Category Archives: mark morrell ltd

I wrote a book about governance: ‘Digital success or digital disaster?’

Posted on May 11, 2015 | Leave a comment

Book cover - Digital success or digital disastersWhen an intranet loses its usefulness over time, and people become disengaged and end up working around it rather than through it, I often find that the strategy and governance have been neglected.

Even a strong and appropriate strategy will founder if the governance isn’t in place to execute it.

I see governance as the foundation of a great intranet, and by ‘great’ I mean an intranet that is useful, useable, and supports the organisation’s goals and people’s needs.

I often blog about intranet governance, but my brand new book offers a lot more than I could ever drip-feed via short posts.  Writing a book has helped crystallise my thinking around governance, and delve deep into my past experience as an intranet manager, and as a consultant.

Take a look at my book now – it’s called ‘Digital success or digital disaster?’ and I mean for it to be relevant to intranets, collaboration, digital workplace and mobile workspace governance, while focussing on intranets.

I’m so pleased to have it published through Intranätverk, it’s been great to work with Kristian Norling and his team.  Seeing the final book on my tablet has made the months of writing all worth the effort.  I’m thrilled to be able to offer you my experience, guidance, and tips and hope you’ll consider my book a toolkit to better governance and a better intranet.

Please take a look at what the book offers you and your organisation – this is a ‘business book’ that should help organisations of every size, but I also hope it’s of interest to individual practitioners and ‘lone intranet managers’. I think this book can support you.

* Digital success or digital disaster? – Book available now.

* Follow me on – let me know what you think!

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Posted in application, benchmark, benefit, best practice, beta testing, blog, career, collaboration, communication, community, content management, digital success or digital disaster, digital workplace, engagement, governance, help, homepage, intranet, mark morrell ltd, mobile, mybook, navigation, news, Office 365, plan, podcast, publishing, research, , search, SharePoint, social media, standards, strategy, training, usability, user testing, value, web accessibility, wiki

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Intranet Pioneer: more mobile and collaborative

Posted on June 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

Welcome to the new Intranet Pioneer site.  I hope it helps you even more than before.  As well as my regular blog posts remaining centre stage I have added two areas that I can help you with.

Collaboration

A good collaboration strategy to set the right direction with a solid governance framework to sustain you on your journey are key ingredients to a successful outcome.  Using my knowledge gained from first-hand experience I can also help you choose the right tools to help you improve customer service, problem solving and idea creation.

Mobile

Using my first-hand experience and knowledge gained from helping clients implement mobile solutions I can walk you safely through the minefield of security, bring your own device, and creating apps and content that are right for each mobile device.  A good strategy to set the right direction with a solid governance framework to sustain you on your journey are key ingredients to a successful outcome.

Whether you need help with strategic advice, developing a governance framework, project planning or practical implementation, or detailed guidance and support, please contact me to find out how I can support you.

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Posted in blog, collaboration, governance, mark morrell ltd, mobile, social media, standards, strategy

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A great mobile experience needs….

Posted on June 10, 2013 | 2 comments

In my previous post in this series on mobile ‘Good governance signals right mobile direction’ I said mobile is one of the key drivers for the transformation of intranets into digital workplaces which could become mobile workplaces but progress is patchy.  It is no surprise if I say setting the right direction for your organisation with mobile is critical.  Having some good governance principles helps you to continue in the right way and underpin your strategy.

We also need to give people a great mobile experience.  But what exactly does that mean?  Here are my thoughts on what is needed to achieve this in my last post in this series.

Mobile audience

Firstly, you need to make sure the people who will benefit the most are able to use a mobile device.  You need to be clear who will benefit from having a mobile device.  It probably will not be everyone.  Even if it is, you will need to prioritise who has the greatest need.  Factors like the number of people involved, time spent away from their place of work and what contribution they can make, will help decide the greatest need.

When you have the right people then you can find out what information and which services they most need, when they need to use them and how they need to use them, to be able to design and test for a good mobile experience.

Mobile devices

Secondly, you need to choose which mobile devices are the best tool to help people with their work.  For example, is it a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, or maybe a combination of more than one of these that is needed?  Will you let people bring their own devices to work or will your organisation provide them?  These decisions are critical and will depend on your organisation’s corporate values, type of employees, security, funding and speed of adoption.  Once these decisions have been made you can then focus on how you start to create a good mobile experience.

Once you know how to support the type of devices and size of screens being used, and the main purpose people will be using their mobile device for, you can start to create a good mobile experience.

Mobile platform

Lastly, you need to make sure you have the right infrastructure to support the needs of mobile workers in your organisation.  This means access to the information and tools needs to be 24/7 and not just normal working hours.  It means business continuity plans must include how people will still have mobile access to what they need for work.  Your organisation needs to consider the different mobile operating systems and devices it will support; what is the cost; what should be the limit; which systems and devices will have most overall benefit?

You also need to give a fast connection when mobile workers need it for their work to the information and tools.  Why would you want a mobile device if you find it takes ages to connect to any content or services you need to use?

Good mobile experience

So, what is needed for a great mobile experience?  These bullet points help summarise the posts on mobile:

  • A mobile strategy aligned to business needs
  • Supported by a governance framework
  • Helping meet the needs of people using mobile devices
  • Research and test with mobile users
  • Get the infrastructure in place
  • Have a policy on using mobile users for business purposes

If you need any more information please contact me.

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Posted in digital workplace, governance, help, intranet, mark morrell ltd, mobile, user testing, value

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Join me at Intranätverk for an engaging, fun, and participating conference

Posted on April 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

It is less than one month to the start of the intranet conference, Intranätverk.  For three days, starting from 21 May, my good friend Kristian Norling will be hosting the biggest gathering of intranet professionals ever in Gothenburg.

says “The conference is arranged because there is a need to network, listen, learn and share knowledge amongst us intranet professionals. There is also a lack of really good intranet related conferences in Sweden. To my knowledge there has been no intranet related conferences arranged in Gothenburg or West Sweden for the last few years, if ever?

We strive for a balanced list of speakers. The goal is for it to be split equally between: women and men, practitioners and consultants, young and old, large and small organizations, private and public sectors and both multinational and Swedish organizations.”

Kristian has been working with intranets since 2001 and over the years he has experienced and participated in a lot of great conferences. He will use this knowledge and experience to help to make Intranätverk a great conference with a difference that shouldn’t be missed.

I will have the privilege to:

  • participate as a delegate listening to other great speakers on subjects including intranets, mobile, and SharePoint 2013
  • present on the benefits of a digital workplace
  • help delegates with a governance workshop

I am sure Intranätverk will be a great conference.  Why don’t you join us to help make sure it is?

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Posted in digital workplace, governance, intranet, mark morrell ltd

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The Digital Workplace: How technology is liberating work

Posted on May 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

Many of you who follow my blog will know of my interest in the digital workplace.  From my first-hand experience transforming BT’s digital workplace and involvement with other organisations it is a very exciting area to work in.  So it was great to hear about this book!

Paul Miller’s book ‘The Digital Workplace: How technology is liberating work’ is an absolute must read for anyone interested in finding out how technology is changing the way we work for everyone on the planet.

The way Paul Miller writes it from his own experiences and view of life – working and personal – makes it compelling to read.  The examples Paul uses are ones we can all relate too and are real, not made up to fit a theoretical scenario.

I loved the format of the book.  If like me you sometimes put a book down and pick it up a little later you won’t lose your thread and have to read back over the last few pages.  In fact it is split into sections that are easy to use and refer back to again and again about the digital workplace.  I found the ‘top 10 digital workplace benefits, challenges, etc.’ very good for focusing on the key points of each section.

It’s good to see Paul Miller share his expertise and enthusiasm with us in this book.  I’m fortunate to know Paul so I realise every word is sincerely meant to help you, the reader.

It’s impossible to get serious about the digital workplace without reading and absorbing the ideas and examples in this book which is available to buy through , and Barnes & Noble.com.

You should also visit the Digital Workplace Forum to find out out more information and how it can help you and your organisation.

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Posted in best practice, digital workplace, intranet, mark morrell ltd

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The SharePoint checklist for everything you need

Posted on February 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

If you are deploying SharePoint, you have probably considered the technical aspects, how it will support workflows, document management and sales for example; all key elements to drive the business.  But have you considered how content will be migrated, accessed, maintained, enhanced and improved in the platform, while encouraging collaboration?

I have combined my strategic thinking with implementation skills and first-hand experience of implementing SharePoint to build the definitive checklist.  It gives you everything you need to check with and you can contact me for more help.

This SharePoint checklist will encourage adoption and best practice, helping business’ information compliance and security goals are met.  It has everything you need to check you have an effective content strategy for SharePoint.

It will help if you have some form of intranet governance framework – strategy, plan, roles and responsibilities, standards, etc. – in place first. But don’t worry if you don’t or you want to improve it.

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Posted in collaboration, engagement, governance, intranet, mark morrell ltd, SharePoint 2010

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Help with intranets, digital workplaces, collaboration and SharePoint

Posted on February 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

Thinking about what is the best way to implement SharePoint 2010?

Are you looking for good examples of managing intranets?

Are you planning how to transform your digital workplace?

Maybe you want to use collaboration tools to increase employee engagement?

Now you can find helpful information on all these areas in one site.  It combines my first-hand experience managing BT’s intranet with my knowledge and help improving other intranets to show how you can improve your intranets and digital workplaces.

If I can help you further please contact me whenever you want to.

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Posted in benchmark, benefit, best practice, collaboration, content management, digital workplace, engagement, governance, homepage, intranet, mark morrell ltd, plan, publishing, research, SharePoint 2010, social media, standards, strategy, training, usability, user testing, value, wiki

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