Intranets
&
Business Impact
Jane McConnell
NetStrategy/JMC
J. Boye Conference, Philadelphia 2009
A Knowledge Sharing Summit for Online Professionals
1

• People aretoday business
doing
differently
• The intranet of yesterday is not
sustainable
• 6 things people need from
intranets today
• Makepeopleintranet work the
your
way work

• Virtual teams including external partners
• New expectations based on “life on the
web”
• Tele-working for lower cost, greater
productivity and quality of life
• Smart phones for anytime, anywhere
• 24/24 Follow the sun with colleagues &
partners around the world
People are doing business
differently today

The intranet of yesterday is not
sustainable
• Too top-down
• Not sufficiently business-oriented
• Not sufficiently people-oriented
• Arthritic - too hard to publish
• Closed - limited to employees
• Sedentary - limited to office, PCs
• ....

6 things people need from
the intranet
1. Place-independent access (e.g. home)
2. Mobile access (e.g. smart phones)
3. Support for virtual teams, including
external partners
4. Real-time communication tools
5. Collaboration tools
6. Ways to find other people

2008 survey
The intranet as “the way of working”
stage stage stage
1 2 3
“in 3,4 years or more” “in 1 or 2 years” “today”
• • •
Low degree of Management Strong
management more attentive management
attention interest
• Major leaps in
• •
Information flows last 12 months in Many business
primarily top-down integration of applications
and few business business integrated
applications applications
• Stronger usage of
integrated
• If the intranet collaboration tools
• If the intranet “goes “goes down” for If the intranet “goes
down” for 1 or 2 1 or 2 hours, down” for 1 or 2
hours, 60 percent are hours,
40 percent are disrupted in daily 90 percent are
disrupted in daily work activities disrupted in daily
work activities work activities

Data collected in second half
of 2008 (3rd annual survey)
• 226 organisations around the world
• 65 % private
24 % public
11 % NGO, association, UN...
• From under 5,000 to over 100,000
employees
• Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific
headquartered organizations, mostly
international
• Respondents: intranet managers

Place-independent is becoming
more common. (e.g. access from home)
How many of your employees can access the intranet from home?
Almost all or well over half
Stage 1
Less than or approximately half
None or very few
Stage 2
Stage 3

Mobile access to intranets is just
starting. (e.g. access from smart phones)
How many of your employees can access the intranet
from a mobile device such as a smart phone?
Almost all or well over half
Stage 1
Less than or approximately half
None or very few
Stage 2
Stage 3

External partners are sometimes
included in the Employee Directory.
Does your Employee Directory include authorized, external people such
as partners, interns and contractors?
In most or all parts of the organization
Stage 1
In some parts
Being implemented
Being discussed
No
Stage 2
Stage 3

Implementation of real time
communication tools increases as
intranets become more mature.
Web conferencing Instant messaging
Stage 1
“Optimized” or “General use”
“In some parts” or “Being tested”
“Not used”
Stage 2
Stage 3

Stage 1: experimentation

Stage 3: more widespread use

Finding people & building relationships -
a huge gap for almost all intranets!
To what extent do you have a social network application
in your organization (like Facebook)?
“Optimized” or “General use”
Stage 1
“In some parts” or “Being tested”
“Not used”
Stage 2
Stage 3

Progress on our 6 must-haves ...
1. Place -independent
well on the way
access to the
intranet • access from home
2. Mobile access (e.g.
progressing slowly
smart phones)
• external partners
3. Support for virtual
included in directory
teams including
•
external partners web conferencing &
instant messaging
4. Real-time
• collaboration tools
communication
tools
far behind
5. Collaboration
• mobile access
tools
• social networking
6. Ways to find other
people

Intranet orientations over the past 10 years
Organization Activity / role User Team
Common news Specific content Process support, Interactions, user
& information for profiles/user applications and team-
groups generated content
Head-quarters Stronger local Entry point for Project-driven
driven aspects information &
applications Lighter tools
Primarily More
centralized decentralized Framework Social search
centralization
Less relevance Common tools External partners
introduced (CMS, Search included
Office-based search) optimization
Communication Business Strong IT role
???
getting involved

What intranets will look like soon
The world
Teams
Specific content
Common
content
Business & support processes

Evolution of the role of the intranet
manager
Teams
Business partner
Relationship manager
Business & support processes
Content manager
Common
Specific content
content

“ I expect web 2.0 to reinvigorate
our user base and present new
opportunities for ROI metrics.
This will give heightened
awareness to the intranet as a
mission-critical tool.”
2008 Global Intranet Strategies Survey participant

Getting there...
Work with the business managers in
your organization with an “intranets
for facilitating business” approach.
Find out how and where your people
work, and shape the intranet to meet
these needs.
Look at social media through a
business angle and experiment:
“business media”

Thank you!
Consider joining...
The 2009 Global Intranet Strategies Survey
and receive “Global Intranet Trends for 2010”
www.netjmc.com/survey for more information
The Linkedin group dedicated to Intranet Managers:
NetJMC & Co (320 members and still growing)
The Twitter group “IntranetWatch” (250 followers)
Jane McConnell, Netstrategy/JMC
jane@netjmc.com
www.netjmc.com
cell: +33 (0)6 1203 6634
- Strategy Workshops & Roadmaps
- Customized Diagnosis & Action Plan
References: United Nations, Peacekeeping Operations, Arcelor Mittal, Alcatel Lucent, Alstom, Amadeus, Areva,
Boehringer Ingelheim, EDF, Lagardère, Océ, Pernod Ricard, SNCF, Suez, Telenor, Total, UPM.