Globally local - locally global

Global Intranet Survey recruiting in Russia

The 2009 Global Intranet Survey is being promoted in Russia on the Russian IntranetBlog.

Thank you Natalia Shvetsova, of HCI.ru, a usability consultancy in Moscow.

Natalia also helped recruit in 2008. It's great to have partners like Natalia in parts of the world where the survey is not yet a reference point for intranet managers.

Let's hope 2009 is the beginning of a significant Russian participation in our yearly intranet "meeting point"!

Intranet numbers promise lots of action

50 - The number of organizations who have completed or nearly completed the current 2009 Global Intranet Survey. It went live less than one week ago. How to sign up. More details about the topics.

One of them says "Thought the survey this year was superbly relevant to Intranet environment in 2009. Really looking forward to the report." (Thanks, Peter.)

340  - the number of intranet managers who belong to NetJMC&Co (Linkedin group dedicated to intranet managers)

25  - the number of active discussions inside NetJMC&Co.

280 - the number of followers of IntranetWatch (Twitter group dedicated to intranet related tweets).

The missing intranet book has been written

James Robertson, founder of Step Two Designs, has written the missing intranet book.
"What every intranet team should know" is a practical, reassuring handbook that will make every new intranet manager feel they now know what they have to do. At last, it's all in one place!

Experienced intranet managers will find it to be a fast, efficient review of everything they know they should know but sometimes neglect. A "checklist" book that is clearly worth it's price at US$ 89!

Netjmc in the lavender fields

From a great 3-day weekend with ProvenceBeyond, a website with whom I have worked closely for over 13 years  -     another few weeks before harvest -

In the meantime...

The ProvenceBeyond photographer uses a REAL camera - I use my iphone!

2009 Global lntranet Survey goes live! Participate!

The 2009 Global Intranet Survey went live 24 hours ago!
Organizations who pre-registered and participants from last year all received their personalised invitation and link over the last 24 hours. If you didn't, please let me know ASAP.

If you're an intranet manager and would like to join, send me an email. More information here:
http://netjmc.com/survey/sign-up-JMC-global-intranet-survey-2009-2010.html

2009 is going to be a good year: why?
1. Because more organizations pre-enrolled than ever before. (The survey is in its 4th year).
2. And because the pilot site for the survey was tested by nine real intranet managers and two intranet consultants before going live. We got very helpful feedback in a very short time.

Thanks to all you testers for your time, your suggestions, your enthusiasm and your critical eyes.

The survey questions cover a lot of topics, and the Global Intranet Trends for 2010 report will answer the following questions (and others!):

(Note that organizations who participate in the survey will receive a free copy of the Global Intranet Trends for 2010 report. Publication date: second part of October 2009.)

The workplace

• Are intranets catching up with what people need to do their jobs? 
• How are they facilitating doing business? 
• Are they becoming the online workplace for employees or are they primarily communication tools? 
• How do employees access the intranet: from where, what devices 
• How customised are home pages and intranets in general? Is customisation increasing or decreasing?

Collaboration

• How does the online workplace support virtual teams and communities of practice? 
• What solutions are being offered to "mixed teams": employees and external partners? 
• Is real-time conferencing moving to the intranet and web-based solutions? 

Social media 

• To what extent is social media being used internally? What purposes do blogs serve? Wikis? Discussion forums? 
•  Are Twitter-like services being used internally? How? 
• Are enterprises beginning to play with "collective thinking" technologies? Prediction markets for example.
• How do enterprises let employees interact with traditional content: tagging, ranking, commenting?
• What concerns do organizations have with social media?
• How do these concerns evolve after an enterprise has implemented social media? 

Search

•  Is search still a big pain point? 
• What resources are being dedicated to optimising it? 
• What strategies are being put into place?

Ownership, governance, strategy

• Who owns the intranet? What ownership models are in place? 
• What types of strategies are driving the intranet? Are they documented? 
•  What decision-making models are used for development and enhancements of the intranet? 
• Are intranet-related roles integrated into job descriptions? 
•  How high up (or far down!) is the intranet manager in the organisation? 
•  How is the intranet team structured? Are intranet and internet teams being integrated?

Measuring value

•  What indicators are being used to measure the value the intranet brings to an organisation: adoption, usage, satisfaction, workforce coverage, reduction of risk, business value? 
•  How do senior management perceive the intranet? 
• What are the biggest remaining obstacles to overcome?

There are 4 open questions where intranet managers will be giving their views:

1. How will the role of the intranet manager evolve over the next 3 to 4 years?
2. How do you, or don't you, brand your intranet? Is it a utility? Or is it a special place with a special name?
3. How is user-generated information being integrated with information coming from traditional publishing tools?
4. And, last but not least, SharePoint: an invitation to share your experiences, pains and joys.

Get in touch if you'd like to have more information about how you can participate in the survey this year.

Intranets are falling behind what people really need

Link to a video on YouTube done when I spoke at the IntraTeam Event this March in Copenhagen, organized by IntraTeam in Copenhagen.

Next year's IntraTeam Event will be March 2 to 4, 2010.  Thanks Kurt for making this video available.

The middle layer is disappearing

Lost in the middle or is the middle lost?

I wrote an article for the publication "Intranets Today" exactly 2 years ago entitled "Lost in the Middle".
Today I would give it a stronger title: "The Middle is Lost".

Seriously, I've been struck in recent months by the number of organizations I have seen that have decided to eliminate what I call the "middle layer". Decentralisation strategies in organisations result in giving more power to the out-lying parts of the organisation. Strategic guidelines come from the central head-quarters. So the centre and the entities end up being reinforced, and the middle layer severely weakened, even removed in some cases. The current economic context is pushing organizations to become leaner and meaner. Where better to cut than the middle?

This has big impact on intranet landscapes because many global intranet landscapes have relatively heavy "middle layers". So many times I've seen the divisional or regional intranets masquerade as head-quarter intranets. Sometimes, the middle layer intranet managers even attempt to prevent direct communication between the central intranet manager and the local intranet managers in their regions or divisions. I've personally experienced this when doing intranet audits. 

Removing the distance to be both "globally local and locally global"

Interestingly, when the middle layer is removed in intranets, things seem to work just as well as before. The challenges become how to provide guidance from a distance and in fact how to remove the distance:

• What is the right balance between "rules" and "guidelines", between "mandatory" and "highly recommended" when defining governance policies?
• How can you build trust, among intranet managers and with users?
• What tools and methods will help communication in a geographically dispersed group of content providers?
• How can you ensure that people in the centre listen and understand those in the entities and vice versa?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I have provided a full reprint of the original article below as it was first appeared in June 2007 in Intranets Today. (Intranets is a subscription-based magazine, but authors can re-publish a few months after the initial publication.)

Lost in the Middle

The hard truth is that the majority of these intranets should not exist

The role of divisional and regional intranets can be both ambiguous and misleading. They are neither global nor local. Global intranet managers may feel they reproduce global content, thereby keeping users from the authoritative global site; local managers may feel they are unnecessary because they can best provide their local users with what they need. Thus, the divisional and regional intranet mangers are caught in the middle, running intranets with little guidance, other than their managers saying “we need to have an intranet.” The hard truth is that the majority of these intranets should not exist.
A global intranet has a clear mission: communicate about global strategy and values; provide strategic news; give access to organization-wide tools like employee directories and reference and policy documentation; and provide collaboration tools. A local intranet is closely integrated into day-to-day life. It provides local news; offers tools for reserving meeting rooms and ordering office supplies; has self-service centers for HR and administrative processes; publishes the canteen menu as well as local information such as traffic and weather conditions

Intermediary intranets, on the other hand, exist for less clear reasons. Some are created to deal with temporary objectives. For example, an organization undertaking acquisitions often positions acquired companies at a divisional level. An intranet is then created to communicate and facilitate the merger process but runs out of steam when the integration is completed

Companies doing business globally may create another type of intermediary intranet—regional ones that play a coordination role between global and local for marketing, training, administrative, and other needs. One would think this raison d'etre is more sustainable because the need appears permanent. However, regional intranets also find themselves "lost in the middle" as organizations implement global processes, rolling up regional content and services to the global level.

Two questions: What is unique about them? Who do they serve?
Two simple questions will help clarify if an intermediary-level intranet should exist. First, does it offer unique content and services that cannot (and should not) be found on other intranets in the organization? Second, does it serve only users who work within the same division or region, or do people elsewhere in the organization also need to use it? Examples of unique content and services include: information related to the specific business activities of the division, collaborative spaces used by managers to share regional or business-specific knowledge, and regional reporting tools. However even this uniqueness does not necessarily justify the existence of regional and divisional intranets. It simply means that certain services and content are best provided from the intermediary level. The appropriate place for users to find them may be elsewhere

If users across the organization need access to the knowledge in the expertise centers, they must be able to find it without knowing which region is the source. Marketing and customer-oriented information may be local or regional by definition, but others throughout the organization can learn from sharing experiences, lessons learned, and best practices. It makes sense to place these types of content at the global level where they can be found by subject and keyword. As business becomes more knowledge-based and organizations more global, there are few if any reasons for maintaining intermediary intranet sites

Forget history. Move on to real value and visibility.
Many of these intranets exist for historical reasons and, if the enterprise intranet strategy was to be redone, would probably never be created. When an organization does decide to simplify and optimize the intranet structure, the validity of these sites will be questioned. Managers working at the regional or divisional levels may well want to have an intranet. Unfortunately, the "I have an intranet site, therefore I exist" feeling is still alive and well. One solution is to give high visibility to content producers and less to intranet site owners. Build your intranet strategy, governance, and communication around the concept "I exist because I provide high quality content and services to everyone that needs it." Everyone will be a winner, especially the content contributors who will be more visible and valued, and the users who will be able to find what they need faster.

2009 Intranet Survey Pilot undergoing testing

Update on this year's Global Intranet Strategies Survey:
We launched the pilot version just a few minutes ago. 18 intranet managers from different organizations around the world have volunteered to test it for us over the next 7 days.
After we incorporate their feedback, the final version will go live. This will be just after mid-June. If you're interested in joining, get in touch.

One thing for sure, this year's survey will be the best tested ever! This active pre-survey participation from so many "real" intranet managers is fantastic, and I'm glad they are appropriating the survey and getting actively involved.

The pre-survey Quick Poll already brought in feedback from 165 intranet managers worldwide, so looks like we're going to have a good year. By the way, this will make the 4th annual edition of the survey. We started in 2006. Things in the intranet world have changed pretty dramatically in that short time, but that's a good subject for another day!

What happened to SharePoint?

Our friend SharePoint, a very hot topic in the intranet space 12 months ago, was hardly mentioned in the 2009 Quick Poll.

I did not put it on the list, and there were only 10 comments in the open question suggesting to include it (out of the 50 people who commented, out of the 165 total who took the Poll).

Their suggestions for issues concerning SharePoint:

1. When to use SharePoint, when to use the intranet

• "Amazingly, people are using the word Sharepoint as if it were generic for I don’t know what. I’ve never seen a commercial brand name gain such traction so fast in the intranet world. It’s scary."
• "Secured content: intranet or SharePoint?"
• "SharePoint or intranet: appropriate identification of when to use either"

2. Governance

• "Governance intranet / SharePoint"
• "Governance/control of SharePoint Designer, now that it's 'free.' "
• "SharePoint Issues."

3. Numbers & stories around SharePoint

• "Would be interested to know how many organizations have or are intending to roll out Sharepoint MOSS as their portal platform."
• "Another focus on Sharepoint would be interesting."
• "I'd be interested to hear real-life stories of Sharepoint for intranet."
• ".... I deal with SharePoint in an intranet environment not intended for collaboration. I wonder about the experience of others with the same or other systems."

What do you make of this relatively low level of interest in a topic that was so hot just 12 months ago?

Intranet ownership "mental models"

In preparing for the survey this year, I asked the members of NetJMC&Co on Linkedin the question "Who owns the intranet in your organization (which function or department)?"

The answers varied. They usually - but not always - included Communication and/or IT.
However, what I found most interesting was the way people answered the question. It is clear that there are different "mental models" around the concept of ownership. I say "mental models" because I am attaching a lot of importance to how the responses were phrased, the words that were used.
Here are the "mental models" I identified:

1. Single-owner - usually Communication or IT, but sometimes HR or Marketing. No reference to stakeholders in these responses.

2. Co-owned - almost always Communication and IT. Ditto re stakeholders: no mention of them.

3. Triangle - 2 owners with one major stakeholder (e.g. Communication, IT, with HR as "the major stakeholder"). The reference to "a major stakeholder" suggests to me that this stakeholder is as important as the owners, in the minds of the intranet teams

4. Single or co-owned, but strong importance given to multiple stakeholders (the businesses, for example). This feels quite different from the previous response because there's a sense of "we the team are working for many other managers".

5. Informal committee, informal joint ownership - agreement-based, consensus-driven, no strong sense of ownership or territory

I've worked with a lot of organizations over the years, and can practically picture some of my clients for each of the models above. In my experience, each "mental model" implies very different ways of working and therefore results. Some examples coming from my own professional experience:

• Model 1 is more and more rare. It tends to be found in organizations with intranets that are still in Stage 1. This is because the intranet is still perceived to "belong" to a single department.
• Model 2 suggests a spirit of partnership. Communication and IT are beginning to realize they need each other.
• Model 3 is one I've found in organizations where business and local entities play little or no role in the intranet. This model tends to exist in intranets driven primarily from headquarters, and the power balance between Communication, IT and HR lies behind the triangle model.
• Model 4 tends to bring fast-moving results because there is a strong sense of delivering to internal customers, who in turn put pressure on the intranet team and compete for attention and resources.
• Model 5 in a large organisation results in slow progress, sometimes actually coming to standstills on major decisions.

My quick analysis of the 5 models is not based on research, but on what I've seen and experienced over the years. I'd like to know what you think.

Do you agree that there are different "mental models"? Do you agree with my "interpretations"?

Do you fit into one of these "mental models"? If not, how do you perceive the ownership of the intranet in your organization?

In times of crisis, is the intranet an afterthought?

From participants in the recent pre-survey Quick Poll... 

Our biggest pressure point

"Placement/importance of the intranet and its teams within the organisation is by far our biggest pressure point at the moment - in economic crisis, restructures are causing the intranet to be an afterthought more than ever (i.e. 'oh the intranet, well someone can just keep that up to date, we dont need much headcount for that, theres an economic crisis going on'). The challenges to deliver through the intranet instead of external high-cost mediums means the opposite should be happening in times like this, but it just cannot seem to reach the radars of those at the top." 

Top management claims...

"How can an organisation fulfil all increasing requirements in regards of functions to an Intranet when top management claims the intranet to be the most important internal communication and collaboration channel and at the same time reducing resources both technical and communication wise?"

What about the future?

"We are dealing with extreme downsizing of already stretched intranet teams. How will this impact intranets in the coming years?"

Loss of experience, less time for everyone

"Loss of experienced publishers due to downsizing (crisis). Less time for everyone to maintain "public", static, non-collaborative content. (e.g. Information about the company, or policies). Public content is important because it provides general information and "body" for people who are not (yet) using collaborative workspaces. How can we motivate owners of policies etc. to realize that their content is important and should be maintained"

My comments:

Organizations are taking huge risks by ignoring or down playing the intranet during these tough times.
Those that decide to leverage the intranet to help the organizations save time, decrease and avoid costs, and communicate and collaborate better are those that will have a better chance at surviving the crisis and becoming stronger.
I wonder how many organizations have actually calculated what they save by downsizing intranet teams versus what they will be losing.
Practically none, in my opinion.

How far down the ladder is the intranet manager?

As you saw from my previous post, raising senior management awareness of the role of the intranet is a key priority for lots of enterprises.
In preparation for this year's Global Intranet Strategies survey, I did some preliminary pre-survey research with the members of the NetJMC & Co Linkedin group of intranet managers and asked them where they were placed in their organizations.

How far from the top of your organization is the first fulltime intranet person or team? In other words, how many levels under the CEO or top position?

"3 levels down from the CEO" was the most frequent response.
In my calculations to get this figure, I considered the CEO to be level 0, then counted down using the information in the answers. A number of people shared the reporting line in detail.
A couple people responded saying 2 levels down, saying that their manager reports directly to the CEO. Several more ranged from 4 to 6 levels down, but the majority were at 3.

Of course the interpretation of this depends on how hierarchical or flat the organization is. Three levels under the CEO may be quite high, or not very high at all!

I will nuance this question in the survey itself by asking participants to tell us how many levels exist in their organization, then at what level the first fulltime intranet person or team is placed.

Question to the readers of this blog, especially those who work in large organizations:
Do you actually know how many hierarchical levels exist in your enterprise? Is this a question that is relatively easy to answer?

Pre-survey Quick Poll results: Is the intranet becoming a workplace?

The 5-minute Quick Poll for 2009 gave intranet managers the opportunity to vote on the topics they would most like to see explored in the 2009 Global Intranet Strategies Survey. Managers from 165 different organizations around the world indicated which subjects on a list of 20 were "highly relevant", "moderately relevant" or "less relevant at this time".

The top 5 priorities all lean towards work and business this year...

1. "Collaboration, communities, virtual teams: tools & technologies, governance" is the topic that leads by far this year. It came in at 71 percent of the organizations rating it as "highly relevant", a 10 point lead over the other topics.
2. "Positioning and role of the intranet in the online workplace" is a strategic issue, and not at all obvious for most organizations. It's not surprising this came number 2 on the top priorities. 
3. "Senior management awareness, participation & support" is still an on-going issue, and is in position 3 on the list of "highly relevant" topics. 
4. "Obstacles holding back the intranet from achieving its potential" is in 4th position. This topic has been part of the survey for the last 3 years and analysis based comparing obstacles faced by organizations with intranets in Stages 1, 2 and 3 has provided a number of leads as to what to deal with and when as the intranet advances through the different stages. 
5. "Measurement & evaluation: ROI (hard & soft), techniques, indicators" is in position 5 on the list. Interestingly, it did not even make the top 10 topics.

The two charts below show the topics ranked in decreasing order of relevance.(I've listed the full topic description as it appeared on the Quick Poll at the end of this post.)

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Flashback to one year ago...

Last June, 114 organizations participated in the 2008 Quick Poll which preceded the 2008 Global Intranet Strategies Survey.
The two main different items in the top 5 topics a year ago are items 1 and 4 below:

1. Search & findability: user features, resources, satisfaction
2. Roles of the intranet/portal as perceived by employees & management 
3. Obstacles holding back the intranet from achieving its potential. 
4. Web 2.0 tools & features: usages, issues 
5. Single point of entry: integration of applications, other enterprise information resources. 
6. (same rating as point 5) Finding people: directories, expertise locators

What's next?

Many thanks to all of you who participated in the Quick Poll. The survey itself will open in June.
I also thank the 50 organizations (out of the total 165)  who responded to the open question where we asked for other ideas, comments and suggestions for topics. I'll share this feedback in a separate post. Stay tuned.

This year's survey results are going to be full of surprises, in my opinion!

As always, I'd love to hear from you if you have comments about the charts and data in this post. 

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

P.S.  Full description of topics as they appeared on the Quick Poll

Remember, these are topics, not the questions themselves!

• Collaboration, communities, virtual teams: tools & technologies, governance
• Positioning & role of the intranet/portal in the online workspace: entry point, separate system, purpose
• Senior management awareness, participation, support
• Obstacles holding back the intranet from achieving its potential
• Measurement & evaluation: ROI (hard & soft), techniques, indicators
• Home or entry page: type of content, customization
• Integration of applications: core business, secondary process support, enterprise systems
• Strategic steering group: role, members
• Information sources for employee data: which ones, how used, how kept up to date
• Social media: types, usages, benefits, concerns, governance
• Place of the intranet/portal team in the organization (function/department, level 49 %)
• Availability of the intranet to all employees: when, where, how (smartphone, home access, solutions for non office-based workforce)   
• Customisation & personalisation: how much, criteria, individual control   
• User-generated information: integration with information from traditional editorial process   
• Moderation and management of content in collaborative and social media spaces   
• Social networks, personal pages, social tagging   
• Solutions/tools for virtual teams made up of employees and external partners   
• Relation/impact of external social networking tools (e.g. Facebook) on the internal online workplace   
• Current economic crisis: impact on intranet, focus areas in 2009 and 2010   
• Sustainable development (“Green program”): impact or relation with intranet/portal   

Intranet basics from a user viewpoint

Ciba Solutions runs an unusual survey for end-users of intranets. It runs non-stop, and organizations are encouraged to share the link with their employees and to monitor the feedback in real time on the internet. The survey is always available online, letting intranet managers decide when the most useful time might be for using it.

What's interesting about this survey is that it lets you compare your end-user feedback to a larger pool of intranet users. (Organizations are not identified in the reports. ) Data stays in the pool for 15 months, after which it is considered no longer relevant and is removed.

The questions are very generic, dealing with issues such as finding information, contact details about other employees, product information, "how to" info for new-comers. It also asks common questions such as page loading time, access through mobile devices. It asks respondents to rate the importance of a list of items in "contributing to a valuable intranet".

The first 30 organizations who participate will get a free "comparison" report showing how their intranet compares to others. Otherwise, the report will cost $290. You can also get a 4-page individual analysis for $200. According to the home page dated 12 May, 13 organizations have used this survey so far.

I asked Andrew Wright of Ciba Solutions what observations he's been able to make so far based on his first analysis of approximately 500 users from 6 different organizations:
His response was: (I quote)

• The questions related to the interactivity of the intranet (ie. The Web 2.0/Collaboration related questions, blogs, wikis, etc) have received low scores from all organisations indicating to me that Web 2.0 is yet to catch on with typical end users.
• Using the intranet as a staff directory still appears to be its main use, though news is coming a close second.
• Using the intranet to actually ‘do work stuff’ is pretty low.
• End users are generally finding the intranet to be ‘very useful’.
• The biggest area for improvement making information easier to find (search & navigation).

I'm very curious to see how this survey service evolves, and whether or not intranet managers find it a useful tool for getting user feedback. Some may feel it is not specific enough to their own cases. My take on this survey is that it is not intended to measure whether or not your intranet is fulfilling a specific strategy or purpose. What's interesting is that the questions are so basic they can be considered "what every intranet should do". It's sometimes easy to get caught up in offering new services to users, and forgetting to improve some of the basics.

Andrew's comments above fall into line with some of the high level conclusions drawn by our Global Intranet Strategies Survey which is conducted with intranet managers and is now entering the 4th year.
We've seen that:

• Intranets used as work tools is a fast growing trend, but not yet the case for the majority of participating organizations. (Organizations with intranets in Stage 3 have reached this point - but that's just over 20 % of the 2008 survey participants)
• At least half the organizations have major issues with search. (50 % dissatisfied.)
• Even 40 % of the organizations with intranets in Stage 1 (still far from being a work tool) say that if their intranet went down for 1 or 2 hours, employees would be disrupted in their work. This must mean they are considered "very useful". (This compares to 90 % in Stage 3).

Ref: Highlights from the 2008 survey, including descriptions of the 3 stages.

Intranets & business impact

I have uploaded the presentation in the long version that I had planned to give at the J.Boye Philadelphia 09 conference. I was unable to travel and delivered a shorter version remotely.
Here is the original slidedeck. Ask me any questions you have and I'll be glad to answer them here or by email if you prefer.

Intranets & Business Impact by JMC

View more presentations from Jane Mcconnell.

Is the intranet ecosystem in synch with intranet managers?

- - - - - - - Intranet manager poll - - - - - - -
As you may know, I ran brainstorming sessions in NetJMC&Co and Intranet Professionals (Linkedin groups) to find out what topics intranet managers want me to explore in this year's Global Intranet Strategies Survey.
Based on this qualitative input, I'm now running a quantitative checkpoint with a 5-minute Quick Poll to help me prioritise the topics.

In the Quick Poll, I ask intranet managers to rate the relevance of 20 topic areas to their current intranet issues and challenges. I did the same last year, and the data was very helpful for prioritising questions for last year's Global Intranet Strategies Survey.

I've taken an early look at the first results and already seen a few significant changes in priorities since last year's poll. I'll publish the results here in mid-May. (The survey itself will open in June and close early September).

If you're an intranet manager and have not yet been in touch, and would like to participate in the intranet manager poll, get in touch. (organizational email address please; no gmails, hotmails). This does not commit you to participating in the full survey in June. If you want to sign up for the full survey, you'll find more information here.

- - - - - - - Intranet ecosystem parallel poll - - - - - - -

Just for fun, this year I'm running a parallel survey with the same list of topics, and asking consultants in the "intranet marketplace" to rate them in relevancy. I'll then compare the results with the intranet manager ratings. We'll see how our views converge, or not! The results of the both polls will be published simultaneously.

If you are a consultant, agency or vendor in the intranet space and have not yet been invited to participate, please get in touch, tell me who you are (use your organizational email address please; no gmails, hotmails, etc.) and I'll send you the appropriate link.
- - - - - - - - - - -

The Quick Poll only takes 5 minutes. It opened Wednesday 29 April and will close Wednesday May 13. Last year, a total of 114 intranet managers participated in the Quick Poll. So far, since Wednesday, 118 intranet managers have participated in this year's poll.

Stay tuned....

Update on the J.Boye blog

I was interviewed by Dorthe Raakjær Jespersen of J.Boye about intranets: success, hurdles, major trends and what surprised me in the 2009 survey results. You can read the transcript here. on the relatively new JBoye blog.

By the way, the J.Boye blog triggers quite a lot of detailed discussions, so check it out and maybe put the feed in your reader. For a taster, read "Is corruption an issue?" by Janus Boye and the conversation that ensued. Other good posts to check out are "When system integrators take all the money" and "Decentralised web teams require central control".

How to measure the value of your intranet? IFVB by IBF

We are all looking for ways to measure the value of an intranet. Intranet managers often ask me how other organisations do it. The issue has been explored in the Global Intranet Strategies Survey since 2006, by asking some basic questions about indicators and techniques used.
We classified indicators into 4 categories:

• Soft - subjective and qualitative aspects such as increased employee satisfaction with the intranet
• Hard - objective measurements such as cost savings, decreased resources
• Quantified soft - combination of soft and hard, for example time saved converted into monetary value (dependent on agreement that the time saved does truly represent cost savings for the organisation)
• Derived - metrics using data from other enterprise or business systems such as sales reporting data studied before and after a sales portal is implemented on the intranet

One thing that is clear is that organisations with the more advanced intranets (in Stage 3 for example) measure more than the others:

• The Global Intranet Trends for 2009 Report shows that from 70 to 80 percent of all 3 stages use "soft" indicators.
• Stage 3 leads in the use of "hard indicators" (55 percent, compared to just over 30 and 20 percent for Stages 2 and 1 respectively).
• Stage 3 also leads in "quantified" at just over 30 percent, followed by Stage 2 at just over 20 percent and Stage 1 just under 10 percent.
• "Derived" are the hardest to conduct, and all 3 stages are at a similar low level under 15 percent.

The IBF team have made a significant step forward in designing a systematic approach to the question of intranet value. The IFVB (Intranet Financial Value Benchmarking) is designed to help organisations identify both the cost of the intranet and the value it brings to the organisation. It highlights both exploited and unexploited values. It is based on a full view of looking at all the functional and business areas of the organisation and includes different types of indicators.
The model was developed with financial analysts and some of the IBF’s member organisations including BT whose intranet manager Mark Morrell will be participating in IntranetsLive next Tuesday May 5th. He will be talking about how BT used the IFVB to highlight both areas of current value and new areas of potential value to explore. The IFVB model uses time-saving and increased productivity figures ("quantified soft") as one of the major types of indicators, but places them in a context that also includes "hard" indicators as well as some "derived indicators".
We intranet people know intuitively that a well-designed intranet helps people save time, thereby work more productively. However, this belief will not necessarily be shared by high level budget holders who may not have personally experienced the satisfaction of finding the right person to answer your question in seconds, or the frustration of spending a hour searching for a document and never being sure to have found the right version. The global approach used by the IFVB model, organised by function and business activity, gives more strength to the time-saving figures by placing them in a business-oriented framework side by side with other figures including process streamlining, savings in travel costs and real estate through remote and mobile working, and more.

I highly recommend tuning into IntranetsLive next Tuesday, May 5th, to hear what BT has to say about IFVB. More information here. You can get a first time visitor's pass if you are not a member.

(IntranetsLive is the monthly online intranet event created by IBF and followed by intranet managers around the world. IFVB is a service that can be purchased by members and non-members of IBF)

Unfortunately, I won't be online next Tuesday, as I'll be in Philadelphia at the JBoye event, but would love to hear from any of you on how you have gone about evaluating the value of your intranet.
Have you ever done a study on ROI?
If so, what types of indicators did you use?
Any specific point you'd like to see developed in this year's Global Intranet Strategies survey around the ROI issue?

Intranet Innovation Awards final week to sign up

Applications to participate in the Intranet Innovation Awards for 2009 will close this Friday May 1st. You can see from a list of previous winners how enterprises are using their intranets to business advantage.
This is a good year to demonstrate that to management!
As one of the judges in the awards, I am looking forward to seeing the entries this year.
What I like about the awards and the reason I have accepted to be one of the judges is that they do not attempt to identify "best intranets" which I personally think is impossible. Instead, the goal is to give recognition to specific innovations within intranets. So if you have done something on your intranet that you think is different and brings value to your organisation, consider entering the competition!
Winners get a lot of visibility, which is good for the winning teams but also for intranets in general. It helps bring intranets higher on the senior management radar screen and that's good for all of us!

Why is enterprise search so hard?

Enterprise search is scary. We've all heard horror stories about how it does not work, how much it cost, and so on. Many of us have experienced this grief firsthand.
Just a couple of days ago, the intranet manager in an organisation I'm working with said to me "I wouldn't count on the search engine. I'll send you the links." That's exactly what he did as we visited his intranet and I identified things I wanted to go back and examine. This organisation is far ahead of many in that their intranet is accessible from outside the official workplace and authorised external people (like me) can get access within 24 hours. That's truly exceptional.
However, when it comes to enterprise search, they, like most organisations are in trouble.

The Global Intranet Trends for 2009 Report states that out of the 226 organisations who participated in the survey... "Only 10 percent are 'very satisfied' although another 40 percent are 'moderately satisfied'. That means half the participating organisations are dissatisfied with their search implementation. The figures are slightly more favourable than in the previous year's survey where 60 percent reported dissatisfaction. However, this situation is thought-provoking for organisations where access to the right information rapidly is a business success factor. " (page 49).

If you want to gain a better understanding of enterprise search, I highly recommend reading "Successful Enterprise Search Management" by Stephen Arnold and Martin White. Both are recognised experts in the field of search, and the cost and few hours required to read their book will bring you a good understanding of what's involved and what's required to succeed. There is more information on the Intranet Focus web site, and as you can see from the table of contents, you'll get a full view of search management from the introduction through to implementation.

Topics planned for this year's Global Intranet Strategies Survey

After considerable thought and field research, I've identified the key topic areas I plan to address in this year's Global Intranet Strategies Survey, which will result in the up-coming Global Intranet Trends for 2010 Report.

Now is your chance to influence the choice of topics. I've consulted with many intranet managers in both Intranet Professionals (Linkedin group for all intranet professionals, managed by Anne Mitchell) and NetJMC&Co (Linkedin group dedicated to intranet managers, managed by myself) as well as on this blog. (Thank you all.)
I'll be presenting this list this morning to a group of intranet managers from large organizations (at the JMC Paris breakfast) for their feedback.
I have posted this list here, hoping for your feedback!

What follows are the topic areas, not the actual formulation of the questions.

The positioning of the intranet within the organisation

• What systems and applications feed the intranet
• What processes are supported by the intranet (core business, secondary support such as HR)
• To what extent the intranet is the entry point into the organisation's information resources, systems, ...

Employee data

• What different information sources do organisations have for employee data (ERP, directory, phone system...)
• How it is used (filter, personalise, org charts...)
• How it is kept up to date (by employees, by HR, which methods, ...)

Collaboration, communities, virtual teams

• Moderation and management of content in these "spaces"
• Guidelines, regulation; what type, how much
• Which social media tools & technologies are being used and how

Governance and operational management

• Where is the intranet team placed in the organisation (which division or function and how high)
• Existence of high level steering group and membership

Areas to be explored through open questions: (each year 3 to 4 open questions are asked)

• What impact are social media having internally on how people work/collaborate/communicate?
• Is ROI measured on intranets and if so, how: indicators, methods?
• How is user-generate information being integrated with information coming from the traditional editorial process?
• Does an organisation's green agenda" (sustainable development programme) impact or influence the intranet and if so, how?

The topics that have been excluded this year (and will probably return in 2010) are:

• Search and findability
• Number of intranet resources (people)
• Content strategies
• Meta data

Marker and segmentation questions
There will of course be a small number of indicator questions that have been present every year since 2006, as well as a few questions about organisational demographics and types of intranets/portals that facilitate analysis and segmentation of the responses.

Feedback please!
Let me know your thoughts on these plans.
Is there a topic I've missed that you'd like to see included?
Have I included a topic that you feel is of only secondary importance?
Do you have any specific questions you'd like to see added?

A must-read for intranet managers: Twitter = 17 things

"Twitter makes altruism the work of a few seconds". This is a quote from Andrew McAfee's blog post "“17 Things we Used to Do”. Maybe "altruism" is not the right word for enterprises, but the spirit of the word is definitely right on.
This post is a must-read for intranet managers.

Andrew concludes his post with: "I think it’s important .... to keep in mind that not all exchanges are governed by incentives, mutual benefit, or economic rationality. Sometimes they’re governed by simple neighborliness, and Twitter is an awfully big neighborhood."

An enterprise is also "an awfully big neighbourhood" or should be!

I am still surprised that Twitter has not made a bigger entry into the enterprise neighbourhood. The data from the Global Intranet Strategies Survey from 2008 revealed that only 15 percent of the enterprises at Stage 3 (most advanced) intranets say that they are "testing" micro-blogging or "implementing it in some parts of the organisation". Zero % have optimised it or extended it to "general use".

Five percent of the enterprises with intranets at Stage 1 (least mature) are testing it, with 95 percent saying they are not considering it.

I expect the numbers to increase significantly this year. I sure hope they do!

Any of you out there with "Twitter behind the firewall" stories to share?

And, by the way, I should NOT be saying "behind the firewall". That's a concept that is changing rapidly as organisations are finally saying (out loud) that a lot of their project work involves external people, and that employees and external partners need to share information and therefore information systems.

So, any of you out there with "Twitter to help us do our jobs" stories to share?

The intranet - what is the elevator pitch?

I started an interesting discussion with my suggestion that the word "intranet" should be changed to something more relevant such as "web workplace" (which came from a brainstorming session inside NetJMC & Co on Linkedin).

The discussion has evolved in three places: this web, Column Two, and NetJMC & Co.

I've followed it closely in all 3 channels and have come to understand that intranet managers in companies where the intranet is already at Stage 3 do not feel a need to change the vocabulary.
This is for one of 2 reasons:

• They already have strong brands for their intranets that connote "online workplace"

or

• Their users are focused on services offered by the intranet and relate to those services more than the platform itself where those services reside (= the intranet).
  In these cases, the intranet has become invisible and is simply a transparent platform for essential services.

Organisations where the intranet is not yet positioned as essential work tools DO feel the need for a new term. "Web workplace" resonates with them. They believe it will help them trigger senior management interest because the term carries the purpose of what they are trying to achieve.

• "Thanks for opening up the discussion about what terms could replace the outdated intranet. "
• "To me, telling someone that I manage strategic direction and content management for our web workplace for employees provides a much clearer understanding of my role than referring to the intranet."

It is easy to say that words do not make a difference: it's what we do that counts. That's true when we are in the "friendly territory” of intranet-land where Intranet managers talk to each other and to business people who have "understood".

When we move to potentially "hostile territory" (just joking, but only a little) we need to change our language. I have a client I'm helping prepare for a 15 minute presentation to the top management board of his company. (90,000 employees). He has a short slot on their heavily-charged agenda (at a moment where the economic climate is tough) to request a multi-million euro budget to build an enterprise portal over the next 3 years.

What should he call the “thing” he is talking about? The intranet? The "enterprise portal"? The “web workplace”? How does he explain what he is talking about? Which term speaks for itself?

Words make a difference. They trigger reactions. They represent values. They are the “elevator pitch” which is what most intranet managers have a lot of trouble doing.

What term to you think works best from a "senior management perception" viewpoint?

A Knowledge Sharing Summit for Online Professionals

If you are in the US or can get to the East Coast from Europe (flights are cheap these days!) in early May, I suggest you consider attending the J.Boye conference in Philadelphia from 5 to 7 May. I'll be there opening the intranet track.
There will be other speakers from Europe which makes it a great chance to share ideas and experiences in a truly international context.
Some participants in the Global Intranet Strategies survey from the US will be there too: 3 will be presenting aspects of their intranets. We're definitely going to have a Global Intranet Survey get-together since we know each other virtually only!
If you decide to sign up, use the code "Jmcphilly" which will give you a reduction of 20 %.
I know times are hard right now and budgets are tight, but if there's any way you can make it, I'm sure you will not regret it. The J.Boye events in Europe are well-attended with lots of repeat participants from year to year. This is their venture into the US and they are doing it with a very professional, international flavor in spite of the challenging economic context. I'm looking forward to it very much.
Don't hesitate to contact me directly if you'd like more info.

Web Workplace - a new word for intranet?

We need to find a new word for "intranet".
Why? Because we need to wake people up, lose the "dead wieght" we have with the word "intranet", help people - especially top management - focus on why intranets are business critical.

I turned to the members of NetJMC & Co, the Intranet manager group I run on Linkedin (over 300 members around the globe), and asked them the following...

"The word "intranet" is out-of-date in my opinion. I'm often asked how I defined "intranet" for the Global Intranet Strategies Survey, and I confess it is getting harder and harder to have a meaningful definition.
I'm considering concepts like "the intranet-enabled workplace" or the "web-enabled workplace" or the "connected workplace".
I need to find a phrase that embraces all the things intranets do (or could do) for people and for business.
Can you help me find a phrase or word for this?
Ideally we need a term or phrase that also speaks to senior management. "

Here's the brainstorm that resulted from my question:

• Web office
• Online office
• Online interactive workspace
• Online workspace
• Online interactive website
• Online desktop
• Online workplace
• My workplace available anytime anywere
• Employee Connected Office
• Collaborative Employee Workspace
• Mobile workspace
• My deskspace
• Workspace anywhere
• Employee Portal
• Resource and Collaboration Portal
• Communications and information mangement platform / portal
• Workplace Web - getting business done - Together
• Company information, news and collaboration portal
• Workplace Channel
• Communication and Information Channel
• Workplace Connections
• Web Workplace
• My Collective and Personal Workplace
• Adaptive Workplace
• Intranet Portal
• Workbench
• Online-Desktop

My personal favourite from this list is the Web Workplace. I like it because:

• It is not limited to internal, and expresses the business need to provide workspaces for mixed teams (internal + external)
• It focuses on work, business, what people need to do.
• It can be abbreviated into WW!

I sent out a message on Twitter about my preference, and got the following responses:

Response: "Web workplace. Not bad, but doesn't really indicate anything internal, to me. Or was that intentional?"
JMC - YES, that is part of the intention!

Response: A "Web workplace" is for Digital Nomads & is intra-extra-internet enabled.
JMC - Exactly!

Response: "Doesn't get my vote definitely needs to be a one word solution for me"
JMC - I agree, but what...???

Response: "I like it"
JMC - Me too!

Response: "Not sure if i agree with the "web" part... in my company we are creating a new "intranet" based on a RIA application"
JMC - Good point. Could you elaborate a little?

So, the conversation is not yet finished.....

Please give me your ideas on this. I feel it is really an important issue and can be part of the solution for making intranets more meaningful and visible to management, and thereby better resourced and supported in general.
What are your favourites from the list above? Do you have other words to suggest?
- - -

P.S. If you're an intranet manager and haven't yet joined NetJMC & Co, drop me an email or click here to request membership: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1360277