Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC)

Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) update April 2012: 95 organisations participating

Over 26,000 people from ninety-five organisations have now participated in the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) online intranet benchmark survey. These organisations range in size from CVS Caremark with over 200,000 employees and $98 billion in annual revenue to nSynergy, a SharePoint consulting organisation with less than 100 staff.

Organisations of any size from any country are welcome to participate in the WIC. It is available in 10 different languages, with others being added as required. There is no cost to participate.

All participating organisations have one thing in common: the desire to improve their intranets by having the courage to obtain feedback from their own end users and then take action based on this feedback.

 

Would you like to benchmark your intranet at no cost?

If you would like to be one of the first 100 organisation to participate in the WIC, and be eligible for the analysis report (see below) all you need to do is register for the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC). Based on participation rates so far, we think 100 organisations will complete the WIC within the next two weeks.

Read the WIC FAQ page if you need more information about the WIC or contact Andrew Wright if you have any specific questions.

 

Average question results

The following tables show the average responses to a sample of the survey questions

Coming soon: the Worldwide Intranet Challenge Report!!

After 100 organisations have completed the WIC, the WIC partners will start working together to analyse this feedback and provide recommendations to organisations for improving their intranets. This report will be available at no cost to participating organisations and at a reasonable yet-to-be-determined price to the public. 

The report, based on interviews with organisations with leading intranets (as decided by their own end users) will include topics such as:

• Overall value - what are the qualities that make an intranet (and the intranet team) key to an organisation's success?
• Staff able to contribute - why is this important? How do you create an interactive, social and dynamic intranet? How do you maintain it?
• Finding information - why is this the biggest problem facing intranets today? How do leading intranets make it easy for their staff to find what they want? Is there a common approach to developing an information architecture?
• Maintenance & governance - how do the best intranets keep their content up-to-date? How do they manage to get intranet governance ingrained within an organisation?
• Content - what is the most useful content an intranet can provide to its staff? Are some content types more important than other content types?
• Performance and availability - how important is it that pages load quickly and staff are able to access the intranet off-site and from a mobile device?
• Completing work tasks - how do the effective intranets make it easy for staff to get things done?
• Measuring intranet effectiveness - what should you be measuring to determine the effectiveness of your intranet?
• Intranet design - what are the characteristics of well designed intranet?
• Prioritising improvements - how do you decide which improvements will give you the most impact?

If you would like to receive this report at no cost, remember you will need to register for the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) to participate.

From innovation to operation: the role of the intranet

     

The goal of most innovations, ideas or continuous improvements is to ultimately make a positive return on investment (either through less costs or greater revenue).  The quicker an organisation (or a project within an organisation) can move from an 'innovative' state to an 'operational' state, the quicker an organisation can begin to reap the benefits.

This article looks at how the intranet can enable organisations to move from an innovative state to the more profitable and predictable operational state.

 

Example: the innovation to operation lifecyle

Lets say someone within a SharePoint consulting organisation has the bright idea to organise an annual SharePoint conference - an innovation!

How can the intranet help move this idea from an innovation to operation?

At the early stages of the idea, there will be much discussion and collaboration. Is it a good idea? Who else is doing something similiar? Is there a market? Other people within the organisation may get involved.

Some of this discussion can be faciliated by the intranet using discussion forums, online chatting or collaborative team rooms.

After the decision is made to go ahead, more discussion questions fly around. Where is a good location? Who should present at the conference? How will we market the conference? What booking system should we use? What topics should be discussed? When should we have it? How will we organise sponsors?

There will be even more discussion, collaboration and research taking place at this stage, all of which is taking time and costing money and the organisation is still yet to make even one dollar.

However, also during this time, lists are being compiled (possible speakers, possible venues, possible sponsors), templates & forms generated (invitations, booking forms, feedback forms), activities developed (Organise a venue, Choose a speaker, Process a booking, Request conference feedback), marketing material developed, notes being taken….

A lot of valuable content and intellectual property is being created. In an ideal world, most of this content is created, categorised and managed using the intranet.

Finally after much collaboration, discussion and change management, the innovation has moved into an operational state and the conference is ready to go. Because it's now in this state, the next time the conference is organised the chances are it will be more profitable. All the intellectual property - processes, forms, lists, etc created from the previous year can be re-used, making it less costly and time consuming and in all probability at a higher standard as well.

 

The role of the intranet

In the article, 8 good business reasons for having an intranet, I identified some important ways an intranet can add tangible benefits to an organisation. These are shown in the following diagram in the context of how they relate to the innovation to operation lifecycle. For example, during the early phases of implementing an idea, the intranet can help in identifying the actual idea, faciliating collaboration and the change management required when introducing new systems and processes into an organisation. 

Once the idea has become operational, the intranet becomes more important in enabling tasks to be completed quickly, providing access to data and the applications needed to complete these tasks, and managing documents and other content. 

The following diagram shows the different ways an intranet can help organisations move quickly from an innovative state to the more desirable operational and profitable state.

Other articles you may find useful

• 8 good business reasons for having an intranet (tips for writing an intranet business case)
• 9 intranet content types that add value to your organisation

 

Intranet influencers: Q1 2012

Intranet influencers: Q1 2012

The following is a list of the top influencers of the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) LinkedIn group for the first quarter, 2012. The top contributers are identified by the LinkedIn 'Top Influencers This Week' function. Top influencers are group members whose contributions in discussions (threads started, comments, and likes) drive the most participation from other members over the course of a week. 

Weekly top influencers

Week 1 - 21st Jan, 2012

 

Week 2 - 28th Jan, 2012

 

Week 3 - 4th Feb, 2012

 

Week 4 - 11th Feb, 2012

 

Week 5 - 18th Feb, 2012

 

Week 6 - 25th February, 2012

 

Week 7 - 1st March

Week 8 - 8th March

 

Week 9 - 23rd March

 

Week 10 - 30rd March, 2012