Posts Tagged ‘Social Software’
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
9:23am
Heather Jenkins is the HR Manager at West Coast Savings Credit Union. She is a key member of the intranet team and oversees 3 content managers for their intranet The Buzz. Heather is currently fiddling with her laptop in the 3rd floor conference room and mumbling under her breath. She checks the clock on the south facing wall. Everyone’s due to start arriving for the 9:30 intranet team meeting and her laptop and the projector in the conference room are having a minor disagreement.
Heather tries to get the projector working once more and pressed for time, decides that she’s going to need the big guns to help deal with the problem. Using the speakerphone in the conference room, she dials the extension for the Support Desk but the call goes straight to voicemail. She hangs up and opens The Buzz from her laptop, thanking the stars above for the “Chat to Your Support Techs” box on the intranet home page. Brent Myers, a fellow Communications team member, contributed that idea in the intranet suggestion box to help reduce call volumes on the IT help desk, and it’s precisely in times like these when intranet chat comes in handy.
Scanning the list of Support Techs, Heather notices her buddy Jack online. She clicks on his name, opens a chat window and types “Help! Meeting in 2 mins and my laptop and the projector in the conference room hate me.” Jack responds immediately with “LOL. Is that 3 times this month now? I’ll be right there.” Heather breathes a sigh of relief knowing that help is on the way.
“A Day in the Life of an Intranet” is a blog post series by Rachel Lai of Intranet Connections that explores how employees at the fictional company West Coast Savings Credit Union interact with their intranet, The Buzz, during the course of a day at the office
Tags: Employee Communication, Intranet Applications, intranet ROI, Intranet tips, Social Software
Posted in Intranet Software | No Comments »
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
8:45am
Kelly Bristow is running late for work. She is the Intranet Manager at West Coast Savings Credit Union (WCSCU) and is the primary administrator for their intranet site, The Buzz. Kelly has a 9:30 meet with her content managers to go over project status updates and at 8:45 she’s tapping her foot waiting on her Starbucks vanilla latte. Caffeine first, then race to the office.
9:02am
Kelly breezes past reception and waves a hello to Colin working the desk. She runs down the stairs to the Communications department and enters her office, flips on her monitor and brings up Outlook and Firefox. The Buzz intranet loads by default on all web browsers in the credit union. When they launched the intranet almost a year ago, they worked with IT to use the built-in Active Directory sync, which also auto-authenticates from everyone’s network login. “Hello Buzz” thinks Kelly as she sees her welcome message on the home page and launches her personal hub.
Kelly’s hub shows the latest Buzz News. Two new items this morning: an advertisement for an upcoming training course on Microsoft Word, and the daily posted rates. Interest rates up another point. As she sips on her coffee, Kelly notices three new alerts to check out and an Internal Communications post pending her approval. She turns her attention to the IC post, reads it and notes down her feedback before returning the item back to Brent Myers, the Member Services Rep, for revision.
That task taken care of, Kelly returns to her Hub to see what the other alerts were. There’s a new post from Morgan in Finance, requesting that employees sign up for a charity run benefiting the Canadian Cancer Society. Kelly recently joined a running club at the office and is up for the challenge of a 10K run. She leaves a quick comment on the post letting Morgan know that she would love to participate.
The other two alerts notify Kelly of two new comments on the books she recommended in the Reading Room, but for now they will have to wait as she needs get to that meeting. A quick status change from her Hub to let everyone else in the office know that she is in a meeting and she rushes out the door, notebook and pen in hand.
“A Day in the Life of an Intranet” is a blog post series by Rachel Lai of Intranet Connections that explores how employees at the fictional company West Coast Savings Credit Union interact with their intranet, The Buzz, during the course of a day at the office
Tags: Intranet Applications, intranet ROI, Intranet Success, Intranet tips, Intranets, Social Software
Posted in Intranet Software | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
A key hurdle facing any successful intranet document management tool is ensuring that the solution is effective and easy to use. When deciding on hierarchy, card sorting, or other means of determining navigation, what quickly becomes apparent is that there is no homogenous ‘user’ whose actions and preferences can be relied upon to evaluate if the proposed implementation will meet these objectives. The success and usability of your intranet will be measured differently by administrators, content publishers, existing employees and new company hires. To meet these different needs, it is useful to consider these key goals.
- Can a user who knows what they are looking for quickly find their intended document
- Can a user who knows the topic they are searching for quickly find relevant documents
- Is the system approachable for a user with no prior experience (i.e. a new hire)
- Is it easy to maintain
To achieve these goals a balance of document storage tools is required. Over reliance on one method of organizing content will quickly lead to an unworkable and unapproachable implementation. A classic and all too familiar example is a documents repository where storage, organization and metadata (keywords) are all delivered though one medium: The Folder. Consider this simplified example. Even with this small example several problems are immediately obvious:
Duplication of effort
Each department has been forced to re-invent the same folder structure already created.
Accessibility
The current organizing structure prevents a user from quickly accessing similar documents. Based on this example, if you are looking for all the corporate manual documents you would need to traverse 11 clicks to do it. This example also assumes that the department administrators have created mirror duplicates of each other’s folder layouts. A more realistic (and problematic) scenario is one where the child folders are completely different between each department.
Inflexibility
Consider a user in HR who is publishing a document which is both part of the corporate manual and a requirement for training for new hires. Where does the user publish this document? This is perhaps the most egregious problem of folder-only document structures as it leads to duplicate or cross posted documents.
Tags to the Rescue!
To prevent folder spawn and make intranet documents more approachable we consider adding a new element, tags, to our organization mix. To help explain how tags can resolve many of the issues in our first example, let’s see how we can refine the simple storage structure by missing tags and folders. Then we’ll revisit the three problems discussed above.
We’ve taken the original folder structure, eliminated the three child folders underneath each department and replaced them with 3 application wide tags (orange).
Documents, instead of being published in the appropriate child folders are now published directly to the parent department folder and then tagged with the appropriate entry to denote their content.
This is a hyper-simplified example. In a real company it would be wholly impractical to publish an entire department’s documents in one folder. It would, however, be equally impossible to store all a department’s documents in three levels of folders as our first example demonstrated so the difficulties we discussed earlier with accessibility, duplication and inflexibility would be significantly more pronounced. Now let’s revisit those issues:
Duplication of effort
The addition of tags has drastically reduced the number of redundant folders (that admins were required to create and maintain). Adding a new department now is the creation of one additional folder, not four, as the tags are available application wide. This administrative savings only multiplies with the complexity of any storage structure. Previously created tags are available from an easy input interface when publishing any new document.
Accessibility
Documents across different folders are now much simpler to return. Remember our previous example of an 11 click traverse to collect all corporate manuals. The same task can now be accomplished by one click on the Corporate Manual tag, immediately returning all documents from all folders that contain this tag.
Inflexibility
Adding tags has alleviated that perennial user problem of deciding between publishing in several different folders which are all partial matches for the document or worse, publishing different copies or links in every relevant folder. A user can now publish a document with multiple tags providing them the ability to denote that an item is both ‘New Hire Training’ and ‘Corporate Manual’. A document’s relevance and organization is no longer purely determined by the location in which it is physically stored.
Why not just search?
Search functionality is critical to any documents storage structure and we are not suggesting that tagging is a full replacement, but a document management system that relies heavily on search can have its own problems. Provided that you can count on the search algorithm to return the relevant documents, search is limiting in that your users may not be aware of the necessary keywords to use in completing their task. This can be especially daunting for users new to your organization. How can you effectively communicate key search terms to help these employees quickly identify what they require?
Tags can assist in this by providing visual search clues while a user is browsing your documents structure. For a user who encounters a document relevant to their task, tags can provide an immediate one click access to other documents in the same topic. Likewise, while a user is searching, tags can provide important cues for topics that they can filter by.
Tags can also help address the reality that there are situations in which relying on search will not be preferable. In this case it is always helpful to have your storage structure as approachable as possible.
Part of a Successful Solution
Tags are just one component providing new possibilities and flexibility of content organization. With the right tools, you can help eliminate time spent navigating a convoluted document storage system or sifting through irrelevant search results. Tools that build a better intranet, build a better business.
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Web 2.0
Posted in Intranet Software | 4 Comments »
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 »
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
Two recent articles caught my attention, both focusing on Enterprise 2.0 and how it relates to your corporate intranet.
The first was a recent post to Jakob Nielsen’s Alert Box “Social Networking on Intranets”. Jakob Nielsen is a well-known usability expert on intranets and the principal of Nielsen Norman Group. Jakob wanted to find out how to employ social features on intranets but in a refreshing angle: eschew the hype about what’s hot and instead look for what actually works in real life.
They collected case studies from 14 companies in 6 countries:
AXA UK
Agilent Technologies Inc,
American Electric Power
BT
IBM
Intel
Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development L.L.C.
Officenet Staples Argentina
Portugal Telecom — Sistemas de Informação
Philips Healthcare (a division of Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.)
The Rubicon Project
Sprint Nextel Corporation
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Telecom New Zealand Limited
The gist of the article made a lot of sense. Social software for the enterprise isn’t about the tools, it’s about what the tools let users do and how that addresses business problems. Before implementing that shiny new micro-blogging software, think about how it will be used, who will use it and how will it help solve a business problem.
“The tool itself is nothing; the value comes from the strength of its content.”
The article made another excellent point. Integrate your social tools into the intranet, do not use as an add-on. Integration is important so that users encounter them naturally, they are seamless and look and feel like the rest of the intranet, and integration allows for a single and unified search. A lot of other great points were made and I hope you can take a few minutes to read the full article at www.useit.com/alertbox.
The second blog post I found interesting was Andrew Wright’s Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC). Andrew’s site is all about end user benchmarking. What makes this blog interesting is that the information reported is driven by the intranet end user and reports on how they perceive their intranet sites and what they think makes the intranet valuable. The following findings are based on over 6,500 end users from 20 different organizations.
Ease of finding information and quantity and quality of content are the top two requests from end users – nearly twice as important as end user contribution and the site’s look and feel (this may be in relation to the following chart that shows users want a better design for their intranets).
Also interesting is what users are looking for when they log into their intranet sites
Andrew Wright sums it up with “Interactive functionality such as wikis, blogs and discussion forums do not appear to be considered as important as the basics of an effective intranet, such as finding information and quality of content. To develop an effective intranet, it’s important to get the basics right. Based on the WIC feedback, facilitating an effective way to locate content and documents will go a long way to making your intranet more valuable.”
If you are interested in participating in the WorldWide Intranet Challenge (WIC) you can find the registration form at www.cibasolutions.com
To learn more about how Intranet Connections is incorporating social enterprise 2.0 tools, visit the blog post Intranet Software Draws on Document Management, Employee Collaboration and Enterprise Tools
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranet 2.0, social media, Social Software, Web 2.0
Posted in Best Practices | No Comments »
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