Why you need a mobile strategy
May 13, 2013 at 9:20 am | Posted in digital workplace, governance, intranet, research, strategy | 5 CommentsTags: digital workplace, intranet, mobile, research, strategy
In my last post ‘Letting the mobile genie out of the bottle‘ 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. I asked how do you manage this so it benefits your organisation and people while managing the risks of bring your own device (BYOD), intellect property, consuming and contributing content, and using apps that are available anywhere, anytime?
It is no surprise if I say a mobile strategy to set you in the right direction is a good start to make. Setting the right direction for your organisation with mobile is critical. To do that you need to know why is your organisation considering mobile access to your intranet. You need to develop a strategy aligned to your overall business strategy and other strategies that may conflict, support, or overlap with your mobile strategy e.g. IT, Communications, Security.
Your mobile strategy will need to show how it will help to improve the performance. You need to first research how productivity can increase with people more mobile. You need to find out which content and apps are most needed while people are mobile. Ask people what tasks need doing most or have the biggest impact if done with a mobile device.
Without a mobile strategy, with clear priorities shown, there is little chance of creating a successful business case that can help people and your organisation. But who should be responsible for sponsoring the implementation of your mobile strategy?
You need to find a senior manager who will champion this or, better still, a group of senior managers from across your organisation. Consider who will have the biggest influence on your mobile strategy. Check out who will be most affected by your strategy. Lastly, who has the biggest interest in a mobile strategy being adopted.
Involve these people and any people they nominate in developing your strategy and working out the best way to get your organisation to adopt.
When you have achieved this you will need governance so your mobile strategy sets out and continues in the right direction. More on this in a future post.
Letting the mobile genie out of the bottle
May 7, 2013 at 7:46 am | Posted in digital workplace, governance, intranet, mobile, strategy | 3 CommentsTags: digital workplace, governance, intranet, mobile, strategy
Mobile is now one of the key drivers for the transformation of intranets into digital workplaces which could become mobile workplaces. Progress is rapid but patchy. Why is that?
I believe many organisations want to move towards greater mobile access to content, collaborative tools, and apps, but it is fear of the unknown which prevents them doing this. Part of that fear is about letting the genie out of the bottle.
While there are some surprising examples of organisations like Yahoo! and Google reacting negatively (in my view) to this trend, many are starting to test the waters by putting a (mobile) toe in and finding it a warm and pleasant experience. They are not getting out of their depth either by planning what to try out first, how it fits with the wider picture, and understanding the benefits.
How do you manage this so it benefits your organisation and people while managing the risks of bring your own device (BYOD), intellect property, consuming and contributing content, and using apps that are available anywhere, anytime?
It is no surprise if I say a mobile strategy and governance helps to achieve this. Setting the right direction for your organisation with mobile which is supported by the right framework is vital.
Over the next few posts I will shed some light on how to manage mobile devices once people can use access their online environment. What will help you most? Let me know please…….
Join me at Intranätverk for an engaging, fun, and participating conference
April 23, 2013 at 8:05 am | Posted in digital workplace, governance, intranet, mark morrell ltd | 1 CommentTags: digital workplace, governance, intranet
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.
Kristian 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?
My 2013 ‘fabulous five’ predictions
December 17, 2012 at 9:23 am | Posted in career, collaboration, communication, digital workplace, engagement, governance, intranet, SharePoint 2010, social media, standards, strategy, value | 3 CommentsTags: career path, collaboration, communication, digital workplace, engagement, governance, intranet, sharepoint 2010, social media, standards, strategy, value
Several people have asked me what my predictions are for 2013 for intranets and digital workplaces. I couldn’t resist the temptation to give my view from more of a practitioner’s perspective than maybe others have done. So as that legend in his own lunchtime, Tony Blackburn on Pick of the Pops (c’mon you’re not that young to not know him in the UK at least! 
) says “Ok pop pickers, here is the fabulous five!”.
1. Not just a flexi fortnight
In 2012 we had the fantastic experience of the London Olympics and Paralympics. Many blue chip and dyed in the wool organisations with office workers in London had a big shock and had to wrench their employment practices quickly into the 21st century by letting people work away from the office at home or other more local places. People were trusted to work as normal for each of these games events. Amazingly it all went smoothly with many organisations realising here was a quick way of helping to save costs with pressure on their business performance.
I predict many ‘flexi fortnight’ organisations will invest heavily in making the digital workplace permanent in 2013 and help change many people’s work/life balance for the better as well as improve overall business performance. They will need help though!
2. SharePoint will be ‘good enough’
SharePoint 2010 and increasingly 2013 will continue to be the major technology deployed by large organisations transforming their intranets into digital workplaces. Why? Well, there are not many alternatives to choose from now or likely during 2013. Organisations may not choose it for the right reasons ‘herding sheep’ is sometime the image that comes to my mind. Where the real challenge will be is the perennial areas of strategy and governance.
I predict many organisations will need help unpicking poor decisions taken without the full knowledge of what SharePoint is capable of. We know that it can be capable of many good things if in the right hands – then again the opposite happens too.
3. ‘Social media’ a threat to internal comms?
And the problem is partly the term ‘social media’ which is misleading in my humble opinion. I always use terms which are more practical and relevant when talking with clients. The same should apply for intranet/digital workplace practitioners when talking to their internal partners and customers. So we’re helping people to find other people with similar interests to help solve a problem quicker, easier and maybe cheaper rather than ‘knowledge management’ and improving communications by people showing how much they value it by sharing, liking, rating, and commenting on it rather introducing ‘Facebook’ or ‘social media’.
I predict internal communications will ‘get it’ and see this as a big opportunity to gain better employee engagement. Use the right terms and examples to get a better understanding of what it’s all about.
4. Security and compliance taken more seriously
We have seen several high-profile examples of organisations with previously strong reputations and brands suffer severe setbacks because of insecure processes and training and not complying with regulations and legal requirements. It really is time that organisations looked at ALL the legal and regulation requirements as a joined up picture for what is needed in a digital workplace. There has always been a risk that sensitive information can be mislaid since the written word many centuries ago so it’s not a new problem.
I predict organisations will ensure their digital workplace governance and processes are robust using software and education to make sure the right behaviour is encouraged to minimise risks of sensitive and commercial information being found by the ‘wrong’ people.
5. Intranet practitioners become INTRANET or DIGITAL WORKPLACE PRACTITIONERS
Yes, it’s my shorthand method of saying the profile for practitioners will grow in 2013. I do believe as intranets transform into digital workplaces, organisations are realising the value they give them. I also believe your profile will increase as you engage with more senior managers over wider areas that are relevant to a digital workplace than just to intranets. I sincerely hope the value you provide in your role will be recognised and rewarded.
I predict 2013 is the year when many intranet practitioners will find by the end of it their career on a much stronger path with many people showing more interested in wanting to be part of this journey and more willing to help you.
Whatever happens in 2013 I hope you achieve your ambitions!
Who should not own the Digital Workplace?
November 19, 2012 at 9:45 am | Posted in communication, digital workplace, governance, plan, strategy | 1 CommentTags: communication, digital workplace, governance, intranet, plan, strategy
In my last post I asked ‘Who should own the Digital Workplace?’. From my experience one function that I feel should not own the digital workplace is Internal Communications.
Communicators’ first priority is to communicate. Their first reaction to collaboration between employees using blogs is to increase the frequency of communications and their prominence on the intranet.
But digital workplaces are used by employees primarily to do things or find information or people, not to read communications. They still do read communications but it is not their main purpose or first priority.
This is a dilemma that communications will need to resolve as they find a new role that continues to add value to the organisation that is more strategic. It is NOT a good approach to seek to own the digital workplace from the view of communications being its main purpose. It isn’t.
While communications still has a key role, increasingly it is human resources, knowledge management and business functions that are largely affected by or have a high influence on how the digital workplace is created that are increasingly involved.
A group of senior representatives who are stakeholders in the digital workplace should form something like a digital board, responsible for strategy, high-level decisions, and priorities for collaboration, communications, tools, and mobile use.
This group should have cross-organisational recognition and support that needs to be seen to be acting in their interests. A clear strategy and prioritised action plan for the short term with owners and timescales will achieve that.
But there still needs to be a leader of the digital board whose authority is accepted. The obvious choice would be the CEO of the organisation. However the reality is the CEO probably won’t have enough time to focus on leading the digital board.
The next best solution is for the CEO to nominate someone or, if not possible, for there to be a senior person who is naturally seen as the ideal candidate by other digital board representatives. The main criteria are someone whose finger is on the pulse of the organisation, is involved and aware of the key decisions being taken, and has the respect of everyone involved.
It is essential to have the right people in place who own the digital workplace strategy and future direction it will take that will benefit both the organisation and everyone working in it.
Am I unfair in my views on internal communications?
Who do you believe are the best people and functions to own the digital workplace?
Transforming your intranet into a digital workplace
November 5, 2012 at 8:49 pm | Posted in best practice, digital workplace, intranet | 5 CommentsTags: best practice, digital workplace, intranet
I will be the keynote speaker at Intranett 2012 in Oslo on 21 November. It is a great privilege to be asked and I am really looking forward to the conference and to meeting intranet friends and practtioners while I am there. I will be speaking about how you can transform your intranet into a digital workplace.
Organisations are transforming their intranets into digital workplaces to reduce their costs and remove unproductive time while employees are working. The intranet is a key ingredient in an evolving world of work and technology that we call the digital workplace. If you are working from a cafe on a smartphone, accessing IM, sales data or online expenses forms, you are in the digital workplace. As the intranet manager I helped BT to transform its way of working into a digital workplace that employees could use anywhere, any time, with any device. I will cover in more detail:
- What is a digital workplace
- How do you implement it
- How is the best way to manage it
- How will it affect the intranet and those working with intranets today
Since leaving I have helped clients to start transforming their intranets into digital workplaces. My next few posts will focus on how you can do this.
Maybe this is the best way to rebuild SharePoint 2010 content?
October 22, 2012 at 10:12 am | Posted in best practice, content management, intranet, plan, publishing, SharePoint 2010 | 1 CommentTags: best practice, content, intranet, publishing, sharepoint 2010
In my last post I talked about the second of three approaches to rebuilding your content from your existing publishing tool in to SharePoint 2010.
For each approach it is the conflict between minimising the impact on performance of the business with the extra cost of contractors while retaining the knowledge and experience of using SharePoint 2010. There isn’t just one answer and it can be a difficult choice to get right.
Using contractors to rebuild
My last approach covers your organisation hiring external contractors with SharePoint 2010 knowledge and expertise to rebuild your content. Contractors should be able to rebuild all types of content, whether simple or complex, without need for training.
It minimises the involvement of your content editors with rebuilding of content to focus on their business activities. It gives you flexibility on when you train your content editors to be able to update and create content, either during or after the rebuild has been completed.
You can also start your rebuild at short notice providing your contractors are available.
Benefits
Your organisation can save the costs and effort of training content editors before the rebuild until much later. The impact on operational performance is minimised.
All your content is rebuilt by contractors skilled in SharePoint 2010. You may use some of the contractors on a permanent basis to re-train your content editors and to continue offering expert advice and guidance. Your contractors can be your ‘Super Users’.
You have the flexibility to increase or reduce the time taken to rebuild all your content by hiring more or less contractors.
Drawbacks
Hiring external contractors with SharePoint 2010 experience will increase the costs of your organisation’s rebuild. Your content editors will not be so easily able to develop their knowledge by not rebuilding their content and learning from this experience.
It may be difficult to hire the right number of contractors with the skills and experience for the funding you have or within your timeframe.
Contractors have to learn the context and background to why content is published in the way chosen by your organisation. Your editors may save time not rebuilding their content but they will still need to explain what is needed to be done and why to contractors as well as checking and auditing what has been rebuilt before it can be published.
Summary
By assessing each of these approaches you can help to choose which will best suit what your organisation needs. You can factor in funding, timescales, editors’ skills and experience, when deciding what to do.
I have been directly involved in several SharePoint 2010 content rebuilds. If you need any more help please contact me.
…or is this a better way to rebuild SharePoint 2010 content?
October 15, 2012 at 8:19 am | Posted in intranet, publishing, SharePoint 2010, training | 2 CommentsTags: intranet, publishing, sharepoint 2010, training
In my last post I talked about the first of three approaches to rebuilding your content from your existing publishing tool in to SharePoint 2010.
For each approach it is the conflict between minimising the impact on performance of the business with the cost of extra contractors while retaining the knowledge and experience of using SharePoint 2010. There isn’t just one answer and it can be a difficult choice to get right.
Blending content editors with contractors
My second approach combines the use of your content editors with external contractors. Your contractors will have a more extensive role to play than my first approach. You hire external contractors who have the experience and skills you need to support content editors and can rebuild more complex content more easily or rebuild a large number of content pages more quickly than your content editors.
Wherever possible priority must be given to your editors rebuilding their content with support from contractors with the right expertise to help. However the option for a contractor to step in and take over is now available with this approach.
Benefits
Combining your own content editors with contractors skilled and experienced with SharePoint 2010 will still enable you to retain the knowledge and skills gained from your editors being trained on how to use SharePoint 2010. Your editors will use their knowledge of your organisation and the context in which the newly rebuilt pages are developed.
The knowledge gained during the rebuild will be retained and allow content editors to support other existing and new content editors when they are trained. This approach can also help create ‘Super Users’ who can provide support to other content editors who are trained in future.
Contractors supporting content editors and rebuilding complex and large numbers of content pages will be able to use their SharePoint 2010 expertise and knowledge.
Drawbacks
There is still a risk of disruption to normal business activities if there are many content editors to train and content to be rebuilt. The ability of editors to become ‘Super Users’ retrain other content editors is more limited as there are less editors who rebuilt content and probably not the more complex content. The balance of knowledge gained to lost is more balanced with this approach.
You will also need to have extra checks for the content rebuilt by contractors to confirm the right context has been met and it links to other related pages correctly. This can extend the length of the project.
There is the cost of the contractors to factor in and making sure you train enough content editors with the right skills so that all types of content are updated and managed correctly after you launch.
In my next post I will cover my final approach to rebuilding your content.
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