools for most or all employees to use as collaboration vehicles for sharing knowledge with other employees. A social intranet may feature blogs, wikis, discussion forums, social networking, or a ...
Tags: intranet 2.0, Intranets, social intranet, social software
May 13, 2010 by James Robertson
How Bundaberg Regional Council uses its wiki
Bundaberg City Council has kindly shared some details on how they using their wiki as an intranet. To quote: Bundaberg City Council (BuCC) started using a Wiki to help manage its assets in mid 2006. When BuCC was amalgamated with three other municipalities in March 2008 (Burnett Shire, Isis Shire & ...
Tags: councils, Intranets, local government, wikis
May 12, 2010 by James Robertson
Web Site Migration Handbook
David Hobbs has just released a wonderful new resource, the Web Site Migration Handbook. To quote: Consider the many factors of a successful CMS migration, including: Migration Steps: Vision, Plan, Pilot, Implement, and Maintain Implementation Plan: Staffing, Detailed Content Migration Plan, Tracking Metrics, and Project Schedule
Tags: Content management, migration, websites
May 12, 2010 by James Robertson
Social networking for intranet managers
Toby Ward has launched a new social networking site for intranet managers. To quote: A new social networking community for intranet managers uses predictive modeling to help people connect and share information. www.Communexions.com uses the highly successful and award-winning social software cubeless™ from Sabre is ideal for best practice sharing, ...
Tags: Intranets
May 11, 2010 by James Robertson
Planting governance seeds
Jane McConnell has written about planting intranet governance seeds. To quote: My underlying key message is this: Intranets evolve. They are a process, not a project. Therefore you need to plant "governance seeds" throughout the organization. They will grow and develop as the organization evolves. They will help build a ...
Tags: governance, Intranets
May 10, 2010 by James Robertson
When was the last time your intranet empowered anyone?
Steve Radick asks the question: when was the last time your intranet empowered anyone? To quote: If you stopped using the terms "social media," and "Enterprise 2.0" and just started telling people that you "have some ideas for improving our Intranet that will make our employees want to log on ...
May 10, 2010 by James Robertson
Senior executives need to get social on the intranet to do their job
Allen Butcher argues that senior executives need to start using social media, to support intranet strategy. To quote: At each one, collaboration and social media was very much at the forefront – and the importance of securing a place at the top table for change to be approved. And ...
Tags: Intranets, social media
May 3, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet phrases you should know
Nina Platt provides a list of intranet phrases you should know. To quote: Even if you’re a seasoned intranet professional, there’s always something you haven’t heard before. Sometimes, the very nature of the intranet (being internally focused and heavily customized to your corporate culture) lends itself to being cut off ...
Tags: Intranets
April 30, 2010 by James Robertson
Forming organic online communities on the intranet: #hashtag everything!
Simon Goh explores the interesting idea of #hashtagging everything on an intranet, to spontaneously create internal communities. To quote: Twitter has popularised the use of #hashtags as a way to aggregate relevant tweets together. #hashtag is a special kind of tag because people learn about them before using them. For ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social media, tagging
April 29, 2010 by James Robertson
Do intranets only need search?
Every once in a while, intranet teams have to justify the amount of time they spend structuring their sites and improving navigation. Stakeholders, often very senior ones, ask: 'Why don't we just provide search, like Google'. This would save the time spent ...
Tags: Information architecture, Intranets, search
April 29, 2010 by James Robertson
Three types of intranet communication
As a fundamental purpose of intranets, communication has a vital role to play in the ongoing development and success of a site. But understanding how an intranet can perform as a useful communication platform is often lacking. This article will explore three types of communication that can be found or deployed ...
Tags: communications, Intranets
April 29, 2010 by James Robertson
Educating the executive about the intranet
Executive support is crucial to successful development and evolution of an organisation's intranet. However in many organisations executive support is limited. Many executives do not even use the intranet, but ask others to find information for them. This article focuses on ways to educate the executive about the intranet, in a ...
Tags: business cases, executive, Intranets, sponsorship
April 21, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet support for emergency planning – the air flight ban in Europe
Martin White makes some interesting observations about the role of intranets in emergency planning. To quote: Some brief discussions with clients last week indicates that senior managers may be increasing their perception of the value of the intranet as managers at all levels in the organisation are in the wrong ...
April 9, 2010 by James Robertson
Video killed the intranet star
Carolyn Douglas writes about the limits of video on the intranet. To quote: This got me thinking about your intranets. I suspect your employees may feel the same way. How many employees will sit through a 5 minute weekly video blog of the company CEO talking about corporate initiatives? Videos ...
April 8, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet themes for communicators in 2010
I was talking to an organisation today and they asked what I thought the "themes" were corporate communications teams regarding intranets. This got my thinking going, further spurred by my upcoming intranet workshop at the Melcrum conference in Melbourne. Based on what I've seen in Europe, US and Australia, these ...
Tags: communications, Intranets, strategy
April 7, 2010 by James Robertson
How to get quality intranet content
Mark Morrell writes about how to get quality content on intranets. To quote: We have a tool which checks content every day and informs publishers 4 weeks before the review date expires to review and update or remove the content. Failure to do this results in the content being ...
Tags: content, governance, Intranets, publishing
April 7, 2010 by James Robertson
Do you have an elevator pitch for your online activities?
Dorthe Raakjær Jespersen asks: do you have an elevator pitch for your online activities? To quote: It can be very tiring to have to explain the same things over and over again. But have you stopped to look at how you reply and respond to people? Are you speaking their ...
Tags: business cases, Intranets, sales pitch, website
April 6, 2010 by James Robertson
Video interview from Denmark on the future of intranets
I'm catching up my blogging after the recent whirlwind trip around Europe. This is a video recorded at the IntraTeam event in Denmark at the start of the trip, discussing "intranets in 2015".
March 30, 2010 by James Robertson
Structuring three types of content
The fundamental goal of developing a new structure for an intranet is to produce something that works well for staff. As discussed in the earlier article Escaping the organisation chart on your intranet, this often means getting away from a navigation structure that mirrors content ownership. Experience has shown that ...
Tags: content, Information architecture, Intranets, publishing
March 30, 2010 by James Robertson
Measuring the effectiveness of intranet teams
Intranet teams are responsible for creating an intranet that is a useful business tool, flexible enough to meet changing business needs, easy to use and trusted by staff. In doing this, teams also need to assess how effectively they work. In a previous article we explained How intranet teams should ...
Tags: governance, intranet teams, Intranets, measures, metrics
March 30, 2010 by James Robertson
Creating MyHomepage at DSTA
In many organisations, the implementation of social and collaborative tools is supplementing and extending existing knowledge management (KM) initiatives. In this case study, the KM team from the Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA) in Singapore, describes the implementation of 'MyHomepage'. A new feature of the revamped staff directory, this is ...
Tags: case studies, Intranets, social tools, staff directories
March 19, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet secrets
ThoughtFarmer have just launched a very amusing site called Intranet Secrets. While this is a naked piece of viral marketing for a commercial solution, it's still laugh-out-loud funny! Worth a visit.
Tags: Intranets
March 10, 2010 by James Robertson
Try a self-managed intranet
Mark Morrell has written about following a decentralised publishing model for intranets. To quote: So who is responsible for publishing, reviewing, updating and removing content? “You!” is the answer to any publisher in BT. There is NO central publishing team to do this on behalf of anyone.
Tags: content, Intranets, publishing
March 9, 2010 by James Robertson
Getting the “intranet model” right
I've just spent a day with a well-known global company at their headquarters in Sweden (and no, it's not IKEA). They are in the early stages of a large intranet project, which has been thrown a curve-ball by a huge global reorganisation. My role in this one-off day of consulting ...
March 9, 2010 by James Robertson
5 intranet trends for business managers in 2010
Janus Boye writes about 5 intranet trends for business managers in 2010. To quote: Social; The big buzzword at the moment with social business, social media and obviously also social intranets. Jane McConnell recently stated that 2010 will not be the year of the social intranet based on a survey ...
March 7, 2010 by James Robertson
The future of intranets in Copenhagen
I've been talking about future intranets since late last year, leading up to my keynote at the IntraTeam Event in Copenhagen. As expected, this turned out to be a wonderful conference, with Jane McConnell's keynote a real highlight, along with many other interesting sessions. As always, plenty of great ...
March 3, 2010 by James Robertson
What drives my passion for intranets
I'm very passionate about intranets, and the opportunities they provide. Where does this passion come from? I've spent a lot of time in organisations with staff who do the actual work, particularly in front-line and operational areas. I've interviewed countless staff, including nurses, accountants, call centre operators, consultants, engineers, sales people, ...
Tags: Intranets, needs analysis, staff
March 3, 2010 by James Robertson
Reworking the HR section
Mark Tilbury shares his experiences and approaches to redesigning the HR section of his intranet. To quote: Finally getting a stakeholder session with our HR guys and owners of 'people' related content on our intranet. Negotiations over the process and protocols have been as torturous as organising the Nixon/Frost debates, ...
March 3, 2010 by James Robertson
Senior manager blogs and non-blogs
Jane McConnell shares concrete numbers on adoption of enterprising blogging. To quote: The figures in this year's report clearly show that senior managers in many large organizations are using blogs to improve communication flow, to break through some of the barriers and silos. However, there is still a lot ...
Tags: blogs, Collaboration, Intranets
March 2, 2010 by James Robertson
More advanced steps to a good intranet wiki/blog
Mark Morrell writes about further steps to a good intranet wiki/blog. To quote: In BT anyone can start a blog or create a wiki article internally about their views and opinions and can contribute to other blogs or wiki articles if they wish to. To get started all you ...
Tags: blogs, Collaboration, Intranets, wikis
February 26, 2010 by James Robertson
Presentation skills for intranet managers
Intra-Nomad provides real-world advice on how intranet managers can present well. To quote: At some time or other every intranet manager has to do a presention. All those stakeholders and vested parties demand it. If like me, you’re one of life’s introverts, you dread these moments, even perhaps avoiding them. ...
Tags: intranet managers, Intranets
February 23, 2010 by James Robertson
Future principle: put people at the centre
This future principle explores where intranets should be heading. Previous principles include act proactively, not just reactively, provide universal access and it's more than the intranet. They support two "future scenarios": starting a new job and driving the engine of change. Up to this point, the ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, enterprise experience, future, future principle, Intranets, user experience
February 19, 2010 by James Robertson
Scottrade succeeds in intranet revamp by involving staff
Lindsey Miller writes about Scottrade's intranet redesign. To quote: So how can you replace your old, inefficient intranet with a snazzy, new version and get employees to embrace the change? Scottrade knows; the online brokerage firm last year replaced its intranet, “The Insider,” after seven years, and not one of ...
Tags: case studies, Intranets, redesign, redevelopment
February 19, 2010 by James Robertson
What’s in an Intranet name? Turns out a lot …
Carolyn Douglas has written an article on naming the intranet. To quote: Intranets and corporate culture should go hand in hand. If your intranet is not reflecting the culture in your organization and the site is boring or dry, consider how good old fashioned brand marketing can change attitudes towards ...
February 18, 2010 by James Robertson
Do intranet banners work or are they just litter?
Mark Morrell asks: do intranet banners work or are they just litter? To quote: Selective attention is a widely recognised behaviour on the web backed up by reams of usability evidence. Selective attention is what web users quickly develop from browsing around web pages – it basically means that ...
February 18, 2010 by James Robertson
Video interview with Sabre on their online social tools
Sabre Holdings is one of the largest travel services businesses in the world, quietly connecting travel agents with airlines, as well as running major sites such as Travelocity. Sabre Town, their enterprise social space, provides a ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, innovation, intranet innovation awards, Intranets, sabre, social tools
February 18, 2010 by James Robertson
Creating successful style guides
Amy Quinn writes about how to create successful style guides. To quote: Style guides are a great way to ensure user experience consistency when developing an application and a way to communicate user experience standards across an organization. They can be application specific, platform specific, and may encompass enterprise-wide standards. ...
Tags: Intranets, style guides, websites
February 17, 2010 by James Robertson
Three views on intranet names
We recently asked members of the Intranet Leadership Forum about the names of their intranets. Several past articles have covered this topic, including Naming the intranet, which goes into the reasons why you should name a site, and Publicising the launch of Boris at City of Casey, which ...
February 17, 2010 by James Robertson
Recommended reading for intranet teams
There are many ways to learn about all things intranet. On the job is the most common way, with learning from peers in close second place. There is now an expanding number of books that are useful for intranet teams. In this article we outline some recommended reading. General Every intranet team's ...
Tags: books, intranet teams, Intranets, reading
February 17, 2010 by James Robertson
Eight intranet design mistakes
Intranet projects are challenging at the best of times. Sites are large and content rich. Project teams are often thrown into the deep end, with many constraints and expectations. Intranet projects may confront challenges such as: unclear intranet ownership and governance tight timeframes limited (and often insufficient) budgets varied (and sometimes competing) stakeholder opinions large number ...
Tags: design, Information architecture, Intranets, mistakes, usability
February 16, 2010 by James Robertson
Video interview with NYK on wiki-based intranet news
NYK is one of the world's largest shipping and transport firms, with 770 major ships sailing the oceans. In an incredibly competitive market, it is vital to quickly respond to industry changes and competitor moves. To facilitate ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, innovation, intranet innovation awards, Intranets, news, wikis
February 11, 2010 by James Robertson
Future principle: it’s more than the intranet
I've been talking about the future of how staff will work in organisations, starting with Sarah's first day, and then exploring products and innovation. An important question has been raised by more than a few people: So is this still the intranet? Or should we be calling it something different? An ...
Tags: enterprise experience, future, Information management, information systems, Intranets, strategy
February 10, 2010 by James Robertson
Our department is different!
Jeff Cram and Jeni Cram write about the challenges of rolling out an enterprise CMS. To quote: “Our department is different!” This is a common and legitimate response from groups used to managing their own websites. They argue that their needs are so specific there is little chance a common ...
Tags: content management systems, governance, Intranets, websites
February 9, 2010 by James Robertson
Future principle: Act proactively, not just reactively
Today's intranets are very passive. They provide a remarkable volume of information, tools and resources, but they sit idly waiting for someone to look for it. This often means that staff don't get the information they require at the point of need. When a new policy is created, it's emailed out ...
February 9, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet metrics: which indicators?
Jane McConnell has written about intranet metrics, drawing on her global survey results. To quote: What follows is an extract of 2 pages from the report, pages 96 for adoption indicators and page 102 for core business indicators. Note that the number (n =) at the bottom left of each ...
February 9, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet benchmarking: a mashup of why & how
Jane McConnell has published a post outlining why and how to do intranet benchmarking. To quote: Comparing your intranet to others is useful because intranets exist within organisations and are somewhat 'oblivious' to what happens outside the company. It is hard to look over the fence. That's where the value ...
Tags: benchmarking, Intranets
February 8, 2010 by James Robertson
We don’t do workflow
Mark Tilbury explains why his intranet doesn't use workflow. To quote: Content comes in different shapes and context. Some needs 'locking-down', other content is 'open', while elements develop as it is pushed, modified and enhanced. There is not a 'one solution' fits all process flow within each stream, nor within ...
Tags: authoring, Intranets, publishing, workflow
February 8, 2010 by James Robertson
Merit badges for The corporate intranet To incentivize adoption
Sadalit Van Buren writes about using merit badges to encourage intranet adoption. To quote: I've been thinking about the badges that a few social sites are using as incentives to their user communities - specifically foursquare and, more recently, Blip. So many people I talk to are looking for ...
Tags: governance, Intranets
February 4, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet 2.0 Global Survey 2010
Toby Ward ran an Intranet 2.0 survey last year, which generated some interesting results. He's just launched the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey 2010, and you should definitely consider participating in this. Taking just 10 minutes to complete, participants go into the running for a cash prize. To quote: Respondents who ...
Tags: intranet 2.0, Intranets, survey
January 28, 2010 by James Robertson
Future scenario: driving the engine of change
This is the second future scenario exploring the future of intranets (and beyond) in organisations. The first covered Sarah's first days at work, and this looks at innovation, product management and streamlining business processes. It's an impressive list. When all laid ...
Tags: future, future scenario, innovation, Intranets
January 25, 2010 by James Robertson
The weight of the existing intranet
Some time back, we worked for a large government agency. Their intranet was terrible, a huge collection of separate sites dating back over a decade. New sites has been published in waves, but IT didn't feel that they had the authority to delete old sites. As the organisation constantly restructured, ...
Tags: cultural change, governance, Intranets
January 25, 2010 by James Robertson
Migrating to a new intranet – how do you support the content owners?
Dorthe Jespersen has written about supporting content owners during migration. To quote: The content owners may have many questions: Where does our content go in the new structure? What content do we actually have? Should we delete some of it? Will time be allowed for content quality and improvement work? ...
Tags: content migration, Intranets
January 19, 2010 by James Robertson
Video interview with Prophet on streamlining 360 degree feedback
We often talk about using the intranet to save time, and to streamline common business tasks. This is all about taking a cumbersome existing process, and replacing it with an online version that works spectacularly ...
