Put it down to experience

I’ve been musing over a recent community site that launch and been reflecting on the development and project work around this. Its been one of the most enjoyable projects the Intranet team has been involved in. Looking at some of the reasons behind this we could factor in aspects such as clear sponsorship, a firm governance model, clarity over roles, good design brief and of course the desire and passion for this project to succeed. However, one important aspect that I hope is not overlooked is the experience all the key protagonists brought to the field. The core team had an average of over 9 years experience within BDO. I feel this maturity assisted in ensuring the project lacked any tantrums, egos, knee-jerk reactions, and ???toys out of the pram??? behaviour. What it did ensure was mutual respect between all those involved and personal responsibility to get tasks complete. In fact a model project for our organisations values.

Taking the first step on Sharepoint

Sharepoint is coming. By the end of next year our intranet and collaboration tools should be migrated to Sharepoint. Over the last 12 months I’ve been doing lots of research on the good, bad and ugly of Sharepoint. Work by Martin White and IBF sessions have provided the most value.

For me, it emphasised how Sharepoint was not built as a CM system but an integrated Information Management system. All the presentations, and previous Sharepoint intranets I’ve seen, appear just to treat it as a CMS and little more. For us to get maximum value from the deployment we must think of how documents, collaboration and content can be integrated across the platforms, both behind and beyond the firewall. We need to start thinking about a strategy behind this so some deep musing time ahead.

Although Sharepoint may be a year away from getting behind the firewall we’ve taken the first steps to developing a strategy group/working party, not IT focused, but in terms of how we can use the information management applications (thinking of layered content, outlook, instant messaging, collaboration etc) so when its time for platform migration we have some joined up thinking and ideas on how to get best use, not by product, but by KS, Collaboration and document management. Anyone interested in following this year long journey can check out updates here.

Like keeping score

I love metrics, analytics or whatever you wish to call them – for me it’s like keeping score. I’ve been putting some metrics together for two knowledge communities that are celebrating the 12 month anniversary of their launch. Whatever statistic you look at the figures are impressive. We also recently conducted an online survey on another knowledge community launched 12 weeks ago. Again the metrics and feedback are good – including time saved on tasks within the site. However, I still feel our intranet is unloved. I always hear anecdotal comments complaining about the intranet, however, when you talk to people they are fairly happy with their own communities. I think intranet metrics are akin to NHS statistics. All the measures show success yet everyone has their moan about it. Maybe it’s something we should just accept. A site that has to provide comprehensive knowledge care to the whole organisation may be foolish to think it will be highlighted as much as a private, individually funded site for a few users. However, when an emergency arises it’s the intranet that provides the immediate, free at the point of care, service for the whole organisation.

 

The decreasing value of a homepage

One of the trends for 2009 has been the decreasing value of the homepage on websites. When I started in the world of the browser the homepage was the ‘be all and end all’ of the site. You had to get coverage on the homepage for your content to be viewed. Times have changed. With differing adoption approaches directing users to sites (email alerts, notifications, alias urls, rss feeds, bookmarking) the savvy online user now knows how to get direct to what they need rather than go through a busy, distracting homepage that disrupts, interrupts and annoys. Common website homepages now find ways to grab us by the arm and shout in our ears about how wonderful they are and how much we need their products and services.

On my intranet I see a similar pattern. The number of visitors accessing content via the homepage has decreased since our 2007 comparison (see statistics below).

Visits via homepage

  • June 2009 – 35,669
  • June 2008 – No statistics available*
  • June 2007 – 66,961
  • June 2006 – 66,690
  • June 2005 – 64,450
  • June 2004 – 60,202
  • June 2003 – 48, 324
  • June 2002 – 34,897
    *No site usage software was available in 2008.

    The overall number of visitors to the intranet and the page views garnered from these visits have remained consistent throughout 2004 – 2009, yet access via the homepage is dropping. Why?

    One of the key factors within our new intranet template design was the ability to create alias urls (the ability to give a content page its unique name in the form of a url – i.e. audit.insite/pages/CCH. This has allowed users direct access to the task they need to complete without a detour through the homepage.

    In June 2009 1,232, pages were used to access content on the intranet. Of the traffic to our main knowledge community sites in June 45% went directly into their sites without using the homepage navigation.

    The user now has far greater knowledge how to navigate online. With knowledge comes control. A user can control their journey to a key tasks far easier than ever before. This presents a greater challenge for a Content Manager tasked with getting content in front of a user. It requires greater focus on search, the words used, key navigation and your adoption approach rather than just publishing on your homepage. That approach won’t work. At best they’ll just ignore the content and at worst they’ll think the homepage is a waste of space.

    • Build it and they still won’t come

    Anyone who has watched ‘Field of Dreams’ – a sentimental, modern fantasy classic with a unique depiction of Americana – will remember the phase

    “If you build it, he will come.”

    Many people apply the same logic to Intranet pages. If you build the site the user will visit it. Well, the truth is he/she may not even be able to find it! Just building a site is not enough.

    In the film, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) also hears other ghostly, cryptic message, including “Go the distance.”

    Going the distance in terms of Intranets means having a full programme of adoption to run alongside the site. This can take many forms. Below are some ideas:

  • daily email notifications
  • cross links with other relevant content
  • writing the content for search
  • using key search phases
  • newsletters highlighting the site
  • links on email signatures
  		•

    The digital divide

    Been reading the Guardian interview with Martha Lane Fox, champion of the Digital Inclusion Task Force.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/14/martha-lane-fox-interview

    Claims 10m adults have never been online. Mentions a report from PWC that puts numbers to the cost of the digital excluded.

    Gets me thinking of the cost of our digitally excluded employees. Not excluded from access to intranet or information sources, but simply have never been trained, or inclined to make use of them. Is there

    There is a great digital divide behind the firewall, and indeed making use of resources outside the firewall. The cost of these digitally excluded workers is never calculated. I believe IT induction courses started in firms around the early 90s but not heard of any that train users on how to use the digital tools we have – not just an intranet but social media tools, mobile tools etc.