Angie Cullen

When building a business case around a social Intranet, there are a few key components to consider.  Here are five suggested features that you might ask your potential vendors to demonstrate.

Forum Collaboration
By using a forum or threaded discussion  tool, you can engage your employees around specific topics and challenge them to start talking about topics that matter to them. For instance, Project Managers might discuss the project they are working on along with the status of that project, IT employees may share valuable technology updates, and HR personnel may share links to recruiting best practices.  Be sure that the tool  allows employees to create a profile and specify the topics they are interested in. This also provides a way for employees to get to know their colleagues and share information.

Social Tagging and Ranking
Although search engines are getting smarter by the minute, nothing replaces the ability for an employee to indicate whether an article or piece of content was useful to them in their job. Especially if the search engine takes that ranking into account in ordering their search results (e.g. articles they ranked higher, should be placed higher in the results). In addition, if employees are able to add their own keywords that helps influence search results, they will be able to find information that is more meaningful to them much more quickly.

Document Storage & Collaboration
With a document storage and collaboration tool, employees can find and share documents easily.  This tool will allow employees to create, open and edit documents by placing them in a centralized location that’s easy to access. Having this tool will allow multiple users to work and collaborate in real-time, based on the permissions that are set by the owner, on a document simultaneously.  A document collaboration tool can also help you cut down on storage costs. Employees will no longer need to email a status report, PowerPoint deck, or Excel spreadsheet to the entire project team (these multiple copies take up storage on the email server). Instead, they can simply email a link to the single copy stored on the Intranet and use check in/check out functionality to edit that single document.

Expertise Finder
Employees consistently rank the company directory as one of the most used functions of their Intranet. An expertise finder takes that directory one step further and allows users to identify employees that hold specific knowledge or expertise. This is paired with the ability for employees to create their social profiles and self-report their skills. Similar to tagging content, employees should also be able to tag other employees with terms that they could use in the future to find that expert again (e.g. tagging someone as “Intranet administrator”)

Knowledge Base or Wiki
Your employees have a great wealth of knowledge and given the opportunity many of them want to share it. Be sure to ask your potential Intranet vendors whether they offer a knowledge base or wiki functionality that would allow your employees to quickly, easily share nuggets of knowledge that may assist other employees. Keep in mind that it must be easy to use and be integrated with the search functionality so employees can use a single search to locate people or content.

These five key components  are just a few of the items to consider when reviewing potential software solutions for a social Intranet. Be sure to ask each of your vendors to demonstrate the functionality and consider inviting a few of your end users or members of your Intranet Governance Council to the demos to get their input, as well.

Have additional features that you think would be critical to a social Intranet? Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think is important or what has turned out to be a popular social feature for your employees.

Angie Cullen

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.

Be sure to let the members of the governance council know that while you value their input and opinions, the final decisions regarding design and functionality are the responsibility of the Intranet team.  In other words, everything that the members of the governance council submit on their wish list, might not make it in to the final product. By setting this clear direction and making the members of the council a part of the design process, you can leverage their excitement and promote collaboration, while ensuring that the Intranet design meets the needs of all departments and employees.

Sean R. Nicholson

Having been in the field of information management for quite a while now, I have developed a few credos that seem to prove more and more useful as the volumes of organizational information continues to grow. I used to drive one of my previous team absolutely crazy with this one:

“The only thing worse than no information is BAD information”

Think about it. When you have no information, you seek out answers, solutions, and advice. When you have bad information,  it’s likely that you don’t know it’s bad, so you react to the information. Only after you have used the information and determined that it was incorrect do you (after a few choice words) continue your search for good information.

Take an example of a call center representative who answers the phone and provides the customer on the other end with what they think to be the most current product prices from a document they printed yesterday. Little do they know that a new copy of the rate sheet was published a couple hours ago with significant rate changes that is now impacting their potential sale.

Did they have information? Yes! Was it good information? No!

The reality is that organizations are generating more and more information on an hourly basis. Take a moment and think about all the documents, spreadsheets, presentations, emails, voice mails, and sticky notes you generated on a daily basis just 3 years ago. Now, add modern day blogs, tweets, text messages, forum posts, comments, status updates, videos, podcasts, and wiki posts to your list and what do you get? More information? Definitely! But the larger problem is the fact that the information is now spread out in more places, making it harder for other employees and customers to find it.

In the past customers could simply call a 1-800 line for support and get one-stop service. In the modern day of social media, though, they can call the 800 number, tweet their problems, look for solutions in a knowledge base, email, complain in an online forum, post a video on YouTube of your product malfunctioning, or blog about it. Compound the problem with the fact that your employees are having a difficult time finding the most current methods to resolve the customer issues and you have quite an information disaster in the making. In fact, it’s a situation that could have a negative impact on both customer and employee satisfaction.

For some, the temptation might be to throw their hands up in the air and surrender to the fact that there are just too many channels out there. If you’re curious as to how confusing it really is, just take a look at all the new channels being created in the social media space alone via the Social Media Prism! Now think about what your employee-to-employee and employee-to-customer communication channels are going to look like in 5 years. Believe me…I understand the desire to just crawl back in bed and ignore social media. The reality is, however, that few business ever succeed by ignoring change. Instead, you’re going to need to stop dismissing social media (both internal and external) as a fad and start working on how to resolve the issue.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic product that I can sell for $19.99 to serve as the magic bullet. This one’s going to require smart people in your organization rolling up their sleeves and building a solid information management architecture. No, it’s not easy, but it’s going to be a requirement for businesses to survive in the future! A good place to being would be by looking at the following criteria:

1. How do your employees work? Are they being asked to store information in multiple locations (e.g. My Documents, file shares, document repositories, WIKIs, etc…)?
2. Do your employees know where to go for the single source of truth? (hint, hint…it should be your Intranet)
3. Where are you storing your information? In legacy applications that aren’t searchable? In repositories that require no periodic content review?
4. Does your organization offer a single search interface that allows employees to search information in multiple repositories?
5. Is your information governance killing your employees ability to share information (e.g. no blogs, wikis, microblogs, etc…)?
6. How are your customers interact with your organization? Are they seeking answers from multiple sources (e.g. Phone, website, Twitter, etc..)
7. Do your customers know where to go for a single source of the truth (hint, hint…it should be your Web site)
8. Do you have the infrastructure in place to respond to new types of interactions? Do you have corporate accounts for sites like Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, LinkedIn, and Facebook? Does someone monitor searches on your company and products?
9. Are you making it as easy as possible for your customers to get help and resolve issues?
10. Are YOU embracing internal and external information tools that will allow your employees to share information more easily and provide customers with more ways to serve themselves or seek assistance?

If you haven’t started a review of your current information architecture, it’s time to start and because I find the Social Media Prism to be so useful in explaining the external growth challenge that faces organizations, I have also put together an internal information stratification diagram that hopefully will help IT, Intranet, and ECM professionals demonstrate the internal complexities that exist inside the firewall.  Click on the image below for a larger view or feel free to print out a PDF version.

As always….this is a work in progress and all input, comments, feedback are welcome!

Internal Information Stratification Wheel

Sean R. Nicholson

Building a great Intranet environment is often about balance. Balancing acts like those between openness and security,  corporate needs and individual desires, and the balance between content and culture often make for long meetings and tough decisions. Internal communicators and Intranet managers often have to determine how much to share and the right format in which to share it.

Take, for instance, the topic of how much strategic corporate information should be shared internally with employees, and at what time.  Some organizations are willing to post strategic information like corporate earnings and key performance indicators on their Intranet in real time or prior to formal announcements. Others are concerned about employees sharing strategic information outside the firewall where it could impact stock prices or competitive behavior. Usually, the key cultural component as to whether this information is shared with employees is one of trust.  It boils down to whether the organizational leaders trust that employees understand the critical nature of the information being shared.

In situations where a strong bond of trust has been formed between the executive layer and the employees, leaders see the sharing of this information as critical to the success and growth of the company since it tells employees where they are doing well and points out where they can focus their energies to improve. These organizations often use the Intranet to openly share corporate goals and strategies, as well as the performance metrics to measure success. Along with the communication comes a consistent message of the importance of using the information internally and only sharing when and to whom it is appropriate.

At companies where that bond of trust has not been formed or has been previously violated, executives often feel that employees simply don’t understand that sharing earnings or performance information prior to formal announcements can have an adverse impact on the operation of the organization?In these cases, Intranets are often void of critical performance measures and are used, instead,  as communication vehicles for corporate events, product announcements, and HR information. Each of these are important functions, but of little value to the employee in determining whether their day-to-day activities are helping the organization advance its corporate goals and strategies.

In organizations where executives prefer to guard the information and release it to employees at the same time they announce to the public, employees often feel as though they aren’t “in the loop” and, at times, learn about important corporate strategies online, from local news sources, or colleagues at other companies. Hearing corporate performance news and announcements from third parties, rather than hearing the news directly from their executives, often propagates a feeling of mistrust between executives and the employees.

Realistically, it would be naive to state that the best practice is to always share strategic information with employees via the Intranet. The reality is that in large organizations or those with little governance, it just may not be reasonable to assume that providing real-time feedback on performance indicators is possible without having the information leak. Even in small organizations, disgruntled employees or accidental disclosure may result in the information leaking.

Therefore, the best practice for when to share key performance metrics will have to be based on the balance of trust within the organization and the employees’ understanding of when/where/to whom it is appropriate to share. As a result, Intranet professionals will have to work to educate employees as to the importance of keeping the information secure and disclosing only when their organizational culture dictates.

Thoughts, comments, or experiences? I always welcome feedback via comments!

Sean R. Nicholson

When it comes to managing Intranets, governance is one of those topics that tends to divide folks into some pretty extreme camps. One side contends that users should be able to govern themselves freely and, when left alone, content driven by the users will be rich and meaningful. The folks on the other side of the fence believe that content should be generated by one or more specific departments (usually Corporate Communications or HR) for consumption by the end-users.  Their position is often based on the argument that end-users would pose a risk to the organization by sharing incorrect, privileged, or inappropriate content if the wild west of end-user content were allowed. The reality is that these two camps each have their valid points, but the best practice is to land somewhere in the middle by allowing individual contribution, but providing some oversight.

While it’s always good to have one or two Intranet experts who understand the technical architecture of your portal and Intranet applications, it’s also valuable to seek input from not-so-technical Intranet power users from across your org. One tried and true method is to form an Intranet Governance Council that consists of the primary power user from each of the departments in your organization. By ensuring that each department is represented, you’ll hear about issues and concerns from throughout the entire organization and these representatives can solicit feedback from their end-users as well as help you spread of the word about upcoming changes or the addition of features/functionality.  When forming your Intranet council, it’s best to keep it to a small group, usually one or two representatives from each department and make sure to schedule a recurring meeting to get together and review your content management strategy and hash through any issues that might arise.

At the start, it might feel like there are too many cooks in the kitchen and some departments might attempt to set the expectation that their department should have more influence over the direction of the functionality or content. If this occurs, remind each representative that all departments have an equal share in the success or failure of the Intranet and working together is the key to success.  Sometimes this great quote from Henry Ford can help set the tone — “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

Sean R. Nicholson

Okay Intranet fans, here it is…the 2009 completely unofficial list of must have functionality for every Intranet.

**Please note that we reserve the right to update this list and expand it beyond 10 based on the great feedback and comments we will undoubtedly receive.

{drumroll please….}

# 10) Application Interoperability – There’s nothing like a good Intranet mashup. Being able to search for a user and see not only who they are (from the HR application), what they are working on (from the Project Management application), and where they are located (From HR + Google Maps) is pretty cool, not to mention that it brings relevant information to the user on a single page. Look for creative ways to mash up your applications and streamline information gathering. Remember that good mashup also leverage a “simpler sign-on” schema so that users don’t have to login over and over to see data in different applications.

#9) A Clean Design – Lot of functionality is good, but be sure to spend time up front determining what should be on the front page and what can be moved to secondary pages. Your users should be able to find content quickly and easily. Spend some time watching how your users physically navigate the Intranet and strive toward reducing the number of clicks they have to make to locate the information they are looking for. Need help creating a design? Bring in a consultant from the outside to provide an objective point of view.

#8) A Good Name – I always love hearing people refer to the Intranet by it’s given name, rather than “the Intranet”. Creative names allow folks to create an identity for the Intranet that gives it a life of its own. If you don’t have a name for your Intranet, try holding a company-wide contest to come up with names and then have your company vote on it. Your even more likely to get strong buy in if the name is chosen by your organization as opposed to being assigned by a developer with a Star Wars fetish.

#7) A Strong Navigation Taxonomy – Yes….it’s a Google kinda world, so folks like to find content through search, but when they find that content, they also like to see where they are in the navigation, using a folder taxonomy or breadcrumbs, so they can find other content that is similar in nature AND know how to get back to the content in the future.

#6) Personalization – Users need to be able to customize pieces of the Intranet. Whether it’s their weather, stock quote, news headlines, horoscope or other content, allow them to make the Intranet more useful to them as an information source. Also, by allowing users to relocate portlets or widgets, they can create a design that meets the way they work. Need a good source for personalized information? Look to subscription information providers such as YellowBrix.

#5) A Good Rich Text Editor – Nothing helps an Intranet grow more than content, so making the creation of content easy is important. A good WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) editor is important. Don’t forget to make sure your editor has a spell check. I speak from experience on this one (ahem…Plumtree/BEA/Oracle WebCenter)

#4) Governance – No need to go into full-blown lockdown mode, but governance is a good thing for any organization. It keeps your Intranet from becoming the wild, wild west and ensures that the content created has meaning and is relevant. Some areas of the Intranet (WIKIs, forums, etc… ) can be looser than others, but your governance strategy should be flexible enough to accommodate for these different needs.

#3) A Strong Collaboration Toolset – User created content will drive your Intranet page views through the roof. A good, spirited conversation about the latest product or marketing campaign can help spread the word about what your organization is doing and can drive new innovations. Try adding an “Idea Center” to your Intranet and challenge your employees to come up with new ways to do business. Products like user-driven blogs, forums, and WIKIS can turn your readers into contributors growing your content exponentially. Daily polls can also be used for gathering user sentiment on a corporate topic, or just for a little fun.

#2) A Federated Search Engine – Again, it’s a Google kinda world, so make sure your search works and it can talk to other applications. No one likes to have to search 10 different places for information, so leverage tools like Google appliances or federated search engines like FAST or Autonomy to bring all of your content together into one search. If you haven’t ever seen a demo of one of these “meaning” based search engines, give them a call and ask for one. You’ll be amazed at what modern search engines can do.

#1) Meaningful Content – The best design, the coolest name, even a great governance strategy…they’re nothing without meaningful content. If your users don’t find value in your Intranet, they won’t adopt its use. In addition (and I can’t stress this enough), the content MUST be timely and accurate.

The only thing worse than no information is bad information…Your employees will act using bad information because they don’t know it’s inaccurate. There’s nothing worse than a sales rep sharing an outdated rate sheet or a customer service rep providing an inaccurate solution to a problem. To avoid this, be sure your Intranet content is up-to-date and reviewed frequently.

There you have it, Intranet fans! 10 must haves for any good Intranet.

Additions:

Accessibility – Everyone needs to be able to use your Intranet. Ensuring that your pages comply with the accessibility guidelines will ensure that folks with disabilities can read or hear the content. Thanks to Russell @theparallaxview for the suggestion

Have input? We’d love to hear any additions, suggestions, or constructive criticism in your comments!

Sean R. Nicholson

Each day, it seems that more and more folks are dipping their toes into the world of Social Networking by creating Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and LinkedIn accounts. And each day, we’re entertained with stories of folks who get “Facebook fired”, shoot off an improper Tweet that lands them in hot water, or  and share confidential information on their personal blog. Recently, Helen A.S. Popkin wrote an excellent article for MSNBC.com called “Twitter gets you fired in 140 characters or less” which details some of the follies of folks who have overstepped the boundaries from responsible social networking into, well…just TMI.

Unfortunately, these types of activities are fodder for the cannons of reactionary corporate zealots who use these follies as examples of why companies can never allow employees to blog, tweet, or otherwise engage in social networking on company time or about any company activities. In fear of expensive litigation, disciplining employees,  or losing valuable corporate information they would rather conjure up hard line policies stating that no employee may engage in these activities using corporate resources during work hours. As if these policies are actually going to stop employees from updating Facebook or slipping in a periodic tweet from their Blackberry.

Flashback To The 90s…When The World Wide Web Was The Target Of Corporate Policies

I remember a time in the late 90s when I was working for a major Telecom company that required VP approval to have access to the Web at any PC. The company was so worried about employees wasting time surfing the Web that they turned a blind eye to the fact that it could be used as a powerful research tool.  In addition, the corporate policy on computer usage clearly stated that those found in violation of the Internet policies (meaning using it without VP approval) could be subject to discipline and/or terminated. Fired…for surfing the Web.

Unfortunately, those of us that were around during these times also remember why these draconian policies were in place. Come on…you remember the dolt in the cube next to you who just couldn’t resist sharing that latest chain email (remember the Nieman Marcus Cookie?) or  risque photos (a polite term for porn) using the “Reply to All” button. These folks were the reasons that the rest of us were under house arrest when it came to Internet access. They surfaced the dark side of the Web, driving the need for restrictive policies.

Luckily companies have evolved and removed or relaxed these types of restrictions and often encourage their employees to use the Web as a powerful research tool. Some have even moved some their primary business applications to “Software As A Service” (SaaS) applications like SalesForce.com. So instead of playing “duck and cover” and shielding their employees from the dangers of the Web, they’re realizing that, while minor infractions to corporate policies my occur, the benefits of using the Web as a tool far outweigh the risks.

Fast Forward To 2009, As Companies Wrestle With Social Networking Policies

So how do companies deal with social networking without repeating history and sticking their heads in the proverbial sand? The first step is to recognize that these activities are not going to go away. They’re not a fad, and they can be just as useful business tools and the Web has become.  To ignore these tools or discourage employees from using them would be just as narrow minded as pulling the Ethernet cables from the backs of their computers ala the 90s.

Employee Collaboration Fuels New Opportunity

The second step is to understand the tools. All too often I hear folks who say things like “Twitter…I just don’t get it.” Yet these very folks have either never created a Twitter account or have never spent time researching the whys and hows of Twitter and how it has worked for others. Instead, they scratch their head and shake their fist at a new, strange technology. By learning about the successes of others, we can all identify new uses within our workplaces for new technology. Feel like you’re out of touch, get yourself a Social Media mentor, as suggested in the ChristyWeb.com article “Do you have a social media mentor?”

The third step in embracing social networking tools is to guide your employees on their usage. Note that I didn’t say “Discourage Their Use” or “Mandate against their usage” or even “Tell them how to use them”. I very clearly said “guide your employees”. Let them know that their knowledge is valuable and that they are encouraged to share their thoughts and views, as long as it doesn’t violate the existing privacy policies, NDA agreements, or Intellectual Property agreements that are in place.  Remind them that sharing information on the Web in any form can be perilous and that they should consider whether they would want their boss, spouse, or mother reading or seeing their online exploits. Often, a simple reminder of good judgment can have as powerful of an effect as a harsh corporate policy.  Yes, you are going to have the dopes who just can’t seem to keep their “inside voice” from leaking out to tweets and Facebook updates and you’ll even have the odd photo or video that stirs up an HR hornets nest, but the reality is…those same individuals would probably be in HR jail even if Facebook never existed.

The other 98% of your employees will explore the technologies and some will find useful ways to grow your organization. Maybe they’ll find ways to enhance collaboration, present themselves to others as a leader in their field, or maybe even find new products or customers. The reality is, they will find new uses and opportunities when given the chance.

What’s the alternative? Write a complex policy banning them from social media activities that is both unrealistic and unproductive.And what fun is that??

For the record, I am blessed to work for a company that has chosen to embrace Web 2.0 and encourages their employees to find new, innovative ways to blog, tweet, and explore the value of emerging technologies. The result is engaged employees who think about new technologies and think twice before they hit the ‘Submit’ button.

Have thoughts or comments? I always appreciate feedback and constructive criticism through comments.