Making the most of webinars

Like me, you may use webinar (or online meeting) tools as a presenter and if not you've probably attended a webinar as delegate. The hints and tips below include some ideas for using the technology you might not have thought of. By using these ideas or holding more standard presentation style webinars you can maximise the benefits below.

Webinars are a fantastic alternative to face to face meetings and town hall presentations but one problem can be distracted delegates. So below you'll find some ideas to capture their attention to encourage them to focus on your delivery and content.

What are the benefits of webinars?

• Provide savings of time, travel, accommodation and hospitality costs – significant savings can be achieved. There is some good independent data from Publicare on this
• Low cost alternative to face to face meetings – particular useful if participants are scattered all over your country or around the globe
• It's a web based tool so it's not dependent on your organisations network. In fact, a network can sometimes interfere with connectivity so a straight internet connection works well eg from home, conference centre, hotel room etc.
• Good alternative for large gatherings when presenting to large number of people is impractical. Most tools will accommodate a 1000 people or more
• Quick and easy to set up - as well as scheduling events you can start an instant webinar
• No running costs if you use VoIP (PC microphone and speakers/headset) for audio – most applications provide a choice of telephone or VoIP and with some you can mix and match
• Recordable - non-attendees or delegates who want a rerun can playback both the video and audio from a recording

GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar (GTM/GTW) from Citrix Online is the tool I'm most familiar so gets some specific mentions. It works well for me. Some of the tips below therefore might not apply on other platforms.

Hints and tips - general

• If you are an organiser or presenter you can attend online training – For GTM/GTW both basic and advanced online training is available
• Don’t forget that you can show anything from your desktop so in addition to holding presentations and meetings you can provide online training, demonstrate a website, take a customer through an application or collaborate on a project
• Webinars are often thought of as 'one to many tools' but using the tool on a one to one basis can also be useful. You can use to work jointly on a document or a presentation or to take someone through an intranet or website

Hints and tips - setting up the webinar

• If you are doing a formal or public facing webinar, a two person team works well. That is, a facilitator and presenter. The facilitator can manage questions, chat, introduce the presenter and close.
• Don’t forget to check time zones before scheduling the web conference so that it’s in working hours for all the delegates you want to attend
• If you're organising a webinar give yourself plenty of time (at least 15 mins) to set the session up, ensure all is working and the presenter is relaxed but ready
• Ensure all noise sources are switched off eg telephones, BlackBerries, printers and if possible lock yourself away in a quiet room
• Set up a poll so this is ready to launch during the webinar (more on this below)
• Make sure that any automated follow-up emails are completed appropriately and set up correctly so you can 'forget and fire' (more on this below)

Hints and tips - running the webinar

• Ensure that opening slide of presentation is displayed on presenter's desktop when webinar starts so that when the switch is made from 'waiting room' to presenter's screen it’s a seamless move to the start of the presentation. Sounds obvious but any other approach can appear amateur and if seen this happen a lot
• Reducing noise is mentioned above but it's surprising how many webinars are spoilt by presenters rustling papers or in one case it seemed...eating!
• The facilitator should introduce the webinar and presenter at the start and go through 'housekeeping'. I use a housekeeping template that can be customised as appropriate. This includes how questions will be managed eg Q and A session at end, how delegates ask questions, whether and where a recording and/or presentation will be made available and what delegates should do if there are any technical issues
• In GTM/GTW, the default is to show your whole screen but you can present a specific application only by selecting an application beneath the Show My Screen button. This avoids desktop clutter, email and IM alerts etc or...
• If you are showing the whole screen then ensure you close your email client and other applications if you're presenting. I was duly embarrassed once when a message from my lunch date appeared on the my colleagues' screens whilst I was presenting!
• Some tools such as GTM/GTW offer a chat feature so the presenter and facilitator can use private chat to communicate during the webinar if required
• In GTM/GTW you'll find that right clicking names on GoToWebinar is the easiest way to do stuff eg change presenter etc.
• To close the webinar the presenter should thank everyone for their time and attention and discuss next steps (if any), and provide the presenter's contact details (if needed). The organiser should then close the webinar by thanking people once again for attending and then stating something like. 'The Enterprise Social Media webinar is now closed'

Hints and tips - after the webinar

• Follow up - The follow up shouldn't be an afterthought. Delegates should be contacted to thank them for their attendance and a link to the recording should be provided. Some applications like GTM/GTW partly automate this process and provide templates for email messages.

Best practice - getting maximum value for the webinar

This section is about making the most of webinar technology and making the webinar session work for you and the delegates.The main problem you have as a presenter is keeping the attention of the delegates or delegate distraction. Unlike a face to face meeting attendees have numerous distractions eg email, web, internet, phone calls etc so it's important to do all you can to keep their focus on your webinar. 

Hopefully, the following ideas will help:

• Interact with your audience regularly and check in at logical points by asking questions of the attendees. For example: 'Does that make sense? Are there any questions so far? Can you think of an example where you might use podcasts.' You get the sort of thing
• Put the focus onto your audience and make them your priority. For example, don't say, 'I'm going to talk to you about enterprise social media.' Instead say, 'In the next hour, you will learn the four secrets of enterprise social media; the benefits of using social media and collaborative tools; and the mistakes your competitors are making when they implement them.' You get the idea
• Use the poll feature to get your audience to participate. In GTM/GTW it's easy to set up. It's a very powerful feature and generally I've obtained 90%+ response rate and in under 30 seconds - unheard off response rates with email or web surveys. It's best to use the poll feature to ask people about the content of your presentation eg which social network do you use the most?
• Unmute the lines half way though the session and have a discussion. For example, discuss the results of the poll you've just run
• Use drawing tools to illustrate points on presentation or focus attention to items on screen. This helps avoid 'death by PowerPoint' and if done correctly gives the presenter an air of authority and professionalism
• It's important that your content is understood by delegates so the messages needs to be concise. simple and clear. If you are working from a PowerPoint presentation you should:
• Have clear short messages on each slide so use large, bold text and have no more than 4 to 6 lines of text per page
• Use a white background
• Avoid all animation as this is distracting and add complexity
• Avoid video as this tends to break up via webinar

Webinars are a great tool that we could all use more. For further help in making the most of webinars or implementing them in your business please get in touch.

Workplace social media and collaborative tools: Will you ride the wave?

In the same way that intranets multiplied amongst companies in the mid to late 1990s, new social media and collaborative tools are going to do the same over the next few years. Early intranets were essentially glorified electronic noticeboards, displaying news, information and policy documents from the 'company' to the workforce. The latest workplace revolution is about connections, collaboration and sharing amongst co-workers and is therefore far more powerful and significant. As Chris Brogan writes in Trust Agents, 'There's a tidal wave coming, and it's made of people.'

This tidal wave will be driven by social media and collaborative tools like instant messaging and webinars combined with shift to a younger more tech savvy population. In less than two years those born between 1981 and 2000, will outnumber baby boomers in the workplace.

Those companies that fail to ride this wave won'r realise the many benefits and will lose competitive advantage to those that adopt and use these tools correctly. So how can companies take advantage? Here are twelve ideas:

1) Social Media Policy
To set the framework for use of social media tools both in and out of the company it's important to have a stand alone policy. This should be both a 'dos' and a 'donts' document where practical use of social media should be encouraged. There are plenty of existing policies and guides available. Some are called 'guides' but I think policy is more appropriate because the document should lay out rules, many of which aren't optional. Depending on the culture of the organisation, a guide in addition to the policy containing advice and suggestions might also be appropriate. But it's not just a document. Understand the culture and what the company is trying to achieve before putting pen to paper.

2) Firewall

Don't act like one of the 54% of companies who block access to social network and media sites (Source: Robert Half Technology) or the multi national who uses Twitter for marketing but denies its sales people access! As well as all the ideas here there are many benefits to be gained and much value realised by using social networks and media externally for marketing and recruitment. Open the firewall.

3) CEO blog
A blog from the leader of the company is easy and inexpensive to set up, but marks an important shift in direction. Employees will read the views and opinons of a person (rather than just another email from Internal Comms) and will get the opportunity to connect by contributing feedback through comments. This paves the way for dialogue between management and employees; something that is often lacking.

4) Podcasts
As an alternative to the thousands of text only messages and announcements that have been emailed or published on the intranet, record a podcast. There are many opportunities such as a round up of the weekly company, a business area announcements, a special message from a member of the board or as an alternative or bolt on to a CEO blog. You can also podcast voice conferences for those that can't attend. The key advantage is that employees can subscribe and once they've done this they'll automatically be able to listed to the latest update. I'll be writing a guide on the mechanics of podcasting in a future post (yes, I know I've said that before).

5) Video
How many years have you had a text and static image homepage for your intranet? It's time to record a video of your CEO or a member of the Board. I think one word sums up the power and advantages...YouTube.

6) Instant messaging - option 1
Introduce internal instant messaging eg Office Communicator to provide a new network for fast and easy communication. Helps build relationships with those in a different business area or country; breaks down silos. For more advantage please see previous post - Email is not the only way.

7) Instant messaging - option 2
If there are technical or cost barriers to setting up instant messaging withing the firewall, then you can use a free alternative - Twitter. Externally facing yes, but you can set updates to private to ensure business confidentially. Using Twitter in this way will provide the same advantages as Option 1.

8) Webinars
Another communication tool, webinars are great for bringing people together in an interactive meeting. The term webinar implies that it's a top down presentation and whilst this is usually the case you can use the tool for online team meetings and project working. Webinar tools such as GoToWebinar include plenty of communication features such as Q and A and online messaging/chat.

9) Twitter
Whilst Twitter is an external facing tool you can use it internally in several ways. Here's 2. Employees can share best practice with others with similar skills and expertise, which as well as benefiting them as individuals adds value to the company. They can also use Twitter to network with potential clients and suppliers.

10) Yammer
Add Yammer or integrate micro-blogging onto your intranet. In effect, a dedicated version of Twitter for your business. For more on Yammer please read earlier post Making the most of Yammer.

11) Social tagging/bookmarking
A method for employees to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks on and from your intranet. Other internal web resources, tools and internet sites can also be included. Think Digg, Reddit, Delicious and StumbleUpon but inside your firewall. Not as difficult or expensive to implement as you might think, even if not included in your intranet platform.

12) Conference and event reporting
This final idea works for employees inside and organisation by making a connection with the external world. How many times can a colleague make a conference or event that you can't attend? Twitter can be used to report back on conference speeches and events so that colleagues don't miss out. This is a great use of Twitter's real time capabilities and can be used in the same way for webinars too. Reporting often triggers parallel conversations to the event on items of interest - more connections + more conversation = more value.

The twelve points above are just the crest of the wave. There are many ways of using social media and collaborative tools inside an organisation which are only limited by your imagination. Yes, they all require resource or investment but generally costs are low and shouldn't be a barrier to entry.

The question you should ask is: 'What will be the cost of not riding the wave, not using these tools to connect and collaborate?'

Finally, although the technology is exciting - at least to geeky types like me - it's not just about new corporate gadgets. The tools and technology need to be aligned with your business objectives, company culture and internal comms strategy and only then implemented and used in an appropriate way.

If you need more help with understanding the benefits and value or the implementation of these ideas within your business, please get in touch.

Top ten intranet tips - #IntranetTips

Below are the top ten intranet tips that I've published on Twitter (#IntranetTips). Putting them into a blog post brings them together and provides a bit more space to add some additional detail. Thank you to Rachel Lai and Carolyn Douglas for giving me some ideas on the detail.

1.       Open non-web eg pdf and Office docs in new windows

By coding hyperlinks with ‘_blank’ or setting your links in CMS to open in a new page, non-web pages will open in a new window. This allows the employee to close the window once they read the document whilst still remaining on the intranet. It can be quite frustrating to have to fire up the browser again to go back to the main intranet.

2.       Link to your corporate website pages to avoid duplication

About Us, Board Members and Locations are good pages for this. This type of content is often published both on the intranet and company website. If you have the same CMS for intranet and website then you can avoid duplication by publishing the same page to both. If not then simply link out to your website from the intranet.

3.       Keep a searchable archive of all internal and external news

It's a good idea to keep links to all your previously published homepage articles and press releases. The best way is probably a listing in date order with links to the full article. Your CMS may be able to automate this. As per tip number 2 above, if press releases are stored on the website then just link to the appropriate page. It's helpful if your archives are searchable.

4.       Roll out an intranet icon onto all employees desktops

To provide easy of access to your intranet speak to IT about using a 'group policy' to install an intranet icon onto all employees desktops. A bonus point if you can get the icon designed to match your intranet or company brand.

5.       Add multimedia to homepage to keep it exciting and engaging

It's vital to attract employees to the shop window of your intranet – the homepage. To make it engaging include video and/or sound. Perhaps a video of your CEO announcing the annual results. Podcasts are an refreshing change to text and are not that difficult to produce. (Coming soon! – a post on how to make podcasts). In addition, use good quality pictures to go along side your news articles.

6.       Display clocks on your homepage if you have offices in different time zones

When telephoning or arranging a conference call with people abroad or in different time zones it's helpful to know what the time is at their location. You can display clocks showing the appropriate times on your homepage based on the intranet server time. Make sure your system or IT people take into account daylight saving changes so that the times are always correct.

7.       Put the content owner and last updated time/date at the bottom of every intranet page

The last updated date shows employees that the content is fresh (or not) and the name of the content author gives them someone to contact should they have a query. Some CMS such as Intranet Connections can automatically do this for you.

8.      Add an easy to use Sales/Wants application. Your employees will love it.

Sales/Wants boards or classified ads give employees an opportunity to engage with the intranet in an off duty way. On an intranet I ran recently the sales/wants application was the 3rd most popular page after the homepage and employee directory.

9.       Don't make people have to log into any page/app. Their Windows login id should suffice.

You can hook your intranet into Active Directory to avoid employees having to log in to the intranet itself or applications connected to it. Speak to your IT people about SAML which you can use to access third party applications.

10.   Put a 'Quick Tasks' dropdown on homepage for quick access to claiming expenses, booking travel, logging IT calls etc

This makes it easy and quick for employees to access the applications they use most. Metrics and feedback indicate such links are popular.

Making the most of Yammer

Yammer is an online tool used to communicate, share, and stay in touch with others in a company or organisation through the exchange of short messages. In geek speak Yammer is an internal micro-blogging tool, or to put it another way, a business version of Twitter. Yammer gives you a private network (locked down using company organisation email address), messages are not limited to 140 characters and documents and images can be attached to messages. Plus there are features like profiles, RSS feeds, organisational charts and the recently added 'Likes' and threaded message view. Yammer is hosted as Software As A Service (SaaS) so can be accessed easily from both inside and outside your network.

Here are some FAQs on using Yammer:

1) How can I access Yammer?

You can access Yammer using:

• www.yammer.com
• Yammer Desktop Application
• Blackberry application
• iPhone application
• Android application
• Gabble (A Mac application)

2) How do I post messages?

Just type your message into the Update box and hit Update. That's it.

Posting a message to the your Yammer network is similar to sending an email (or an instant message), with a few key advantages:

• Anyone interested in you or any Tag (see Tags below) in the message can view the message – you don’t have to decide ahead of time who may be interested in your message, unless you want to – just post your message for all Yammer users to view. 
• If you want to message someone on a 'one to one' basis then you can send them a private message. The advantage of private 1 to 1 Yammer messages, over IM, is that your messages are archived and searchable forever by you and the recipient.
• The content of the message and any attachment is searchable by anyone on your network using the search field on the top right. It's a great alternative to email - for more on this please my previous post Email is not the the only way.

3) How do I attach a file or image to my message?

Attach a file or image directly to your message by clicking the ‘Attach file’ link beneath the update form. This will prompt you to select the file or image you would like to attach with your message. You can attach as many files or images as you would like.

After posting, the attachment will appear within your message and in the appropriate File or Link Directory.

4) What does 'following' mean?

Following the people, Tags and groups that you find most interesting is the key to getting the most out of Yammer. Your My Feed will only include messages from the people, groups and Tags you follow, giving you the information you need when you need it.

5) How do I follow someone?

When you follow someone in your network you will receive all messages they post in your My Feed, except for those posted to Groups you have not joined. For example, you can follow colleagues who work on the same projects as you, are involved in interesting initiatives in your organization, and who share insightful links. And of course, don’t forget to follow your boss!

Click on a colleague’s name or picture to reach their profile, then use the blue 'Follow' button to the right of their name to follow them. You can also find and follow lots of colleagues quickly in the members directory, reached by clicking the 'Members' tab.

6) How do I use Tags?

#Tags are used to Group topics together. If you use Twitter then you'll be familiar with this concept. For example, if you want to post a topic on sales then simply put a # front of it - #sales. When others do the same all posts with the Tag sales are grouped together making them easy to find in 2 ways.

• You can click a Tag and all posts containing the Tag will be displayed on the page.
• You can search for Tags (or for that matter any topic or person) using the search field on the top right of the page.

Over time this will lead to the development of a knowledge base as many topics and knowledge and information around them are posted. The full Tag collection can be viewed by selecting Tags under the More menu.

7) How do I address a message to a person?

As on Twitter use @ followed by a colleague’s user name to address a message to that person. Your colleague’s name will link to their profile, and the message will appear in your colleague’s received and following. This is useful for asking someone a question or including them in a conversation on Yammer.

Notice that after typing the @ symbol, a list of users appears. You can select the name you want from the list using the mouse, scroll up and down the list using the arrow keys, hit return to select the highlighted name, or keep typing to narrow down the list. The auto-suggest list is particularly useful if you don’t know your colleague’s unique username, determined by their work email address, but know their name.

8) How do I use links?

You can easily add links to your update by simply putting the link in your message (i.e. 'Check out this news story: http://news.bbc.co.uk. The link will then automatically be added to your network's Link directory which is accessible under the More menu.

Remember that people will be using Yammer externally so links to internal applications such as your intranet won't work. Therefore, if you use internal links be sure to flag them as such eg http://intranet (internal). When linking to long URLs (web addresses) you can use a URL shortener such as 'bit ly' at http://bit.ly/. Bit ly works for both external and internal links.

9) How do I find other Yammer users in my network?

Use the Members directory to quickly view and follow multiple people in your network. The directory listing for each member includes their picture, name, username, title, # of messages, and number of followers. Use the blue Follow buttons to follow members right from the directory, or click on a member to view that member’s profile.

Use the Invite more members link to invite others in your organization to join your network. Yammer will become more and more useful as more colleagues join and become active members.

10) How do I search for a Group, person, Tag, or message?

You can search for groups, members, Tags, or for a specific word or phrase.

To search for all messages posted to a Group, begin typing the Group name into the search field. As you type, matching Groups will be displayed. Click on the Group name or select it with the up and down arrow key and hit enter. This shortcut takes you to the Group page which displays all messages, you have permission to view, posted to that Group.

To search your network for all posts by a particular member, begin typing his or her name into the search field. As you type, matching member names will be displayed. Click on the member’s name or select it with the up and down arrow key and hit enter. This shortcut takes you to the member’s profile which displays all messages by that member.

To search for all posts about a particular Tag, begin typing the Tag name into the search field. As you type, matching Tags will be displayed. Click on the Tag name or select it with the up and down arrow key and hit enter. This shortcut takes you to the Tag page which includes all messages about that Tag.

To search for a specific word or phrase, type it into the search box and click the search icon. Your search results appears in three tabs:

• messages displays every message that includes the search word or phrase.
• members displays every members whose name matches the search word.
• Tags displays every Tag whose name includes the search word

11) How do I control the number of email updates I receive?

By default each account is set up to receive a number of email updates and notifications. To change the email updates and notifications you receive go to Settings (top right hand side) and then Email.

12) Can I use Yammer as an alternative to email distribution lists?

Yes. Distribution lists can be set up using the Groups feature of Yammer so that it's possible to communicate to a Group of people in a similar function or with a similar interest in the same way as Outlook. However, the instant nature of Yammer provides a welcome alternative to this approach. Short bites of information instead of just sending messages one-to-one around a contact list can be a refreshing change. Considerable time can be saved and email traffic reduced. You can also SMS people in groups.

Here are a few tips:

• When you first join, introduce yourself. It's a good way to break the ice.
• Fill out your Profile so your colleagues know what skills you possess. Be sure to add a Profile photo.
• Watch the Yammer Video Tour to understand how to use Yammer and the value it provides.
• Stick to your area of expertise and provide unique, individual perspectives on what you are doing in your role.
• Express yourself and your views but keep it business like - try to avoid messages such as 'I just had a good lunch'…unless it was with a client!
• Tell other people what you're working every time you switch projects or when you or your team delivers something new or significant.
• Post meaningful, respectful comments—in other words, no spam and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive.
• Share hints, tips, snippets of knowledge, opinions, ideas and suggestions – in short anything that will add value or help your colleagues.
• Post questions to obtain info but return the favour by providing answers to other's questions.
• Respect confidentiality and commercial sensitivities.
• It's fine to disagree with others' opinions but keep it appropriate and polite.
• Join Groups you're interested in.
• Post your message to the most relevant Group and use Tags, if applicable. This ensures proper message delivery to members who deem themselves as experts or interested in the subject matter.
• If you forget to add a Tag to a message, simply reply to the message with the Tag. Entire threads are associated with Tags.
• Don't worry about people receiving messages that they may not be interested in. Yammer is structured so the recipient can choose what content they receive based on what or who they follow. Just make sure you post to the most relevant Group and use the appropriate Tags.
• Before asking your colleagues a question, Search Yammer using the search bar in the upper right. It may have already been answered.
• Turn threaded view On, in bottom left corner of feed, if discussion threads are hard to follow or you're trying to catch up after a lot of activity.
• Ask the question: 'What value do you get from Yammer?' and post an example. It will help everyone understand.
• To prevent messages being submitted when you hit 'enter' uncheck Enter Key Does Not Submit Message under Appearance.
• If you are on Twitter you can post to both sites at the same time by putting #yam in your Twitter post. Just make sure your Twitter user name is includes in your Yammer profile.
• And lastly a more macro one...suggest Yammer for your business continuity planning. When your network or email is down Yammer could help out. It's accessible from any internet connection, most mobile devices and is faster than email. You can also message and SMS groups quickly. 

Yammer can really add value to a company or organisation in a number of ways and to get going you can start a network for free. I'd suggest a small pilot or soft launch. However, do think carefully before you do this. To make the most of Yammer and to give better controls you'll almost certainly need Admin Tools, for which you'll need budget as there is a monthly cost per member.

Email is not the only way

I'm increasingly finding that I'm using email less and less as I move to other alternatives for text based communications. Email has been around for some time now. It was in 1995 that I first used it in a work environment. It's adoption amongst medium to large companies was virtually universal by 1997. I remember asking a major computer retailer for their email address in 1996 and being surprised they didn't have one!

Email is a very basic messaging system and one that hasn't changed much since its launch. What it fails to provide which many of its 'competitors' do is speed, context and conversation.

In the office, I use Microsoft Office Communicator more than email. It's great for quick internal queries. As a sender I receive quick answers to my questions and I hope that I provide them too. I like its informal conversational style. You feel that you are talking with someone and establishing a connection. Speed of message transmission is instant unlike email which can take 30 to 60 seconds to reach its destination. This means rapid response to a situation when required. With email there is no chance of a conversation (maybe that's why they're called threads?) and cumulatively a fair bit of time is wasted. I often find that email is 'fire and forget'. Fire off a message to colleague and both sender and recipient forget about it the action required or the question that needs to be answered. This is partly due to visibility, there is no public display of the message that has been sent. There is always that doubt as to whether the email has actually been received. Office Communicator also indicates 'presence status' - online, offline, away etc. This saves a huge amount of time knowing which colleagues are available. Tip: You can integrate the presence indicator with your employee directory so that each person's entry shows their presence status.

With more conversational tools like Office Communicator and Yammer message are visible and communication is more effective. With Office Communicator the speed means that actions and answer are very quick. With Yammer messages are public so are rarely ignored and forgotten. Even if aimed at a colleague someone else can step in and reply.

Yammer has a number of other strengths over email. Communications are structured in conversations and topics, using #tags. This makes following a line of work or thought easy to follow and helps when looking for old messages. On top of this Yammer has an excellent and fast search. All these features are missing from Outlook. No conversation style, no topics and a poor and slow search. Tip: To provide a better search I use Google Desktop.

For receiving and giving generic help and advice on intranets and social media I use Twitter, LinkedIn and of course blogs. All visible and easily searchable.

Socially, I tend to use Facebook and text more than email, again due to its conversation style but also because it provides context. If I'm organising or going to a party then everything is structured around one place in Facebook - the 'Event'. Often, I might have something to say that may be useful or of interest to others, say a film recommendation, so I post on their Wall. Texts, like Office Communicator are great for quick short messages. With phones like my Google G1 or the iPhone they are also displayed as conversations. Texts are often neglected in a work environment but they are a great alternative to email and phone, particularly if you are communicating with busy people, who tend to divert to voicemail.

Finally, what's all this got to do with intranets? Well, the intranet should be the 'way of working', the desktop that is the central point of all tasks and the communications hub. Tools such as Office Communicator and Yammer should be integrated into an intranet so that they are part and parcel of the working environment.

20 steps to a new intranet

The following are 20 steps you should consider when implementing a new intranet along with a tip for each step.

1. Agree intranet strategy with Board/Senior Management - consider knowledge management, working practices and culture too.

2. Use strategy to produce business requirements – look to include features that will benefit your organisation and fit with the culture.

3. Define and agree scope of project – decide if it’s appropriate to look at the workflow and processes you’re giving access to via the intranet.

4. Create shortlist of platforms - research web resources and other organisations intranets.

5. Use business requirements to narrow down shortlist and to make final selection – using weighted scoring is a good approach.

6. Write project plan - ensure that all the following steps are included and who is going to carry them out.

7. Agree new intranet name and brand – it’s vital so needs its own identity. Ensure that the URL matches the name.

8. Agree and arrange hosting location and environment – large organisations should looks at mirrored servers in multiple locations.

9. Define the information architecture and site structure - ensure that stakeholders and user groups feed into this.

10. Design navigation – ensure this marches information architecture and that search and home buttons are on every page.

11. Design/look and feel of whole intranet – ensure design highly usable and re-inforces both intranet’s your organisation’s brand.

12. Design homepage – it’s the front end so spend some time on this.

13. Install and build – install and build inline with business requirements.

14. Migrate – but before you do remove out of date content from any existing systems you’re migrating.

15. Implementation of publishing system – install mechanism and intranet assets to use in the ongoing creation of content

16. Implement and configure search – ensure your search indexes the whole of your intranet and all the document storage areas.

17. Test and obtain feedback – test with your stakeholders and user group.

18. Produce comms plan – a new intranet is a big change so ensure people are aware.

19. Train and provide help – set up classroom training and provide lots of online help.

20. Launch

Use your intranet to create value

As well as saving costs your intranet can also create real value for your company and help that bottom line by improving the flow of information and knowledge around your company.

The intranet can act as the plumbing system to help this flow. Better informed and more knowledgeable employees work smarted and generate more revenue. For example, a sales consultant having easy access to a case study of a similar customer and proposition plus a subject matter expert can have a real edge. Make sure your case studies are easy to navigate to and are picked up by your search engine. Expand your employee directory to include areas of expertise and skills. Even better if you have your main search engine index this information too.

You can providing additional means for employees to share knowledge and work together and build them onto your plumbing system. For example, instant messaging like Office Communicator, a webinar tool like GoToMeeting and a social network like Yammer.

A significant objective of an intranet is to deliver company news to employees but build on this by presenting your objectives in interesting ways. For example, use pictures, dashboards and blogs. Give employees the option to feedback on your objectives and progress. This aids their understanding of your company's aims and objectives and gets them engaged. You can do this by adding a comments section under every news story and getting your senior people to write blogs which have feedback sections.

Once your plumbing is in place ensure that the whole system is aligned with your brand and ensure your internal brand mirrors your external brand. Get rid of any old logos and colours and redesign systems so they follow your current brand. Subtle yes, but this will help employees feel engaged with the intranet and will encourage them to make the most of the new features you've set up.

Real cost savings in action

As mentioned in my post of the 4 July BA saved £55 million last year so it was good to see its intranet today and get a sense of how these savings are made. On first look it seemed that not much had changed since I last had a tour in 2006 but whilst the design had changed little there is no access to more functions than before.

The BA intranet, or Employee Services Portal as they call it, is extremely task orientated. So the focus has been to move as much process and transactions as possible online. So far example, when staying in a hotel on an overnight stopover cabin crew can now arrange rosters and swap shifts. Online payslips are now compulsory - there is no option to receive a paper copy in the post. An great example of a real saving in postage, paper and production costs for 42,000 employees each month.

A recent new area is 'Action for survival' which aims to help BA get through the recession. This houses forums for employees to generate ideas and Q and As on money saving measures such as the recently announced unpaid leave/work initiative.

It was noticeable that design has not changed much in 3 years and there is little evidence of Enterprise 2.0. No blogs or wikis and the forums are 'traditional' rather than Yammer style. Despite this the intranet remains extremely popular with around 23,000 accessing each day and over 98% of employees accessing at least once per month.

So functions and task do seem to the driving force behind this intranet which is more than paying its way for BA.

Improving the bottom line

There is certainly plenty of scope for an intranet to save money and some big savings to be made. In 2008 British Airways estimated it saved £55 million (Source: Norman Nielson Group). Here two practical suggestions for achieving real savings:

1) Integrate your Employee Directory with Active Directory

Work with IT to integrate your online employee directory with Active Directory (AD) so that employees details are automatically displayed from their AD login account. The employee directory should provide an update page so amended details are fed back to each employees AD account. Use this employee data as the central source of trusted data for ALL systems where employee data is stored.

2) Move systems and process online

Move as many systems and processes online as possible to create more efficient processes. Obvious starting points are HR and IT self service and knowledge bases/FAQs and but there are plenty of others: expenses, meeting room and webinar booking, purchasing, hot desk booking, parking space booking, online training course booking and e-learning systems (maybe part of HR system). They don't all have to be self service eg asset management and meeting room administration.


You can combine the two ideas above by using your captured employee data in pre-populated forms to save employees time when they use your online self service systems. So employees don't have to continually fill out their personal details when buying software, claiming expenses, booking a meeting room and viewing their payslip. etc. This results in removing a repeated chore for employees and additional time savings to those now more efficient online processes.