Donna has also written the second CM Briefing, on the use of a strawman for page layout design. To quote: Designing the page layouts for a new or redesigned intranet can be complex. One of the most difficult aspects is creating the first layout. Starting with an empty screen, you need to determine what will go on each page and where it will go. Using a strawman design - a design that is created with the intent of discarding it - can help to overcome many of the difficulties in the design process.

Donna has written the first CM Briefing for this month, discussing the issue of intranet "under construction" signs. To quote: In the early days of the web, it was very common to find entire websites marked as 'under construction', complete with animated roadwork icons. It was so common that there are a number of websites dedicated to the issue, highlighting it as poor practice. Although the practice is less common on websites than it once was, many intranets still contain a large number of sections 'under construction'.

My KM Column for this month looks at rolling out a records management system. To quote: With the shift towards electronic records (including documents and e-mails), efforts have instead turned to rolling out an electronic records management system (RMS) across the entire organisation. The challenge then becomes ensuring that staff throughout the organisation adopt the use of the system, and take on the added responsibilities involved. Up to this point, many organisations have attempted this 'enterprise' implementation of records management, but few (if any) have succeeded. This article explores, from a new perspective, the challenges involved in rolling out a

I've been working with a large educational organisation on their project to select a content management system. Beyond all the hard work they put into developing a good tender document, they've done a few things that I thought were worth sharing here: They setup an announcements e-mail list for the project, sending out monthly messages giving a summary of progress, current activities, etc. Nice point: it's not just sent to the project team, but to both internal stakeholders and outside parties (such as myself). It contains useful, concrete details, without any hype. It's also sent out on a regular basis,

This is something that I hear quite often, when talking to vendors or prospective purchasers: Myth: Content management systems are pretty similar in capabilities, and are rapidly converging on a …

The first of the two CM Briefings this month is on choosing your information delivery channels. To quote: While the intranet is rightly positioned as the key delivery channel for information within most organisations, it must also be recognised that not all staff will be reached using solely the intranet. In many organisations, there are staff who have limited (or no) access to computers, or whose jobs makes the intranet less relevant to their needs. Focusing just on the intranet platform may mean that these staff are not provided with the information they need to conduct their jobs. It is

My KM Column article this month is on content reuse in practice. To quote: Content reuse' is often seen as one of the key benefits to be gained by implementing a content management system (CMS). It is certainly true that there are considerable advantages in being able to use a single page (or piece of content) in multiple locations on a single site, across multiple sites, or in different published formats. The reality however is that few organisations are able to realise this vision of content reuse in practice. Instead, content reuse is typically only used in a few limited

I've seen this time and time again: big corporations making the automatic assumption that because they are large, they must purchase a similarly large and expensive content management system. This is not the case. In many cases, even large organisations have pretty simple web content management needs. Conversely, some small organisations have tremendously complex and expensive CMS needs. When considering the purchase of a CMS, focus on the complexity of your site, in terms of user interaction, integration with other business systems, etc. Also explore the complexity of the back-end needs for the CMS. These two factors will then determine

Leading ChangeJohn P. Kotter It is widely recognised that organisations are under greater pressure than ever before to adapt to meet new conditions and challenges within their marketplaces. This has spawned many change management projects, reorganisations and strategic realignments. Most of these have failed. This book takes a much-needed look at how the process of organisational change must operate if it is to have both short-term impact and long-term sustainability. At the core of the book, is a eight-step process: Establishing a sense of urgency Creating the guiding coalition Developing a vision and strategy Communicating the change vision Empowering broad-based

My second CM Briefing for August is on establishing an intranet community of practice. To quote: Many intranet teams have struggled with the role of 'gatekeeper', setting standards and attempting to enforce them on the intranet authors and publishers. An alternative approach involves establishing a 'community of practice' that involves all intranet stakeholders. This group then takes on shared responsibility for maintaining and improving the intranet. This approach has been used very successfully by a wide range of organisations, in both the public and private sectors. Indeed, establishing an intranet community of practice is now seen as one of the