April 23, 2012 at 9:16 am | Posted in collaboration, communication, engagement, intranet, news, research, social media, training, value | 5 Comments
Tags: collaboration, communication, content, engagement, intranet, research, social media, training, value
In my last post ‘Should collaboration tools redefine internal communications’ role?‘ I gave my view on the corporate environment needed to encourage internal communications professionals to welcome collaboration tools being used by employees. But which collaboration tools can you introduce and improve internal communications too?
I recommend researching employees’ needs to find which are most needed and likely to be adopted. Some contact with senior managers to understand the corporate values will help too. Let’s start by increasing employees interaction with existing communication channels before we move on to new collaborative tools.
When a new article is published on the intranet employees normally have no easy opportunity to show how valuable it is, what their views are or the effect it has. Introducing a few features can help to change that.
Rating
Employees are able to rate how useful the information has been. The higher the rating, the more useful it is. It helps show internal communications what is most valued by employees and encourage similar messages to be published. More importantly it shows what is not useful and could be reduced or stopped. This information helps plans for future communications that have the best impact.
Comment
Employees are able to comment on the news item. A comments feature gives freedom to express positive and negative views. It also enables other employees to see these comments and show if they dis/agree with what has been said already. This helps internal communications to understand better how useful, complete, and relevant it has been. It helps internal communications to improve future messages and empowers employees to influence these by expressing their views.
Like
Employees are able to show they like the news item. This helps internal communications understand how valuable and useful the message has been to employees. It is a simpler approach to rating content (see Ratings) and gives a basic indication by the number of employees who how liked the message.
Share
Employees are able to share news items with other employees who have a similar need or interest. This helps spread news more quickly using the channels that employees prefer to use rather than the formal, existing, internal communication channels with other employees.
How I can help
I have several years’ first hand experience improving communications and helping other organisations too. Please contact me if you would like me to help you:
- decide on the right collaboration tools
- communicate better using collaborative tools
- improve internal communications
- research employees needs and attitudes
- train internal communicators
My next blog will cover how blogs can help improve internal communications.
February 7, 2012 at 9:19 am | 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 | 1 Comment
Tags: applications, benchmark, benefit, best practice, beta testing, blog, bt intranet, collaboration, content, digital workplace, engagement, governance, help, homepage, intranet, intranet applications, Mark Morrell, plan, publishing, research, sharepoint 2010, social media, standards, strategy, usability, user testing, value, wiki
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.
December 5, 2011 at 7:26 am | Posted in best practice, content management, engagement, governance, intranet, mark morrell ltd, navigation, publishing, research, standards, usability, user testing | 3 Comments
Tags: best practice, content, engagement, governance, intranet, killer content, Mark Morrell, navigation, publishing, research, standards, training, usability, user testing
Since 1996 I have been pioneering the best ways to increase adoption of new tools on the intranet. For the 9 years as the BT Intranet manager and since then as a consultant, I have experienced different ways organisations have encouraged adoption of technology. My top 10 ways are:
Research what people need
Ask what their biggest pain points are. What could be made easier? What is missing from the intranet? What is good and they want more of?
Prioritise improvements
How important is the task to the person and to their organisation? How many people are affected by this? How frequently is it happening?
Early adopters to become ambassadors
Identify adopters who have the most urgent need to try something new to solve a business problem. Involve adopters in proposed changes as early as possible to get their buy-in. Satisfied adopters will be your best ambassadors and spread the word.
Make the first experience a good experience
You need to encourage not discourage usage to avoid unnecessary costs in extra effort. Act on early adopters’ feedback. Test with usability experts. Compare with existing best practice.
Advance communications so no nasty surprises
Manage peoples’ expectations. Clearly explain what it is you are offering and where they can get advice, training and help.
Consistent navigation
Give people a bridge from wherever they were on your intranet to get to another part more easily. Show the same headings and position on every page. Find out what are the best navigation headings that would help people most.
Personalise and target information
Give people the relevant information they need. Give people the applications they need to use. Give people confidence their personal information is secure.
Embed standards into templates
Reduce the barrier for publishing. Make it as easy as possible to do. Focus on what is important – the quality of the information – not how to use the technology. Consistently apply governance. Embed standards in the templates.
Compliance tools give users confidence
Standards need to be enforced when publishers’ behaviour falls below best practice. Compliance tools enforce important standards – business, regulatory and legal requirements – and minimise time and administration. Users’ confidence in the integrity of the information must not be compromised.
Clear responsibilities and roles
Who is responsible for managing the intranet strategy, standards, IT infrastructure? What should everyone involved – publishers, contributors – need to do? Align intranet roles with performance management and job descriptions.
June 29, 2011 at 9:01 am | Posted in application, best practice, collaboration, content management, digital workplace, governance, intranet, mark morrell ltd, publishing, strategy, value | 5 Comments
Tags: best practice, content, digital workplace, governance, intranet, Mark Morrell, people finder, standards, strategy, value
To have a successful digital workplace (which I define as ‘work is something you do, not a place you go to’) it is vital organisations have the right strategy, culture, environment and infrastructure to exploit the benefits fully. It needs to become the natural way of working so everyone is more effective and productive and your organisation more efficient and successful. For me a digital workplace can include:
- people working from any location (or mobile) rather than their office workstation.
- IT infrastructure providing the same or similar experience wherever somone uses the digital workplace
- people being able to collaborate, search, complete tasks as well as read the latest news
- people choosing how to do ‘things’ – RSS, mobile, etc. – that help them
- the organisation measuring the benefits and encouraging people to use the digital workplace
So, does your intranet look or feel like a digital workplace?
Is it meeting your organisation’s needs – now or in the future?
Does it offer the right tools that people are able to use easily?
Have you the right governance and standards to make your digital workplace successful?
If you have answered no, maybe just shaken your head sideways, then I can help and work with you.
I have first-hand experience of creating, implementing and managing a digital workplace that is one of the best in the world.
Whatever help you need, maybe a call, presentation (online or face to face), workshop, training, consultancy or implemention, I can help.
I will be posting in more detail over the next few weeks on the principles for a great digital workplace to entice you. 
So, why not use make your life easier and use my first-hand experience and wider intranet knowledge for your benefit?
Just let me know with a comment, email – markmorrell.ltd@gmail com, Skype (mark.morrell58), call +44 (0) 771 338 5309 or even visit me in Brighton!
June 14, 2011 at 10:34 am | Posted in best practice, collaboration, content management, governance, intranet, mark morrell ltd, plan, SharePoint 2010, standards, strategy, value | 8 Comments
Tags: best practice, content, governance, help, intranet, mark morrell ltd, search, sharepoint 2010, standards, strategy, value
Are you planning to start using SharePoint 2010?
Do you need help with your SP2010 implementation?
Are you unsure of your SP2010 governance, standards, strategy?
Are you unsure how to use SP2010 for collaboration, content management, document management or search?
Are you looking at alternatives to SP2010?
If you have answered yes, maybe just nodded your head slightly, then I can help and work with you.
I have first-hand SP2010 experience of planning right the way through to post-implementation……and have got the scars to prove it!
Whether you need a call, demonstration (online or face to face), workshop, training, consultancy or implemention, I can help.
So just let me know by a comment, email – markmorrell.ltd@gmail com, Skype (mark.morrell58), call +44 (0) 771 338 5309 or even visit me in Brighton!
Why not use my first-hand experience and wider intranet knowledge for your benefit?
April 20, 2011 at 11:42 am | Posted in collaboration, engagement, intranet, publishing, SharePoint 2010, standards, value | 3 Comments
Tags: collaboration, content, engagement, governance, publishing, sharepoint 2010, standards, users
In my last post ‘It’s how you use SharePoint 2010 that decides the value it brings 2’ I covered how vital it is to set the right level of permissions for people using the information published.
In this post I will show how people can distinguish different types of content in SP2010. The value to be gained by your organisation can vary tremendously depending on how you achieve this.
You can break SP2010 published content in to two types:
Accredited
Accredited content is official, authoritative, reliable & up to date. People will able to trust it, use it with confidence, knowing it is current and relevant. It is usually information that has a large audience. A limited number of people can edit the information, with access controlled by permissions. Usually one person will have clear ownership.
Collaborative
Collaborative content can be owned by everyone, an individual or community. It can be open to anyone to contribute or comment upon the information. It can be an opinion expressed on a blog posting or a wiki article for others to contribute to and improve further.
Branding
The best way is to brand the content types differently.
SP2010 ‘out of the box’ functionality is good enough for most people publishing and viewing content. So, you can use this for your collaborative content.
Customising the SP2010 masterpages with your corporate branding for accredited content will show clearly the difference from what is ‘out of the box’.
To keep costs down design the branding so that it is minimal – enough to make a difference so people spot it when they use the content – but easy to maintain the masterpages.
With SP2010 you can have a page published with both types of content shown on it. This is because you have different webparts – sections of the page – that can be inserted by the publisher.
You need to consider very carefully if you need to extend the customising to each webpart. The costs and maintainability will increase greatly. It is best to test out with a sample of people what is needed, if anything, so they can distinguish accredited from collaborative content in each webpart.
As with any planned changes, test as early as you can with a sample of people, act on their feedback, be flexible in what the final versions could look like.
That will give you the greatest chance of success of maximising the value your organisation can gain from using SharePoint 2010.
July 28, 2010 at 7:46 am | Posted in application, benchmark, benefit, best practice, homepage, intranet, research, usability | 3 Comments
Tags: benchmark, benefit, best practice, bt intranet, content, intranet applications, killer content, navigation, research, usability, 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 three examples are:
The latest example covers how BT’s intranet improves efficiency saving wasted time searching for the wrong stuff or sites not being well organised enough. IBF said the BT Homepage was excellent at directing people to tasks tasks that were completed successfully.
BT Homepage groups services and content functionally under the title ‘Essentials’ so people have everything easily to link to when completing an activity. Here are some slides showing examples of what is grouped under each heading on the BT Homepage. Users liked the changes when we asked for their feedback.
Research with users shows high satisfaction with the BT Homepage and 91% were satisfied with Essentials which was great news.
People also rely on the BT A-Z. This is an index of all sites that have a BT-wide purpose and are cross-indexed if need be under more than one letter e.g. Group Finance is under G and F.
I’ll cover our A-Z in a future post.
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……..
June 22, 2010 at 8:30 am | Posted in blog, governance, homepage, intranet, navigation, podcast, publishing, social media, standards, web accessibility, wiki | 8 Comments
Tags: blog, bt intranet, content, governance, publishing, sharepoint 2010, social media, wiki
Like most organisations at the moment, BT is looking at what SharePoint 2010 has to offer and how it could meet our business needs.
I’ve read about SP 2010 in the blog posts for expert views, joined an IBF seminar last week, discussed it with other intranet professionals at conference and following #sp2010 on Twitter.
I still haven’t found all the answers to my questions around usability, accessibility, governance, integration, search, etc but I don’t expect to yet.
I have joined two groups on LinkedIn to ask these types of questions with other people who are involved with SP 2010. There is a group on Sharepoint Governance and Sharepoint User Groups. Anyone else want to join?
I really want to find a group of non-technical people who have the a similar view from a business rather than IT focus.
What’s your view on SP 2010? Have you any good information links or groups to share that will help?
June 17, 2010 at 1:21 pm | Posted in benchmark, benefit, best practice, content management, governance, homepage, intranet, navigation, publishing, social media, standards, usability, user testing, web accessibility | Leave a comment
Tags: benchmark, best practice, bt intranet, content, governance, publishing, standards, usability standards
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 example is about our content. IBF said all pages across BT’s intranet contain author and date information. The content is well structured in headline style, with bullets and sub-headings. BT’s intranet is largely jargon-free and scored well in Flesch comprehension testing, but could be further improved by ensuring all acronyms have explanatory title tags.
We have achieved this by embedding our intranet standards in to the templates used for publishing the different types of content.
This means publishers can concentrate on the quality of the information and not their technical abilities.
For users there is a consistent experience as they move transparently from one type of content to another. For example the BT global navigation bar appears in the same place with the same headings that link to the same place on every page.
We encourage with guidance and training for our publishers to use the right tone of voice and wherever possible to avoid jargon.
It helps to show why 4 out of 5 BT Intranet users are very/satisfied when last surveyed.
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