Facebook as an Intranet – Part 2

8th October, 2010 - Posted By Sean R. Nicholson - 2 Comments

The launch of the popular Social Network movie coupled with Facebook’s recent enhancements to their Groups functionality has fueled the requests for my opinion as to whether Facebook is becoming a viable platform for an organizational Intranet. I’ll be writing a blog post this weekend detailing the technical/functional reasons that Facebook still isn’t a good choice, but in the meantime I wanted to share this funny video pointing out that many employees just don’t take Facebook seriously.

Your New Social Intranet Requires New Social Training

6th September, 2010 - Posted By Sean R. Nicholson - 2 Comments

Let’s face it, new employees who come to your organization right out of college are probably pretty familiar with social media. The question is whether they understand the business acumen and fundamental principles of social networking to do it correctly.

Facebook As A Company Intranet Is A Nightmare Waiting To Happen

29th August, 2010 - Posted By Sean R. Nicholson - 7 Comments

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about whether Facebook is a suitable platform for organizations to build a corporate intranet. The fact that most employees are already on Facebook, combined with the low pricepoint (aka Free) often leads fiscally-focused executives to make statements like “Why build an Intranet, we can just use Facebook.”

Is It Time For Your Intranets Annual Performance Review?

8th July, 2010 - Posted By Sean R. Nicholson - 8 Comments

It never ceases to amaze me how few people trust their organizational intranets. A tool that was designed specifically for the purpose of helping employees do their job better and faster is often the joke of the water cooler. Yet organizations knowingly ignore the fact that employees don’t use or trust the information stored on their intranet.

Periodically, I have the great opportunity to sit in front of a group of employees and ask them about their intranet experiences. Often, it’s in anticipation of an intranet revamp, so the need for a “do-over” or an evolution has already been defined at some level. While the individual users and comments might be different, they usually go start with something like this:

Intranet Tip – Weak Passwords Jeopardize Organizational Security

27th November, 2009 - Posted By Sean R. Nicholson - 1 Comment

As the centralized point of access to organizational information, your Intranet portal may also represent a potential security risk. This is especially true if your portal is accessible to employees via the Internet. If your Intranet authentication is tied to your Active Directory or LDAP, be sure to put policies in place that ensure that your employees change their passwords on a periodic basis. In addition, be sure to encourage (or require) employees to use “strong” passwords, that are comprised of a combination of alpha characters, numbers, symbols and mixed cases.

Intranet Best Practices – Creating an Intranet Governance Team

26th October, 2009 - Posted By Angela Cullen - 3 Comments

When developing your Intranet, it’s best not to develop in a vacuum. You may not be the best person to make decisions on how employees will use the intranet to do their job. Be sure to identify employees that will be involved in the maintenance of the portal and get everyone involved in the design process. Create an Intranet Governance Council that will include at least one member from each department throughout your company. Bigger departments might have 2 or 3. Let the members of the governance council represent their department and tell you what employees in their department need to be able to do their job more efficiently.

Book Review: What Every Intranet Team Should Know by James Robertson

13th October, 2009 - Posted By Sean R. Nicholson - 2 Comments

Regardless of whether you are a seasoned Intranet Professional or just getting started with your first Intranet design, I highly recommend adding What Every Intranet Team Should Know by James Robertson of Step Two Designs to your library. At 110 pages, this handbook packs a wealth of valuable information into a quick-read offering a background understanding of the evolution of Intranets, guidance on identifying the needs of your organization, and useful tips on designing a solution that meets those needs.