Posts Tagged ‘Intranet Benchmarking Forum’
The Intranet Benchmarking Forum (IBF) is offering a free report, Digital Workplace Maturity Model - From Intranet to Digital Workplace. In the introduction to the report, CEO Paul Miller, described the digital workplace as
” including the intranet but also including other workplace technologies: those in operation and those yet to come…these are effectively work/technology environments that operate irrespective of location and (in the future) device”
See the graphic below to get a sense of how the intranet fits together with the digital workplace.
The digital workplace model has five levels of maturity from Base to Excel which are applied to four factors:
- Communication and information - Role of internal communications and information sharing
- Community and collaboration - Level of support for collaboration and working between groups and individuals
- Services - Delivery of online applications employee self-service, workflow, etc.
- Structure - management of the digital workplace including governance, standards, etc.
See the graphic below to get a sense of how the model works. Note that the maturity levels are Base, Low, Mid, High, and Excel radiating out from the center.
To further describe the model as it applies to intranets, an example may be in order. Note: I am simplifying the use of the model for the example.
We’ll start with an imaginary intranet. It has been in existence for about 3 years. At the outset the governance was strong with standards in place, usability tested, users involved in design, plans in order, etc. giving it a Structure level of High.
The intranet team has been successful in developing content that is up to date and relevant. Employees are able to use intranet tools that allow them to do some of their work in an interactive manner (submitting new matters for approval, signing up for and keeping track of training, etc. We’ll give them a Services level of High.
They are kept informed with firm and client news. Still, there is some functionality that is missing. We’ll give them a Mid level for Communication and Information.
The firm wants to develop more collaboration among its lawyers and staff but the culture has prevented many from feeling comfortable sharing and most of what the firm wants to do via the intranet has not been done. We’ll give them a Low level for Community and Collaboration.
If we used the same graph as above to plot the levels, it would look something like this:
A fairly mature intranet with the exception of it being used for collaboration and community. With the levels graphed out as they are, the management and intranet teams would be able to use the model with the information that supports the findings for strategic planning for future growth and development.
The report does a much better job of describing the model than I just did. If you find what I’ve described interesting, download the report for more.
Don’t miss a great chance to get some good ideas, do some research, and see what other companies are doing with their intranets by signing up for IBF 24 put on by the Intranet Benchmarking Forum. They will be showing 24 hours of the world’s best intranets on June 2-3, 2010. The event comes directly to your desktop via WebEx from London, New York, San Francisco, and Australia. And the best part? It’s free!
IBF has been holding this day-long event since 2008 and received some great feedback for their efforts. Highlights of the schedule for this year include tours of intranets from Thomson Reuters, Nokia, Deloitte, Comcast, and Ernst & Young, to name a few. Read more about how to join.
~Amy Witt
Are you interested in knowing how the rest of the world or at least the members of a forum expect from an intranet? Perhaps you want to know about which applications are considered a must add? The Intranet Benchmarking Forum is a great resource for information on what other organizations are doing with their intranets. While membership is a bit prohibitive for most law firms (their membership is largely Fortune 500), non-members can still benefit from their research.
For example, they recently published an article, The Employee Directory, in their blog, Intranet Life: Intranet Best Practice, Trends and Stories. Plumb full of good advice, it outlines the next wave in such directories introduced with this paragraph:
Many of the features of a “wave three” directory incorporate elements of social networking tools, such as: skills and interests, recent blog posts, favourites, presence information and network of colleagues or friends. But it can also incorporate other functionality such as specific views for managers and HR to manage talent and performance more easily.
and pinpoints specifics as well.
The categories that are used to classify the articles demonstrate the vast array of thinking shared on this blog:
The research that IBF does for its members is another great benefit. While most reports are available to members only, the summaries of the reports provide insight to non-members as well. Recent reports include:
- Designing Search
- How usable is SharePoint 2007 for intranets?
- Improving search
- Usability of third-party intranet applications
- Intranet strategy and governance: the state of the art
**IBF 24 is an annual 24 hour webinar, open to both members and non-members, that includes “live tours of the world’s most advanced intranets, corporate portals, information workplaces and a series of key note talks from industry professionals.”
~ Nina Platt
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