Intranet Blog

There are two fundamental features every user of an Intranet expects when they use their intranet and without these two the trust relation in an Intranet breaks down

1) The ability to find content on the Intranet

2) For that content that they find to be relevant and up to date

When developing Interact's new search we pushed the boundaries further than ever before and included a revolutionary search algorithm based on the unique intranet software intelligence store. It searches all the content on the intranet including documents, the staff directory, calendars, blogs and all applications. The latest release of the Interact search incorporates adaptive learning capabilities and continually optimises search results - ensuring that the Intranet user finds exactly what they were looking for.

Search results can be ranked on a number of criteria including;

• Interact Ranking - A intelligent result based on user feedback, collaboration, keyword density and relavance
• Popularity - Results based on the most popular documents and content on the intranet
• Date - Results based on when the content was added to the Intranet
• Document and Content Ratings - Ranks the results on the best quality content on the intranet

Interact Intelligent Search - Interact Intranet Software

The search is intuituve and easy to use and enables you to use filters to only see a particular type of search results such as blog posts, or calendar entries. Key users can manually influence search results and promote specific content by using 'best bets' - ensuring that the searcher can find the most relevant information quickly.

Ease of use is the most important thing in any intranet and we have worked hard to ensure Interact has an easy to use interface throughout.  The new search is no expection and allow users to quickly get access to information, filter the results and the unique feedback tool means the search improves with use.

Nigel Danson, Interact Intranet Software

by Steven Osborne, Odyssey Interactive Ltd

Achieving Engagement and Enthusiasm.

The differences between a good intranet and a great intranet might be subtle, but it is measurable as all 'great' intranets will share key characteristics and features.

When it comes to delivering Employee Engagement a great intranet will exceed its objectives because it has involved it's audience.

These are three things you can do to help your intranet perform to its optimum.

1) Seek feedback – regularly

Schedule frequent employee (user) surveys, but don’t restrict it to an electronic, intranet based survey.  (If you have someone who doesn't use the intranet they won’t see the survey, so there’s small chance of them completing it.)  Get out and have face to face meetings with the audience; individuals, user groups, departments, locations.

Be specific in the feedback you want, don't ask a general question such as "What do you think of the Intranet."  Define your questions so that they are specific ~ you'll then get quality feedback that you can do something with.  Ask questions like "What do you think of the design", "What do you think to the layout?", "How would you change the structure?", "Describe a time when you struggled to find what you needed."

But – don’t ask too many questions at the same time.  See if you can pick 5 key questions.

2) Conduct Usability Testing - regularly.

Don’t assume it’s all going smoothly or because it works for you it works for all. If you designed it and structured it then you will know your way around it.  Increase the objectivity of the exercise by involving others.  For instance, if a new starter joins, sit with them to see how they use it and how it performs. Such an opportunity to see through fresh eyes and get a different perspective is invaluable.  As far as is practically possible test new additions or enhancements amongst a control group before things go live to a wider audience.  Spring clean your Intranet – fix or clean up dead links, edit jargon, check labels and tags are user friendly – understandable and useful.  

3) Act on the feedback you got and the testing performed.  Simple.

by Steven Osborne, Odyssey Interactive Ltd

To a greater or lesser extent all intranets aim to solve the same problem; how to make a company's internal information and applications easily available to employees.

But what if the problem is that people just aren’t using the intranet, instead they are reverting to old ways; gathering information and communicating outside of the intranet. They might have used the intranet initially but at some point they couldn’t find the information they wanted either at all, or quickly enough, or when they found something it wasn’t what they were looking for or they doubted its accuracy. A seed of doubt was sown and it grew.

So having discovered that people don’t use the Intranet your next step is to find out why. Talk to the reluctant users and compare their experiences and expectations with those who are using the intranet. You should expect to hear as much in the way of emotional opinion as factual reasons for the lack of enthusiasm, but it is important that you listen to both. Through chatting to the users you will hopefully begin to uncover why they are reluctant and what ‘blocks’- real or imagined are in their way.

Perceptual – They might have never used an intranet before, or they have used something similarly ‘technical’ and it went wrong, crashed and they lost information or confidence.  The experiences of the past affect their thinking today.  An intranet may also be a change of culture, a change in practice and a new way of doing things that they weren’t expecting.  Not everyone will embrace change, some will, some won’t, they may have the belief of “If it’s not broke why fix it?” In their eyes there was nothing wrong with the old system of shared drives, “OK, it wasn’t perfect but it worked...”

Emotional – users might truly not “like” the intranet.  There doesn’t need to be a valid reason for this - it might do things they don’t like, or fail to offer things they expect. They might not like the style, the colours, or the name.  They might be anti-intranet because they don’t feel involved in it; maybe, previously no-one asked them for their input or ideas.  Giving them the chance to express their opinion might be the first step in turning them around.

Intellectual – lack of familiarity or ‘web awareness’ may be an issue and rather than asking for help or guidance they have chosen not to use it.  Their reluctance could have a technical basis, they haven’t used an intranet before, therefore don’t know how it is structured and how to find information.  They may benefit from an introductory session, set at their pace, where they can explore the intranet and ask all the questions they have without fear of seeming to be a technophobe.

Take the time to talk to the people that the Intranet is there for. From this you will find out why they don’t use it.

Knowing why they don’t use it will lead onto what you can do to take those blocks away and therefore get them using it

Knowing where to start tackling this problem is not easy, but a good rule of thumb would be to start wherever you can make some progress. See what you can do to update it or remove it.  If users don’t know how to find things, is it because they don’t know how to navigate around the site (solution - hold an orientation session) or is it because content is poorly structured and labelled, (solution – review the structure)

Look to see where you can start the upward spiral.