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 ...
Articles tagged: strategy
When “global & local” becomes “common & specific”
Jane McConnell, who has often talked about "global & local", now introduces "common & specific". To quote: How do you handle global and local content on global portal? A question that has as many answers as intranets! However, in my work with many complex, global organizations, I have developed 8 ...
Intranet 360 checklist
Jane McConnell has written about running an intranet 360 degree evaluation. To quote: When you organize workshops to explore new directions for the intranet, or when you choose people to participate in a user’s panel, you need to include a range of ages and seniority. The views will be complementary. ...
Future scenario: starting a new job
Another year, another job. After 18 months in the last job, and a few months looking for work, Sarah is starting into her new role. The firm seems sounder than the last one, and its consumer products are red hot right ...
5 future intranet trends
Jane McConnell shares a video a presentation on her 5 future intranet trends. To quote: The organizers of Brazilian Intranet Portal Award 2009 event kindly posted the video I made for them on YouTube and I'd like to share it with you. I talk about the 5 future intranet trends.
Podcast interview with Gerry Gaffney
The Step Two team have been very busy recently across every possible medium. Having been in the US for a week at KMWorld, I've fallen hopelessly behind in sharing all this. So this will be the first of a series of posts over the coming week that highlights our outputs... To ...
Intranet in the cloud
Toby Ward explores the possibility of hosting the intranet in the cloud. To quote: In short, hosting is provided as a service over the Internet. SaaS is simply hosted software that could include your website content management system, search engine, CRM (Salesforce.com), etc. The cloud is merely a metaphor based ...
30-30-30-10: watch the trends
Jane McConnell writes about the need for intranet managers to be aware of trends. To quote: Intranet managers need to be externally focused - with at least 30 percent of their energy (why 30? less than half, but still significant!) in order to stay fresh, motivated and up to ...
The Global Intranet Strategies Survey closes in 10 days
A quick note to highlight that Jane McConnell's Global Intranet Strategies Survey closes in just 10 days. This is what Jane has seen so far: I've already looked at some early results from this year's survey. Some preliminary observations: - It looks like the intranet is definitely moving towards becoming ...
Social networking on intranets
Jakob Nielsen has also written about social media on intranets. To quote: As people embrace social media in their private lives, they naturally expect to use similar tools within the enterprise. This is especially true for younger workers who use these tools in everyday life. Open communication, collaboration, and content ...
Social media on a global intranet – how do you choose?
Jane McConnell discusses social media on intranets. To quote: An intranet manager asked me recently how to prioritise ideas about social media for the intranet. They are a global organization and are currently attempting to bring all the local intranets under the same umbrella. They ran a workshop, and lots ...
Planning to demonstrate success
Intranet teams are often expected to justify the work that they do, whether to protect current intranet resources, or to gain support for new projects and improvements. This leads to the requirement for an intranet business case, ideally with clear measures that quantify the value of the intranet and the benefits ...
Will intranets become scientific?
Jane McConnell asks: will intranets become scientific? To quote: Studies done by different organizations, in different parts of the world, with different populations and very different survey strategies are finding similar results. I wrote about how JMC and Nielsen Norman found the same figure when looking at intranet resources: Size ...
Partnership delivers first online education on enterprise intranets
We have spent the last decade examining the practices of intranet teams, with the goal of uncovering and sharing what works (and what doesn’t). For the first time, there is a now a full online training course that gives you access to this latest thinking on intranet strategy and management. CMS ...
Web strategy: don’t focus on web problems
Dorthe Raakjær Jespersen recommends not focusing on web problems when creating a web strategy. To quote: Secondly, you need to make problems tangible, so they can be understood by executives who generally have little understanding of the web. Top management is often where the strategy has to be signed off, ...
Global Intranet Strategies Survey is live
Jane McConnell has opened up this year's Global Intranet Strategies Survey for entries. This is perhaps the most important survey on intranets, and the only one to have a global reach. The survey this year covers topics such as: Are intranets catching up with what people need to do their jobs? ...
8 good business reasons for having an intranet
Andrew Wright has written a post outlining 8 good business reasons for having an intranet. To quote: It's a popular question from the Chief Financial Officer these days... if we are going to invest 'x' amount of dollars in your project, what will the company get in return? This ...
Intranet strategy & execution
Toby Ward outlines a sensible approach for developing an intranet strategy, and outlines the Prescient methodology. To quote: An intranet strategy has definition, is well documented and shared by all stakeholders, and has key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics. The strategy provides direction for executable actions (in the context of ...
Target emotions in the business case
Many web and intranet teams will be expected to create business cases at some point in their work. These may be for major website redevelopments, selection of new technology platforms, or to gain further resources. Considerable amounts of work go into creating a business case, but success is far from certain. ...
Going beyond reducing intranet frustration
A lot of work is done to incrementally improve intranets, often focusing on resolving common areas of staff frustration with the sites. These projects may be large or small, but most concentrate on making the intranet work better, without adding new capabilities or content. This is not enough. If intranets are to ...
New book: What every intranet team should know
This blog has been a bit quiet over the last few months due to some hard work on two seriously exciting projects. The first is a new book, released today. Over the last eight years, we've published 200+ articles covering every aspect ...
Principles for designing global-local intranets
A little while back I wrote a post about the global-local challenge for many intranets. To quote: In any large organisations, there will be many different business units, with different needs. Individual staff across the organisation will also need specific tools and information. The challenge is to meet global needs ...
Expert session: intranet strategy and management (Brisbane, 22 May 2009)
Having launched our new expert session on intranets in Sydney, we were immediately swamped for requests for a Brisbane showing. Ever responsive to our customer needs, we've caved in to these demands and ...
Expert session: intranet strategy and management (Sydney, 7 May 2009)
This is the first of an ongoing series of intensive training sessions that we'll be holding at our lovely offices in inner-city Sydney: Learn from the foremost experts to build in-house skills in tight economic ...
6 simple steps for a good intranet plan
Mark Morrell has written a piece on the 6 simple steps for a good intranet plan. To quote: In BT I have an intranet strategy for the next 3 years and an action plan for the next 12 months. It has timelines, owners and updates on progress made available ...
Intranet strategy: planning a successful intranet
Toby Ward talks about the importance of having an intranet strategy. To quote: A strategy has definition, is well documented and shared by all stakeholders, and has key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics. The strategy provides direction for executable actions (in the context of this article, we will treat strategy ...
Intranet mantra: connect, communicate, collaborate
Sara Redin has written about Nycomed's intranet strategy of connect, communicate, collaborate. To quote: If questions such as “Why do you need an intranet” stops you cold, maybe you should find a good mantra that simply describes the purpose of the tool so that any stakeholder can understand it. A ...
Intranet purpose: 3 angles
Jane McConnell has published an interesting piece on looking at intranet purpose from 3 angles. To quote: When you define the purpose of an intranet, there are several angles to examine. Each angle requires making a choice. However, they are not mutually exclusive choices. They are choices about what you ...
Tackling the global-local challenge?
In recent projects, we've been doing a lot of work relating to what Jane McConnell calls the global-local challenge of intranets. In any large organisations, there will be many different business units, with different needs. Individual staff across the organisation will also need specific tools and information. The challenge is ...
Turning around undersupported intranets
Craig Thomler provides recommendations on turning around undersupported intranets. To quote: Where an organisation does not recognise the value of its intranet it’s likely that the intranet itself has suffered. There is limited investment, promotion or encouragement of intranet use. The intranet becomes a wasteland of outdated and useless content. Many ...
Green IT versus blue sky
Kas Thomas has written an article on the challenges in centralising content management to save the environment. To quote: More and more these days, content lives at the edges of the network, on laptops and desktop machines and collaboration servers (and in SQL Server instances that support a group's SharePoint ...
How to prioritise intranet developments
Allen Huish has written a piece on how to prioritise intranet developments. To quote: If you are anything like me you have an ongoing long list of people in your organisation who want something on the intranet. Whether it is a new workflow or some new content there is a ...
You don’t need an ECM strategy
Janus Boye has written a post arguing that you don’t need an ECM strategy. To quote: Over the last years, I’ve heard consultants, analysts, experts, gurus and even some vendors preach that strategy is the vital ingredient that’s too often missing in many organisations. For ECM projects, I certainly agree ...
Creating a new intranet: funnelling down to a solution
It's nice to be involved at the start of a brand new intranet, rather than improving (or fixing!) an existing intranet, which is the norm. It's also a fairly small (120 person) public-sector agency, so big-scale or complex methodologies are out. To help the project team think about the approach, ...
Easy Pickings
Patrick Lambe writes about the dangers of pursuing low-hanging fruit, and outlines his "REACH" planning model. To quote: Mary sums up brilliantly: “Collecting low-hanging fruit is a knowledge management tactic NOT a legitimate strategy. Strategy sets your goals and gives you a reason for the projects you undertake and the methods ...
