Planning-and-deploying-a-successful-intranet

Guide Planning and deploying a successful intranet

Planning and deploying a successful intranet 2

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Intranets: unifying the digital workplace Today’s intranets now sit at the very center of the modern digital workplace. T he intranet has evolved and However, creating an intranet that will changed dramatically since meet your business requirements and its inception, shifting from successfully achieve your objectives can be a challenge. a simple document management Managing differing requirements and platform to a comprehensive business expectations, obtaining buy-in and resource, or simply getting your users collaboration and communication excited and onboard can all impact the long-term success of your intranet solution. project. Get it right, and an intranet could transform how your business The ability of the intranet to combine collaborates or works. Get it wrong, process-specific applications, and you risk the costly repercussions communication functionality, of project failure. collaboration tools, and to unify the corporate technology stack has Effective planning and the smooth seen it secure globally recognized deployment of your intranet project importance and growing popularity are essential. Our simple, step-by-step in recent years. Now, intranets form guide to planning and deploying a an indispensable part of digital successful intranet will help you get workplace strategy. started. Deployed successfully, these user- centric digital platforms are proven to bring real bottom-line benefits to business; whether by improving efficiency, increasing productivity, driving employee engagement, or shaping an outstanding employee experience in an age of digital noise and continuous innovation. 3

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Contents Part 1: Building a Getting stakeholder buy-in 06 business case Why do I need my management onboard? 08 Mapping out your stakeholders 08 Identifying priorities and objectives 08 Defining opportunity for your business 09 Intranet objectives: projecting value and return for your project 10 Generic objectives 12 Specific objectives 12 Determining the value of specific objectives 12 A word about benchmarking 12 Crafting an opportunity statement 16 17 Part 2: Planning WHO will use your intranet? 18 your Intranet Step 1: Map your user communities 19 Step 2: Define your audience and create personas 20 Step 3: Consider any challenges for your users 22 WHAT must your intranet do? 24 Defining purpose 25 Getting the right mix 25 What features and functionality do you need? 27 Beyond the feature list 28 What your intranet provider must do 29 WHERE your intranet fits in your digital workplace 30 Hosting your intranet 31 Custom building an intranet 31 Your intranet as part of the business technology stack 33 HOW you will deliver your intranet project 34 Your intranet project team 36 Defining roles and responsibilities 38 40 4

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Timescales and deliverables 40 Professional services and support for your intranet project 42 Planning for risk 44 Part 3: Building Content and Information Architecture 46 and deploying Conducting a content audit 46 What content do I need? 47 your intranet Creating an information architecture and structure 48 Personalization and tailoring content 49 Building an intranet brand 52 Alignment with external brand 54 Naming your intranet 55 Creating an intranet identity, persona, or character 56 Tone of voice 58 Technical consultancy and intranet build services 59 60 Part 4: Launching The ‘WIIFM’ factor 62 your intranet Big bang, or secret squirrel? 63 Soft and staggered, or company-wide roll-out? 64 Launch ideas 66 Launch events 67 Virtual tours 67 Branded goodies 68 Treasure hunts and competitions 68 69 Part 5: Ongoing Measure and act upon feedback 70 success Use analytics and telemetry 70 Evaluate success and revisit targets 72 Strategic review 73 Train and up-skill 73 Keep learning 75 Revisit your brand – but not too often 76 Relaunch or re-engagement campaigns 77 Your intranet: the future of your digital workplace 78 78 5

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Part 1: Building a business case Given the investment associated with any software project, your greatest chance of securing buy-in and delivering those all-important returns is a strong business case. This can not only be used to justify stakeholders should support your cost and resource requirements but project, and the concrete benefits to set out, in clear terms, the business it will deliver: a case for business problem you are looking to solve. It change. presents a logical argument for why A powerful business case will: Secure senior level buy-in, budget, and commitment Ensure you gather the support necessary to deliver on the project Define the opportunity, relating to sources of data to justify the business need Outline the expected value and return to the business, its sponsors, employees, stakeholders, and customers Set out scope, including required resource, timings, and investment Identify and manage any risk associated with the project Evaluate options and alternatives, before setting out a recommendation A compelling business case will unique needs, ultimately creating also guide you in the planning and an intranet that will deliver tangible deployment process: ensuring you results for your business. select the right solution to meet your 6

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Looking for some additional support in creating your intranet business case? Our handy 3-in-1 Business Case Toolkit is designed to get you motivated and prepared. The kit includes our free Intranet Business Case Guide, offering clear step-by-step guidance and practical tips for a truly winning pitch for your project. A handy Business Case Template gives you a free structure to work with, ensuring you present your case clearly and comprehensively. Finally, if you need support compiling that all-important projected ROI, the free calculator will help you determine quantifiable returns for your project. Just pop in a few basic details about your business, and you’re away. 7

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Getting stakeholder buy-in Securing buy-in from senior switch. Your stakeholders have to be management can be one of the most committed. significant challenges for anyone looking to roll out new technology in When it comes to pitching for an the workplace. New software often intranet, you also face the added calls for major cultural adjustment difficulty of appealing for significant and careful change management: investment – whether financially or in it’s not a case of merely buying terms of time and resource – for often off the shelf and pressing the ‘on’ hard-to-measure returns. Why do I need my management onboard? Getting a ‘yes’ from those controlling Given the potential impact an intranet the company budgets isn’t the only can have on your business and its reason to invest time in winning over employees, your leaders are also your stakeholders. Management those who can champion the change also has a significant role to play in a top-down cascade: motivating, in safeguarding against common exciting, and engaging would-be users project risks, such as overrun on to ensure you get the most important time or budget, low user adoption, or outcome of all – people actually using resistance from senior representatives your new intranet. in the business. Mapping out your stakeholders High Simple as it sounds, the first step is to Keep Manage identify and map out who your major satisfied closely stakeholders are. This covers anyone with a stake in the project – from POWER sign-off and budgetary approval to roll out, implementation, and adoption. Monitor Keep Consider their level of interest in your (minimum informed intranet project and their power to influence it. This will help you define effort) where to focus efforts during your planning and deployment process. Low INTEREST High 8

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Identifying priorities and objectives While stakeholders do, by definition, Identifying each stakeholder’s have a vested interest in the overall business priorities and what makes goals of the business, they are far them tick can be used to your more likely to engage if you address advantage when trying to pitch your issues that affect that directly. Take project, and help focus your efforts the time to understand what they care during planning. about. Below, we map out the main priorities and objectives for some major stakeholders of an intranet project. Stakeholder Interest/Power Cares about Business objectives Cost/return CFO Keep satisfied Budget management Growth Return on investment CEO Manage closely Business outcomes Financial reporting integrity and transparency CHRO Manage closely Employee engagement Determining and delivering on business strategic Talent management direction Culture Provision of necessary resources Oversee and deliver on company performance Recruitment and retention of talent Build employee engagement Establish and communicate the business culture Develop strong employer brand CIO Manage closely Security Future proofing and development of internal systems Cost/return and processes Strategy and policy Quality and performance of all IT and internal systems Data protection and usage policy Cost management and investment 9

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Defining opportunity for your business Intranets, as complex digital For example, perhaps your platforms, have the power to organization is undergoing deliver gains across a multitude of international expansion and facing departments, objectives, or business challenges due to a dispersed priorities. From improved efficiency workforce. Highlighting gains from to knowledge management, or improved communication, cloud- employee self-sufficiency through based accessibility, a centralized to increased retention; the list is, in repository for business information, theory, limitless. or digital processes for onboarding and supporting remote workers may One of the first questions any be your benefit areas of focus. stakeholder or member of senior management is likely to ask is, ‘what’s These then become the foundation of the value? When will I see a return on your intranet objectives. investment?’. Identifying opportunity and projecting ROI is a crucial part of Admin your project planning process. Reduced email traffic However, listing every potential Reduced costs of company-wide communication positive outcome an intranet might to dispersed employees have in your business won’t create a Break down organizational silos compelling business case. Use this stage to outline the specific ‘unmet HR need’ or problem within your business that your intranet project will satisfy Faster onboarding/training or support your organization in Increased employee engagement achieving. Sales & Marketing Take the time to explore pain points and opportunities across Decreased time to access information and departmental lines. Then, funnel expertise these down to the top, key priorities Reduced time to market for promotion that you can use to demonstrate potential value and return. Align Operations those potential gains to the priorities you already identified for your Improved compliance stakeholders. Headcount reduction and savings resulting from automated functions Customer Service Faster time to resolution for customer support issues Reduced call handling times Increased customer satisfaction scores 10

Planning and deploying a successful intranet “ It wasn’t a case of simply rolling out a new tool. The new intranet was introduced as part of a larger change management initiative, designed to encourage knowledge sharing within an organization that faced challenges with collaboration and communication between business units. This meant we had to demonstrate its value at all levels to achieve widespread adoption. Josh deBerge - Director of National Communications and PR at Make-A-Wish 11

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Intranet objectives: projecting value and return for your project Objectives typically fall into one of two categories: generic, or specific. When defining opportunity for an intranet within your business, strive to include both generic and specific objectives. Generic objectives Generic objectives are typically high- in a rush to present ‘bottom line level and may be difficult to quantify. accounting’ benefits. These tend to They won’t necessarily be defined in have ‘soft’ measures or be broad in business strategy, but they represent nature, like the examples given below. considerable potential for an intranet project and shouldn’t be overlooked Generic objectives Specific objectives Improve internal communication Improve revenue by $X Increase cross-departmental collaboration Reduce costs by X% Enhance knowledge sharing Increase business growth by X% Specific objectives process, or function. They may start as a generic objective, but go further by Specific objectives are more precise, assigning a specific measurable. For and often quantifiable in terms of example: a numerical value, timeframe or aligned to a particular department, ‘Reduce email traffic’ >>>> ‘Reduce internal email traffic by 40% through the introduction of intranet social tools, reducing burden and cost overheads of internal servers.’ Determining the value of specific objectives One of the greatest challenges when business. Demonstrating the financial planning and delivering an intranet value of an intranet and the return project is the perception by those in on investment is a powerful tool for the C-suite that an internal tool won’t obtaining sign-off and support. deliver bottom-line benefits to the 12

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Try to use established performance of overall staff numbers, or simply as a metrics within your organization to numerical value? communicate value and establish credibility with your stakeholders. Here, we show the potential financial Or put simply, try to speak their benefits an intranet can deliver on language. Do they measure success five key objectives for an organization. using return on investment, or These are approximate and based on using a cost-benefit analysis? Is the following assumptions: employee turnover measured as a % 1,000 staff in the organization Average salary of $39,500 37.5 working hours per week (7.5 hours a day) Equating to $28.85 an hour salary Not all time/money saved will be recaptured by the organization Objective: Reduce the IT burden How? An easy-to-use intranet will result in decentralization of content ownership, enabling intranet Total saving per users with varying IT abilities to upload and update content. This will reduce the burden on the IT team. year (approx.): 5 hours of IT 48 working weeks 240 hours saved 40% of hours $20.25 average $2K resource time saved in a year per year saved captured by hourly salary per week business = 96 hours Objective: Decrease staff turnover by 1% How? Research shows that for every 2% increase in staff satisfaction levels, there is a 1% increase in Total saving per retention. An intranet can increase satisfaction by improving engagement, keeping employees informed, year (approx.): communicating mission and purpose, and supporting a common culture. 2% increase in staff 1% increase in 10 fewer leavers 15% of annual $5,925 savings per $59K satisfaction levels retention per annum (1% of salary average employee 1000) cost to replace an employee 13

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Objective: Enable staff to self-serve, reducing dependency on HR How? Centralized storage of critical policies, procedures, and company information on the intranet will Total saving per allow staff to find information themselves, rather than going directly to HR. year (approx.): HR Manager asked 30mins average Intranet reduces 60mins saved/ 48 x $20.25 $1K a common question time to respond to enquiries by 40% week x 48 weeks about a policy query and provide = 2,880mins, or once daily information = 48hours/year 150mins/week Objective: Reduce time employees spend searching for information by 1% How? Research suggests workers spend on average 19% of their working week searching and gathering Total saving per information. An intranet, as part of an integrated and centralized digital workplace, provides a single, year (approx.): searchable version of truth, reducing time spent searching. 19% of work week 7hrs x 1000 Reduce by 1% = 40% of time 1,344 x $20.25 $27K spent searching = employees = 7000 70hours saved/ saved captured by 7hrs/employee hours/week week X 48weeks = business = 1,344 3,360 hours hours Objective: Reduce time taken to process common staff forms or workflows, such as booking a leave of absence How? Using digital workflows and forms on your intranet will allow staff to self-serve, reducing the Total saving per burden on HR to process paper-based forms. year (approx.): Manually Each employee Self-serve digital Hours saved 833 x 20.25 $17K processing an books on average 5 intranet forms = 2,500 - 417 employee request absences/year = 30 reduce processing = 2,083 hrs for leave of absence x 5 x 1000 = 2500 time to 5 mins = 40% of which is = 30 mins hours 5 x 5 x 1000 = 417 captured by the hours business = 833 hrs Based on these five key intranet objectives alone, this organization could potentially save $106K in the first year of deploying an intranet. 14

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Royal Mail Properties and Facilities Management Services achieved estimated savings of £2 million per year with the support of their intranet. Utilizing workflow and forms, they could centralize and drive the most time consuming and widely used processes via their intranet. In one example, they used the intranet to manage their review process, with all 4,500 employees conducting their preparation via tailored digital forms. While the performance review itself is face-to-face, quarterly follow-ups and any training needs are processed on their intranet. Typically, there is a two-month drain on HR admin when processing performance reviews. By automating the process, this disappears. Users can’t submit forms without all relevant information, reminders are automatic, and reporting is simple. In addition, an estimated £80,000 a year was saved by setting up a preferred supplier database on their intranet. This meant they could benefit from economies of scale through the integration of one process when departments bought new supplies. 15

Planning and deploying a successful intranet A word about benchmarking It sounds obvious, but it’s a step that of ROI, you need to have a clear can be easily missed in a rush to get an understanding of where you are now. intranet project up and running. Taking time to evaluate and measure current performance against those To show the value and return your all-important objectives will give you intranet has brought to the business, a starting point, and ensure you can and to give a realistic estimate track success going forward. 16

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Crafting an opportunity statement Once you have identified opportunity manner, the main aspects of your in your business, determined your business case. stakeholders and their priorities, Use your opportunity statement and set clear objectives for your to highlight the problems your project, you can create an opportunity intranet will solve and the expected statement. returns. You may also want to set out resources required, any significant This is effectively your ‘executive considerations, or guideline summary,’ and the reference point timescales for your project. Look throughout the planning and to your stakeholder mapping to deployment of your intranet project. determine what is important to It sets out, in a clear and concise highlight for your organization. “ The key objectives of the project are to replace the existing intranet with a new one which: Promotes organizational culture and reflects ‘one’ NSPCC Enables staff to share stories, inspires and engages staff, celebrates success and demonstrates impact Encourages & facilitates learning, communication & collaboration Builds organizational knowledge Helps staff to do their jobs Improves business efficiency. 17

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Part 2: Planning your intranet With your business case completed and hopefully signed off, you can move onto the planning phase. The process of planning a new intranet will fit in your existing intranet includes identifying your technology stack, how it will evolve users and their requirements, and grow with your business, and selecting the correct features and what is required to deliver on your functionality to meet their needs, business objectives. and ensuring you have the internal structures, resource, and processes in A well-executed plan not only sets place to get your intranet launched out what you want to achieve; it also successfully. identifies any risk factors for your project and sets in place contingency It also considers long-term plans to mitigate or minimize these. implications such as where your We split the planning phase into four key elements: WHO: planning for users and their needs WHAT: mapping out features, functionality, and requirements for your intranet WHERE: considering your intranet project in relation to the digital workplace as a whole HOW: factoring in resource, roles, support, and risk factors for the delivery of your project We explore each of these now in turn. 18

Planning and deploying a successful intranet WHO will use your intranet? Adoption and engagement with your intranet are the biggest and most important indicators of success. Ultimately, this comes down to your users. Identifying who will use your the top, who control the purse strings intranet, and what they will use it for, or hold responsibility for agreeing should form the foundation of your and signing off on crucial decisions: intranet project plan. There can be however if your intranet is not user- a tendency to listen first to those at focused, it will quickly fall into disuse. 19

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Step 1: Map your user communities While it’s easy to look to the serve a multitude of communities organizational chart and segment outside of these silos. We define the users by department, level of seniority, four most common as communities of or job role, it’s important to remember purpose, practice, interest, or event: that a well-designed intranet can Definition Definition A group who connect to work A group who connect due to shared towards a shared objective profession or expertise Examples Examples Project team, committee, tender/bid Linkedin groups, geographically team dispersed experts Tools needed Tools needed Document collaboration Forums Calendars Ideation Tasks Questions and Answers NTS PURPOSE PRAC TICE INTE REST EVE Definition Definition A group who connect due to a A group who connect over a physical or virtual event common interest Examples Examples Facebook groups, conferences, Corporate Social Responsibility, training courses charity work, sports, social Tools needed Tools needed Calendars Blogs Timeline Conversations Forms Galleries 20

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Each can appeal to individuals of department or role and requires across the traditional boundaries different tools to achieve their goals. To determine their needs, you can use a variety of techniques including: Stakeholder interviews Surveys Focus groups Workplace observation Usability testing Usage statistics, analytics, or search logs of existing platforms Map out the different existing and them. When designing your intranet, prospective communities within use this to ensure your intranet is your business, their challenges, their relevant, useful, and serves a defined priorities, and the individual ‘wish list’ purpose. of tools or features that will support 21

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Step 2: Define your audience and create personas One way to map out user Often brought to life with a name, requirements and create a checklist personality, and photo, these are for your planning process is through easy to keep front-of-mind during an the use of intranet personas. intranet project and can help inform design decisions. These archetypal users stand in as a fictitious representation for real users, An example persona may look like the created from real knowledge and following: research to demonstrate goals and personal characteristics of employees. 22

Planning and deploying a successful intranet A call center representative for 6 months. She works on the frontline, taking calls from customers on a wide range of topics. Emily Roberts E mily is relatively new to the business, the latest product updates. They may be facing coming to us from a background in a service issue with the product or looking to Key content accessed customer service. Her role is to engage make a complaint. Emily works closely with directly with existing customers, processing a medium-sized team and knows her peers Shared drives enquiries and answering common questions. well, but her job often requires her to speak Bookmarks Answering a large volume of calls a day, she with people in different departments who she News needs to be able to find the right information doesn’t know. She spends a lot of time flicking Events quickly. She has to know what she’s accessing is between different sources/systems, which she Team directory the latest information, is accurate, and that it is feels is a waste of time. Service updates approved to be customer-facing. Product FAQ forum Emily enjoys getting involved in company Emily might take a call from a customer asking activities, volunteering for charity initiatives to update their contact details, or enquiry about and regularly attending social events. “ I never know if I’m accessing the most up-to-date information. If there’s a ticket open on service desk for a problem with the product, it doesn’t show on the intranet. I need to know I’m giving customers the right information. Challenges & barriers Work-arounds User journeys Knowing information is correct/accurate Builds her own systems and uses third- Respond to enquiry about the launch date party apps not endorsed by the business to of the next product update. Look up the Knowing when things change support her work relevant developer on org chart, find contact details, request information and update the Not knowing is the information she finds Saves or creates her own information, saved customer. on the intranet is OK to give to an external locally, when she identifies information caller gaps or struggles to navigate to and find Change customer contact details on the what she needs CRM and the company mailing software Low level of influence, resulting in frustration when the information she needs Creates bookmarks to key intranet content, Look in company news for upcoming social isn’t accessible and she can’t challenge or but is frustrated when it moves or is deleted events or charity initiatives change processes or outdated information Wish lists Log a customer complaint and raise a Accessing multiple systems to gain support desk ticket with the product information, resulting in delays getting development team information to the customer Technology usage & Accurate, reliable, and up-to-date Key resources outside environment at work information to share with customers the intranet Desk-based and relies entirely on the Access to latest product updates and Customer Service platform (ZenDesk) information in front of her projected launch dates Company CRM Owns the latest gadgets and apps and uses Improved findability and them regularly in her home life centralization of information Organizational charts Thinks the current intranet is old fashioned Fewer systems and login details to Developers project information, updates use/remember and GANTT charts on project management platform 23

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Step 3: Consider any challenges for your users Your business is made up of Consider where your staff are based, individuals. Ensure you consider their how and when they will access the unique needs and challenges as part intranet, and any unique challenges of your plan. they face. For example, do you have remote workers accessing your Your intranet should be accessible intranet almost exclusively from to all, supporting employees with mobile devices? Employees who different levels of technical skill and aren’t comfortable using technology? understanding, differing accessibility Map out any specific needs and requirements, and even different requirements for your staff, appealing languages. to your HR department for support if needed. 24

Planning and deploying a successful intranet WHAT must your intranet do? Having established who your in the business case phase of your users are, and what they will use intranet project. When creating your the intranet for, you are ready to plan, define what you’re looking to define what your intranet must do get from your project by placing these to satisfy those needs: the features, objectives alongside the needs of your functionality, and overall goals of your users. Then, map these to the different intranet. features and functionality on offer, to determine what you need your You’ve already explored the intranet to do. opportunity and set out objectives Defining purpose Remember: an intranet may be able to deliver on, or support, many business Refer back to your opportunity processes and objectives. It’s easy statement to help define the to get buried in a long list of needs overall purpose of your intranet. or wants and forget about the core Set clear goals for both the short- reasons why users visit an intranet. term and long-term performance According to our customer survey, of your intranet, and use these as these are: a benchmark to help guide your planning and selection process. Why visit an intranet? To find To complete To connect with information a task people that can relating to help me my role If your intranet can automate office it isn’t serving its most fundamental supply deliveries, display in-depth purpose. Keep referring back to these usage analytics and deliver your goals throughout your project to in-house training and development ensure you don’t lose track of what it program, but a user can’t find the HR is you need to achieve. policy or connect with a colleague, 25

Planning and deploying a successful intranet TaxAudit.com took care to align business priorities with user needs when it came to determining the fundamental purpose of their new intranet: creating a single, centralized version of the truth. “ Our success depends on staying current, so we needed a centralized way to store and update critical documents for our teams. When you send out information by email, there are always some people who don’t get it – like new employees for example. Now, with Interact, everyone has the information they need to work effectively. Matthew Estes - Director of Strategy, TaxAudit.com 26

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Getting the right mix as the business case section shows, an intranet ultimately exists to solve Constant innovation and new problems. These ‘problems’ typically developments mean today’s intranet fall into one of 4 categories: platforms can offer a vast range of features and functionality. However, Communication Collaboration Information Business processes Business processes: for example, booking a leave of absence or submitting expenses Information: for users seeking out an HR policy, company documentation, or perhaps policies and procedures required to fulfill their roles Collaboration: such as finding a colleague who can support on a particular task, or to team up with others on a project Communication: to both receive top-down communications about their organization, team, or perhaps particular projects, and to communicate with others To serve its core purpose, therefore, users, content authors, and intranet an intranet needs a blend of tools administrators to solve problems as that answer each of these categories efficiently as possible. and will ultimately help intranet 27

Planning and deploying a successful intranet What features and functionality do you need? Guided by your purpose, user needs, may be more niche, unique USPs of objectives, and an understanding of particular vendors, or require custom- the different categories of business building to match your vision. Some problems an intranet can solve, you features or functionality will be of can begin mapping out the features higher relevance and importance you need from your intranet, and to your business; others, surplus to then prioritize and use it as a matrix requirements. to compare prospective vendors or solutions. There is no ‘one size fits all’ offering, but some essential features now seen Many standard features are expected in the majority of successful intranets and now come out-the-box. Others include: A built-in document management system (DMS) or content management system (CMS), or the ability to connect/integrate with a cloud-based storage system such as SharePoint, Dropbox, or OneDrive A people directory, or user profiles, for all employees Search functionality Communication tools, such as forums and discussion boards or instant messaging (IM) Social tools, such as timelines, commenting, liking, sharing, polls, the ability to @mention individuals, teams and content, or #hashtags to create themes, trends, or grouping of content Project management tools such as calendars, events, task management, file sharing or dedicated project/team groups and spaces Galleries or use of rich media, such as videos Analytics and usage data Gamification elements, such as the ability to give recognition and rewards As you research options, you’ll soon However, features alone don’t discover this list just barely scrapes guarantee a successful intranet. the surface of what’s available. 28

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Beyond the feature list In the planning phase, it is important whistles may look good on paper; but to balance out what your intranet does if it’s difficult to use, it won’t deliver – in terms of its features – with how it results. does them, regarding its functionality and the overall user experience. A During your planning, consider the complex system with all bells and following: Will it cater for Remote working and telecommuting are on mobile workforces? the rise, alongside globalized and dispersed workforces. Employees increasingly need to be able to access and utilize business tools on-the-go. Is it easy to use? Use of your intranet is the underlying core goal. If your users struggle with the technology, low adoption rates and drop-off in interest will jeopardize its success. Place ease-of-use high on the design requirement list. Look to popular consumer technologies and the features or functionality that make those platforms accessible across different technical abilities. How easy is it to Depending on your chosen solution and approach deploy and maintain? (e.g., custom-build vs. out-of-the-box), your intranet could take anything from a few months to a few years to launch. Consider timescales and the amount of resource required to get your project off the ground, as well as what will be needed to maintain and update it. Will it deliver a great User experience, or UX, is rising in importance UX for our employees? for consumer software and website developers. Internal platforms are following suit. Your intranet planning needs to consider the satisfaction, usability, accessibility, and overall experience of users to not only serve employees but directly impact the experience they can deliver to your customers. 29

Planning and deploying a successful intranet What your intranet provider must do Great software alone is not enough If you’re electing for an intranet to guarantee success. In a crowded solution through a dedicated provider, marketplace, you may also find that they play a vital role in ensuring many out-the-box solutions are pretty the success of your project, not only similar in terms of their core features during delivery and launch but for the and functionality. To deliver value, lifetime of your platform. Alongside you need to go beyond flicking the ‘on’ the features and functionality in your switch: you need a strategic approach, plan, place a checklist of expectations and the right support to deliver on or considerations for your provider, your vision. including: Experience Project management support Thought leadership Reputation Product training Stable product Stable company Branding and design services Similar customers Cultural match Build and launch support Innovation, updates, or future roadmap of the product Account management and Strategy services and technical ongoing support consulting Peer support or events with other customers, to share and promote best practice We explore the role and value of your intranet provider and their professional services offering in more detail in Part 4: Launching your intranet & Part 5: Ongoing success. 30

Planning and deploying a successful intranet WHERE your intranet fits in your digital workplace Introducing any new piece of in your IT department - to discuss technology or software to your any challenges, considerations, organization carries implications or concerns surrounding the and potential risk. Taking the time to introduction of your intranet. This consult and plan for how your intranet may include where your intranet will will fit into your business, its culture, be hosted and accessed; whether you’ll and your existing technology stack be custom-building, buying off-the- will help ensure a smooth launch. shelf, or a combination; and how your intranet will work alongside existing Before undertaking your project, enlist tools and technologies already within the support and input of any relevant your organization. stakeholders – and particularly those Hosting your intranet The global growth of cloud computing for the future of software hosting. and increasing redundancy of in- Intranets are no different. house servers show a projection The Rapid Growth of Cloud Computing, 2015-2020 Worldwide spending on public cloud computing, 2015-2020 ($B) Average compund growth rate, YE2015-YE2020, 19% IT spending average compound growth rate, YE2015-YE2020, 3% $162 $138 $117 $99 $82 $67 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Source: IDC, 2016 31

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Considering the associated costs and free alternative. For these reasons and risk of in-house hosting including more, many leading providers are IT resource, server purchase and ceasing to provide their solutions as maintenance, monitoring, anti-virus an on-premise product. protection, licensing, and hardware, on-premise intranet solutions When considering hosting for your threaten your return on investment. intranet, the question should no What’s more, they aren’t as scalable, longer be whether to opt for an in- accessible or futureproof as their house or public cloud-hosted solution. cloud-based alternatives, requiring Instead, center your planning around manual updates and restricting how identifying an intranet or hosting or when users can access the intranet. partner who can meet stringent All of these factors undermine security standards and demonstrate engagement and may threaten long- excellence in reliability and support. term success. At a bare minimum, the system you’re By contrast, a cloud-based intranet considering should meet ISO 27001 shares risk and offers a fully standards. We also recommend asking maintained, accessible, and stress- vendors for their documentation on: Penetration testing Vulnerability scanning and intrusion detection Data encryption Safe Harbour Mobile Device Management (MDM) Depending on your industry sector to protect customer data. During and organizational attitude to security this process, bring in IT and legal and risk, there may be additional stakeholders who can ensure your considerations – for example, US hosting solution is compliant with healthcare organizations must elect business standards and expectations. for HIPAA compliant solutions 32

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Custom building an intranet In the context of an intranet, Custom-built intranet solutions ‘building’ usually means creating a have the benefit of being tailored custom-made system from scratch, to an exact fit for your business often on top of SharePoint or another requirements and can be a viable DMS. This may be an option for option if you already utilize a DMS organizations with large in-house internally that offers a degree of IT teams, or access to specialist customization. However, there developer skills and resource to are a few key risks associated with design a purpose-built system. building an intranet that are worth considering: What internal Do you have the necessary skillset internally to expertise can you work with the technology on which the intranet is access? to be built, or will you need to account for the cost of third-party resource? What resources can How will the scheduling of this project interfere you commit to a with already established priorities within the custom build? business? Even if the internal expertise is available, the chances are you won’t be able to obtain exclusive use for your project, and will need to take this into account. Do you have Does your internal resource have experience any experience developing this type of technology? An intranet developing this type may have some similarities regarding its features of technology? and functionality to an external website, but in reality, both serve very different audiences and purposes. A specialist with experience in the design and delivery of internal collaborative software is better equipped to help you realize your objectives, and maximize value and return. What are the required Does your intranet need to be up-and-running timescales for the in 6months, or 1-2years? Custom builds typically build’s completion? come with longer timescales for completion, and a higher risk of project overrun. 33

Planning and deploying a successful intranet It is important to recognize that at their core. An alternative solution custom building an intranet on top of increasingly favored is to select an SharePoint or another DMS provider off-the-shelf solution that offers presents considerable limitations integration functionality with when it comes to delivering on your SharePoint as part of Office 365. internal communications strategy: because, quite simply, these systems are document management systems Your intranet as part of the business technology stack Today’s digital workplaces are Designing your intranet as a increasingly fragmented and centralized facilitator of your digital complex, with a single organization workplace by integrating with existing utilizing hundreds, or potentially tools and platforms or using outbound thousands of different tools and single sign-on (SSO) functionality applications as part of its technology will break down information silos, stack. Digitally savvy employees enjoy streamline everyday processes, the luxury of choice when it comes and ultimately bring your digital to workplace technology; however, workplace together. By simplifying this also presents challenges such the digital experience in this way, an as information silos, duplication of intranet can dramatically increase effort, and the risk of technology usage and engagement – and, fatigue. ultimately, return on investment. An effective intranet doesn’t set out to replicate specialist tools and do ‘everything’ all in one. It supports and works seamlessly with existing technologies to make it easier for employees to connect to the information they need, and get their work done. 34

Planning and deploying a successful intranet During the planning stage, consider: Integrating with existing cloud storage or third-party internal platforms, such as your HR or payroll systems Bringing in role-specific applications to your intranet, such as customer service or support desk tools like ZenDesk, which will speed up the resolution of customer queries through access to a centralized knowledge repository and ultimately provide superior service Integrating with SharePoint as part of Office 365, or your chosen cloud storage provider, to create a single, centralized version of truth for all business documents, policies, and information Connecting your intranet with communication tools such as Yammer or Skype, bringing all your business conversations into a single location and reducing dependency on email Configuring your intranet as an identity provider with Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality, reducing the number of accounts, passwords, and logins your employees are required to enter and remember – saving staff time and IT resource These decisions will factor into intranet provider to determine how your intranet design and the to configure and manage these solution that you elect for. You may integrations or connections simply, benefit from technical consultancy yet securely. services delivered by your selected 35

Planning and deploying a successful intranet HOW you will deliver your intranet project Even if you are utilizing a specialized By identifying how – and who – will provider to deliver your intranet be involved up front, you can plan for project, there will be resource any additional resource requirements, requirements and business impact on create realistic timescales, and reduce your organization during the process. frequent project risks. Your intranet project team accountability or ownership, or poor governance and direction for your Getting the right people behind your intranet. intranet project, both during the implementation and to manage your While every organization should plan intranet after launch, is critical to its their unique governance and team success. structure to match their culture and objectives, there are some basics to Planning your team is not only consider when identifying who needs important for determining your to be involved, and what their role project resource requirements. may include. Defined roles and responsibilities will also reduce many common risks such as project overrun, lack of 36

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Example intranet governance and project team model: Stakeholders Steering C Level Group Director(s) Content Users IT Support Leads Department Content Intranet Heads Publishers Management The most fundamental thing to project and ongoing management. remember is that a successful intranet This will differ from one business is centered on its users. No matter to another; some of the roles may what governance model you choose, overlap, others may be redundant keep them front-of-mind as the for your organization. If you are a driving force for all major decisions small business with limited resource around your intranet. availability, several of the roles may be conducted by one person. Next, we set out the example roles and responsibilities for an intranet 37

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Who? Why do you need them? What they should do C Level Director(s) This group has power and Sign off and support the intranet purpose and objectives influence to create real Enhance and develop the intranet in line with organizational objectives change in your organization Lead change and help break down barriers preventing the intranet from – not just procedurally, but reaching its potential culturally, as we explored in Escalation point for stakeholder and intranet management for unsolved Part 1. issues Stakeholder(s) Stakeholders have overall Work with intranet management, C-Level and the organization as a whole responsibility for delivering to plan and execute the intranet strategy intranet success. They are Enhance and develop the intranet in line with organizational objectives sufficiently senior to have Chair governance meetings a broad view of company Report to C-Level on the progress of intranet strategy, escalating issues objectives and are well where required connected to the needs of the organization and the other senior leaders. Intranet For centralized management Work with stakeholders to develop and execute intranet strategy management: of the intranet day-to-day. typically Internal Without even just light-touch Day-to-day management of intranet including creating and managing Comms Managers management, your intranet structure, or setting and maintaining homepages or equivalent risks becoming out of date, sprawling, unfocused or Work with content owners and publishers to check and review content, unused. enhance search optimization, and adhere to content strategy and management principles Ongoing training of publishers and familiarization for users 38

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Who? Why do you need them? What they should do Content Leads: for To be accountable overall for Provide content publisher resource and support the publisher in keeping example, Directors the content published to the content up-to-date or Heads of intranet by their department, Department ensuring the validity, Work with stakeholders and intranet management to adhere to content accuracy, and usefulness of strategy and management principles content Respond to requests from intranet management and work to resolve issues IT Support – senior To consult on the strategic Consult and assist with technical aspects regarding hosting, security, and representative, as role and any technical user management well as day-to-day concerns of the intranet support Support for integration and digital workplace management Ensure validity of user management source Help troubleshoot technical problems Content Publishers To ensure content is created Work with content lead and intranet management to create, publish, and and published on the intranet manage content in accordance with content strategy and management for users to consume, keeping principles your intranet relevant and engaging Respond to requests for content Steering group – To consult on ideas, plans, Work with the intranet management team to provide user feedback on mixture of roles strategy, and any proposals current and future plans and seniority you want input or opinions on – a ‘check and test’ group Input ideas into strategic planning 39

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Defining roles and responsibilities If your resource is internal, you face Ensure that intranet team roles the challenge of employees juggling and responsibilities are agreed, their project responsibilities alongside documented, and clarified upfront: their day-to-day roles. They may have individuals should know what is conflicting priorities, or be called expected of them, both during the away to alternative projects within the project and in the long-term. If organization. roles or responsibilities change, the handover needs to be documented and agreed by all major stakeholders. Timescales and deliverables The question of how long an intranet requirements, the volume of content, will take is always high on the priority internal processes and more. list for senior stakeholders, but as any project manager will testify, there As a rough guide, the chart below is no clear-cut answer. Timescales shows how differences in scope will vary according to scope, – whether this is a new project or solution selected, customization redevelopment of an existing site – requirements, size and complexity of could impact on timescales. the organization, hosting/hardware How long could my intranet project take? 6 months 6 -12 months 0 1 Existing site - fixing and improving key issues (small scale) 02 Existing site - minor redesign, rebrand or structure improvement (mid-scale) 03 Existing site - extensive redevelopment to 12-18 months functionality, technology or complete redesign 04 New intranet - migrating from a legacy system to 12-18 months a new platform 05 New intranet - building from scratch, no 6 -12 months previous system in place *Timescales here are intended to give a rough estimate. Actual timescales will vary according to the size and scope of your individual project. 40

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Working through your plan, many of required for each step: for example, the timescales will become evident. when your senior stakeholders need Be realistic, and allow for contingency to sign off on the final design, or when events and margin for error or delay. the first wave of content needs to be Break down your project into crucial migrated or built. stages, and establish any deliverables Need support projecting timescales for the delivery of your intranet project? Our free Content build calculator is designed to help. Simply enter a few basic bits of information about your business and its knowledge assets, and the calculator will figure out how much resource – whether in terms of time or people – you will need during this crucial phase of deployment. 41

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Professional services and support for your intranet project Planning and deploying an intranet is and resource to get your intranet up a company-wide business change that and running, which can be a challenge has the potential to transform the way for small in-house teams. you communicate, collaborate, and innovate. Support during the planning and implementation phases, as well as Successfully rolling out that degree ongoing input after you launch, of change often calls for strategic can make a significant, measurable thinking, specialist knowledge, and impact on the overall success of your previous experience. As the planning intranet. When planning your project, section of the guide shows, it also consider a budget for the following: takes a considerable amount of time Intranet strategy: support for planning and governance, structure, content, awareness, launch, and engagement to provide you with a roadmap for your intranet Training: upskilling administrators, content authors, intranet champions, and your users to instil confidence, drive adoption, and ensure everyone can get the most out of their new platform Branding and design services: help to define and deliver the right look and feel for your intranet and internal brand Technical consultancy: support answering questions or considerations around technical elements such as security, integration, authentication, or setting up users. Specialist support will ensure everything comes together, reduce risk, and ensure your intranet performs the way it should Build support: the process of populating and building your intranet homepages, content, and people directory, can be resource-intensive. If you have limited internal resource available, you may want to consider some outside help for this crucial stage Project management: a dedicated project manager will coordinate and drive all the individual elements required to get your intranet off the ground, and mitigate many of the common risks associated with delivering a large-scale project 42

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Looking to understand a bit more about the role and value of professional services for your intranet project? At Interact, we understand what it takes to deliver a successful intranet project. Our team of in-house specialists have over 15 years’ experience delivering intranets for over 1 million users globally and offer a complete suite of professional services to support our customers at every stage of their intranet journey. Visit interact-intranet.com/services to learn more, or call us to speak to a member of the team today. 43

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Planning for project risk require complex technologies and specialist skills or knowledge to get Risk is a fact of any project. Even the right, creating additional risk factors. best-planned and executed software Even if you’re opting for an out-the- implementations aren’t immune to box intranet solution that requires, risk: no matter how diligent we are, at least on paper, minimal input or there will be external factors that configuration from your business, threaten the success or even the risk management should still form a launch of our projects. central part of your project plan. Software development and implementation in particular often What is ‘risk’? Risk factors are possible events or conditions that, should they happen, could cause a direct impact on at least one project objective or a deviation from what has been forecast. Risks are also called ‘threats,’ as they When delivering an intranet project, threaten an organization’s success – there are commonly two distinct and in extreme circumstances, even types of risk: its survival. Implementation risk: the risk that a proposed investment may deviate from the original or expected requirements, resulting in higher costs than anticipated Outcome risk: the risk that the business or technology needs of the organization may not be met by the investment, resulting in lower overall total benefits 44

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Risk factors will differ from one How you map out and present risk will business to the next, taking into differ according to your organization consideration your company size, and its attitude towards risk. For most, sector, structure, and priorities. a simple brainstorm and impact vs. What may be considered a massive probability graph is a good start, like threat for one business may only be the below. Once you’ve determined an inconvenience for another, so it’s those that are high severity or worth taking the time to evaluate your probability, you can draft mitigation unique position and any potential responses. challenges to your intranet project. Example: X Low Adoption High Severity X X Resource Problems Low Probability X High Probability Implementation Risk Low Severity Outcome Risk For example: Risk: Resource problems during build phase – high impact/high probability Solution: As part of the project plan, contingency budget has been allocated for a temporary third-party resource to assist with the content audit, migration, and build. Top Tip: Don’t shy away from stating risk; be frank. Transparency and a mindset of preparing for the worst is the most effective way to reduce the likelihood and severity of risk. 45

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Part 3: Building and deploying your intranet With a clear plan and the right team behind you, you’re ready to move onto the build phase of your new intranet. As part of this stage, you’ll begin and fill user profiles, establish a brand to populate your intranet with the for your intranet, and craft those all- necessary information and content important homepages that will act as identified during your planning stage the window to the intranet for your as a ‘must have’ for users. You’ll create users. Content and Information Architecture An intranet should be structured For this reason, creating a clear and designed in such a way that information architecture and building employees are confident in how to to a defined structure is essential. find what they’re looking for. It should Without this, many intranets can be logical, intuitive, easy. become a dumping ground for information: users will be forced However, most organizations have to navigate multiple versions of substantial knowledge assets. documents, unintuitive or illogical Managing the large volumes of structures, or battle poor search content, users, information, and functions. Your intranet will quickly differing user requirements can be become unfit for purpose. an overwhelming task – but it’s also essential to your intranet success. 46

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Conducting a content audit One of the riskiest approaches taken Deploying an intranet is a valuable to building an intranet is to just ‘mass opportunity to take stock and migrate’ existing content onto a new perform a much-needed spring clean. platform. It may reduce the build time Take a brutal approach to collating and get your project live more quickly, information from across your but it is also one of the quickest routes business before identifying what you to project failure. need and use. Organizations acquire more and Consider not only what content you more information every year have, but its quality and relevance, they’re in existence. Without who owns it, and where it resides. careful management, much of Determine content that is redundant that information quickly becomes or no longer serves a purpose, and any irrelevant, incorrect, and duplicated. potential gaps. For example: Name Versions Stored Owner Updated Comments Recommendation HR Policy 2003, Shared drive HR 2012 Spelling and Revised updated policy to be 2005, Individual PCs Manager grammatical errors created by HR. 2007, HR shared folder throughout. Outdated 2012 content – doesn’t Remove all previous versions include newest from shared drives. pension information. 47

Planning and deploying a successful intranet What content do I need? What goes onto an intranet is unique and business will form part of your to every individual business – there business case and the planning phase is no prescribed checklist of essential of your project. Through your content documents that ‘must’ form part of audit and the process of defining your your content strategy. The process of intranet objectives, you will have an identifying the needs of your users understanding of: Your intranet purpose Your audience What they need How they’re accessing information While your intranet content plan will are some common content types you be unique to your organization, there may want to consider including: HR, IT, or business policies and documentation Orientation and onboarding support How to: user guides or support for everyday tasks and use of the intranet Team-specific content Administrative tasks or automated processes User-friendly or user-generated content Access to external content (for example, content residing in third-party storage systems such as your DMS, or your payroll or HR platforms) Brand and culture materials – such as your mission and values Top-down news and communications 48

Planning and deploying a successful intranet Creating an information architecture and structure You have your list of content, the The two are often used essentials that need to go onto your interchangeably and have a significant intranet. So, how do you sort it to role to play in driving usability and ensure findability and discoverability, findability on your site, but there is a as well as a positive user experience? distinct difference: The answer is logical information architecture and clear navigation throughout your intranet. Information architecture refers to how your content is organized and labeled Navigation is the process of moving from one place to another. One of the best practices here is to these as a basis for your plan. Where involve those who will be undertaking do users expect to find content? Are those content journeys every day: your there any common themes or trends? users. Standard techniques include Anything that doesn’t seem to fit card sorting or categorization, where neatly in a particular area? What end users will brainstorm how content about the terminology, acronyms, or should be logically grouped and different phrases users adopt? termed. Evaluate responses and use Content name Also known as Suggested mapping/navigation IT policy IT security, security policy, information IT > Policies and Procedures technology, IT handbook Organization > Policies > IT HR > Onboarding > Policies and Procedures 49

Planning and deploying a successful intranet UK healthcare provider, Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, use their intranet ‘Flo,’ named after Florence Nightingale, to centralize important business and HR processes. In the ‘Worklife’ section, all HR information is grouped and categorized for intuitive navigation. Icons provide a simple and accessible way to pick out what users need. Employees can access benefit and payroll information, read important company policies, submit travel expenses, complete appraisals, and much more. 50