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Intranet Articles
Learn more about intranet strategy, planning and best practices with the latest articles from Prescient's intranet consultants.
The Key to a Successful Intranet Site Evaluation
by Michael Marchionda - When it comes to the web, everyone’s a critic. Most people form a negative or positive opinion of a site in about the same time it takes to click a mouse (according to a Carleton University study).
Why employees don’t want to blog
by Toby Ward - Blogging is more than popular, it’s revolutionary. Blogging has turned ordinary Joe and Janes into celebrated authors, and celebrities. However, for every Arianna Huffington, there are millions of Joes and Janes that have contributed one or two posts and subsequently never return again to the blogosphere, hundreds of millions that will never try blogging.
The social intranet ... for free?
The vast majority of organizations that have implemented social media tools on their intranet (intranet 2.0 tools) have done so at little or no cost (or simply activated bundled tools that came with SharePoint or another CMS or portal solution).
The Social Intranet
by Toby Ward - The original intranet, intranet 1.0, typically began as nothing more than a technology outpost under some techie's desk in the corporate basement. The first version of this intranet was nothing more than a welcome page, perhaps a name and a phone number, and a simple welcome message.
Social communications: Delivering winning internal communications programs with the social intranet
by Julian Mills - It's an exciting time for internal communications professionals. The convergence of demographic shifts within the workplace, a growing percentage of knowledge workers, and low-cost communication technology creates ideal conditions for communicators to add value to their business by adapting their knowledge and creativity to unleash the power of the social intranet.
Social intranets become mainstream
From mundane to social: intranets are rapidly evolving into social media systems that greatly distance themselves from their former, glorified brochureware sites.
Employee intranet blogs wanted
By Toby Ward - If a tree falls in the forest will anyone blog about it? Do blogs beget blog postings? As too many organizations are discovering the hard way, employees don't want to blog. Approximately 1-2% of employees are interested in blogging (today), but most don't have any desire to pick up the proverbial pen.
Social media tools: the best for your intranet 2.0 strategy
by Carmine Porco - The number of social media tools available to organizations today can be overwhelming. With your organization’s efficiency and collaboration on the line, it’s important to pick the right one. Despite their potential impact, the best social media tools are seldom chosen by organizations looking to support their unique intranet 2.0 strategies.
Intranet predictions for 2010
By Toby Ward - 1. SharePoint will continue to dominate - All hail the king, SharePoint. SharePoint has become the single biggest, most pervasive intranet platform of all time (present in 50 – 60% of all medium to large-size organizations). While SharePoint is still minimally used for department and team level document sharing and collaboration, more organizations are looking to use it as the enterprise intranet platform.
Technology, the intranet, and employee productivity
By Toby Ward - Employees shouldn’t waste too much time on the intranet; social media wastes time; the Internet is a productivity drain. These are common refrains and concerns expressed by many executives, albeit the less educated ones, generally of an older generation, nearing or past retirement.
Afraid of using social media internally?
by Michael Marchionda - As the use of blogs, wikis and other social media tools increases in our personal lives, fears about bringing these social media tools (and the problems they potentially bring) to the workplace naturally arise. There’s good reason to fear social media (time wastage and reduced productivity are the major concerns), but statistics demonstrating the benefits of social media suggest that the benefits can out weigh the concerns, especially if a company implements a sound social media policy. A sound policy allows employees, and the company, to enjoy the benefits of social media; primarily, improving knowledge worker productivity, decreasing redundant effort, disseminating best practices and accelerating time to productivity.
The Business Value of Intranet 2.0
By Catherine Elder - You think collaboration and even social networking tools are a good idea but there is a real concern that they’ll waste employees’ time and decrease productivity. Do intranet 2.0 tools, like internal social networking, wikis, blogs and discussion forums have a business value?
Implementing your intranet plan and other dastardly deeds
By Cathy McKnight — A very general definition of the term “implementation” is execution of an idea, plan, design, model, standard, algorithm, or policy. In the realm of information technology, an implementation is the realization of a technical specification as some type of computer related system or applications. The key words being; plan, specification and realisation.
Intranet 2.0 becomes mainstream
by Julian Mills — Social media adoption has accelerated on the corporate intranet, led by blogs, wikis and discussion forums. Despite a low cost of entry—often below $10,000—adopters are not reporting outstanding satisfaction with the investment, especially among the executive ranks, driven by inadequate planning and weak or non-existent business plans.
Intranet case study: Universal McCann (UM)
By Toby Ward — Universal McCann (UM) is a global media communications agency with 2,800 employees in 66 countries. UM undertakes massive marketing campaigns and media buys for large Fortune 500s such as Coke, MasterCard, Microsoft, and others. With a highly distributed workforce, UM found that knowledge and expertise was often trapped in geographic silos that could not be shared easily with other offices.
Selling an Intranet Redesign
By Toby Ward — The choir has been singing for some time. Though many executives have yet bought into the gospel. They've heard the messages and are beginning to take notice: the intranet is a valuable business asset.
Intranet strategy - planning a successful intranet
By Toby Ward — I once asked an intranet manager if they had a defined intranet strategy. His response was to say “sort of... it's mostly up here” (pointing to his noggin). Ummm... no, they didn't have a strategy. Unfortunately, most organizations are not disimilar and do not have an intranet strategy.
Intranet portal solutions die, evolve & move to Intranet 2.0
The enterprise portal solution market continues to consolidate while the big name vendors like IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft focus their R&D and marketing on Web 2.0.
Intranet 2.0 not a priority for CIO's
By Toby Ward — The single most credible survey I’ve found to date confirms what I’ve been saying for some time: Web 2.0 is still a lot of hype, and not a priority for many.
Employee social networking − Sabre Town case study
By Toby Ward − Once the domain of the Internet, social networking has virally spread to the intranet with impressive results for Sabre.
Social software that powers Intranet 2.0
By Toby Ward − “Looking for greater flexibility and support for more ad hoc processes, employees have responded with a more bottom-up approach, in some cases circumventing official information systems,” said CMS Watch Founder Tony Byrne and contributing analyst Jarod Gingras, the principal authors of The Enterprise Social Software Report 2008.
Beehive builds buzz at IBM
By Toby Ward — IBM promotes innovation and collaboration through it's own employee social networking site.
IBM Fringe: Employee social networking with a purpose
By Toby Ward − Most intranet or employee directories are the most used, if not most popular, applications on the corporate intranet. Most pull key contact information directly from the HR database or ERP; others allow employees to update and maintain their own information.
Enterprise intranet wikis
Wikis can be very powerful tools, if executed properly. But just because Cisco has them, doesn’t mean your organization is ready. Change management is far more important than the technology.
Intranet information architectures
An examination of the information architecures for 13 leading intranets provides some clues, tips, and lessons for crafting an effective intranet information architecture (IA).
Intranet planning: An intranet model for success
The process of planning an intranet, and the role of executive management and end users in developing the plan, determines the potential success of an intranet.
Enterprise 2.0 vs. Intranet 2.0
Enterprise blogging, wikiing, podcasting, and social bookmarking, within the confines of the enterprise, are powerful enablers of enhanced knowledge sharing and employee engagement.
Intranet 2.0: Social media adoption
No longer a nice-to-have for most, the new, emerging workforce expects their organization to match the pace of technology and deploy social media tools.
Intranet 2.0 Trends - Global Intranet Trends Report
Intranet 2.0 Trends - Global Intranet Trends Report
Intranet 2.0 on the rise, but barely
The adoption of Intranet 2.0 (Web 2.0) tools in the past two years has barely grown while organizations and intranet managers focus on more pressing priorities.
Enterprise intranet predictions for 2008
Predictions and trends for enterprise intranets in 2008 include further consolidation of the portal market, increased competition from new web 2.0 vendors, and a simpler home page for the enterprise portal or home page.
Intranet change management
For many organizations, an intranet makes a fundamental change in organizational communications, and also, business process. A change management communications program is a requisite for any intranet launch.
Intranets do not replace face-to-face communications
by Toby Ward — According to a Harvard Business Review study of Project Management Best Practices in Global 500 Enterprises face-to-face meetings and interaction in the work place is declining rapidly – and instead many teams are working virtually.
Know thy user: The pitfalls of assuming you know your users
by Carmine Porco — First off, intranet managers must come to the realization that their organizations’ employees are in fact their clients. To assume otherwise is to assure failure. Like any client, the organization must understand their constituency by asking them what their problems are, propose solutions, monitor their progress, ask for feedback and continually care and nurture them.
Open source myths
by Toby Ward — The open source revolution is still in its infancy and many myths persist.
What is the New Year without (intranet) resolutions?
by Cathy McKnight — Statistics show that as many as 45% of adults make New Years resolutions, with less than half of those commitments making past the six month mark. And while not holding fast to personal resolutions may only affect you, a failure to execute on intranet initiatives can impact an entire company. So make 2007 the year you say, "This year I resolve to …” and you actually do.
The big deal about portals
by Toby Ward — Portal products still represent a green, emerging technology. The promise of success however is still overshadowed by many pitfalls and few success stories.
The intranet as an employee retention tool
by Toby Ward — The intranet is a key driver of employee retention. Studies show that employees who were highly satisfied with their intranet or corporate portal also had a high level of job satisfaction. When employees are satisfied, they stay on longer, their productivity rises and training costs fall.
Intranet kiosks vs home access
by Toby Ward — The success of intranet kiosks has been very limited. An increasingly more common and popular alternative may be the option of extending remote or home intranet access to all employees.
Gut instincts vs. data – What would you rather present to get intranet buy-in?
by Bianca Wong — Surveys, focus groups and interviews - gathering the data to develop an intranet strategy.
Don’t forget to add the Tax(onomy)
by Cathy McKnight — What is taxonomy? How does it differ from information architecture? And how do you create an effective taxonomy for a successful intranet?
QAS intranet case study – anatomy of a winner
By Toby Ward — A winning intranet has many successful qualities and features. The QAS intranet is a winner at many levels – rich with tools and demonstrable, measured value.
The future of portals
by Toby Ward — In the intranet world, the big hype for the past five years has consistently been reserved for portals. Though not necessarily a top priority for intranet managers and executives, the vendors and tech media have focused great attention on portal products as the savior of for the corporate intranet.
Intranet rationalization: The politics of downsizing
by Toby Ward — Site sprawl undermines the very promise of an intranet—making it easier to store and find information. Downsizing the number of sites is a complex project.
Wiki The Intranet
By Toby Ward — Has anyone not heard of a wiki? No, not the exotic New Zealand bird...
Taming the Monster: Creating an effective Government Intranet
By Julian Mills & Tom Marciniak – All organizations that disseminate information start with a dream: multiple websites integrating seamlessly into an intranet that minimizes the effort of managing content and maximizes stakeholder satisfaction
Lessons Learned: How to Avoid the Top 10 Intranet Mistakes
by Carmine Porco — The third best way to improve through experience is to learn from your mistakes. The second best way is to learn from the mistakes of others. And the best way is to learn from your own successes.
Nexus of Intranet Success
by Toby Ward — True intranet success is rare and often fleeting. The dedication, rigor and resources required to build and maintain a successful intranet or portal are significant. And while a successful intranet does not necessarily require a lot of money per se, there are many facets that require attention, successful planning and execution.
Open source intranets
By Toby Ward — Open source platforms continue to advance and evolve and they’re starting to appear more often as solutions for enterprise intranets.
Measuring Intranet Effectiveness
Many businesses have deployed intranet technologies for business- to-user information sharing, but few have investigated the effectiveness of this investment as demonstrated by South Africa's The Porter Motor Group.
Does Your Intranet Measure-Up?
by Carmine Porco — Your competition is doing a better job of communicating, and consequently, they are extracting more value and productivity from their employees. Their secret: a highly successful intranet that supports the entire business.
Prioritizing the Intranet's Evolution
by Carmine Porco — From deciding on a family outing to crafting the company strategy, prioritizing intranet projects can be daunting.
Is Your Intranet Headed for Extinction - Part II: Planning for Success
by Toby Ward — Complex and expensive, intranets are no longer relegated to just- another-IT-project status within the highly competitive corporate hierarchy. A successful intranet’s scope and reach should permeate all aspects of the business in every corner of an organization. And the rigor and execution required to build and maintain a successful intranet is massive.
Is Your Intranet Headed for Extinction - Part I
by Toby Ward — Intranets are complex and expensive investments - their scope and reach should touch and positively affect all employees in every corner of an organization. The rigor and execution required to build and maintain a successful intranet is massive – from governance to content management, and from technology to business processes. At the heart of a successful intranet is the strength of the plan that underlies it.
Mind the (intranet) Gap
Asking the right questions of the right people, and then translating the collected business needs into technical requirements is a necessary step that will help to ensure the vision and execution of the intranet are the same.
Innovate or die
If you're not innovating, you're dying. Death may be slow, and take a few years, but it will come.
Intranet 2.0: The investment vs satisfaction corollary
Like anything, you get what you pay for. However, that doesn't mean a social media or Intranet 2.0 solution can't be an inexpensive solution, but it does require proper planning & governance, and usually some customization.
How long is a piece of string?
Creating a Measurable Internet Strategy. How long is a piece of string? How deep is half a hole? These philosophical riddles leap to mind when approaching the subject of a measurable Internet strategy. As with the two aforementioned riddles, I have seen numerous clients struggle to find the answers when defining success for their web endeavors. Organizations typically have not defined what success looks like and have no measurable goals or key performance indicators (KPI’s) in place.
Winning Support for your Intranet/Intranet 2.0 Initiatives
A common frustration for teams managing intranet projects is the difficulty they experience in securing resources. Successfully winning support could require grasping a number of concepts—from ROI to employee engagement—depending on the business environment. But in all organizations, the intranet team must understand the difference between a need, and a perceived need. The distinction is that a business case can quantify the former, but people act on the latter.
Applying the KISS principle to your social intranet case
by Cathy McKnight - Given that a social intranet can be built for a fraction of the technology budget required for a traditional internal site, the job of creating a case for a more interactive resource developed on lightweight, highly usable tools should be easy.
Social Media Tools on a Budget
by Michael Marchionda - Before inexpensive social media tools emerged on the market a few years ago, organizations looking to improve internal communications were hard-pressed to find tools that suited not only their business requirements, but their budget too. These tools were expensive to buy and implement, and many organizations’ business requirements went unmet due to budgetary constraints.
