The future for BT’s intranet?

January 6, 2010 at 12:26 pm | Posted in application, blog, governance, intranet, news, publishing, research, rss, social media, standards, value, wiki | 7 Comments
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At the end of 2009 I posted about BT’s intranet being 15 years old and the progress made in that time.

BT’s intranet has constantly evolved to meet the changing needs of the business and how it best helps people to be able to do their work as effectively as possible.

BT’s intranet has always aimed to be simple and easy to use.  People use it to complete an activity such as a room booking, check the latest news and more recently, publish and use opinions and views with people that have the same interests across BT.

So what’s my view on its future for 2010?  It’s likely to see BT’s intranet:

  • become even easier to use, wherever you are – at home, coffee shop or BT building – whenever you want to and with any device – your PC, BT’s computing kit or mobile – and the real difference will be the experience will be the same.
  • ease of use will also mean you won’t need to keep authenticating to use applications and content protected behind passwords.  Just login once and then loading up your browser will give you faster access to what you need.
  • people will find it as easy to publish content they want to share or own as sending an email and be able to search for all the different types of information on BT’s intranet from one search page that gives you what you need.

Maybe these are not earth shattering aims?  But I know if I can help achieve any of these people in BT will benefit more from using our intranet. 

And that’s what my role as BT Intranet manager is. :-)

Prevent intranet errors rather than cure them

October 7, 2009 at 2:31 pm | Posted in best practice, blog, content management, governance, intranet, navigation, publishing, social media, standards, training | 2 Comments
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BT’s intranet is everyone’s workplace for whatever they need to for their work.  Whether it is reading the latest news, collaborating with people or completing a task you need to use the BT intranet.

So it is vital BT makes sure people are 100% confident they can rely on the integrity of the information and applications on BT’s intranet. 

BT does this with a small central team to set standards and prevent errors happening so everyone can rely on  the BT Intranet.  These include:

Clauses in contracts

In BT’s procurement process there is a clause to make sure any web service bought meets the UK Disability and Discrimination Act 1995 for web accessibility.  BT aims for WAI W3C AA standards.  There is also a clause on the usability standards the web service needs to meet.  These clauses help prevent web services being implemented that don’t meet BT’s intranet standards.

Standards for developing web services

The same applies for web services BT develops as well as buys on accessibility and usability.  The developers refer to our accessibility and usability standards and apply them to the software they develop.  This gives a consistent approach to any new web service for BT Intranet users.

Publishing templates

For all types of content published BT has built as many standards as possible into the templates used.  This saves time training publishers and it doesn’t dely them publishing content.  Templates are AA compliant for web accessibility, usable .  Templates have links to PDA format, print, A-Z, global navigation bar, name of page owner, review date, etc.  Users see the same information in the same parts of the screen across BT’s intranet giving a consistently valuable experience.

Publishing training

Before anyone can publish format content they need to show they have completed online training covering publishing standards.  This builds up a consistent level of awareness and understanding before anyone publishes.  For other content types like blogs people don’t need approval or training – they just start publishing……….

All of these have combined to reduce issues to a minimum that cause a loss of productivity, business decisions taken on inaccurate information and unnecessary helpdesk queries.

Oracle responds to my UCM wish list

September 25, 2009 at 4:19 pm | Posted in application, intranet, oracle, standards | 6 Comments
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I had another call with Oracle to build on their initial response to my first call and my recent meeting with Oracle about my UCM improvements wish list.  This focused on the usability issues BT has with Oracle  UCM version 10GR3.

They have attempted to address the issues we have raised.  There are changes with 10GR4 and 11GR which Oracle claim will improve the usability of UCM.  However I’m not sure whether BT can justify the resources required to use UCM ‘well enough’ to gain these benefits.

I really want UCM to have simpler, fewer, features that mean user with little or no technical skills can easily use it for publishing content.  Oracle’s focus is also on improving usability but for the highly skilled technical minded people not the majority of users.

I’m not the only one with issues.  Look at the SWOT analysis on UCM the University of Minnesota carried out.

So, Oracle are making improvements.  Oracle have offered to pick up the outstanding issues not fixed by releases already completed with BT later in October.

So, continue to let me know of the issues you have that I can raise on your behalf by commenting, tweeting or emailing me.

Is Oracle up to its old tricks?

September 23, 2009 at 10:29 am | Posted in application, intranet, oracle, standards | 2 Comments
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My first meeting with Oracle last week went well.  Oracle agreed with my usability issues and promised to improve their usability.  My call on Friday with Oracle to cover my UCM issues started off well.  Oracle agreed I did have good points about UCM’s usability.  Oracle agreed to email me with actions, owners and timescales. 

However that didn’t happened.  Instead of a commitment to say what version would solve which problem and involving me in any unsolved issues all I have been offered is another call this Friday to cover what Oracle can do.

Maybe I’m being impatient but since it was 3 months ago that I originally raised these same issues it is disappointing the answers are not ready to hand on what Oracle can do.

So while I am making progress on wider usability issues with Oracle products through the Customer Advisory Council, the news isn’t so good for UCM…………….so far.

I’ll update you on any news after Friday’s call.

Oracle usability update

September 17, 2009 at 3:35 pm | Posted in application, intranet, oracle, standards | 6 Comments
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Yesterday I had the first of two meetings this week with Oracle to discuss the usability issues raised about Oracle UCM on my blog.  Oracle accepted the usability issues I raised.  Oracle wanted to address them in several ways.

1. The next version of UCM (10GR4) will address some of the issues raised.  11GR1 will address others.  My 2nd meeting will identify which ones in more detail.

2. As BT is a major customer of Oracle I will be invited to their Customer Advisory Council meetings in future.  There biggest customers have the opportunity to raise usability issues across the whole product range.

3. BT’s usability standards I posted about will be reviewed by Oracle to consider as a benchmark for usability of their products in future.

While there are no guarantees that any of this will happen or improve usability it is refreshing to see the attitude taken by Oracle at the first meeting.  Time will tell if discussions are turned into actions and usability improves though.

I will keep you posted on how the 2nd meeting goes.

How you can help improve Oracle’s poor usability

September 9, 2009 at 3:58 pm | Posted in application, beta testing, governance, intranet, oracle, standards, user testing | 5 Comments
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When I asked Oracle, can you improve your poor usability please? I was really pleased to see how widely my views were shared.  I’m not alone!  It has led to Oracle re-engaging with Janus Boye (read his blog post on Oracle) and me.  There is no guarantee this will lead to anything so how can we improve the usability of Oracle and other software applications?

Well, I can think of the following ways we can try:

Helping make the decisions

We need to make sure we are as closely involved as possible when our organisations decide on buying or developing a business application.  It’s much harder to get a decision changed after it has been made.  We also need to make sure the full costs are understood.  By this I mean the productivity costs of training, helpdesk support and extra time taken using the application.

Usability standards being implemented

Embed usability standards into any procurement or development process for technology.  This means any technology your organisation buys or develops has to meet these standards as well as any other technical, security or other criteria.  You can be the contact point for any queries about your standards and get involved.

BT uses these usability standards for this purpose.

Proof of concept

Test out if possible the technology before it is fully developed or bought based on user needs to see what our the usability issues and how easy and costly they will be to solve.  I do this with user stories which explain the business need, activity to be tested and outcome needed for it to have been met successfully.

Commitment

Get your vendor to commit to what you need them to do with timescales you both agree to.  Make sure it is binding in any contract and a review does take place to check every improvement agreed has been done to the usability standard expected. (My thanks to Christophen McCann)

I will keep you updated on progress with Oracle on my blog or Twitter.

Training publishers to understand intranet standards

July 29, 2009 at 7:59 pm | Posted in best practice, content management, governance, intranet, standards, training, Uncategorized | 10 Comments
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When I posted last week that ‘all intranet content is not the same’ I promised to post about how BT educates its intranet publishing community to have a common awareness and understanding of the importance of our publishing standards.

All publishers of formal content in BT must do the basic training courses before they can publish formal content on our intranet.  Each course takes about 30 minutes to complete on-line and should be repeated every two years.

These courses cover our publishing standards such as accessibility, usability, information management, etc.  You need to pass each course – just doing them isn’t enough – with an 80% pass mark.

Publishers who do not use a content management system, plus service owners and template designers, also have to do the advanced training courses.  These cover how standards need to be embedded in their site design.

Content management system publishers use templates which have these features built into them before use such as global navigation bar and meet AA accessibility standards.

All publishers of formal content need to do a one-off training course for the content management system you are using (e.g. Obtree, Teamsite).

All intranet content is not the same

July 20, 2009 at 1:47 pm | Posted in blog, content management, intranet, plan, publishing, rss, standards, Uncategorized, wiki | 25 Comments
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I have realised that I’ve blogged about BT’s intranet strategy; our blogs and wikis; publishing tools and our 2009/10 action plan.  But so far I have not covered the different types of content that people publish and use on our intranet in much detail.

Content on the BT Intranet is divided into four different types, to enable information to be managed appropriately and allow users to separate fact from comment.  A fifth category covers services, which are online processes where people do tasks to fulfil their roles.

The categories are:

Formal

Formal content is authoritative, reliable & up to date.  People will able to use it with confidence, knowing it is current and relevant.  It is usually information that has a large audience, probably line of business or BT-wide.  

A limited number of people can edit the information, with access controlled by permissions.  People have to undergo mandatory training and need to ask permission to publish.  Usually one person will have clear ownership.

Formal content will usually be found on a web site that is managed via the content management system.  All of the publishing standards are mandatory for formal content.

Team

A group of people will usually own team content, with shared responsibility for editing and ownership.  It can be permission driven, with editors clearly identified, or it can be open for anyone to edit, and possibly require a managed environment.  Team content will usually be for a defined audience, which in some cases could still be all of BT.

Team content will usually be found on one of the collaboration platforms, such as SharePoint.  Most of the online publishing standards are mandatory for team content.

Crowd

Many of the publishing standards are optional for personal content and will be managed by the publishing platforms.  People do not have to undergo mandatory training and do not need to ask permission to publish.

Crowd-sourced content is community owned information, with an open environment for anyone to edit and contribute.  The management of the information is less stringent because low levels of trust are required.

Many of the publishing standards are optional for crowd content and will be managed by the publishing platforms, such as BTpedia.  People do not have to undergo mandatory training and do not need to ask permission to publish.

Personal

Personal content will usually be opinion based content, owned by an individual, who will be the only editor.  It will have very light governance but will be open to a wide audience who can comment on the content.  Personal content will be on platforms such as Blog Central.

I’ll post about the training our publishers need to do for some types of content next.

Searching all intranet content including social media

January 14, 2009 at 10:29 am | Posted in benefit, intranet, search, social media, Uncategorized | 9 Comments
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In my last post ‘New year – new BT intranet homepage‘ I showed how the BT Intranet homepage has now integrated feeds from our wiki, blogs and podcasts with other traditional content and links.

 

Finding this information on BT Intranet sites will be easier now after a major overhaul of our intranet search engine.The search engine has been upgraded and its coverage extended to the new social media sites.  The result is a faster, more efficient engine which will provide more relevant results for users.

It means users can search for any authoritative information or emerging thoughts on the terms they have entered.  This can save duplicated effort and save time solving problems.

You can see what this looks like in the search slides showing categories and results shown.  The first result is for BTpedia which is our intranet wiki.  The other results are for our CMS content.

I’ll show in my next post how users can differentiate the different content types.

For anyone technically minded our search engine runs the Autonomy Ultraseek engine, version 5.7 with security and bug fixes applied.

14 steps to improve your applications’ usability

December 17, 2008 at 11:57 am | Posted in application, benefit, governance, help, intranet, standards, Uncategorized | 3 Comments
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In my last post ’5 ways to help you improve intranet applications’ I talked about some easy steps you can take.  The first step was having some usability standards to apply to your intranet applications so users have the best experience.

 

Now, there are plenty of sites and blogs who can give you expert guidance.  The difference with these standards is they are practical and have been applied in BT.  They are:

 

1.  Have a style guide so there is consistent, usable, design

2.  Measure cycle time to check speed of doing things

3.  Measure support calls to helpdesks and target a reduction

4.  Examine the systems error logs and see where people are having problems

5.  Observe real users not survey (or listen to the opinion of senior stakeholders)

6.  Fix the easy and small things like the labels on buttons and the headings in forms

7.  Be forgiving.  Allow the back button and provide an undo feature

8.  Make help available where people need it. 

9.  Only have a minimum FAQ section.  Instead try to reduce the questions people are asking frequently – the FAQ is a ‘things to fix’ list

10. Fix accessibility so everyone can use it

11. Consider the system emails and improve them

12. Forget trying to tell people things for their own good, we all have banner blindness

13. Be consistent across applications in the style and language.

14. Allow deep linking to specific parts of the system

 

My thanks to Sandy Blair for his help with this post. :-)

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