Redefining productivity in the Digital Workplace
October 17, 2011 at 10:38 am | Posted in collaboration, digital workplace, engagement, intranet | 1 CommentTags: collaboration, digital workplace, engagement, intranet, search
The way people do their work is shifting from a physical workplace to a digital workplace. This gives organisations an enormous opportunity to change their business model and create competitive advantage by deciding early how to take advantage of the digital workplace.
From my own experiences and knowledge I can see the risks if organisations delay and or make the wrong decisions. I have blogged about this in the past and how it affects engaged people are in their organisation, how effective collaboration will be and whether tools like SharePoint 2010 will help.
I have just read a great whitepaper written by Stephan Schillerwein on ‘The Digital Workplace: Redefining Productivity in the Information Age’ which offers a business perspective on the future of information and knowledge-based work practices and technologies in organisations.
Stephan says “Today, information-related work constitutes the number one activity for any organization – both from a quantitative as well as from a qualitative perspective. And despite decades of investment in information technology, information and information work is still badly managed and a source of unparalleled waste in employee productivity.
The Internet has reshaped industries, changed the way business is done and affected all areas of our lives. If the Internet were an industry sector, its weight on GDP would be larger than any of the industries of mining, utilities, agriculture, communication or education.
The same cannot be said for internal systems and practices in dealing with information, like for example intranets and the many other information management tools that exist in enterprises today. Their impact on organizations is in no way comparable to that of the Internet and the impact it has had on all aspects of human life and activity.
It therefore seems fair to say, that while mankind, as such, has definitely moved into the information age, organizations have done so only in very limited ways. This impacts productivity and performance in major ways and to a significant extent – even if not always visible to our eyes which typically still evaluate information-based work using the bygone standards of industrial age business orthodoxies.”
Anyone who has an interest in the digital workplace, engagement, search and collaboration will find this worth reading.
I am now intranet-pioneer.com
August 8, 2011 at 8:57 am | Posted in collaboration, digital workplace, governance, mark morrell ltd, publishing, SharePoint 2010, standards, strategy, value | 4 CommentsTags: digital workplace, engagement, governance, intranet, Mark Morrell, search, sharepoint 2010, social media, standards, strategy, value
It is now easier for you to find my site and blog. You just need to go to intranet-pioneer.com.
Why intranet-pioneer?
Well, I believe I am an intranet pioneer combining strategic thinking with implementation skills. Over many years I have developed intranet strategies and have first-hand practical experience of implementing major technology and change projects.
As the former BT Intranet manager, I transformed BT’s intranet into one of the best intranets globally for governance, engagement and collaboration also measuring the full value BT’s intranet contributed.
Now I have my own business, Mark Morrell Ltd. As an intranet pioneer I can help you with your intranet strategy, governance, standards and use of collaboration tools. I can also share with you my knowledge and experience of SharePoint 2010, the digital workplace and other intranet topics.
And the ‘-’ makes it better for search engine optimisation in case you wondered. 
My special thanks to Jane McConnell for all her help.
SharePoint strategy + implementation – ask a pioneer!
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 CommentsTags: 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?
An A-Z of BT’s Intranet
August 4, 2010 at 9:33 am | Posted in best practice, help, homepage, intranet, search, standards, usability | 5 CommentsTags: 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).
Improve findability for no extra cost
October 28, 2009 at 11:31 am | Posted in blog, content management, help, intranet, search, social media | 2 CommentsTags: 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.
Make money from your intranet like BT does
October 1, 2009 at 1:24 pm | Posted in benefit, homepage, intranet, search, value | 5 CommentsTags: 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.
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