Posts Tagged ‘Intranet Applications’
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Sharlyn Lauby, a writer for Open Forum, recently wrote an article called “5 Challenges for Human Resources in a Digital World” which shares the automation challenges that HR departments face today. Sharlyn explains that an array of automation tools is available to HR professionals; however, the adoption of this technology is slow. A great way to overcome computerization issues is to implement an intranet to share and store human resources information digitally.
Once an intranet is up and running, there are exceptional applications that can make HR documents and polices accessible to all business sectors securely.
Justin Olson from the Utah Credit Union, who has been on our intranet software since 2004, created two unique time-saving Human Resources tools on his intranet:
Non-salaried employees clock-in using Hyperlinked logos that are connected to their external time tracking system. Hours worked are tracked through one site so that HR does not have to login to another system.
Full time employees have a Human Resources widget for health benefits, medical, dental and 401K plan information. Justin said that providing all of the proper documentation in a central area has freed up Human Resources because less people have questions when all of the forms are easily available on the site.
Practical Intranet HR Tools:
- Encourage employees to use the intranet by solely providing HR forms and policies on the intranet
- Use the vacation application to track and manage absence requests from employees.
- Create HR e-forms; all files can be stored and managed in this secured area
- Manage employee course registration with the training application
- Obtain user feedback by adding comments and ratings to the bottom of each widget or application that you create. This way, employees can respond on how things are working.
- Utilize the anniversary and birthday widgets so employees can respond to their coworker’s special occasions
These are a few of the great ways that an intranet can automate HR in a protected and organized manner. How has your company enhanced Human Resources capabilities via your intranet?
Tags: best practices, Client Stories, Employee Communication, employee engagement, Intranet Applications, Intranet Design, intranet ROI, Intranet tips
Posted in Customer Stories, Intranet Software | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011
Building your intranet is like using a recipe. You want to make the final product enjoyable, and to do so, you need to ensure that all of the ingredients are well balanced.
I recently made a delicious dinner for some friends and was later asked how I did it. I slyly said “a little this and that”, but really, it is a tried and true recipe from my step mom, a chef. Over the years I have perfected the dish to make it “my own”, but I still have to peak back at my food stained recipe book to ensure that I am on the right track. With an intranet, similar to cooking a nice meal, users do not see the creative process until it’s perfected and delivered. Like a good meal, and as the site develops, the users will crave more.
Intranet design is similar to cooking in that it allows for revisions along the way. An intranet site starts with design applications that provide functionality to the site. You need to build up these applications with text, borders, pictures, in order to make the site operational and appealing to the user’s eyes. Along the way, you can add or remove icons, text boxes and documents to enhance the page. It’s a never ending process of exciting changes that increasingly make the intranet more accessible for the users.
Designing an intranet can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. Using an intranet that has pre-built themes is a great way to start the design process because it allows you to reset the settings at any time, but you still have a good foundation to work with. Starting from scratch can allow for originality and complexity in design options. No matter which alternative you select, you can always tweak and review along the way. I always find that an intranet, like cooking, can be fixed or changed at any stage in the process. Sometimes you may go overboard, but you can always start over or add something to balance the ingredients.
An intranet, like a recipe, can be modified to suit the tastes of the users. If your company is heavily invested in training and development, use the home page to recommend new courses that are available. Are you in an office that likes to incorporate work-life balance? Use the blog and photo album as a platform for people to share their activities and interests to promote employee engagement and involvement.
Lunch is arriving shortly and this blog post makes me hungry! Remember, designing your intranet is a fun project that allows you to be creative with its elements, just like a recipe!
Tags: Home Page Design, Intranet Applications, Intranet Design, intranet development, Intranet tips
Posted in Intranet Design | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
 The landscape of web marketing is always changing and shifting so it’s no surprise that Fathom SEO, a leader in online marketing, was eager to put a new intranet in place to assist with knowledge management. Fathom SEO, understood the importance of a dynamic, scalable intranet as their previous intranet was static and required users to know HTML to update information. The company also faced the challenge of on-boarding and training new employees in a timely fashion.
The very first decision the company had to make was whether to build their own custom intranet or to buy out-of-the box software. After deeming SharePoint too labor intensive and not a good allocation of development resources, Fathom SEO ultimately decided that purchasing a packaged intranet solution was the most cost effective and timely route to set up their new site. With a very quick growth rate, the company knew they needed a solution that would be scalable and very quickly deployed so they decided to evaluate Intranet Connections.
Kurt Krejny, Director of SEM Best Practices, took the lead on the intranet evaluation and kicked things off with a web demo walk through of Intranet Connections. Following the demo, Kurt jumped right into his trial site, began to build a shell of their intranet and within a couple of days knew the software would fit their needs. The main factors that ultimately led Fathom SEO to their decision to select Intranet Connections were:
- Flexibility of the software as regular updates and enhancements are provided
- Low setup overhead
- Ease of use
- Deep functionality and applications
- Scalability as licensing was one low price for unlimited administrators and end users
Using the pre-built applications available in Intranet Connections, Fathom SEO has been able to accomplish the following goals on their intranet:
Engaging Employees
By using Discussion Forms and weekly Quick Polls, users have a voice in the company to share their experiences and ideas for best practices. In turn, this helps Fathom SEO to refine their processes and procedures. Due to the open publishing model that Fathom SEO has adopted, the intranet has had great buy-in with employees as everyone can contribute to the site and share their knowledge.
Departmental Involvement
As Intranet Connections had a low learning curve, Kurt was able to hold a short training session with each department and within 2 months, all of the departmental sub-sites had been populated with all the relevant information users needed access to. A documents and policies area has also been set up within each department/service line’s sub-site so that all of the documents and best practices related to that product line are stored in one central location and are fully searchable.
On-boarding New Hires
The intranet has been invaluable with on-boarding new hires in a quick and efficient manner as all of the necessary new employee information and forms are stored on the intranet. New employees can easily find new coworkers’ contact information and learn about who they are working with through the Employee Directory.
Coordinating Business Objectives
Fathom SEO has set up an area on the intranet dedicated to the online promotion of the company. This area has helped them to set up a publishing schedule of blog posts and coordinate their social media presence.
Going forward, Fathom SEO plans to find ways to facilitate their company core values and corporate culture via their intranet. They see the intranet as playing a key role in supporting their company mission and value proposition and we are interested to see how they do so in the coming months.
About Fathom SEO:
Fathom SEO, based in Cleveland, Ohio, is a leader in online marketing, including Search Engine Optimization and Online PR/Link Building, Pay-Per-Click Management, Internet Video Marketing, and Opt-in Email Marketing programs. Fathom SEO is recognized as a leading search engine marketing firm with more than 10 years’ experience achieving high search engine rankings for clients across dozens of industries. Advertising Age has named Fathom SEO among the top 20 search engine marketing agencies since 2007. In 2010 Fathom SEO was recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing companies in America. Visit http://www.fathomseo.com for more information.
Tags: Client Stories, Employee Communication, internal communication, Intranet Applications, intranet deployment, Intranet Success, knowledge management, social intranet
Posted in Customer Stories | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
Last week, Dorthe Raakjær Jespersen, an analyst at J.Boye, wrote about killer apps on an intranet. So what is a killer app? According to Jespersen, a “killer app” is a service on your intranet that is essential to helping employees accomplish their daily tasks.
If you want to develop a killer app for your intranet, a good place to start is with your Employee Directory or your internal phonelist. A large number of intranet managers and intranet consultants that are part of the Worldwide Intranet Challenge group on LinkedIn agreed that the Employee Directory is one of the most popular applications on their intranets.
To make your Employee Directory a killer application, there are some practical steps you can implement:
Populate your Employee Directory with up-to-date contact information
Syncing your Employee Directory with Active Directory is an easy way to ensure that information in your intranet and Active Directory are up to date as any changes in AD will automatically be reflected in your intranet. Enabling AD Sync will also save your admins time as they only need to update information in one location.
Help employees find areas of expertise through the Employee Directory
Instead of simply providing contact information in your Employee Directory, include skills and job descriptions so that employees can easily locate co-workers in different department s that are sources of knowledge about specific topics and projects. If this information is not stored in Active Directory, encourage users to populate their own skill set and area of expertise by including an “Ask me about” field in your Employee Directory
Make all fields within the Employee Directory searchable
This step goes hand in hand with providing users with an easy way to find areas of expertise through the Employee Directory. Fields such as job description, ask me about, and skills all need to be indexed for searching so that employees can quickly find experts within the organization in an efficient manner.
Organize your Employee Directory alphabetically by First Name
Most staff members will know their co-workers primarily by their first name. Arranging your employee directory alphabetically by first name will it make it easier for employees to find the person they are looking for without having to use the search feature.
Killer apps are important to an intranet because they provide a positive influence to the rest of the site by encouraging employees to use the site and keep them coming back.
What are some of the killer apps on your intranet?
Tags: best practices, Intranet Applications, intranet ROI, Intranet Success, Intranet tips
Posted in Intranet Software | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
 What do you do when you find out that your staff will be divided between two locations during a major renovation period? How can you unify employees at the two locations and ensure that communication remains consistent?
If you are BC Place – the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics – you decide that the best way to overcome the internal communication challenges is with an intranet.
BC Place launched their intranet, built on the Intranet Connections software, in July with the goal of improving communication, increasing employee involvement, and enhancing information sharing within the organization.
As this was BC Place’s first foray into an intranet project, the intranet roll-out had to focus on introducing the concept of an intranet.
BC Place wanted to ensure that their intranet caught on with all users and would become a dynamic and widely used resource for corporate information. User education was the way to do it. Their message included:
- What the role of the intranet was to be within the organization
- Intranet site usage policies
- Content strategies
- Boundaries to the type of content that should be included on the intranet
BC Place is currently undergoing major construction to revitalize and modernize the facilities, including the largest retractable roof of its kind in the world (!) so a lot of the information on the intranet is currently comprised of construction news. Other information and popular communities on the site include:
Live Construction Updates
A widget on the site Home Page that pulls a live web cam feed of BC Place so users can view the construction site in real time
Press Releases
An area for employees to see all the latest press updates about BC Place
Road Show Information
A central bulletin board for all the latest information and updates about the community tour going on throughout the province
Employee Directory
A central repository for employees to find contact and location information for their coworkers, across the different facilities. Particularly helpful now that many staff members have moved offices or been moved to the temporary offsite location because of the construction
E-Forms
Streamlines daily business processes as users can quickly find and complete popular forms right through the intranet
Department Sub-Sites
Provides each department with an area to store their dedicated departmental content. Granular access to department info
Job Centre
A central area for BC Place to post job opportunities for its large group of part-time, seasonal employees
Although the IT team at BC Place spearheaded the search for an intranet solution, an intranet development committee has since been set up to ensure that going forward the intranet keeps evolving. The committee plans to meet once a month to discuss content strategies, share ideas for the intranet and plan for ongoing development of the site.
For more information about the features mentioned above, check out Intranet Connections: Intranet 2.0 Software.
More about BC Place
BC Place is the largest sports, exhibition and entertainment venue of its kind in British Columbia, hosting the province’s most notable events, including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Upon re-opening in 2011, BC Place will be the new home for the Vancouver MLS franchise, will continue to be home to the BC Lions Football Club, the 2011 Grey Cup and many other exhibitions, community and entertainment events. Visit http://www.bcplace.com for more info.
Tags: Client Stories, Employee Communication, internal communication, Intranet Applications, Intranet Design, intranet software, Intranet Success, Intranets
Posted in Customer Stories | 3 Comments »
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