Intrateam 2010 - Conference day one summary as viewed via Twitter

Intrateam 2010 is an International Conference about Intranet and Enterprise 2.0 currently taking place in Copenhagen. This event is THE place to be if your are interested in the future direction of Intranets and the people who use and manage them. International Intranet thought leaders like James Robertson, Jane McConnell, Michael Sampson, Mark Morrell and Martin White have been wowing delegates with their extensive knowledge and thought provoking presentations on day one. Needless to say I am green with envy at all who have had the opportunity to attend this gathering of Intranet gurus.

Now those of you who regularly use twitter to follow information on Intranets would have no doubt seen tweets from conference attendees in the past. I have never really been a huge fan of this practice. The tweeted comments on presentations usually lack context and seldom provide any value for people on the outside looking in. But that was before I started following the #IE10 comments posted from Intrateam 2010.

Following event proceedings last night from my home in Sydney was just fantastic. The tweets from #IE10 were gems of information. Thought provoking questions, insightful observations and valuable advise were coming thick and fast in less than 140 characters. I am now convinced that provided the person tweeting from the event has the ability to communicate key points and not just a stream of topics, following conference presentations on Twitter can be an entertaining and informative experience.

Here are some of the tweets from 4 of the English sessions on day one.

Future Intranet for New Ways of Working - Jane McConnell, Intranet and Portal Specialist
(Jane presented some of the key results from her Global Intranet Trends 2010 report)

• HR is a chameleon. Could be your best friend and worst enemy. @NetJMC #IE10
• 30% of ordinary employees have content publishing in their job description @NetJMC #IE10
• 60% are satisfied or very satisfied with search @NetJMC #IE10
• 10% is planning on optimizing mobile access @NetJMC #IE10
• 40% is planning access from home @NetJMC #IE10
• 20% have optimized commenting on intranet @NetJMC #IE10
• 45% have internal blogs and wikis today @NetJMC #IE10
• 5% use social media across the organization. More are testing and planning @NetJMC #IE10
  Correction - @NetJMC Advises that her presentation stated "60 % are using social media today with another 25% planning to do so.
  06 March 2010 - Thanks Jane
  Janes Correct data on Social Media within organisations here.
  

Building the Best Practice Intranet - Andrew Wright, Managing Director, CIBA Solutions and Stephan Schillerwein, infocentric research

• Andrew Wright and Stephan Schillerwein is arranging a competition about the most important for enduser @IntranetMatters @Roojwright #IE10
• Personlization was rated lowest by endusers. @IntranetMatters @Roojwright #IE10
• Winner was News - surprise @IntranetMatters @Roojwright #IE10
• Finding instuctions for completing work tasks was better than news. Judged by endusers - Sorry @IntranetMatters @Roojwright #IE10
• The best intranet in World Intranet Challenge is run by an IT-guy walking around talking to employees @IntranetMatters @Roojwright #IE10

How Newsdesk helped Shell save $5 million - by Rossen Roussev, former Shell Enterprise Portal manager

• Shell saved $15m on a budget that was 10% of that amount.#IE10
• Shell portal rolled out to 142k people in 142 countries #IE10
• Few users will personalise - most want content profiled for them #IE10
• Use words and phrases that help management achieve their business objectives. Rossen Roussev Shell #IE10
• More important than the (impressive) number of $ saved by shell's intranet was that it was done in a way that management bought into #IE10
• shell's savings came from overlapping media contracts being stopped #IE10
• Comms people were creating a lot of newsletters round the world. Replaced by centrally Newsdesk. Rossen Roussev Shell #IE10
• Contracts rationalization 73 contracts identified USD 17 million a year replaced by internal newsfeed Rossen Roussev Shell #IE10
• Think about your organisation. Value and perception. Walk and talk. Rossen Roussev Shell #IE10
• Don't explain to management how great the intranet is. They don't care. It's all about value and perception. Rossen Roussev, Shell#IE10
• "Get out there, talk to people, do your homework!" Rossen Roussev, Shell #IE10
  (PR - Loved this snipit - sometimes feel like shouting it at people)
  

Is your Intranet Ready for 2012? - Martin White, Intranet Focus Ltd

• Try to type "confidential" in your search box on the intranet. Scared? Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
  (PR-Tried this morning. Not as bad as I first feared it may be)
• Abandon hope for those enter here. Is that then welcome message on your intranet? Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• Information is not seen as a business asset. Why not? Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• You can't be an intranet manger for the rest of your life, you'll go insane! Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• Security gets blamed for everything. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• The intranet is NOT an IT system The intranet is the only IT-system not having a specific purpose. Challenge? Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• Be more specific when asking about what employees do? Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• The value of your information is the sum of all salaries in the company and you are failing to manage it! Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• Collaboration technology gets rolled out without specifying collaboration requirements and goals. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• Not many had made the requirements BEFORE installing collaboration tools. Not done with many other things! Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• Challenger launch decision. Good book about collaboration according to Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• We share information because we trust each other. Break trust and collaboration breaks. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• What is the career path for intranet managers? (We can't do the one job for the next 20 years) @s2d_jamesr #IE10
• We focus on the media not the social. A social media guide does not make it social. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• The biggest intranet challenge is where they bump up to ERP. Millions invested in ERP. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
• The future intranet has to be independent on location, language, department and technology. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10

I plan on following the #IE10 tweets from day two of this event tonight and am looking forward to another sessions from Jane McConnell, Step Two's James Robertson, Mark Morrell from British Telecom and Collaboration guru Michael Sampson. Does it really get any better than this?
If this event is on again next year I am going to pull out all stops to attend. Just the conversations during breaks would be well worth the price of the airfare from Australia.

Social Media Revolution

Is social media a fad or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? This video details out social media facts and figures that are hard to ignore. This video is produced by the author of Socialnomics.

I love discovering all these statistics like "If facebook was a country it would have the 4th highest population in the world" and "Ashton Kutcher & Ellen DeGeneres have more Twitter followers that the entire population of Ireland, Norway & Panama".

Great information for those who are trying to convince your organisation about the importance and taking social media channels seriously.

Why are Intranet Teams undervalued?

It frustrates me a little that so many people still view Twitter as a useless service that has no value. "Why do I need to know what kind of sandwich an acquaintance enjoyed for their lunch?" is fairy typical of the statements you hear time and again when Twitter is discussed.

I on the other hand get very excited by the potential of the micro-blogging service to build professional networks and the ability to share views, tips, techniques and experiences with like minded professionals across the globe. Ok, I will step off the soapbox and get to the point.

My company seems to value the power of our Intranet for timely communication and delivery of online business applications. Not so much though as to be forthcoming with allocation of budget and resources. Through my association with Intranet professional forums and groups I have heard similar comments from other Intranet managers and was interested to send the question out to the Twitterverse and obtain the views of my network of Intranet & Knowledge Manager followers.

The question I posed and a glimpse of the ensuing conversation follows.

I would like to hear thoughts on why Intranet Teams seem to be always under resourced and undervalued.

@awmitchell There's the obvious one about not being good at selling the benefits in stories and data. But not whole story.
@Peter_Richards Agree that success promotion and personal flag waving are skills that don't come naturally to many. Proving ROI also difficult.
@awmitchell IMO (In My Opinion) we also need to realise the feeling is common in many (maybe all) "support" or "cost centre" areas so it's more general than something specific to intranets.
@ccrask What and who isn't under resourced and undervalued? That's what I would really like to know.
@awmitchell Also a barrier of irrelevance. Executives / owners understand how value is created but don't usually have a personal relationship with the intranet themselves.
@Peter_Richards A problem I observe is that execs have minions to collect knowledge for them. The rest of us need to retrieve ourselves.
@awmitchell How relevant are intranets to the organisations leaders? Indeed. I encourage my team not to over service our directors but it is very hard.It's probably even broader than "support" functions.
@RichardHare People expect intranets to work: improvements and the way things used to be are quickly forgotten, Also, employees see few other intranets, so main comparison is the web which they always feel is superior
@Peter_Richards Great points, comparison with quickly evolving web raises Intranet expectations to ridiculous heights.
@RichardHare Lastly, perhaps related to last point, many employees don't understand what the intranet is *really* for
@RichardHare I still speak to people who want sites so other people (never them) can "share knowledge"
@seanrnicholson Intranets are cost centers & not revenue centers & orgs have done poor job proving that intranets can improve biz process.
@Peter_Richards Most can accept that Intranets save time by streamlining biz processes. But to measure Time is Money is a difficult task.
@seanrnicholson Most biz models see Intranet as overhead. Necessary overhead, though, in todays times of doing more with less.
@Peter_Richards So we are seen as an overhead? Difficult 2 quantify what is done with the time saved when business processes are streamlined.

So here is some advise on ways to address some of the issues identified in the Twitter conversations above.

• Intranet Managers & Teams need to sell the benefits of the Intranet to users & sponsors more frequently & more effectively.
  
  Promote enhancements frequently (I am producing a bi monthly update containing user tips, latest enhancements & reminders of functions that users may not be aware of)
  
  Talk about the Intranet and promote its benefits whenever you get the chance. Be proactive and offer advise to business partners and stakeholders about how the Intranet may be able to add value to their project, knowledge base or initiatives.
  
  
• Try not to over service very senior managers. Of course gleaning support from executive management can be very beneficial (big stick & bag of money supporter) however they are seldom your core user group. Better to focus more effort on identifying and implementing business process improvements that can help the broader user group work more efficiently. Even better if time and/or money savings can be measured and demonstrated. Bottom line savings can gain senior management support very effectively.
  
  
• Stay Informed and keep up to date on current Intranet trends and developments. Most people today use the Internet daily and see the how it is constantly and quickly evolving. Constant changes in user interfaces, site design, information architecture, multimedia and social networking services help to raise user expectations on what they think they should be able to be delivered on the Intranet. Keeping up to date helps give you the knowledge to be able to manage expectations and in many cases offer alternative solutions. Participating in Jane McConnell's annual Globel Intranet Trends survey is one great way to do this. Read Intranet blogs (which you are doing right now), Join Intranet professional groups and forums. All essential things for effective Intranet Managers to remain on top of things.
  
  
• Plan well ahead for platform upgrades, site redesigns, update the CMS etc. All the big ticket items. Get use to producing business cases for the things on your big picture wish list and submit them for consideration (not all at once obviously). Even if you do not get your plans approved, don't give up. Keep trying. Being able to write a compelling and effective business case is a skill that will be valuable throughout your career so don't think of a knock back as a failure, just think of it as practice. There is a truth in life that I personally have to consciously remind myself of and that is, if you don't ask you don't get.
  

So there is my 2 cents worth. I do try and practice all the points I have made above personally. But I am still a team of one with a limited budget, so although the advise I have provided seems to work for me in many ways, there does not appear to be a magic bullet solution. Any advances we make in gaining recognition and support are incremental and require constant vigilance of effort.

I would greatly appreciate the hear any advise, ideas and comments anyone has on how Intranet Teams might be recognised and supported for making the valuable contribution to our organisations that we all know we do.

Big thanks to @seanrnicholson, @RichardHare, @awmitchell, @ccrask, @carolyndouglas for contributing to the conversation and for ReTweeting my original query.

What are the top 10 factors when implementing Twitter in your organisation?

Yesterday (Tuesday 4 August), the Canberra chapter of the Intranet Leadership Forum met for day one of a two day workshop and one of the items discussed was whether Twitter used inside an organisation added value. Though I was in another state and unable to attend, I was able to follow the debate via Twitter #CanberraILF. It appears that the room was split into 'For' and 'Against' camps with the 'Against' side slightly larger. There was a few undecided.

Some of the positives the 'For' team raised:
Emergency situations, have conversations within intranet author user groups, solve problems instantly.

Some of the issues raised by the 'Against' team:
Long term sustainability, potential to be a time waster, quality of information, low care factor, FOI (am assuming that was Freedom of Information), number of characters prohibiting getting message across and information overload.

Late in the afternoon the group decided to come up with a list in answer to the question "What are the top 10 factors when implementing Twitter in your organisation?".

The factors they considered were:
(In no particular order)

1. Governance for managing
2. Investigate security/technological requirements
3. Content
4. Team collaboration
5. Executive buy-in
6. Monitoring
7. Policy around guidelines for users
8. Solid business case
9. Who gets permission to tweet
10. Whether responses are trusted.
    

While the above list is by no means definitive, there are many inclusions that need to be carefully considered if an organisation intends to allow all employees internal access to Twitter.

Personally I think the ability to follow proceedings of events like this ILF workshop remotely and in real time is an overwhelming vote for the positive however the bureaucracy that exists within most organisations and breaking down the suspicions of management are realities that few have overcome.

Overall, an interesting and enjoyable debate and I would love to receive comments for things people feel should be included in the list, more arguments for the 'For' case as well as views of those in the 'Against' camp.

One final note, I came across this Template Twitter strategy for Government Departments made available by the UK Cabinet Office and have found it extremely useful. Thanks to @CraigThomler and @fanbloodytastic for tweeting the link to the template.

Thanks also to @RichardTuffin @readingroom_au @ACSnewsfeed @adriankhall @awmitchell @Alex_Manchester for contributing to the days discussions via twitter.

Rules of Social Media???

I am fascinated by the way Twitter is constantly evolving. Since its beginning in March 2006 this micro blogging service has developed its own etiquette and language all generated by its users. Its direction and how people are using it were never imagined by its original developers. A very interesting New York Times article 'Twitter? It's What You Make It' explains this and is well worth a read.

One thing that strikes me with all new and emerging social media tools is that rules of use evolve which the majority seem to follow. But then someone comes along, breaks the rules, and either makes a fortune or just makes a difference through their nonconformist ways.

The catalyst for this posting came from a blog entry I read this morning on Mashable '5 People Who Broke the Rules of Social Media and Succeeded' again, well worth a read if you are interested in the phenomenon that is social media.

BTW, Mashable is a fantastic source of the latest news, views and ideas in the world of social media. It has an RSS feed available that I highly recommend.