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.)

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]

Drop-in labs are a great way to make the rollout process smoother. A drop-in lab is simply a set time where you invite users to a working session with staff on hand to help. Not only will the labs help reduce support calls and e-mails, but they can foster community among your web authors and encourage peer support.

A truly great idea! Everyone should be doing this…

All publishers of formal content in BT must do the basic training courses before they can publish formal content on our intranet. Each course takes about 30 minutes to complete on-line and should be repeated every two years.

CMS Watch, in partnership with Step Two Designs, today released Fundamentals of a Successful Intranet, the first online course to lay out best practices for intranet teams. Designed for both existing intranet managers and those planning a new enterprise intranet, the course outlines the business case for improvement, and then identifies key factors in delivering a successful intranet.

Almost every organisation has an intranet, providing access to key corporate knowledge, a channel for communication to all staff, and a gateway to enterprise systems. While many intranets are more than a decade old, they still struggle to realize their potential business value.

This online course has been created by James Robertson, a recognised global expert on intranet best practices. The course explains current state-of-the-art, as well as outlining emerging directions. Using real-world examples from around the globe, the course offers a strategy for delivering a successful intranet, as well as a straightforward approach to identifying practical improvements.

The course packs considerable amount of information into five hours, via digestible one-hour modules that speak to various professional needs:

• Intranet or web teams – learn current best-practices and justify improvements in clear business terms
• Communications and HR team members – obtain state-of-the-art intranet knowledge
• Intranet development project teams – prepare for the work ahead
• Enterprise and IT managers – better understand and support intranet teams and projects
• Consultants – apply global best practices to intranet-related services

[Full course information]

That makes their recently-launched online education courses of particular interest. The growing list of topics include:

• Fundamentals of Web Content Management Technology
• Fundamentals of Enterprise Content Management Technology
• Evaluating Native SharePoint Services

I’ve browsed through several of these courses, and they’re packed with detail. Whether you work your way through the whole 4 hours of each course, or dip into specific sections when needed, it won’t be hard to gain value from this material.

If you want to get up to speed on these technologies, definitely have a look at these courses.

(We may be able to share some additional news regarding this series of courses soon, watch this space.)