Globally local - locally global

Wikis make people nervous. Why?

Among the most popular posts on Globally Local in 2008 were those about wikis.

You can see from the titles that they all deal with the positioning of wikis and the intranet:

Wikis versus Other

Wiki versus or Wiki plus

Wiki magic, wiki panic

How have you positioned wikis in your enterprise? Do they make people nervous?

Core or secondary processes more valuable on the intranet?

We are investigating whether there are fundamental differences in how different types of enterprises gain value from the intranet when implementing process support.
We have defined the three following profiles:

• High rule-based: Half or more of the employees' jobs are process-oriented with routines to follow. Examples: airlines, hotels, service industries.
• High manufacturing-based: Half or more of the employees work in manufacturing jobs. (Raw materials turned into finished goods.) Examples: mining, construction, paper manufacturing.
• High knowledge-based: Half or more of the employees have non-routine jobs involving complex interactions and judgement calls. Examples: healthcare, consultancies, R&D companies.

The question is "What brings greater value to organizations: putting core business processes on line or putting secondary processes on line? (Core refers to the business applications of the enterprise, whatever they may be. Secondary refers to self-services for employees or HR, administrative or logistical applications.)

In all cases, have you found ways of measuring the value or savings achieved by putting the processes on line? Is intuitive recognition of increased efficiency good enough? Or do you need to or prefer to measure the value in concrete terms?

Please share a with us comment saying what type of organization you are, and your views on the questions above.

Essential and operational intranets - thoughts from J.Boye CoP

Sitting high up and looking down on the world is a nice way to get some perspective on intranet issues that too often tend to pull us down! Yesterday was a day well spent with the new London-based Community of Practice created by J.Boye.

My keynote on social media behind the firewall triggered a lot of discussion as did the firsthand intranet case studies provided by Allen Huish of BA and Simon Ashley and Janie Perrins of the Environment Agency (our host and the scene for my foggy photo down onto one of the best views in London - normally!).

Some thought-provoking take-ways from the day-long session: essential & operational

• The intranet is like an ATM machine (cash distributor): it lets you do what you want, when and where.
• If you want to make your intranet essential, find the one thing that everyone in your organization must do, and put it on the intranet.
• Measure, measure, measure. (This was emphasised in convincing ways in both case studies, although my personal experience is that this depends quite a lot on the company culture.)
• Track all operational goals (ref: BA case.)
• Be sure you really know your users. (ref Environment Agency case: they not only did personas - for which they won the 2007 Intranet Innovation Awards -  but also make the personas live on as the intranet team continues their research and gets to know the personas better and better).
• Understanding your user goals is good. But be sure to balance it with what fits your organizational strategy.

For more information about the J.Boye CoPs, contact J.Boye directly. I'm looking forward to my involvement in the Geneva-based CoP which will take place on February 24th. I'll be doing a workshop for J.Boye the preceding day on "Making your intranet essential".
(Note: J.Boye members get a discount on purchasing the Global Intranet Trends Report for 2009. Get in touch directly with J.Boye for the coupon code.)

2009: Efficiency, Energy and Voice on the Intranet

2009 will be the year of efficiency, energy and voice on the Intranet. Here's my take for the next 12 months:

1. Intranets need to catch up to what virtual teams need.

Management will look to the intranet as a way to achieve greater efficiency. Work habits and behavior are changing and will change even more, accelerated by the pressure of economic constraints. Travel is already decreasing and will continue to drop. The intranet will become the hub for virtual teams even more than it already is.
However...both the intranet and people will have to change. People will need to learn to use virtual meeting tools such as web conferencing and shared document spaces effectively. There's a lot of awareness-building and training to be done here. In many organizations, the tools are not yet in place.
Intranets and collaborative spaces are struggling to serve teams with both internal and external people. If solutions are not found by business and IT managers, teams will find their own solutions "off the grid".

The intranet manager and team who can tackle collaboration and provide efficient, workable solutions for virtual teams will raise the importance and the visibility of the intranet straight to the executive suite.

2. Intranets should be used to help energise nervous workforces.

Some people are worried about losing their jobs, being "sold", being out-sourced. Others are more stressed out because of time pressure, lack of resources, demanding deadlines and the way work is encroaching more and more on personal time.
Management needs to use the intranet even more than before to communicate to employees during this time of change and doubt. There needs to be regular, real, non-corporatespeak communication top down. It will be taken seriously if it comes along with opportunities for people to ask questions and get answers.

The intranet manager and team who can offer these features (most likely using web 2.0 tools) will take a big step towards increasing senior management awareness of the intranet and bringing real value to the organization.

2009 - a turning point for the forward-looking intranet manager and team.

I see 2009 as a year to be dedicated to efficiency, energy and voice on the Intranet. Here's what two participants in the 2008 Global Intranet Strategies Survey have to say:

“As we roll out a series of collaboration tools, the role of the intranet manager is about to explode in terms of importance and impact on the organization.”
“I expect web 2.0 to reinvigorate our user base and present new opportunities for ROI metrics. This will give heightened awareness to the intranet as a mission-critical tool.”

What's your take on 2009 for intranets? Please jump in.