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March 16 2010
The benefit you gain from intranet standards
I was asked at the recent IntraTeam event (most excellent! 
) to explain in more detail about BT’s intranet standards for publishers. I have posted before about 5 ‘must have’ standards and about accessibility and usability.
I thought it would help to say first why I think standards are important and the benefits for everyone in BT.
Intranet publishing standards need to have compelling reasons for being used. For BT’s intranet these can include:
- Legal: web accessibility, copyright and image rights
- Regulatory: BT’s undertakings with OFCOM
- Business: content up to date and reviewed and branding
- Users: print, PDA features and global navigation bar
The main thing is, whatever the reason, is that it:
- Improves the overall user experience
- Making users more satisfied
- Increases productivity
- Saves costs and
- Benefits the business
You must also make it as easy as possible for publishers to comply with these standards. The higher you make this barrier the more difficult it will be to achieve and the more time and effort needed to do this.
So template features for content management that build in standards like owner, review date, copyright, PDA versions of the information mean publishers have no choice and find it much easier to comply.
I’ll cover our standards in more detail in the next few weeks. Please let me know which ones you want me to cover first.
Tagged: accessibility, bt intranet, content, governance, publishing, social media, standards, usability standards, value
March 05 2010
A great IntraTeam event!
I’ve just got my breath back from speaking and attending one of the best intranet conferences I have been to for some time. I was spoilt by the hospitality of the organisers; the quality of the speakers; the quantity of new ideas and themes and the enthusiasm of everyone interested in intranets.
So what did I take away from IntraTeam 2010?
There was so much good stuff especially from Jane McConnell, Martin White, Eric Reiss, James Robertson and Michael Sampson that I have linked to their blogs if you want to find out more. But there are 2 main areas I will be working on straight away.
1. Stakeholder governance
Develop our governance model more towards even closer, more formal (steering group?), involvement in 2010. These points (thanks to Jane McConnell) will help me:
- Intranets need to implement cross-organisational ownership
- Identify the big intranet decisions and who should make them
- Work with business and functional intranet stakeholders and involve users balancing needs
- Governance is a form of negotiation: you need control, politics, flexibility and common sense (and a sense of humour I say!)
- Involve the “next to the top” and “operational” level of people
- Don’t treat “social media” like something different from the real intranet
2. People come first with intranets
BT’s intranet has always been based on this principle. It must meet business and user needs. These points (thanks to James Robertson) will help me with some key intranet decisions about to be taken:
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Put people at the centre of intranets
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Provide universal access to your intranet
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Intranets need to act proactively, not just reactively to users needs
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Intranets should drive the engine for change
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Create a seamless enterprise experience
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Deliver end-to-end solutions
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Cross boundaries so intranets, internets, integrate with different content and applications
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Intranets must make the organisation work better
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Intranets must help people do their jobs (better)
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Intranet managers need to create their own designs and future scenarios
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Design great (but small) solutions
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Simplify – join the dots and blur the lines
I hope the tweets helped although Twitter can’t properly capture Kurt’s 5 minute warning signal!
Tagged: benchmark, benefit, best practice, blog, bt intranet, content, governance, research, usability, users, value
March 01 2010
Try a self-managed intranet
In BT I lead a small central team. I’m responsible for the strategy, governance and standards and how they are applied to content published on BT’s intranet using a menu of templates that I manage.
So who is responsible for publishing, reviewing, updating and removing content?
“You!” is the answer to any publisher in BT. There is NO central publishing team to do this on behalf of anyone.
Publishers are responsible for any content they own meeting our standards based on business, legal, regulatory and users’ needs.
They are trained on awareness of publishing standards and how they apply before they publish choosing from a menu of templates that already meet standards.
Automated tools will check content weekly and remind the publishers who own it if it doesn’t meet our standards what needs to be done. If no action is taken it is escalated to the publisher’s line manager and if action is still not taken, it will be removed from use and deleted. This avoids users making decisions on out of date content or because it is too difficult to use.
So, the content is owned and managed by every publisher with templates, training and automated tools to make it as easy as possible to meet the standards all users expect so they have a great overall experience.
My team can concentrate on what we can add most value to for BT and our intranet.
Tagged: bt intranet, content, governance, homepage, plan, standards, value
February 19 2010
What’s the full value of your intranet?
I’m off on holiday next week to recharge my batteries ready for fresh challenges with BT’s intranet in March and to present at the IntraTeam conference in Copenhagen on 4 March. I recommend you attend if you can – not because I’m there – as there are many excellent speakers that I’m really keen to hear and meet.
I will be speaking about how BT measures the full value its intranet gives. It is something I have posted about before. I’ll cover:
If you can’t make the conference, here is my presentation.
Before that I’m off to a lovely quiet place called Solva in Pembrokeshire. Can’t wait…..!
February 10 2010
Is your intranet breaking the law?
My intranet could be breaking the law! Why? What? How?
Well if you have information or applications that is not accessible to everyone then you could be. Everyone, whether they have any impairment or not, need to have the same experience when using any intranet information or applications.
Legislation and codes of practice based on the WCAG web accessibility guidelines apply in most countries. US Section 508 and UK DDA 1995 being two of many examples I know of.
In BT we aim to achieve WCAG 2.0 standard. This is above the likely legal requirement for UK DDA 1995 and, more importantly, sets best practice for all users of BT’s intranet so they have a good experience whatever they use, whether they are impaired or not.
How are we doing this? Well, apart from my last post on how to use it as a lever for wider improvements, BT:
- Prevents web accessibility errors by training, clauses in contracts to buy web services, standards embedded in content templates
- Identifies and corrects web accessibility errors using an automated checker tool
- Guides users on how to use your browser, computer more accessibly.
Follow the right approach and you won’t get a nasty surprise. It only takes one discriminated user and you could have a really big problem to solve.
Prevention is much, much, cheaper and better than curing a problem like this.
Tagged: accessibility, applications, best practice, bt intranet, content, publishing, standards, value
January 25 2010
Benchmark to get the best value
I read with great interest Jane McConnell’s blog post on “Vanity” or “Specific value” benchmarking?’. BT has benchmarked its intranet for the past 4 years with the Intranet Benchmarking Forum (IBF). In fact as I write this two IBF people are doing an expert evaluation of our intranet!
BT’s intranet is benchmarked in four broad areas; strategy and governance; metrics and performance; communications and culture; design and usability.
The main aim is to find out where BT sets global best practice and where it can be improved. To assess whether it is meeting the needs of BT and people who use our intranet. All good stuff but…………
It can sometimes be difficult to find out apart from other IBF members where that best practice is and whether it is transferable to BT’s intranet.
It can also be difficult to use the data to justify further investment in BT’s intranet. The IBF do have a financial value benchmark area but that costs more.
So, I’m trying to address Jane’s three questions.
1. I would like to share my benchmarking data with other intranet managers of global organisations with advanced intranets. Any one interested?
2. Identify more of the full value an intranet provides in a form that can be used and understood by people who make the big financial decisions on future intranet investment. Any ideas?
I’ll share the key findings on BT’s benchmarking when known in April.
Tagged: benchmark, bt intranet, measure, value
January 06 2010
The future for BT’s intranet?
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.
November 05 2009
BT today – BT’s great intranet news site
I’ve mentioned in previous posts BT today as BT’s main intranet news site for the latest news affecting everyone in BT. But I don’t feel I’ve given it full justice until now. The problem is where to start as it has so much to offer!
BT today was one of the first sites on BT’s intranet when it was launched in 1994. It meant people could find out the latest news, whenever they wanted to and reduced the overload (and cost) of information being sent to everyone each day.
Since it’s launch BT today has been one of the most popular sites on BT’s intranet. BT raises several tens of thousands of pounds from digital advertising on the site. It has now grown to include:
- Up to 10 news stories published each day
- PDA version available for mobile users
- Subscribing to different RSS news feeds
- Raising issues that people across BT contribute to
- Sharing important events like birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
I’ve shared some examples of BT today for you to see these.
Along with BT Homepage and Directory, the BT today news site is one of the key sites that encouraged people to start using the BT Intranet. Offering a wider range of news services has encouraged people to use it more, and more frequently.
Future plans include more use of photos for each story, larger photos where suitable for stories and people able to comment on each story.
Tagged: bt intranet, BT today, homepage, money, rss, social media, users, value
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