Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC)

The WIC's most valuable intranets of 2012 (based on end user feedback)

       

by Andrew Wright

This article lists the most valuable intranets for 2012 as identified by the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC).*

This includes the 3 top ranked organisations for each category from a total of 50 participating organisations. The scores and rankings are based on feedback given by actual intranet end users. In addition, tips and links to case studies from the highly ranked organisations are also provided.

 

Top rated intranets for 2012

1. Aspen Technology, Inc - 115.39 
2. RSPB  - 109.75  
3. Medibank Hotwire - 107.35   

 

References

Slideshare: Success factors and lessons learned from more than 100 benchmarked intranets
Case study: Weston Solutions: Could this be the world's most effective intranet?
Case study: Discovery Health staff say their intranet is the best
Case study: Intranet users rank Bupa Australia's intranet number 1
Webinar: Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) Webinar: Weston Solutions Case Study
Case study: The Worldwide Intranet Challenge - Wyeth MENA is number 1 (Case Study)

 

 

Catgegory ratings (based on survey questions)

I like the intranet home page (score is out of 4)

1. Rijkswaterstaat - 3.04 
2. RSPB - 3.01 
3. NRMA Motoring & Services - 2.99  

Youtube: The Rijkswaterstaat intranet
Article: RSPB intranet scoops global award

Tips from leading intranets:

• Provide a continuous stream of fresh content
• Provide personalised content - eg. news, work tasks
• Make sure there is some fun on the home page

 

I can personalise the intranet

1. Rijkswaterstaat - 2.96  
2. IMS Health - 2.37  
3. Yorkshire Water - 2.37  

Tips:

• Make the personalisation automatic (eg. deliver news updates based on a person's profile)
• Give people the ability to add their own links to the home page

 

I can find the information I need on the intranet

1. Sulzer Metco - 2.67  
2. Aspen Technology, Inc - 2.67 
3. GS1 Australia - 2.62  

Tips:

• Provide access to the most important content from the intranet home page
• Do not confuse collaboration content with 'approved' and qualified content - ensure the two content types are clearly demarcated
• Be fanatical about archiving and removing redundant content and content that doesn't get used

 

Publish content

1. nSynergy - 2.20  
2. Aspen Technology, Inc - 2.02 
3. Rijkswaterstaat - 1.76  

Case study: Delivering an interactive intranet: case study from #1 ranked interactive intranet: nSynergy

 

 

Discuss work topics

1. nSynergy - 2.84  
2. Arup #2 - 1.68  
3. Rijkswaterstaat - 1.28 

Interview: With Faith Wainwright of Arup

Tips:

• Online discussion and collaboration is more cultural than technical
• Senior leadership MUST set the example
• Discussion tools need to be easy to use, preferably integrated with email

 

Collaborate with other staff online

1. nSynergy - 2.52 
2. Aspen Technology, Inc - 1.91
3. Nykredit - 1.28  

Case Study: Nykredit: Collaboration evolution delivers on vision

• Integrate different platforms  - eg. combine instant message, video conferencing, unified communications and desktop sharing into a seamless end user experience
• Ensure the right culture exists - staff not scared to collaborate, collaboration is encouraged 

 

Complete online forms

1. Virgin Media UK - 2.13  
2. Medibank Health Solutions - 2.09  
3. Energex - 2.00  

Tips:

• Implement the most popular forms first to obtain buy-in
• Integrate forms with job tasks

 

Find instructions for completing work tasks

1. Medibank - Client Pages - 2.94 
2. Medibank - Hotwire - 2.24  
3. Transfield Worley Ltd - 2.02 

Case study: Building a task based intranet using SharePoint (AGL case study)

 

Staff details

1. RSPB - 3.52  
2. Transfield Worley Ltd - 3.28  
3. Arup Group Ltd - 3.26 

Tips:

• Complete as many profile details as possible from existing HR systems
• Allow staff to update their own details
• Run a competition where the winner only gets a prize if their staff details are up-to-date
• Include photos of staff (if possible)
• Integrate 'linkable' staff names with other content types (eg. links to intranet pages, documents)

 

News about our organisation & industry

1. RSPB - 3.29 
2. Telecom NZ - 3.06  
3. Yorkshire Water - 3.00  

Tips:

• Most important is to have a regular supply of quality news stories
• Analyse effectiveness of news stories - which stories are popular, who are the popular authors,
• News items need to have clear objectives (eg. to improve employee engagement, to make staff aware of process changes)

A repository of re-usable documents

1. Aspen Technology, Inc - 2.81  
2. Domino's Pizza - 2.35  
3. Sulzer Chemtech - 2.24  

Tips:

• Don't just simply provide a huge list of un-indexed documents - ensure there is appropriate meta data assigned so staff can locate the documents they need to meet their specific requirements
• Archive old documents
• Index documents by the roles and activities they support eg. sales proposals should be indexed by Sales Team

 

Information about our products/services

1. Domino's Pizza - 2.79  
2. Aspen Technology, Inc - 2.68 
3. Fisher & Paykel Finance - 2.66 

Tips:

• Ensure front line staff have easy access to this information
• Ensure that if product or service information is updated, there is a way for staff to acknowledge that they are aware of the change and can ask for additional help if needed
• Maintain not only your own product/service information but also an overview of your competitors. This way your staff will know how your product/service is superior.

Information about our customers

1. Aspen Technology, Inc - 2.20  
2. Domino's Pizza - 2.15  
3. Energex - 2.04  

 

Information for new starters

1. Aspen Technology, Inc - 2.90 
2. RSPB - 2.81  
3. Fisher & Paykel Finance - 2.66 

Tips:

• Created a page specifically for new starters
• Create an electronic checklist of tasks to be completed within the first few days and make it available from the intranet

 

Content on the intranet is accurate

1. RSPB - 2.94 
2. Fisher & Paykel Finance - 2.78  
3. Sulzer Chemtech - 2.77  

Tips:

• Use automated reminders to ensure content authors acknowledge that their content is still relevant
• Conduct regular content audits - review usage reports
• Provide a feedback mechanism for staff to report out-of-date content
• Ensure collaborative and 'work-in-progress' type content is clearly separated from the 'official' quality intranet content. Use the analogy of the factory and a retail outlet to explain these different content types

 

I can see what's new or what's changed on the intranet

1. WWF-UK - 2.70 
2. Fisher & Paykel Finance - 2.67  
3. nSynergy - 2.56  

Tips:

• Provide weekly email updates about what's new or updated on the intranet - do not send more than one a week as staff will get sick of them
• Provide a dedicated page on the intranet where staff can see not only what items have been added or changed but also a brief description of the change

 

The intranet is always available (the following questions are out of 2)

1. National Audit Office - 1.93  
2. Atradius - 1.91  
3. Transfield Worley Ltd - 1.90  

Case study: ASHA: Collaborate, Combine, and Manage: Keys to Successful Intranet Adoption

 

Pages on the intranet load quickly

1. Yorkshire Water - 1.80  
2. National Audit Office - 1.75  
3. St Barbara - 1.75  

Case Study: Ros Business Consulting: End users and experts agree on what makes a good intranet

Tips:

• Buy the IT team a cappuccino every Friday morning
• Buy the best hardware available
• Ensure the intranet has it's own dedicated server

 

I can access the intranet off-site

1. RSPB - 1.82  
2. nSynergy - 1.80  
3. University of Manchester - 1.77  

Tips:

• Organisational culture needs to support flexible working and have trust in staff - more important than the technology

 

Access the intranet using a mobile device

1. Domino's Pizza - 1.32  
2. University of Manchester - 1.22  
3. RSPB - 1.14  

Tips:

• Implement just a few simple mobile intranet applications - don't expect staff to troll through 1000's of intranet pages on their mobile phone

 

Overall value (out of 4)

1. Medibank - Hotwire - 3.32  
2. Medibank - Client Pages - 3.21 
3. WWF-UK - 3.17  

Tips:

• Focus on helping staff complete business tasks more effectively
• Engage and interact with staff through discussion forums, activity streams and other interactive methods
• Have solid intranet governance processes in place that are embedded in the organisational roles and responsibilities
• Have visible support from senior management and the CEO

 

* What is the Worldwide Intranet Challenge?

The WIC is a free online benchmarking service that enables organisations to obtain feedback from their employees about what they think of their intranet. This feedback can then be compared with other participating organisations to identify those intranets that rate the highest in various topics. Read the FAQ page for more information.

So far in total over 32,000 intranet end users from 123 organisations in 22 different countries have completed the survey.

 

Register now to benchmark your intranet from an end user perspective

If you are interested in finding out exactly how your intranet compares with over 120 other organisations, why not participate in the WIC? The WIC is a free online benchmark survey that asks your end users what they think about your intranet and then allows you to benchmark this information against other participating organisations. So why not register for the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC).

 

 

Are you interested in becoming part of a worldwide network of independent intranet consultants?

       

by Andrew Wright

Are you interested in joining a global group of independent intranet consultants? Then why not think about becoming a Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) partner. 

The WIC partnership consists of a group of like minded people from around the world who work together on an informal & casual basis to support organisations interested in benchmarking and improving their intranets.

 

What is the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC)?

• The WIC is a free web based survey that enables organisations to obtain feedback about their intranet from end users and compare this feedback with other organisations 
• Is available in 13 languages 
• Has been completed by over 32,000 people from 120 organisations
• There is also a Worldwide Intranet Challenge linkedIn group that has over 11,500 members

What is involved in being a partner?

• Meeting with organisations who have participated in the WIC to obtain feedback about how it can be improved
• Writing case studies of organisations who have rated well in one or more of the survey questions
• Providing question & answer support for organisations participating in the WIC 
• Helping organise events similar to this WIC event in Melbourne 
• Supporting the WIC network in general by promoting articles & events through various social media spaces like LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook 
• Presenting WIC related research at events and conferences 
• Encouraging organisations to participate in the WIC

 

What qualities should a partner have?

• You believe that intranets can add real value to organisations 
• You believe that many of today's intranets have room for improvement
• You may write a blog - not necessarily about intranets - but possibly a related topic such as communication, SharePoint or other intranet related technology 
• You may run your own consulting practice or be part of a small consulting team that helps organisations build better intranets 
• You may already have a network of contacts who could benefit from benchmarking and improving their intranet

 

Rewards?

• You will be part of a group of like-minded people who are interested in improving intranets
• You will get to meet organisations who are interested in improving their intranets
• You will have access to the latest end user intranet research data
• You will get your picture and profile added to the About us page!

 

Are there any costs?

• No. Just the time and energy you decide to put into it.

 

Partner locations

In particular, partners are needed for the following locations (only one per location):

• Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal
• Europe: Ireland, Spain, Turkey, Portugal
• South America:  Argentina, Brazil, Chile
• Asia: Singapore, China, Japan
• Middle East/Africa: United Arab Emirates, South Africa
• USA: New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Atlanta, Denver

 

Interested?

• If you are interested in becoming a partner or would like more information, please contact me at:
  • Email: awright@cibasolutions.com.au
  • Skype: awright.ciba.solutions

 

 

100th organisation completes the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC)

       

The Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) is pleased to announce that New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade today became the 100th organisation to complete the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) web based intranet benchmark.

They join other organisations such as AkzoNobel, ArcelorMittal, CVS Caremark, Ernst & Young, Domino's Pizza, and Deloittes who have benefited from being able to obtain feedback from their own intranet end users and then compare this with feedback from other organisations.

The WIC is a free service that allows organisations to quickly obtain feedback from their employees about what they think of their company intranet. This feedback can then be compared anonymously with other organisations who have completed the WIC. 

Organisations participate in the WIC for different reasons such as:

• Obtaining evidence for a business case to obtain funding to improve the intranet
• Determining the impact of an intranet redesign by measuring before and after
• Learning tips and tricks from other organisations
• Prioritising intranet improvement activities
• Providing measurable goals for the intranet team

Comments from past participants include:

The Worldwide Intranet Challenge was the perfect way for us to conduct our portal survey at ADP.
- Bennett Cooperman, Director, HR/Internal Communications at ADP

I found the report very helpful in securing funding to replace the current intranet, and in the engagement with our users via the survey comments.
- John Bazley, Assistive Technology Tutor at Assistive Solutions

Andrew and his team have produced an invaluable survey that has proved to be a most useful for justification and prioritization of Intranet project mandates. Invaluable, efficient, independent and at no cost... Thank you very much indeed.
- Dominic James Chiappe, Management Consultant at Lloyds register

I found WIC to be a great tool for understanding my internal users perceptions of the intranet. Being able to compare my results with other organizations was valuable to me.
- Ed Dale, Search Program Manager at Ernst & Young

Read more testimonials.

 

The WIC is available in 11 languages. Organisations of any size and from any location are welcome to register and participate in the WIC. It's a simple process to register and you could have a benchmark report on your desk within 2 weeks. 

See the Frequently Asked Questions page for more information about the 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.

Do smaller organisations really have better intranets?

Jakob Nielsen makes the claim in his 10 Best Intranets of 2012 article that 'Smaller Companies Still Have Better Intranets'. He says 'Smaller organizations are designing better intranets this year, and have been for the past 3 years. Of this year's 10 winning intranets, 6 support fewer than 15,000 employees' (4 with 11,000 or less).

Research from the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) indicates that this may not be the case.

Sharon O'Dea in her excellent article, Are these really the 10 best intranets of 2012? makes the point that this is an area for further study and would be interested to compare the findings of the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC). Taking Sharon's advice, I decided to analyse the feedback, by organisational size, of the 87 organisations that have participated in the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) to date. 

The WIC is a free online intranet benchmarking service completed by actual intranet end users. End users answer a number of generic questions about their intranet such as ease of finding information and the value of the intranet. Based on this feedback, it is possible to compare intranets and identify those which are successful in the areas identifed by the WIC. Over 25,000 people have completed the WIC survey (note: anyone can register for the WIC).

The size and number of the 87 organisations that have participated to-date is as follows:

• 0 - 1000 employees (35 organisations)
• 1001 - 10,000 (36)
• 10,001 - 50,000 (11)
• Over 50,000 (5)

 

Intranet end user satisfaction graphs, based on size of organisation

The following graphs show what intranet end users think about their intranets in a range of areas:

The above graph provides the average response to the following 3 questions, grouped by organisational size:

• Q1. I like the intranet homepage
• Q2. Information is easy to read
• Q3. Consistency of pages

The above graph indicates larger organisations have higher levels of satisfaction with the home page, ease of reading information and the consistency of page layouts. This could be explained by larger organisations having a greater number of content developers and therefore a greater need for standards and governance. Smaller organisations on the other hand may not see the need for the same level of detail.

 

The above graph provides the average response to the following 3 questions:

• Q1.I can find the information I need on the intranet
• Q2.The intranet menus help me find the information I need
• Q3.The intranet search helps me find the information I need

Again this graph indicates the larger organisations are having more success in this area, although the 0 - 1,000 group of organisations ranks second. Also interesting to note that intranet menus are a more effective way of finding information than seach. This is true for organisations of all sizes.

 

The above graph provides the average response to the following 3 questions:

• Q1.Staff details (eg. phone, title, etc)
• Q2.News about our organisation/industry
• Q3.Information about our products/services

Content quality appears to be even across the board, with the exception of product/service information. Again this appears to be more effective for larger organisations.

 

The above graph provides the average response to the following 3 questions:

• Q1.Complete online forms
• Q2.Publish content
• Q3.Find instructions for completing work tasks

Smaller organisations fair well in terms or enabling more of their staff to publish content. Organisations with 10-50K staff appear to be most effective at providing online forms and instructions for completing work tasks. This may be due to smaller organisations having fewer number of people completing tasks. For example, if only a handful of people are responsible for invoicing customers, it may not be worthwhile to automate or document this activity.

 

The above graph provides the average response to the following 3 questions:

• Q1.Content on the intranet is up-to-date
• Q2.I receive alerts, emails or RSS feeds when content on the intranet changes
• Q3.I have received training on using the intranet

Surprisingly, given that you would expect more content to exist, larger organisations appear to be better at maintaining content on the intranet and letting staff know about changes.

 

The above graph provides the average response to the following 3 questions:

• Q1.Pages on the intranet load quickly
• Q2.I can access the intranet off-site.
• Q3.I can access the intranet using a mobile device.

Performance of the intranet appears to be even across the board, with the exception of off-site access. This is more effective as organisations become larger. This would make sense, as larger organisations are perhaps more likely to have a geographically diverse workforce requiring intranet access from off-site and various office locations

 

The above graph provides the average response to the following question:

• Q1.Overall value of the intranet

Clearly employees from organisations with 10-50K people feel that their intranets add more value than intranets of other organisations. Based on the response to this question, it would seem smaller organisations do not necessarily provide better intranets after all. 

 

Conclusion

Based on the above data, it is difficult to draw any strong conclusions about the impact of organisational size on an intranet's effectiveness. It's possible to make a case either way as to why the size of an organisations may have a positive or negative impact on the intranet.

For example, Neilsen says a possible reason for smaller organisations succeeding with intranets is that "Technology offerings might contribute to the success of our current, smaller winners: as a very long-term trend, it's getting easier to implement designs with good usability, bringing quality user experience within the reach of ever-smaller companies."

However, you could just as easily argue that larger organisations should have better intranets because they have greater resources and a more urgent requirement to deliver an effective intranet. They have more employees depending on the intranet and greater economies of scale to be obtained. 

 

Whether the size of an organisation increases the chances of providing a more effective intranet or not is beside the point to some extent. There are other more important factors to consider ahead of organisational size, when deciding what contributes to a successful intranet. These include:

• Level of executive buy-in and support - is there an executive sponsor that can see the value of an effective intranet?
• Budget and resources - how many staff support the intranet?
• Quality of intranet team - are they passionate and skilled? Can they get the buy-in and support needed, at both the end user and senior management levels?
• Change management, communication and training - are staff aware of how to use the intranet? what functionality is available? what content is available?
• Organisational culture - is it receptive to technology, online communication and sharing of information?
• Employee engagement - are employees committed to the organisation? Are they likely to embrace the intranet?
• Technology - is the intranet platform easy to use? Does it support the organisation's needs?
• Vision - does the intranet support the organisation's vision?
• Industry - some industries will be embrace the intranet and technology more than others (a topic for another article I think)
• Intranet governance - is it in place? do people support the governance model?