Posts Tagged ‘intranet deployment’
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Northwest Medical Center (NWMC) needs an intranet. They are currently using shared folders in Outlook and networked drives to shared documents and information. They want an intranet to unify the workplace and to log and access employee knowledge. After a search on Google for “intranet software” they get 293,000 results. It’s a crowded market, so how do you get started with an intranet evaluation?
A fundamental decision in determining the course of an intranet evaluation is:
Do You Build or Do You Buy?
Should You Buy
Packaged intranet software would provide the team at Northwest Medical with the framework for an intranet ready to go and out-of-the-box. The software would be installed on a server and a default intranet site will be served up. At that point the site would be ready to use for populating content, choosing applications and default settings, building and ordering navigation and theming the intranet so that it is in line with NWMC’s branding.
| Pros |
Cons |
- Allows you to get up and running with an intranet quickly = no development required
- Minimal administration overhead = CMS in place and streamlined processes built-in, automated and customizable
- Ready to go applications
- Framework for the intranet is in already in place
- Delegation – anyone can manage areas of the intranet and publish content. Easy to use and no special skills required
- Easy and quick installation
- WYSIWYG options –drag & drop, point and click customizations, simple
- Proven track record – established vendor with references, large customer base, proven track record, intranet expertise
- Vendor does all the work – all future development, new technologies, user experience is done by the vendor
- Future development and features/functionality often customer-driven
|
- Restricted to the confines of an out-of-the-box solution
- May have to use workarounds to accomplish tasks on your intranet
- Not 100% customizable
- May not meet 100% of your needs – have to balance that with the lower costs
- Learning curve associated with new software
|
Buy: Cost & ROI
- Low initial cost as pre-built applications are included – no development required
- Time & cost savings on resources – rapid deployment and minimal administration
- Delegation – delegate publishing with CMS functionality
- Up-front costs – no scope creep that leads to increased and unforeseen costs
- Vendor does the work – you have full support & on-going development by the vendor
- Upgrades and added features and functionality offered (usually) at a minimal cost
- Focus on education and adoption vs. development efforts
Rapid intranet deployment allows you to free up resources to move onto other more pressing projects that are valuable to the company.
Should You Build
For NWMC, building a custom intranet could range from a developer building a series of simple HTML pages that are linked together (web 1.0) to building a fully custom CMS intranet with social capabilities (web 2.0) that is often based on an existing development platform like SharePoint or Drupal. An intranet platform provides developers with the foundation and development tools to build an intranet and custom applications. Often a development platform will come with a few customizable applications, or there will be an open source community providing applications for sale that they have built using the platform. Typically these applications require development to fit into your custom needs and you can run into issues with the application no longer supported by the coder. The majority of the work requires a development team and/or consultants with intimate knowledge of the platform to build the intranet, but you have full control over the functionality.
| Pros |
Cons |
- Full control over what you build to meet your exact needs
- Integration with other IT systems and software
- Full custom scalability
- You only pay for the functionality you require to be built
- You fully control layout, content, and navigation
|
- Full control comes at a high price tag for resources and time
- Project scope creep can be large if initial project was not properly outlined
- Deployment can take years
- Heavy involvement with IT
- Staff turnover – developers leave and take their knowledge of the code with them
- Strong dependence on the person who installs and develops the intranet
- Developers tend to be more technical and you often need a UX designer to ensure a simple, easy to use interface for end-users
- The focus is on development vs. content
- Code development can be under-documented making it costly to maintain and expand the intranet
|
Build: Cost & ROI
- High initial cost – research, focus groups, proof of concept, development
- High # of resources – programmers, designers, DBAs, contractors, consultants, quality assurance
- Cost of platform – purchase a CMS platform but you still have to build and have resources in place
- Ongoing costs – constant development, bug fixes, modifications, new technology, user expectations
Long tail to see ROI as the initial cost of building an intranet can be high.
Buyer Beware
Purchasing intranet software can be considerably cheaper than the cost involved in building a custom intranet but fully investigate the costs involved in obtaining an out-of-the-box solution.
- Ask about hidden fees such as implementation charges, training, and on-going maintenance
- Build in a three – five year projection cost on your investment
Some packaged intranets can have a high price tag depending on the number of users in your organization. Most are modeled on a per user price point (costs listed below are in US dollars).
SharePoint is more of a development platform than a turnkey intranet. There are additional development and consultant fees that go along with a SharePoint implementation. The licensing costs for 1000 users on SharePoint 2010 Enterprise will run you about $195,000.
Janus Boye, founder and managing director of J.Boye recently wrote a blog post “eIntranet: A costly toolbox for stage 1 intranets” where he indicates at 4,000 users eIntranet would cost $250,000.
SaaS pricing models mean you are charged either per month or annually, also based on your number of users. This is a rolling cost, so it can be appealing for SMB’s to get in at a lower cost, but because you are charged monthly or annually those costs add up quickly. Intranet Dashboard (iD) recently moved to a SaaS pricing model that at $1,500/month for 1000 users equals $72,000 over a four year period, $90,000 in your fifth year and so on.
Ultimately you need to assess value for the money.
See how Intranet Connections: Intranet 2.0 Software can help your company.
Tags: From the CEO, intranet deployment, intranet development, intranet ROI, Intranet tips, Intranets
Posted in Intranet Software | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
If you’re anything like me, you love a good intranet story. In an article recently published by Motiv8 Communications, three intranet managers shared their stories on how they are working towards a better intranet. What I love about these interviews is that the focus of success is in employee participation.
SCANA Intranet — Christy Season
“My advice is to start with your employees – pulling together a group of employees who represent your employee population and asking them what their ideal intranet would be can give you incredible insight into what will work for your organization. What works for one company will not always work for another. Having employee volunteers participate in early testing on intranet mock ups or prototypes can identify issues early on with your design, long before you spend the resource time and potential money.”
Enbridge Intranet — Andrea Legault
“Do your research. Ask your employees what matters most to them; and when you have the answer, make sure you deliver. Employee involvement has a big impact; employees from across the organization were involved in the planning, design, development and roll-out of our site, helping to ensure that the result was user-centric and took into consideration how employees worked and what information needed to be readily available.”
Nasa’s JPL Intranet — Frank O’Donnell
“We learned just how strongly employees feel about having an intranet that works for them and their need for speed, fast access, and good applications. The other big thing we learned is the importance of finding the right mix of information to put on the intranet – adding enough to meet the needs of the organization while avoiding information overload in the eyes of employees. Different people have different thought processes in what they perceive they need and how they access it. That’s why you must look for clues in your metrics which provide a guide in what they access and look at on the intranet.”
To learn more about what Christy, Andrea and Frank had to share about their world class intranets, visit the full article at http://www.motiv8comm.com/IdeasandTrends/interview.html
Read more from our Intranet Success Stories as told by Intranet Connections customers
Tags: Employee Communication, Enterprise 2.0, intranet deployment, Intranet Success
Posted in Intranet Design, Videos | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Intranets and corporate culture should go hand in hand. If your intranet is not reflecting the culture in your organization and the site is boring or dry, consider how good old fashioned brand marketing can change attitudes towards technology. Apple does a great job in providing catchy and friendly names attached to their technology that helps to engage. Combine a catchy name with a clever tag line on your intranet, build a strong brand design, and you can do a lot to attract employees and reflect your culture.
So what’s the big deal about what you name your intranet? As it turns out, a lot. Just ask Mary Olsen, VP of Marketing at Delta Community who recently talked to The Financial Brand regarding their highly-branded intranet site.
“The Financial Brand interviewed Mary Olson, VP of Marketing, Delta Community, and talked about the credit unions’ creatively branded employee intranet, affectionately named “Simon.” Simon is the portal for all employee communications — the guy who knows what’s going on inside the credit union. But Simon is more than just an intranet. He is a full-fledged internal spokesman and mascot, complete with a costume and foam head.”
Devon Cook, Assistant Vice President of Human Resources and Training at Deseret First Credit Union and an Intranet Connections client, explains why they decided to call their intranet TeamNet.
“We call our intranet TeamNet to reflect a part of our culture here at Deseret. We put a lot of emphasis on teams: how each team supports the individual in their progress personally and professionally. It all works together in providing the best possible products and services to our customers.”
An intranet name, or creating an intranet identity with personality, is a great start to building your intranet brand and can help spread the word about your company core values. Attaching a personality can make the intranet more approachable for your employees.
Some tips!
| Keep your intranet name in line with your corporate culture and style |
| Consider a friendly and catchy name that you can build a campaign around |
| Use a name that reflects the goals you set out for the intranet |
| Use a tag line to help explain the purpose of the intranet |
| Choose a name that will be applicable to future growth and technology |
| Engage your audience: run a contest with staff for the best intranet name |
Some ideas!
| City Buzz |
The Insider |
District Junction (DJ) |
| Lynx (mascot) |
BUG (acronym) |
Intra-Scene |
| Society |
iConnect |
One Hub |
| Inner Circle |
TeamNet |
Common Connection |
| Brutus (mascot) |
The Watercooler |
Intra-Zone |
| Inside Focus |
The Edge |
Community Lounge |
| FaceTime |
Roc Worx |
|
Other Resources
For more ideas on intranet names, visit Stephan Schillerwein’s Intranet Matters Blog. Also check out Step Two Design’s post on Naming the Intranet. It’s a great resource and provides good information on what to consider when deciding on an engaging name for your intranet.
Update: another good article on intranet branding by Peter Richards on his excellent blog, Wheat & Chaff. Check it out here.
Tags: enterprise tools, intranet deployment, Intranet Success, Intranet tips
Posted in Intranet Design | 29 Comments »
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
We recently came across an interesting post by Kim Komando, who is the host of the nation’s largest talk-radio show about computers and the Internet. Kim also writes a syndicated column for more than 100 Gannett newspapers, and for USA Today.
Kim explains why even small businesses can benefit from an intranet and she makes some key points that can apply to any SME looking to implement an internal communication and collaboration intranet tool.
1. Businesses need constant, reliable, and secure communications with others in the company to ensure successful growth. Communication can suffer when information distribution is a huge task. An intranet can resolve that problem by providing a central location to post company wide communications like weekly reports, memos and corporate goals. This way everyone is up to speed and stays in the loop.
2. An intranet can save you time, and time is money. It’s an easy way to post important and relevant content for your employees so they are not wasting time looking for the right information. Publish events to an intranet calendar, add corporate policies, and give employees a simple and fast way to lookup and interact with information and tasks pertinent to their jobs. Business practices such as vacation requests and changes to HR benefits can be streamlined through the use of electronic forms.
3. Using an intranet is more effective than email. Broadcast emails and sending multiple versions of the same document or presentation via email can lead to confusion and information overload. Using your intranet to share documents, PowerPoint presentations, and videos is less intrusive, more interactive, and can lead to collaboration and shared resources. Document versioning through the intranet allows employees to work on shared files without confusion and the potential of overwriting someone else’s work. You can even monitor, track and moderate what work is being published onto the intranet.
Jumping onto an intranet can be a daunting task, but once you begin to provide valuable tools and interactive collaboration that will improve upon existing communication channels, the return of investment can be significant.
Read Kim Komando’s full article.
Tags: Employee Communication, intranet deployment, intranet ROI
Posted in Intranet Software | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
A strong roll-out plan can affect the immediate and long term success of your new intranet. Here are five key components to consider when planning your intranet launch.
Make It Easy
When preparing for an intranet launch, the last thing you want to do is to make it difficult for employees to access the site. Make sure that the intranet is set to be the default home page for all web browsers. Your IT group can push these changes out to all users through Active Directory Group Policies. Once you’ve launched, the first site employees see when they open their browser is the intranet, and they will never have to remember the URL.
Enable a single-sign on process for your intranet so that your employees do not have to remember another set of login credentials. Knowing who is logged into the intranet allows you to properly monitor usage, stats, and you can eventually tailor content to individuals, groups and teams.
Push for a company policy on restricting global emails, as it encourages daily use of the intranet. Don’t let mass emails be a competing form of communication within the organization. Place the intranet as the center of internal communication.
Brand Your Intranet
When you enter the latest top-rated restaurant in town, the ambience makes you feel: if the restaurant design is warm and intimate, you feel comfortable and relaxed; if the design is hip and leading edge, you feel upbeat and cool. Think of your intranet design as ambience. How do you want your employees to feel when they visit the site? Here are three different approaches to branding your intranet.
- Personality: create an identity for your intranet. Think of a mascot or name then design a logo and theme around the identity.
- Comfort: design your intranet to be in line with your corporate branding. Use color schemes, images and logos that employees are familiar with and are used throughout the company. Employees may be more comfortable with a site design where there is immediate recognition.
- Get Creative: create a different theme for holidays or for each season (spring, summer, fall, winter). This can help to pique interest by introducing fresh designs throughout the year.
Above all, keep your designs simple. Don’t overcrowd with content on the home page, don’t put in flashy graphics that blink, don’t use a black background with hot pink font, and don’t overwhelm.
Go Social First
Employee engagement is critical when it comes to user adoption of the intranet. If you can engage employees from the first visit to the site, you are well on your way to long-term intranet success. Humans are social by nature, so use the social aspects of your intranet to engage. Remember, your goal is buy-in and to get employees on the site daily. Once that happens, you can scale back the social and focus more on the tasks. Here our top five ways to immediately engage your employees.
- A successful intranet launch includes building awareness. An excellent way to do this is to include employees in the name-game. Set up a contest to name your intranet as part of the roll-out plan. You can even use the intranet to facilitate the contest by creating an electronic form and promoting it from the intranet home page. Employees can submit their ideas for the intranet name and the winner receives a prize and will be featured prominently on the intranet.
- People like to see and hear about other people so put employees on the intranet home page for launch day. Look for opportunities to feature employees: who just had a baby, who is getting married, does anyone have a milestone birthday coming up, and who’s heading into retirement? Most important: always upload a photo of the employee you are showcasing. Another popular tactic is to have your CEO post a welcome video, or generate a blog with (at minimum) three current blog posts from the CEO. This shows employees that management encourages and expects them to use this new tool.
- Another clever way to engage is to launch with an online scavenger hunt. This is fun and can help employees in using the site and finding content. “Hide” items on the intranet and ask employees to find the hidden content. The first three people to find the content (words, images, etc) are awarded prizes for their department. This strategy is an easy way to get a large number of employees browsing the site and introducing them to your navigation.
- Enable social media tools on your intranet. Ask employees to read, rate and comment on specific content that relates to them directly. Look for hot topics, both internally and externally, that impacts your employees. H1N1 is a good external topic so place tips on preventative measures, and what symptoms to watch out for. What is current and immediate in your company: are you working towards a product launch, coming up with a new brand, writing new policies, bringing on a new department manager, down-sizing, or expanding to new locations? Generate conversation about the hot topics in your organization, publish content, slideshows and videos about those topics and ask employees to participate in those conversations.
- Not surprisingly, some of the top used applications on an intranet are the employee directory and a buy-and-sell feature. Both have that social element and both can help to draw your employees to the intranet. Ensure that there are no paper copies of phone lists floating around the company. You want the intranet to be the only place employees can find contact info on other employees. Ask employees to post their photos to their employee directory profile (set one up for them before launch) and to fill in their skills and personal information/interests. For the buy-and-sell, ask people in your department if they have anything up on craigslist. They probably won’t mind having it also listed on the intranet’s buy-and-sell. You want to have real content loaded in these two applications before launch day.
Content is (Still) King
This may seem like a no-brainer but it requires careful consideration on how much content should be within the intranet when you launch. Our approach is in line with keeping it simple and don’t overwhelm – in other words, go for quality over quantity at the beginning.
Utilize the home page and create widgets to point employees to new and relevant content. Think in terms of what an employee needs. What information can you provide that would make their jobs easier.
Continue to promote content that engages. Promote a Suggestion Box application where employees can give input about the features they would like to see on the intranet. Create a home page quick poll, such as “how do you like the new intranet”. This shows employees that you’re interested in their opinions and feedback.
Although your intranet will include content that is generated by one, or a handful, of employees prior to launch, remember the single most important factor in your roll-out plan: allow employees to contribute content on the intranet. Employees want to be interactive with this new social tool, and by giving them a chance to contribute, you are ensured success in meeting your intranet launch goals.
Tags: intranet deployment, Intranet Design, Intranet Success, Intranet tips, Social Software
Posted in Best Practices | 5 Comments »
|
|
