Intranet Blog

By Sue Whiting, Odyssey Interactive Ltd

In its most basic form, Enterprise 2.0 is about communication.  The premise is that the more easily people can communicate, the less information will be siloed and the result will be a more efficient, productive and intelligent workforce.

When intranets first emerged, they were simply a platform for corporate information and policies. Over the years, companies have added business tools to their intranets, and more recently, collaboration and corporate social networking tools have become the latest must have.  In the latest global intranet survey by Prescient Digital Media it shows that collaboration and social media tools on the corporate intranet have “not only become a collection of mainstream technologies, it has become a necessity for organizations that want to be an employer of choice”.

Allowing staff members to have their say, put forward ideas, views and opinions improves people’s work ethic by providing them with a voice or an opinion about their company.  It also increases efficiency by providing a real time response to any questions or queries.  Most importantly, it gives organisations a platform to capture new ideas and gain a competitive advantage.

Interact’s document comments facility is just one way in which Interact is embracing Enterprise 2.0 technologies.  Comments enable contextual and simplified information exchange and collaboration across the workforce.   Conversations are built upon comments going back and forth and branching out in new directions.  Users can join in the comments on blog posts, documents and articles and are liberated from the constraints of legacy communication and productivity tools like email.

Comments build on the content that an author has posted allowing users to collaborate on the subject matter.  One of the benefits of comments is that they provide a wider view of a subject and harness the wisdom of crowds.   A Facebook style user friendly interface encourages user feedback – it’s really easy to add comments – just type and post.

Interact’s comments facility not only makes it easy for users to contribute and share ideas, but importantly, Interact keeps them informed of comments from other users when they are added. 

Interact has a unique new tool which makes it a much more collaborative environment for users.   Users can subscribe to specific content by adding it as a favourite using Interact’s unique ‘My Widget’ personalisation tool.  Interact actively promotes content that users have an interest in by displaying any comments made on users’ blogs or blogs they are subscribed to.  Similarly, comments on articles the user has commented on and any ‘favourite’ documents.  This means that users are kept up to date with any new posts and can follow progress without having to go and actively seek out the information.

5 Ways People have used the Document Comments Feature to Improve Collaboration

• Encourage open staff feedback about the content of a document during a 'consultation period'
• Allow multiple people working on a document to discuss the changes taking place, providing a collaborative review tool
• Allow people to comment on your blog posts, creating a two-way knowledge sharing platform
• Meeting agendas can be built collaboratively by adding discussion points over time to an agenda document
• Informal knowledge capture - recording ideas and thoughts that would otherwise be lost

Allowing staff members to have their say, put forward ideas, views and opinions improves people’s work ethic by providing them with a voice or an opinion about their company.  It also increases efficiency by providing a real time response to any questions or queries.  Most importantly, it gives organisations a platform to capture new ideas and gain a competitive advantage.

by Sue Whiting, Odyssey Interactive Ltd

As intranet managers it’s easy to assume that all users will share your enthusiasm and see the intranet as a vital part of their working lives.  If only it was that easy; in reality it can be a real struggle to get staff to engage with the intranet.  Arousing interest and a sense of anticipation is a great way to inform staff that your new intranet is about to be launched, but the old adage ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink’ often applies when trying to convince your users to actually use the intranet.

Over the years, we’ve helped many of our clients to successfully launch their intranets and, I thought I’d share with you a few of the good ideas our clients have used to help ensure users interact with the intranet from the very start.

One client sent round a box containing a fun-sized KitKat and a message saying ‘take a break’.  Everybody got this and they were allowed to take a half hour break from work to familiarise themselves with the new site and eat their Kit Kat. 

Intranet treasure hunts are another great idea to familiarise user with the new intranet.  Another interact client based their treasure hunt around Kermit the frog and clues were hidden throughout the intranet which directed users to different areas of the intranet ensuring that they explored the site and visited areas that they would perhaps not naturally gravitate towards.   E.g. Staff were pointed to the Staff Directory with the first clue which was ‘What is Kermit’s official job title?  Subsequent clues led them to other areas of the intranet including Forms, Calendars, Discussion Forums, Document and Image Library.

Another client was launching their intranet in December so used a Christmas theme.  On the morning of the launch day the Intranet team surprised all employees with a chocolate advent calendar each saying “Have a Happy Christmas with your new Intranet".   Employees were shown how to use the new intranet and further instructions were posted on the intranet homepage.  All members of staff were allocated time to familiarise themselves with the new intranet and the intranet team was on hand to assist anyone who needed extra help on the day.

If you used a great way to get your staff to engage with the intranet then let us know by posting a comment.

by Nigel Danson, Odyssey Interactive Ltd

Over the last ten years I have seen many intranets develop from simple document lists to powerful portals that act as the central hub of a business.  During this time I have attained an excellent understanding of the factors which influence intranets, which has allowed us to create a model for success. This has traditionally been based on the three pillars of Communications, Business Processes and Knowledge Management.

There has been a lot of buzz recently about using the intranet as a collaborative tool to facilitate knowledge sharing amongst users, raising the questions as to whether collaboration is a key success factor.  I think that there is definitely a good reason to add collaboration to our list, as it promotes mass participation and improves best practice.

This makes our four key success factors:

• Communications - e.g. News and events
• Business Processes - e.g. Absence Booking workflow
• Knowledge Management - e.g. Best Practice documentation
• Collaboration – e.g. Cross-department working group discussion board

Early intranets were mainly communications driven and over time evolved into broader productivity tools that included more process-specific business applications and management tools.   Intranets today do much more than simply host the staff directory and HR manuals - although these remain important. They are growing in strategic importance and increasingly incorporate collaboration support and Enterprise Social Networking features. 

For an intranet to be truly successful it must provide a balance of all of these elements.  Some elements may form a greater percentage of the whole depending on an organisation’s particular needs.  Also, the proportional split of these elements may well alter over time to meet changing business and employee requirements.

The ratio of these components will depend to some extent on the type of organisation e.g. in a professional services organisation the ‘knowledge management’ constituent is likely to form the largest element as these organisations usually have masses of documentation, research and policies that staff need access to, whereas in a more project based organisation ‘collaboration’ may form the largest proportion with people working together in collaborative workspaces on the intranet.

However, none of these elements should exist in isolation but have a connection with the other elements; there is a relationship between them in many instances.  For example, a document about swine flu is published on the intranet and pushed out to staff via a ‘communication’ but it then forms part of the ‘knowledge’ of the organisation.  A collaborative intranet will enable people to comment on the document or ask questions about its content. 

A successful intranet will retain all this information and link it to other relevant information e.g. sickness policy, recent discussions on the subject, latest posts, HR presentation on swine flu and other users’ comments on swine flu.  This additional information may be spread out across the intranet in an unconnected way, but intelligent intranets should bring this information together and connect users to content in meaningful and contextual ways.

This works rather like leading websites such as Amazon which use anonymous data collection technology to look at what users are browsing and buying; their purchase decisions, product searches and movement around the website adds to the site’s store of anonymously gathered intelligence.  This in turn develops insight into a user’s preferences.  It outputs this intelligence in peer-rated product suggestions.  It is this same technology, applied to an internal audience, which will enable modern intranets to effectively ‘push’ the most current, useful and important content.

The Model for an ideal intranet

In order to understand what each of these elements constitutes we need to look at what they should consist of in a successful intranet.

Communications

Tends to be information classified as time sensitive i.e. information with limited ‘shelf life’ e.g. corporate news announcements, internal job vacancies, corporate events, latest KPIs.  This type of information is pushed to employees on a regular basis.  Traditionally this element has formed the greatest part of most intranets.  It is important that a good mechanism exists for making sure the right people see the right communications and it shouldn’t get lost in an intranet ‘black hole’.

Collaboration

Collaboration can be defined as two or more people working together to achieve common goals by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus.  Research shows that a staggering 36% of a company's overall performance is driven by its ability to collaborate[1]. 

A real strength of successful intranets is the collaborative platform they can provide to organisations to help harness the collective intelligence of everyone.  Increasingly Enterprise 2.0 technologies such as wikis and blogs are being used on intranets as they facilitate collaboration.  Discussion boards, comments and feedback facilities on content, and polls also promote collaboration amongst employees.

A recent report by ECM industry researcher, AIIM, shows that business take-up of Enterprise 2.0 has doubled in the last year.[2]  According to this report, there has been a dramatic increase in the understanding of how Enterprise 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, forums, and social networks can be used to improve business collaboration and knowledge sharing, with over half of organizations now considering Enterprise 2.0 to be "important" or "very important" to their business goals and success.

In the Nielsen Norman Group Intranet Design Annual 2009, a common theme amongst the Year’s ten best intranets was the incorporation of Web 2.0 community and social features.  They pointed out that “as social networking’s popularity increases, more employees will expect such features on their intranets, too.  Further, the intranet is a perfect place to use social networking because it can help employees share information and knowledge and find the right people for a job”

Collaborative tools open up channels of communication across an organisation. For example, project teams can have a collaborative workspace on intranet where they can contribute and share information.  This can cut down on face to face meetings reducing the travelling time and therefore cutting costs, particularly if staff is spread across different locations.  Collaborative tools empower staff by providing them with the ability to contribute opinion and share knowledge thus improving overall staff morale.

In the real world intranet managers still see these collaborative tools as a draw into the intranet but have not fully appreciated the efficiency gains they can provide;  In my opinion they promote knowledge sharing and best practice which leads to efficiency gains by improving productivity.

However, the key to a successful intranet is that they should not merely provide the collaborative environment but they should actively connect all relevant information that has been amassed as a result of collaborative working and present this content to the users where relevant.

For example, taking the swine flu scenario again, a user searches for information about swine flu and posts a comment asking a question, say, as to whether the company is offering vaccination against the virus.  HR respond accordingly.  All this information should then be stored in the intranet so when another person searches on swine flu they are presented with this information automatically.  As more and more information on swine flu is added to the intranet it is automatically pushed to the relevant people without them having to laboriously track it down across several people and documents. 

Traditionally, intranet management takes the form of a handful of Intranet Managers contributing information and documents to intranet.  The beauty of collaborative intranets lies in the fact that all employees can contribute.   Intranets should provide open access to everyone and need to encourage individual responsibility for content and involvement. Therefore knowledge can be shared among a wide variety of people, each with their own perspectives on a subject.  The intranet facilitates more connections between people across departmental and divisional boundaries and, as a result, fosters a more collaborative culture.  The ability for employees to add comments to articles on the intranet, or contribute to a collective Wiki, means that collective knowledge is harnessed, retained and shared.

Effective collaboration on the intranet can also be facilitated by an effective staff directory.  In the early days of intranets, a staff directory was little more than a list of names and telephone extensions.  Good intranets should have staff directories with more Facebook like features to enrich the profiles.  In his book ‘The Hidden Power of Social Networks’, the author, Rob Cross, affirms the importance of connecting people:  “Research has consistently shown that whom you know has a significant impact on what you come to know, because relationships are critical for obtaining information, solving problems and learning how to do your job”. 

Good intranets must facilitate easy connections with other people in order to collaborate.  They should be able to either suggest or easily find experts in the organisation to help solve a business need.  Successful intranets achieve this by having extended profiles in the staff directory which facilitate people being able to find each other - listing the specific expertise, skills and knowledge of a member of staff enables searches to be made for sources of knowledge.

Business Processes

The intranet is a great place for your staff to get things done.  Getting business processes onto the intranet is key to increasing efficiency within an organisation; it pulls people in as they have to it to the intranet to carry out a certain task, like filling in a holiday request form.  They can then be pushed other information

Intranets can directly assist staff complete business processes in three ways:

• By providing instructions for how and when to do things (policies, procedures, work instructions, templates, etc.)
• By enabling the completion of a task through web based forms and workflow.  For example, an IT help request can be logged over the intranet using an online form instead of making a call into the help desk.  Online expenses, holiday booking etc.
• By providing a portal to applications/websites required to complete a process.
  Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management is an approach used in organisations to identify, create, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences.  Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organisational processes or practice. Collectively this knowledge comprises an organisation's intellectual property or intellectual assets.  Intellectual property is often recognized as the most important asset of many of the world’s largest companies[3]

Within any organisation knowledge resides in many different places such as databases, filing cabinets and peoples' heads and is distributed right across the organisation.  All too often one part of an organisation repeats work that has already been done, because it is impossible to keep track of and make use of the knowledge other parts of the same organisation have created. 

There are two different types of knowledge: ‘explicit’ and ‘tacit’.   Explicit Knowledge is available from stored information which can be a wide variety of documents such as proposals, business cases, forecasts, project plans, processes, procedures, policies, forms, presentations, white papers, research papers, strategy papers, spreadsheets, mission statements, values, and many other document types.   Getting this information onto the intranet makes them more manageable and accessible.  Document management and search functionality are the key intranet technologies that enable organisations to manage this important asset.  The knowledge that resides in the minds of staff – their ‘know-how’ and expertise - is called ‘tacit’ information, and is much harder to utilise.

A successful intranet should enable staff to tap into tacit information which so often exists in the minds of employees as opposed to the explicit knowledge available from stored information. 

The Intranet is the perfect vehicle for employees to continuously contribute the knowledge ‘in their heads’ to the collective knowledge (through collaboration), which is then made available to everyone else in the organisation.  Intranets help create a culture that encourages knowledge sharing enabling organisations to harness collective intelligence of staff and keep it within the organisation so that when people leave the information doesn’t leave with them.

Knowledge management lies at the heart of any successful intranet.  The information that comes from communication, collaboration and business processes helps develop the knowledge base of the intranet. 

Effective intranets

I come back to the point that intranets need to have the ability to organise this information automatically and pull information from the different areas of collaboration, communication, knowledge management and business processes and present it in a relevant and contextual way.

For example, if a Marketing document about a new product in development knew that there was Sales PowerPoint presentation on how to present new products to customers then the intranet should be able to create a link to it, rather than the content being disconnected, disorganised and stored in multiple, isolated silos.

As I said earlier, different types and sizes of organisations will have a bias towards different elements and the key to intranet success is getting this balance right.  For an intranet to operate at optimum efficiency, these elements cannot be taken in isolation as connections exist between them and a successful intranet should bring together related elements. 

Nigel Danson is Managing Director of Odyssey Interactive.

Formed in 1996, Odyssey is one of the UK’s longest established internet companies with specialist knowledge in intranet technology.   The company specialises in providing the UK’s leading out-of-the box intranet solution, Interact.

To find out more about Interact 4.0, download the brochure or book a demo please visit: www.interact-intranet.co.uk

Odyssey Interactive Ltd

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Station House

Stamford New Road

Altrincham

Cheshire

WA14 1EP

T: +44 (0)161 927 3222

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[1] Meetings Around the World: The Impact of Collaboration on Business Performance by Frost & Sullivan

[2] The AIIM research report is entitled “Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0: work meets play or the future of business?”  Jun 09

[3] The Value of Intellectual Property, Intangible Assets and Goodwill by Kelvin King