Intranet

Proprietary intranet vendors, be scared. Be very scared. Today, Development Seed, the open source shop behind DrupalCon in DC and other endeavors, has released the public beta of Open Atrium. Open Atrium is a free and open source intranet built as a Drupal distribution, with some impressive functionality available out of the box. Not only is this a solid piece of software to begin with, but its makers are evangelizing what they think could be a transformative paradigm for extending Drupal's capabilities. Development Seed has been around for about six years, and in that time they've built Drupal-based websites and intranets for the likes of the UN and the World Bank, among many others. Eventually they thought to themselves, why not put together this intranet as a separate distribution? Something extensible that could be deployed at lightning speed?

Intranet Connections Intranet Software will be releasing the latest version of its intranet 2.0 software suite in September 2009. Version 9.5 will feature a more robust Document Management module that incorporates 2.0 tools such as Ajax tree navigation, tagging, breadcrumbs, versioning, approval workflow, user subscriptions, document comments and a ratings voting system. The new Document Management utility will provide the simple user experience that is the hallmark of the Intranet Connections software. “There is an overload of information on social media and the 2.0 enterprise right now, and how that fits in with your corporate intranet,” states Carolyn Douglas, CEO of Intranet Connections. “Our goal is to merge the social and collaborative networking that employees gravitate towards with the practical intranet tools that are necessary in assisting employees in their day-to-day duties.”

There are a lot of solutions on the market today that you could implement to provide social software to your employees and customers. And they all offer very similar functionality. So there is a need to differentiate and offer specific point solutions based on that technology.This is what MindTouch is doing. Today they announce the first of three collaborative network solutions based on their open source collaboration platform: MindTouch Collaborative Intranet.

There is a wonderful future ahead for internal communicators who focus on content as a productive asset. Giving control of an intranet to a traditional communicator is a bit like giving a pub to an alcoholic. It's happy days. There's so much to publish. All the stuff they never read offline can go on the intranet. The homepage can be covered with news because the communicator with a hammer will see nails everywhere that need to be hammered home. And of course the intranet can reach everybody (in theory, at least), not like those magazines, brochures and flyers.

I've been talking to numerous owners of corporate websites lately to try and understand where the "internet prescence" of large enterprises is heading in the future.  In my view the future for the "corporate website" looks bleak. Online services in large organisations are gradually melding, with the intranet, extranet and internet growing closer in technology, content and resourcing; due to synergies and efficiencies achieved. This could be good news for the "internet teams" but it isn't. In fact, the emerging trend is for increasing access to be given to intranets for people outside the firewall; suppliers, contractors, customers, former staff etc. Major companies globally are looking to open up to their marketplaces, customers and consumers. They are also looking to increase their presence and engagement with social media and emerging 2.0 technologies.

ThoughtFarmer has changed the name of their intranet solution to better define the market it supports. Now called Social Intranet Software, the latest version out offers a host of new features that will get your employees collaborating and sharing their knowledge. Informal use of social networks within a company might boost gossip and help individual projects, but there comes a time when it just isn't enough. So, where to start, what tools to deploy and what rules to set? Social Intranet Software (SIS) is one solution to these questions and a rapidly deployed, accessible solution at that.

Looks like Alfresco isn't the only vendor offering a SharePoint alternative. Australian vendor Intranet Dashboard says they have the perfect alternative to SharePoint, offering an all in one solution for creating Intranets, Extranets and portals. First time we've heard of them. So let's take a closer look. The Intranet DashboardThe Intranet Dashboard is a set of 40 tools designed to help you build your Intranet. Tools are categorized as Web Content Management/Publishing, Business Tools and Collaboration/Communication. Okay, sounds a little familiar.

What is the state of the intranet today? What do employees want? Where is the intranet evolving? Statistics, findings and highlights from the Intranet Insider World Tour in New York City (April 17, 2009). From Watson Wyatt (Michael Rudnick, presenter): 80% believe intranet navigation needs improvement 50% don't actually use their intranet on a daily basis 50% find search ineffective Employees use on the intranet: employee phone directory cafeteria menu expense report pay stub

Transfield Services, a global services firm headquartered in Australia, is one of the Gold Winners in last year’s Intranet Innovation Awards. Using SharePoint, the innovative Transfield team created a very simple, but creative approach to deploying Team Sites inside the company of 28,000 employees. Labelled “Team Sites in a Box” the approach opened up the SharePoint collaboration features to Transfield employees with the proper governance and rules that ensured Team Sites were embraced by employees, but not abused. The ‘Team Sites in a Box’ framework comprises:

Concerns about how to govern social media in the workplace are often cited as one of the main barriers for not doing it. And as organisations do start to experiment with social media inside the firewall, governance often amounts to bolting additional policies onto existing intranet governance. While this may help in the short term, in the longer term it can become unwieldy as new tools are added. And for organisations holding back from getting their hands dirty with social media, employees wanting to connect with colleagues may increasingly turn to external tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter – potentially leading to an exodus away from the intranet.

You've heard of it... but aren't exactly sure what it is. A mashup, far from being a cross between a high-school dance move and the whipped potatoes mama used to make, is typically represented as a single web page that combines or “mashes” together data or content and tools from multiple sources. Google Maps is an example – it draws all the listings and information from many different sources without having to use an expensive piece of portal technology. These are quite simple to do, and for some represent most of the desired content for integration into a single view or portal.

Employees want to connect with each other, and more importantly, they want to connect with the company and senior management. A study by Towers Perrin found that employees overwhelmingly want to know “that leadership is interested in them.” Social media on the corporate intranet (Intranet 2.0) presents a unique opportunity for all employees at all levels and geographies to better connect, and share information and knowledge they might not otherwise share or learn. In fact, distance – both geographical and intellectual – between these connections is often significant with little if any filtering from one side to the next; an information gap that is not easily bridged in larger, dispersed organizations. For example, the Towers Perrion study also found that:

It was fascinating yesterday to host the latest programme from Intranets Live all focused on what we call "Recession Strength Intranets". The two hour show from IBF had a global audience of just over 500 intranet managers and colleagues from Cadbury, DHL, Esso, McKinsey, Tesco, GlaxoSmithKline, Mastercard, Vodafone and Fedex and the outcomes surprised everyone.

Intranet and portal specialist Jane McConnell of NetStrategy highlights the latest trends identified in her Global Intranet Trends Report for 2009 (226 participating organizations around the world; from under 5,000 to over 100,000 employees in Euope, North America and Asia-Pacific). Important ingredients for a successful intranet: Leadership Teamwork Empowering employees Optimizing activities & processes Focusing on the needs of the customer (external)

Insights and advice on intranet collaboration from James Robertson's workshop on employee collaboration at the IntraTeam Event here in Denmark. Robertson's (President of Step Two Designs (Sydney, Australia) key ingredient for success: there needs to be a real reason for people to talk together. Tip: make sure you have top-level senior support. “It (collaboration and social media tools) will rattle a few cages... so make sure you have the support,” says James. “Also, make sure you're consistent. The system will 'mushroom' and take-off. So the way you act in the first few weeks is very important.”

Insights from Martin White and Howard McQueen's “Intranet Best Practices” workshop at IntraTeam Event here in Denmark: Intranet strategy What does the intranet do to help the organziation achieve its objectives? To do what? Does your intranet have an intranet strategy document that you can take away and share? If you cannot answer these questions, you don't have an intranet strategy. Intranet strategy supports the decisions employees make – enabling them to make better decisions that will make your organzation flourish.

The biggest barrier for implementing and adopting social media inside the organization (on the intranet) is not technology, but culture. Blogs and wikis are very simple technology, but educating executives and employees on the value of social media while promoting and motivating use requies significant change management and communications. These are just some of the issues to be addressed in tomorrow's Putting Social Media to work in your Intranet Strategy

As the global recession takes hold, intranets increasingly find themselves in the firing line. As IBF founder Paul Miller pointed out in his recent blog post, even among IBF member organisations, which between them run some of the world’s most advanced intranets, budgets are being cut and new developments turned down.   The smartest intranet managers are responding by finding new ways for the intranet to deliver previously hidden value for the organisation – whether through improving productivity, cutting costs or driving revenue. They’re also busy gathering data to show that's what they're doing. In this way, they’re turning the threat of cutbacks into an opportunity to ensure that they, their intranets and their organisations survive and prosper in tough times.

The global financial crisis, spreading recession, financial market correction – whatever the moniker turns your crank – presents an interesting dilema for the corprate intranet. Viewed by senior management with skepticism if not outright incredulity, the intranet rarely gets the respect it deserves. In this tough economy, the intranet's repuation is going to get further stung.

RSS (Real simple syndication) is perhaps the greatest Web 2.0 technology... that you've have never heard of (well, not us, but our less nerdy friends and colleagues). Some, geeks like us, use it in My Yahoo! or iGoogle... and many don't even know that they use it when they subscribe to a blog or a newsfeed. It is this lack of understanding of this incredibly powerful technology that is the major barrier to adoption of it on the corporate intranet.