February 25, 2013 at 9:23 am | Posted in best practice, digital workplace, intranet, mobile, search, social media | 1 Comment
Tags: best practice, bt intranet, digital workplace, search, sharepoint 2010, social media
Like when the crocuses and snowdrops are followed by daffodils flowering in spring, the IntraTeam conferences in Copenhagen is a key part of my intranet calendar in March. This will be my third time at this conference but my first purely as a delegate and not as a speaker. I’m really looking forward to absorbing the knowledge to be gained, networking with existing friends while making new ones, and feeling the pulse of where intranets and digital workplaces are going next!
So, what does IntraTeam 2013 have in store for us from 5 -7 March? Well it has its own Twitter hashtag #iec13 so please follow that if you haven’t already.
To start with on 5 March there is a full day of workshops covering the digital workplace, mobile video, transforming intranets, and HR portal. Quite a variety to choose from.
That sets us up nicely for the main course on 6 and 7 March with the main speaker sessions. Starting with Jane McConnell and her Digital Workplace Trends 2013, we move on over the two days to cover corporate intranets, gamification, storytelling, social video, mobile intranet, search and much, much, more!
For dessert we have the legendary networking dinners where Kurt Kragh Sørensen, Owner, IntraTeam A/S @IntraTeam plays host to a great experience of fun, laughter, and great conversation on intranets.
It’s giving me quite an appetite before I have even arrived!
This conference will give you ideas on how to communicate, share knowledge and create value with your intranet, SharePoint solution and enterprise search.
It’s a great opportunity not to be missed.
March 8, 2011 at 4:50 pm | Posted in best practice, collaboration, governance, intranet, search, SharePoint 2010 | 5 Comments
Tags: best practice, bt intranet, collaboration, directory, engagement, people finder, sharepoint 2010, strategy, value
I have read a lot about what SharePoint 2010 can do but I have seen few examples of it being used with an intranet. When I was the BT Intranet manager I was heavily involved in the strategy, plans and implementation of SP2010. It was the biggest change to BT’s intranet since it’s creation. It is a huge programme as BT migrates all its existing content from the publishing tools it is using now for document and content management as well as collaborative tools like wikis and blogs. I’m going to show you examples of how SP2010 is being used on BT’s intranet. These were shown to Intranet Benchmarking Forum members at the SP2010 Special Interest Group.
You may find more help from my SharePoint page. You can also contact me for more help.
BT’s Knowledge Management and Collaboration (KMC) programme has formal BT Board approval and has published its strategy setting out the priorities and timelines. The KMC programme has a governance model so the implementation is effective, well managed and you can see how the different boards fit together and their responsibilities.
First priority has been on sharing knowledge more easily. You can choose SP2010′s people finding tool from an index list on the global navigation bar at the top of every page on the BT Intranet.
This links to MyProfile which is like the existing Directory but has flexibility for you to add more information about yourself to help people. By clicking on ‘Browse in organisation chart’ you can move from MyProfile to MySite and can see how your role fits within BT and relates to other people.
MySite has several tabs including one for Whereabouts so people can see what you are doing. This information is automatically downloaded from your Outlook calendar. Another tab, Overview, enables people to see topics and skills you can help others with.
MySite content shows to people with the right permissions what you have published in SP2010. This helps people to find others who have a shared interest without any extra effort needed by you.
People using SP2010 for the first time will go to the Welcome page for SP2010. We don’t mention the technology in the title but what it helps people to do. There is a lot of information shown but new users say this is what they need at this stage.
You can request to publish on a TeamSite for project work or document sharing. It will extend to other needs as SP2010 replaces existing publishing tools and what activity they help people to do.
There is a help site for anyone using SP 2010. It helps anyone using SharePoint 2010 for anything rather than just publishing.
All these examples are shown in this slide presentation.
March 1, 2011 at 10:12 am | Posted in governance, intranet, publishing, search, SharePoint 2010, social media, strategy | 5 Comments
Tags: governance, intranet, people finder, publishing, sharepoint 2010, social media
I recently met with other members of the Intranet Benchmarking Forum who are planning to or implementing SharePoint 2010.
My take on the meeting was how many issues we had in common – whether from a technical or business perspective. The main issues were governance, engagement and cost savings. There were others raised but these seemed the main ones to me.
Governance
Well, I realise I am not the only one who is learning as I go on what is the best governance model to use. And there is still very little ‘expert opinion’ available that I really trust to follow apart from an IBF report by Martin White which is really helpful about SP2010 generally but sadly has only 2 pages on governance.
You need a model that takes account of the different publishing needs – formal, accredited type content as well as collaborative – and the whole lifetime of SP2010. The model needs to cover the roles and responsibilities for everyone who uses SP2010.
The role of site collection administrator is critical to this. Giving it to everyone isn’t right – neither is it if no-one has that authority. Somewhere in between feels best with enhanced permissions for people to publish and set permissions for what other people can do with the content on the site collection.
Engagement
Rule no.1, no.2, no.3, etc – make sure the first impression people have of SP2010 is always a good one!
The first implementations of SP2010 in organisations seem to be around collaboration, social networking to improve engagement between people and with the organisation. Better engagement = committed + more productive people. So rolling out People Finder helps you search for other people.
MyProfile means when you find the person, apart from the automatically updated content shown such as contact details, place in the organisation, etc, you have the opportunity to add information that sets you apart from others like on Facebook and LinkedIn.
I recommend you seriously consider implementing MySite at the same time as MyProfile. You need to be very careful what permissions you give people (site collection administrator issues!) but the benefits of the extra features should outweigh the drawbacks.
Cost savings
The wider benefits can only be gained if you think big with how you use SP2010. By this I mean replacing existing tools and technology that is dated, expensive, hard to maintain so you show large savings.
By using SP2010 to replace content and document management tools as well as collaboration you gain the wider benefits of SP2010 integration, full range of features and consistency. It can give a much better overall experience for everyone.
So, that’s my take on this SP2010 meeting. I’ll share my presentation slides in my next post. What’s your view from first hand experience of SP2010?
October 19, 2010 at 10:49 am | Posted in best practice, intranet, news, research, search, value | 4 Comments
Tags: best practice, bt intranet, BT today, directory, homepage, killer content, research, value
There are a few ‘killer applications and content’ which have driven the usage of BT’s intranet. As well as the BT Homepage – our corporate portal, BT Today – our new sites and Directory – our people finder, Intellact, BT’s customer insight and market portal has been key to achieveing this.
Intellact provides a wealth of insight on the communications industry. Thousands of people in all parts of BT use these services to:
- Help understand customer needs and satisfaction.
- Monitor the global press – daily updates on business trends.
- Support business propositions.
Comprehensive, up-to-date, high quality research helps people make their decisions with:
- Business news
- IT research and advice
- BT commissioned market research
- Broker research
- Industry sector research
- Internet audience measurement
Business news is updated several times per day on Intellact. You can sign up to receive an email that reviews the days top news from UK and international newspapers, journals and newswires.
Intellact offers an unrivalled collection of published research covering ICT and other industry sectors with the option to contact analysts for further details.
Intellact can be searched in various ways and you can set up alerts so when a new research is available you are informed so you don’t miss anything.
Intellact helps BT give people what they need for their business needs and a competitive edge to BT.
Have a look at these Intellact examples.
October 11, 2010 at 10:20 am | Posted in benefit, best practice, beta testing, governance, help, homepage, intranet, navigation, plan, publishing, research, search, social media, standards, training, usability, user testing, value | 2 Comments
Tags: benefit, best practice, beta testing, governance, help, homepage, intranet, navigation, plan, publishing, research, search, standards, usability, user testing, users, value
I have just finished reading ‘Designing intranets – Creating sites that work’, the latest book written by James Robertson. For those of you who have seen James present or read his blog posts, you will know he gives a clear view to help you – whether you agree with it or not.
James is one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on intranets. He has used this experience to write this book.
Whether you are new to intranets or, like me, involved as an intranet manager for years, this book will be very useful to you.
This book will cover all you need to know to be able to create intranet sites that work. And it is the ‘sites that work’ words that make this book different to others. It is more than just a pleasing design. It is what else is needed to be researched, planned and created too that will make your time and effort better spent. Even more, you want the people using your intranet to get the best out of it. This book helps you to do just that!
I have found it helps reinforce why BT’s intranet is like it is and why the things I do are important such as:
As I write this blog post ‘Designing intranets’ is by my side. Some parts of James’ book are looking well used already as I’ve thumbed through them several times for tips to help me!
Why not treat yourself? Read James’ book and help make your life easier and your intranet better by reading James’ book.
August 4, 2010 at 9:33 am | Posted in best practice, help, homepage, intranet, search, standards, usability | 5 Comments
Tags: best practice, bt intranet, help, homepage, search, standards, usability, users
In my last post ‘Great intranets help make efficient people’ I talked briefly about the BT A-Z. BT Intranet users find this a very useful service helping them to quickly find a site.
Research of people in BT finds they navigate to what they need from the BT Homepage by using the search engine, deep linking from the many headings grouped functionally or use the BT A-Z.
People who use the BT A-Z have a reasonable idea they know the site exists and what its name could be. Cross-referencing of sites helps people to find it under more than one letter.
I’ve shown what the BT A-Z is in these examples.
The BT Homepage sets out the BT A-Z in one horizontal line with plenty of space between each letter to save users one click if there was just a BT A-Z heading and be able to easily get the letter they need (slide 1).
For each link in the BT A-Z, there is a heading followed by a simple explanation of what it points to so people know before they click on it if it is likely to be what they are looking for (slide 2).
On the left hand side of every page of the BT A-Z are icons which help to show to users what to expect when they click on the link (slides 2-4).
As well as giving people a full list of sites, if you know it is just information or a service you need for that letter you can choose that option from right hand menu to reduce what you need to check (slides 3 and 4).
If you have mobile/PDA access, you can still use the BT A-Z and see a list of sites to click on with (most important!) a mobile icon against those which will support that type of access (slide 5).
July 21, 2010 at 10:54 am | Posted in benchmark, best practice, governance, intranet, navigation, publishing, research, search, standards, usability | 4 Comments
Tags: benchmark, best practice, bt intranet, content, navigation, research, standards, users
When I posted about the latest results for BT ‘BT Intranet 2010 benchmark results‘ I promised to give examples the Intranet Benchmarking Forum highlighted as global best practice.
The first two examples are about our content – IBF said all pages across BT’s intranet contain author and date information – and how involving everyone can make your intranet more valuable to your organisation - IBF said BT’s intranet supports our values to be open and straightforward in dealings with colleagues.
My next example is how you integrate your intranet to be the preferred way of working for everyone in your organisation. IBF said BT’s intranet has a wide range of activities, heavily used and with high satisfaction levels.
So, how has BT achieved this for it’s intranet? The following steps have helped BT and can help you:
- Identify content people prefer to see online. Publish it online and make people aware of this. Make sure you switch off any paper versions.
- Makes sure you have a set of standards that show how users will have a great experience. This needs to cover design, layout, features which give confidence to people in the integrity of the content like review dates.
- Measure how satisfied people are with your intranet generally and with specific areas and try to identify trends for future use.
- Align your intranet strategy and your organisation’s so you are providing what it needs to underpin it’s approach whether it is reducing costs, improving flexible working, etc.
- Make it easy to find by having a good search engine and other ways like an A-Z of sites or navigation bar.
Two comments from users show BT is succeeding. “It’s a no brainer – you can’t do your job without the intranet” and “the intranet is the key channel”.
You can too by following these steps……..
April 13, 2010 at 4:43 pm | Posted in benefit, best practice, content management, intranet, navigation, publishing, search, standards, web accessibility | 5 Comments
Tags: accessibility, best practice, bt intranet, killer content, publishing, search, standards, usability standards, users
In my post ‘How to get quality content’ I showed how much people value BT’s intranet and are confident about the integrity of the content they use. BT’s intranet standards mean publishers must keep information up to date and clearly owned so users can rely on it.
In this post I’m going to cover BT’s intranet standard on naming of pages that helps users to find what they need more easily.
Each page should have a title relevant to the content to help users when they bookmark your site or scan search results. The title also appears in the top of the browser window giving users extra reassurance they have arrived at the right place.
Also try to pick a title which will help users when looking in an A-Z (so publishers in BT don’t need to start everything with BT) or call your page ‘homepage’ or ‘index’.
Title tags are in the head section of the HTML. Users of content management systems can set the page title in the properties section of the page. Aim for having enough information in the first 20 characters of the title to identify the page.
Headings help users scan the page, search engines summarise it and text readers to skim it. Sub section headings help break up the page and allow the user to understand the page structure.
Some assistive technologies have a “skip to next heading” option, so use the <H1>, <H2>, <H3> and <H4> tag (or choose a heading style in the content management system) rather than just make ‘normal’ text look larger.
Choose your heading text with care, aiming to maximise ‘scanning’. The main page heading should ideally match the title tag and give a clear reassurance to people arriving at that page that they have chosen the correct link.
October 28, 2009 at 11:31 am | Posted in blog, content management, help, intranet, search, social media | 2 Comments
Tags: blog, bt intranet, help, search, social media, users, wiki
BT’s intranet search engine, Search BT, is the biggest instance of Ultraseek run in Europe. It searches nearly 2 million different pieces of content. This includes what we call formal, verified, content as well as collaborative, user generated content.
Here’s an example of how a couple of minor changes to an intranet page had a major impact on its findability for no cost.
People wanting to review or change sharesave plans needed to download and complete a form from the BT intranet and email it to the right group.
When they searched for the form by typing in its name to Search BT the top result was a form called ‘Saveshare Changes’. So they filled it in and sent it off. But the top result was the wrong form! 
The form people needed to use was under a link on the same saveshare changes page as other forms including the wrong form. With no meta data or keywords on that page to help direct the search engine, it meant the top result took you to one of several saveshare changes forms, not the page for the right form.
Once the meta data was added in the page, it rose to the top result shown on Search BT for search queries on saveshare changes.
That minor tweak to one page saved people acting on the forms a lot of time and BT money in productivity savings. It also speeded up the time for changes people wanted made saving a lot of frustration. 
October 1, 2009 at 1:24 pm | Posted in benefit, homepage, intranet, search, value | 5 Comments
Tags: benefit, bt intranet, homepage, money, search, value
In a recession every penny spent investing in BT’s intranet is closely monitored. So the chance to generate some revenue is very welcome. Whenever I say BT makes money from its intranet to people they raise their eyebrows and ask the obvious questions ”What?” and “How?”.
Here are two examples showing ‘what’ and ‘how’ BT’s intranet has made money.
External advertising on intranet
BT allows external organisations to advertise on one intranet site only. This is our corporate news site, BT today. People in BT have accepted for years that adverts appear in the magazine as they do for other newspapers.
We extended advertising to the BT today news site in a way that didn’t distract users from their main purpose for using the site – finding the latest news – while encouraging them to click on the adverts. It brings in valuable revenue – tens of thousands of pounds each year.
We haven’t had any complaints about adverts being too invasive or distracting.
Sponsored links on search engine
BT has a business partnership with Yahoo! Intranet users have a BT Yahoo! internet search option. It means Yahoo! gets more clicks to its internet search and BT gets a % of the sponsored links people in BT click on when searching. This has come to several thousands of pounds over the past year.
These internet search links appear on BT Homepage and Search BT, our intranet search engine with a short message promoting the benefits to BT.
Next Page »
