Is it ever as it seems?

Albert Einstein

How are reputations made and then kept?

In simple terms, reputations are usually earned over a significant time period, based on the delivery of promises and the constant re-inforcement and maintenance of said promises. The promises could be services, goods, facilities or all manner of things.

Reputations help brands become trusted; no matter what your personal view is, McDonalds and Coca~Cola have world renowned brands based on their reputation for delivering consistency. No matter where you consume a Big Mac or a glass of Coke in the world, it’s the same. You know what you’re going to get before you get it. There may be some regional variations to accommodate local tastes but the quality is always there.

Reputations exist in the intranet world too. I could give you ten examples of companies who excel at specific aspects of intranet delivery. Their reputations precede them in these aspects and when I want to find out more about how to improve the things that my organisation is focussing on, I approach an organisation who’s reputation goes before them.

But how are reputations gained in the first place within the intranet business? Some are earned through winning some award or other, whilst others seem to be merely smokescreens for the reality. Word of mouth has a lot to do with it, and if the tale is told often enough it will become fact.

I know of an organisation who has a reputation for being the leaders in one particular aspect of the intranet industry, but the reality is far different. The reputation was earned by two major factors;

1. identify emerging technology and introduce it because you can, with little regard to how it would be managed, supported, paid for or how it fits into any strategic approach. Play with the gadgets and by sheer will of the crowd they become an essential part of the business.

2. continually perpetuate the fallacy that because the organisation is “creative” then it’s ok to continue to do things independently of any other part of the business; just because you can. Then tell everyone and anyone who will listen, about this wonderful new gizmo that’s been around for ages on the internet and how great your organisation is by bringing it in house because it’s “just what the business needs.” This view is usually driven by personal interest.

Bingo! Reputation is formed. Other companies constantly pat you on the back and tell you how good you are and how lucky the organisation is to have such a forward thinking Intranet manager.

Then of course, you clear off to another company or go freelance and jet around the world esposing your innovative and maverick ways to the highest bidder and leave someone else to try and unpick the mess that has evolved around you. The poor soul who’s left has to then integrate, or rationalise, many disparate systems that don’t work together or talk to each other. Whilst also having to negotiate with the business to remove little used toys, that have now become the lifeblood of one small bunch of users, who would rather fight you on the beaches than give up their right to using something “you gave us in the first place.”

The same individual also has to produce numerous business cases to gain budget (because business users won’t stump up the cash) to pay third party suppliers for licences and ongoing support, which in the long term far outweighs any initial preconceived business benefits. Inevitably the more budget that’s used for exisiting technical solutions means less available for any new stuff.

But that’s ok. Because your reputation goes before you.

And for those who still work for the company, you can take reflected glory in the reputation that you’re part of a forward thinking organisation. It takes years before reputations are tarnished or lost; no matter the reality.

Intranet managers pay

Loads of money

Are you worth what you get paid?

As part of our drive to become more “transparent” to the licence fee payers, the BBC announced a while ago that it would be regularly publishing the salary bands of it’s highest earners. The BBC board’s salaries have always been available in the annual report, but the BBC took the unusual step of announcing the salaries earned by the next management level down and this information has already been made public. Apparently it’s raised a few eyebrows internally; probably understandably.

Later in September, the BBC will announce the next highest 100 earners within the organisation. This is in addition to the publication of expenses claimed by senior BBC managers as a result of requests made from the public as provided by the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

At last weeks Edinburgh TV Festival, questions were asked about “talent” pay and calls made for the BBC to disclose what it pays its high profile performers. The actor and comedian, Alan Davies, has already been subjected to a 25% pay cut for his role as Jonathan Creek; http://tinyurl.com/mvr48v

Director of BBC Vision, Jana Bennett, stated in Edinburgh “The BBC is in a market; in the broader sense it’s part of the creative industries. It performs a fundamentally different role than that performed by, for example, policemen or teachers. It is a category error to suggest that the public would actually be able to contribute to working out what we do about it. It’s like me talking about Tom Cruise’s movie deals. I’m not of that sector.” http://tinyurl.com/knvxe3

So as we become more open regarding our top earners’ salaries, would you be happy to have your salary become common knowledge within the intranet industry? Would it affect our salaries if companies benchmarked their intranet people positions with other organisations?

I would imagine that our HR departments already do some form of pay benchmarking exercise as part of their role in setting job descriptions commensurate with pay scales, but I’ve seen little evidence of a consistent and common approach.  As intranet managers tend to sit in different departments within differing organisations, this doesn’t appear to be an exact science. There’s also the complication of aligning salaries internally within the appropriate existing pay bands.

Would the publication of our collective pay help the intranet business overall or are we all too secretive about what we earn?

Views?

You can also choose to respond to the poll below. The results are just for fun obviously.

How will the role of the intranet manager evolve?

I’m in the process of completing a survey of our intranet practices, for a well known consultant in the intranet industry. One of the questions was “How do you see the role of the intranet manager evolve over the next 3 to 4 years?” and it got me thinking.

The role of the intranet manager going forward will be determined by the vision of the senior managers within the part of the business who own it. If they’re brave enough to acknowledge the importance of the role and how a fully supported team of people can make significant efficiencies within the buisness, then the intranet manager will thrive.

Alas many organisations are extremely short sighted in their approaches and the intranet only becomes important when its actually not available.  This in itself, indicates how important intranets are, and therefore how crucial an intranet managers role is.

But it is also upto to us to help ourselves. We need to be ambassadors for change, and challenge the way things are done in our businesses, as well as demonstrating our understanding of what the business wants from its intranet. I see far too many intranet managers who don’t understand the needs of their business. This is a self defeating approach.

We need to get out there and regularly be seen to clearly support what the organisation is trying to deliver, and what we can do to help it achieve its objectives.

Hide in your ivory towers at your peril.

My largest audience to date…

On Tuesday 4 August 2009, after a couple of opportunities at co-presenting, I presented “Intranets Live”, an online business radio show with pictures, for people involved in the intranet industry. That’s what I do when I’m not gallavanting around the country being a Hertfordshire playboy.

Playboy mansion

That’s not my day job (presenting Intranets Live or being a playboy).  I don’t normally present this show – this was a one off. Purely as a hobby, I normally present a radio show on Hemel Hempstead Hospital radio every Sunday morning (which broadcasts to the surrounding area) and probably get about 10 listeners if I’m lucky. My real day job involves intranet stuff for the BBC.

But on Tuesday 100’s of people tuned in. Alas I didn’t get to play any tunes but it was good fun, and I think it went well; I shall wait for the feedback from the IBF’ers and the audience before I start to make a career out of it.

But it was a good experience. If you want to have a listen, the show will be available soon, in bite sized pieces at Intranets Live.

Is Sharepoint the way to go for an intranet homepage?

We’re about to take a deep breath and decide what to do with our intranet homepage. We don’t know yet, but we’re doing some user research and hopefully that’ll give us a feel for how well the current homepage is doing in terms of delivering user needs. Also we’ll get a feel for what users expect from the homepage going forward.

Then will come the challenge in delivering what’s needed. We have Sharepoint in the company so it would seem to make sense to use it wouldn’t it?

But what have been your experiences of using Sharepoint as the basis for your homepage? Good/Bad/Indifferent?

Who has their intranet homepage hosted and delivered via Sharepoint?

And what functionality have you implemented using Sharepoint on your homepage? Does it work? Has it made your organisation more effective?

Academic qualifications for Intranet folk?

The intranet has been around for ooh I don’t know, circa 15+ or so years and as an industry we’ve yet still to come up with an academic qualification that internationally recognises our achievements. Other industries and career paths have recognised qualifications, without which people’s CV’s simply wouldn’t make it onto a job shortlist. But nothing exists for intranet managers/people – or does it?

Why do you think this is, and is there a need for such a qualification? As intranet managers we need to have many different capabilities and comptencies in a wide variety of disciplines. It would be good to get some formal recognition for our skills would it not?

I reckon if such a qualification existed, not only would it be an extremely interesting course to undertake, it would help our industry to become better regarded within our businesses?

Views?

How well do you know your business?

“Top slicing” are the current buzz words within the BBC. I wasn’t sure what they meant, so did some investigation. Basically it’s business speak for the Governments proposals to give around £130 million a year of licence fee money to independent regional news broadcasters based on the implications of the recent “Digital Britain” report.

The chairman of the BBC Trust in an email to everyone in the BBC, made it clear that the licence fee should not be regarded as a “slush fund” and that his trustees would ‘not sit quietly by’ while the government raided the kitty. The BBC has until September to provide it’s response.

What this has done, is made me wonder whether I know enough about the BBC and the work its various business units do, to ensure we provide the right intranet services relevant to business needs. I’m not convinced I do.

But the BBC is a difficult place to get doors opened, to enable me to find out more. Business leaders are either too busy or I can’t track down the right person to speak to. Something I thought would be easy, simple and straightforward is proving to be downright difficult. Some areas are fully engaged, and we have regular discussions, but until I engage with all the business, there is a danger that our forthcoming review of our intranet strategy will be limited to only those parts of the business who have stuck their head above the parapet and indicated their needs.

We all know that decisions shouldn’t be made solely on those who “shout the loudest”, but unless other parts of the business get involved, then we may have to. Different stakeholders have differing needs and requirements, but there is a danger that internal communications (as the intranet – especially our intranet homepage – is on their agenda to help improve the conversations we have with our people) will lead the way, to the detriment of other’s needs.

So what to do? Continue to try and encourage the missing business units to come into the debate or decide on the way forward without them?

What have been your experiences?

Intranet content vs intranet strategy

Having been in the intranet business for over ten years, it’s always interesting to see advice such as this being made available to “intranet professionals.” “Intranet Content programming – Connect with your Audience”

As an “intranet professional” myself it never fails to amaze me that such basic advice needs to be provided to intranet people. Whilst I fully understand that not every organisation is at a similar level of maturity in terms of their intranet journeys, if “intranet professionals” need to be told such fundamental things as these, I would seriously question the recruitment policies in place in those organisations that account for the employment of said individuals in the first place. This is kindergarden stuff for intranet toddlers.

Because I’ve been doing intranets for 10+ years, maybe that makes me a grand-daddy of intranet (because we all know an intranet year is the equivalent of a dog year) and perhaps I’ve moved on from some of the basics, (and I suppose it doesn’t hurt to be reminded) but let’s be honest, if you don’t understand your audience needs and write content to engage them, then you may as well go back to whatever it is you did before you became an “intranet professional”.

But one point to remember. An intranet is rarely one entity/site. It’s usually a collective of sites all wrapped up in a convenient wrapper called the intranet – or whatever your title maybe. Therefore by definition of course each site/section will need to be written for it’s intended audience, but held together with a common approach. Just like a newspaper with all its different sections, each one is written for a specific audience, but with the same editorial style. But in the intranet world this can only be really achieved with extremely good governance (including training) and/or an authorising process that involves layers of management approving all content before publication; much like an editor’s role on a newspaper. And that to me, smacks of far too much centralised control. The beauty of a content management system is you can devolve responsibility to the right individual in the business – hopefully an expert in their field – and then get the audience to determine directly with that owner what content works and what doesn’t. As intranet managers are we really all that bothered with localised content? I don’t see that as my role – that’s the responsibility of the author.

The role of an intranet manager is to ensure the strategy is in place to take the intranet forward and meet business objectives, ensure there is adequate sponsorship from the correct stakeholders in the business and that all the support mechanisms are tried, tested and of use. That’s what intranet managers should be focussing on.

Oh and what criteria actually determines an “intranet professional”? The fact that I simply call myself one - is that sufficient?

I’ve been advocating for years the introduction of an academic qualification that recognises the value intranet people bring to their companies. A formal qualification that recognises our abilities and gives our roles far more creedence is the only way forward. Other industries have had them for years. And as I’ve already said the intranet industry has been around for the equivalent of 50+ dog years it’s about time we had the same.

I know the Intranet Benchmarking Forum (IBF) are working with Warwick University and exploring such opportunities. let’s hope something comes of it soon.

Self service – a good thing?

This blogging malarky is ok if you have the time to do it. It’s ok for those ‘professional bloggers’ who’s job it is to regale us all with their tales of derring do, and who get paid to impart pearls of wisdom. It must be great to do blogging all day, when there are no other demands on your time. Like work, or life. Even better if you’re a “blogger in residence”, like the BBC employs. Blog, blog, blog – all day long. What a great gig to have.

But for us normal folk, who have to fit it in around our day jobs, it isn’t so easy to keep a regular dialogue with our readers. And also finding the time to read all those pearls of wisdom; well they always seem to drop down the (electronic) to-do list.

Now self service. Over the past few years intranets have evolved into far more than their original objective of delivering communications to an organisations workforce. Most companies I know have now delivered on-line self service and are heading toward, what Razorfish describe as ’The Consolidated Workplace Interface’ within the ‘The Intranet Maturity Framework’, which is basically psycho-babble for outlining what stages intranets go through on their ever evolving journey. I hate business speak, so for me it’s bleeding obvious. Intranets evolve based on user needs and organisational objectives. Period. Give it whatever fancy title you want, but the outcome is the same. Why don’t companies speak in plain langauage? After all we tell our intranet publishers to? Same rules apply. It’s not big and it’s not clever.

Anyway, maybe the world is taking this whole self service malarky too far. I was in Tesco’s yesterday and for those of who who don’t have someone to do their shopping for them, you will have noticed that they, plus many other supermarket chains, have introduced self service kiosks whereby you can self scan your goods and (allegedly) get through the queues far quicker. Or at least that’s the idea. In my experience they’re not quicker as they either don’t work as they should or they’re out of order. On the few occasions I’ve used them, they hold you up ‘cos you’ve bought alcohol and an assistant has to come over to verify that you’re over 21. What is this – the States? I thought 18 was the legal age to drink booze?

This entails a supermarket employee (and there’s only ever one doing this, as others stand around and scratch their heads wondering what to do next) coming over, checking your password, driving licence and birth certificate, plus ringing your parents to ensure you are a) who you say you are, b) old enough to drink and c) a ‘responsible’ drinker, by only buying Chablis instead of their crappy supermarket brand, and giving you permission’ to ‘purchase’ their goods.  Gee thanks. Oh yes and they usually ring Gordon Brown to make sure it’s ok too. They should ring Paddy Pantsdown, he’d say yes in a flash!

Now I know the reasons why they need to do this, so no emails please Mr Leahy. Well we wouldn’t want gangs of teenagers drinking White Lightning on the corners of every street corner in the UK would we? Not like in my day. No that’s all been resolved now thanks to “responsible selling” of the corporate supermarket conglomerates. In my day we just used to send in the oldest kid in the gang and he’d buy it for us. Or the local drunk. Kids these days haven’t worked that one out yet. Errr, yeah right.

So avoiding the self serve terminals I placed my goods onto the very long runway which transported them half way across the supermarket to the stern looking cashier ensconsed in front of the screen that takes your money. Now she was under pressure to scan them all. Phew that looks like hard work I thought as I hastily packed everything into the one bag she presented me (they’ve removed self service for helping yourselves to bags – summat to do with the environment, but that’s easily solved – use paper instead of plastic – the States have been doing it for years – derr. How hard can it be?). So she scans and I pack. Notice there are no longer the runways at the customer end anymore, so now all these employees have to actually stretch to pass the goods on. Blimey, I think she nearly broke out into a sweat.

Then comes payment time. After providing my Clubcard (those points add up you know and will pay for most of the days out next year for my girlfriend and I if I plan it properly) the ‘cashier’ scans it and mumbles under her breath what the bill comes too. Luckily I catch what she said and then have to insert my payment card into the terminal (I have a Tesco credit card so I earn extra points on that too – double bubble, but don’t tell ‘em – we’re thinking of going on a world cruise on the proceeds soon – might see Leahy whilst we’re at it) and enter my PIN.

Now here’s the rub. In the olden days, the cashier would hand me my receipt. No longer. Oh no. I have to take it off the printer myself. A very small thing I accept, but an intrinsic step toward the deterioration of customer service, which let’s be honest Tesco has done quite well in the past. I’m all for me, me, me, but c’mon isn’t this taking things too far? And if you visit the cafe in these establishments you have to help yourself to the food laid out in front of you. Cuts down on serving staff you see. I know these things as many years I was responsible for implementing such new trends. Yes I’m to blame.

So what’s this got to do with intranets I hear you say? Well quite a lot actually. Are we not in danger of implementing on-line services that we have to negotiate and navigate with little understanding of what we’re actually doing which then results in more work for the employee? Most companies have self serve operations on-line that merely meet the requirements of the organisation at the expense of the employee. I know – I’ve been responsible for implementing some of them – blimey the charges are adding up M’Lord. We’ve all experienced crappy expenses systems, HR procedures and finance processes that are so mind numbingly complex we simply give up ‘cos it’s too hard. Usually to the overall benefit of the organisation.

All these systems do is throw the problem over the wall to the employees and relinquish the responsibilty of their rightful owners, who merely state they’ve been “user tested” – yes they have, usually amongst stakeholders in who’s interest it is to reduce costs. But the overall cost to the business goes unmeasured. We all know it increases.

So some self restraint is in order I reckon. If it isn’t fit for users to use then don’t do it. just ‘cos it meets the business objective does not absolve owners from their responsibility.

And as for Tesco’s? Well on-line shopping is obviously the only way to go. Either that or support your local shops.

And finally. If Tesco’s could also put my goods into my cupboards for me when you arrive then that would be perfect. Oh yes and remove the delivery charge - it wipes out the benefits I get from your loyalty points and I’m saving up for my world cruise, so I can have dinner with that lovely Mr Terry Leahy.

The virtual world. Nearly…..

We work in an industry that relies on online stuff. If it’s not on-line, then generally us intranet folks aren’t interested in it are we? No we’re not. Why? Because that’s what we do. We do stuff on-line. Simple.

On-line working in the virtual world has been around for ages. I’ve been chairing and attending meetings ‘virtually’ for about ten years. In intranet terms that’s like forever. In this fast paced industry a year is the equivalent to five dog years, so I reckon I’ve been in the business for about 50 intranet years and I’ve seen an enormous amount of change, but not in my current organisation.

To make an online meeting successful some simple basics need to be available. Usually a phone and access to the internet at the most. Alternatively you can access both the audio and visual bits via a pc and away you go, utilising whatever technology you have installed. It can be done from one device. And that’s how it should be, or so I thought.

But unfortunately things aren’t as simple as they should be. Not all companies are equal. Access to a simple telephone line and a working LAN connection in the same meeting room at the same time isn’t always available. Wireless is virtually none existant, or pc’s just don’t connect to it when it is. Conference (spider) phones are in short supply and hey it’s hit and miss as to whether the electric sockets work and if they do then they’re situated miles away from where they’re needed. So we have to arrive armed for every eventuality.

On-line meeting software, like Live Meeting, is either not available or unsupported so if you do have it and it doesn’t work then you’re on your own.

I regularly chair meetings for large numbers of people who have to travel from all parts of the country, incurring travel expenses, time out of the office and everyone increasing their carbon footprints whilst spending the organisations money. Not good. Hopefully when they arrive all the kit will be working and we can have a productive meeting for those in the room, but I can’t invite those who can’t be there to join remotely. It just doesn’t work.

The recent IBF24 online conference ably demonstrated that virtual meetings are a productive and effective way of getting intranet people together irrespective of where they happen to be at the time. It can work externally, but if the basic tools aren’t available then it’s difficult to do likewise for internal audiences.

Our intranet is up there with the best in the world. Sadly our technology and the telecommunications infrastructure within our meeting rooms currently simply isn’t, but there are noises that collaborative software is on the way.

But look on the positive side. At least I can offer the attendees a cup of coffee and a danish pastry upon their arrival. And that’s something other organisations stopped doing years ago!