The document presents a case study on the development of a new intranet for Teach For All, aimed at consolidating web portals and enhancing internal collaboration. Key lessons learned include the importance of defining business objectives before technology discussions and involving users early in the process. The intranet was built using Drupal, emphasizing a user-friendly interface and robust content management to meet organizational needs.

1. Case Study: Toward Building
a New Intranet
Teach for All
August 1, 2012

2. Agenda
I. Introductions
II. Project Lessons Learned
III. Intranet Walkthrough
IV. Q&A
2

3. About Us
Andy Ho, Senior Director, Information Technology
– Leads the IT team at Teach For All
– Background in IT management and consulting
with Crestron Electronics, Deloitte
Consulting, and American Management Systems
Amy Grandov, Director, Business Analysis
– Manages enterprise application projects
– Previously with McKinsey, focusing on knowledge
management, collaboration and business
intelligence systems
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4. About Teach for All
“Teach for All is a global network of
independent social enterprises that are working
to expand educational opportunity in their
nations by enlisting their most promising future
leaders in the effort. We aspire to the vision that
one day, all children will have the opportunity to
attain an excellent education”
4

5. About Teach for All

6. Case Study Overview
• In May 2012, we released a new Intranet for all internal staff at Teach
for All
• This project was the first step in a larger initiative to consolidate our
web portals on a common platform
• This case study will present lessons learned from the process of
selecting Drupal as our portal platform and implementing the Intranet
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7. Intranet Components and Vendors
Components
• Drupal 6.25 (http://www.drupal.org)
• Document/content tools
– Box.com
– GoogleDocs
– Vimeo
Vendors
• Acquia (http://www.acquia.com)
• Appnovation (http://www.appnovation.com)
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8. Agenda
I. Introductions and Overview
II. Project Lessons Learned
III. Intranet Walkthrough
IV. Q&A
8

9. Project Lessons Learned
Define business objectives before discussing technology
Understand your unique requirements when selecting a platform
Get user feedback early and often
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10. Project Lessons Learned
Define business objectives before discussing technology
Understand your unique requirements when selecting a platform
Get user feedback early and often
10

11. Defining the Problem
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the
Cat.
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long
enough.”
(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
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12. Pain points with the current portals lead to an initiative to
consolidate on an upgraded platform
Key challenges:
 Dated design
 Poor navigation
 Low usage
 Lack of ownership
12

13. A PMO (Project Management Office) committee helped align
the project with organization-wide business objectives
• Played the essential role of executive champion or business sponsor
• Included representatives from each department/function, and varying
levels in the organization
• Asked for a commitment of 2-4 hours per month
• Recommended direction to Senior Leadership Team for approval
• Ensured all staff were informed
13

14. A new Vision clarified our Intranet aspirations and direction
“The Intranet is a centralized resource and cross-team
collaboration hub serving all Teach for All employees worldwide.
It provides organized, efficient access to shared documents
and tools; facilitates timely information flows and knowledge
sharing across teams; and maintains a vibrant and connected
mission-driven culture.”
14

15. Key Takeaways
• Know where you‟re going and why
• Reach out broadly across teams and levels
• Involve business users in problem solving so they own the solution
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16. Project Lessons Learned
Define business objectives before discussing technology
Understand your unique requirements when selecting a platform
Get user feedback early and often
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17. The strategy phase identified several priorities for the portal
platform
• Flexible user interface with strong support for content organization
and „web 2.0‟ interactivity
• Support for open standards. Integrates with diverse technologies
• Easy for business users to maintain content with minimal IT
involvement
• Allow staff to collaborate effectively with people outside the
organization
• Maintainable with limited in-house expertise and infrastructure
17

18. Core requirements filtered down the vast array of options for
“Intranets” and “Portals”
Content Management Systems (CMS), Document Management
Systems , Enterprise Portals, Wikis, Collaboration Platforms, Other
Best fit for our high level requirements
Drupal, Sharepoint, Liferay
Support: Best fit for our internal skills and capabilities
Drupal, Sharepoint
Cost, Ease of use *
Drupal
* Template for deep dive analysis: https://teachforall.box.com/shared/static/3281fae1270fbfdb95f7.xlsx

19. Drupal addresses our priority requirements
Our Needs Drupal Advantages
• Flexible user interface with  Flexible UI „themes‟ with community
strong support for content
organization and „web 2.0‟
features and extensive library of
interactivity free add-on modules
• Support for open standards.  Open source
Integrates with diverse
technologies  Integration modules available for
• Easy for business users to popular tools
maintain content with minimal
IT involvement  Granular permissions
• Allows staff to collaborate  Robust hosting and support from
effectively with people outside Acquia and other vendors
the organization
• Maintainable with limited in-
house expertise
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20. We were able to work around key challenges
Challenge Our approach
Document management is • Use Box.com as our primary
limited in Drupal document repository
• Consider Alfresco in the future
Collaboration and project • Use GoogleDocs for
management would require collaborative spreadsheets
more customization and files
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21. Key Takeaways
r another organization may not be right for you
• Analyze specifics and try out solutions to get beyond vendor marketing
messages.
• What works well for another organization may not be right for you
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22. Project Lessons Learned
Define business objectives before discussing technology
Understand your unique requirements when selecting a platform
Get user feedback early and often
22

23. Project Timeline
2011 2012
OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY
Scoping
Design and Build
Pilot
Milestone: Site in production
Content Migration
Release and training for all staff
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24. Our PMO committee was involved throughout the project
lifecycle, and became advocates and „experts‟
• Reviewed and approved the scope of the release
Scoping
• Participated in card sorting to reorganize content
Design • Reviewed wireframes and design mockups
• Tested and provided feedback on the live pilot site
Pilot • Communicated project status to their teams
• Coordinated content migration and helped team members during rollout
Release • Took on the role of Team Administrator in production
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25. Online tools helped engage remote staff
Card sorting: www.websort.net Wireframes: www.balsamiq.com
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26. Key Takeaways
• Prototype and pilot to get meaningful feedback as early as possible
• User research does not need to be extensive or time consuming. Even
a limited amount of feedback is useful
• Keeping users involved throughout the project helped us ensure that
each team had an informed, trained Intranet champion upon release
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27. Agenda
I. Introductions and Overview
II. Project Lessons Learned
III. Intranet Walkthrough
IV. Q&A
27

28. The new Intranet delivered several key benefits
• Updated design reflects our culture and „brand‟ identity
• Organized access to diverse tools and information sources
• Easier to find and share information across teams
• Opportunities to connect with colleagues
• Human Assets team became the official Business Owner
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29. Homepage provides
navigation and updates
Search and navigation
Content actions
Quick links
Newsfeeds
Presence awareness
(Who‟s online)
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30. Drupal‟s Organic Groups, roles and permissions govern
access and content rights
• All staff members have a role: Team/ Group
Admin
• Authenticated user: can access the
site
Team/Group
• Team Member: can add team content member
• Team Admin: can manage team
content
• There are two site-wide admin roles: Authenticated
user
• Site Moderator: can add
Announcements and edit all profiles
• System Admin: IT team only
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31. Team Spaces
provide dedicated
space for sharing
Team menu
Team membership
Embedded content
Team resources
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32. Wiki-style pages collect shared knowledge across teams
All staff may edit
Tags link related
content
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33. Topic pages consolidate resources owned by multiple teams
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34. All users can create resources and control visibility
Due to feedback received
during pilot, we re-enabled
Private team resources
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35. Resources can be tagged, and may contain one or more
attached files
Tags
File upload
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36. “Faceted” search results improve findability
Search options:
• Sort by common metadata
• Filter by:
– Author
– Content type
– Partner
location/country
• Click the Users tab if
searching for a person‟s
name
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37. Events and conferences keep staff informed
Events from our community
portal (via RSS)
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38. A Staff Directory connects remote colleagues
Click a name to
view full text
profile
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39. Webforms are starting to replace some paper forms
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40. Modules are available to support important Intranet features
Some functionality you may want to consider adding for an internal enterprise site:
• User management
– Organic Groups
• Security
– Secure Pages / Secure Pages Hijack Prevention (SSL)
– Password Policy
– Filtered HTML
• Usability
– Pathauto
– Path redirect
– WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”)
• Reporting
– GoogleAnalytics
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41. Key Challenges
• User Adoption: Getting people to post/contribute to the intranet is still a
challenge. Features and design are only part of the solution.
• Usability: Contributing resources and creating pages is still not as
simple as it should be for casual users
• Integration: Users want a more seamless, „one-stop-shop‟ experience
for internal tools and resources
• Alignment and stewardship: Intranet will need to adapt and evolve
along with organizational strategy, not IT priorities
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42. Next steps
Phase 3 and beyond:
Phase 2: Extranet
• Integration with
enterprise systems
• Redesign the
Extranet on
Drupal • Integration with
shared content
stores
• Enhance the
Phase 1: Intranet Intranet
• Replatform other
sites
• Address user
adoption and
content
governance

43. Agenda
I. Introductions and Overview
II. Project Lessons Learned
III. Intranet Walkthrough
IV. Q&A
43