Improve your intranet by 10%: how benchmarking can help (latest research)

by Andrew Wright

“You can’t improve what you don’t measure” goes the old saying by I’m not sure who. This is certainly true in the case of the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) free online intranet benchmarking service.

Eleven organisations from the 150 organisations who have participated in the WIC have now completed the WIC survey twice. So what are the results? Have these organisations been able to improve their intranets the second time around?

It seems they have.

Every question in the online survey, on average, received a higher score for the second benchmark. The chart below shows the average score for each survey question - sorted in order of % improvement - for both the first benchmark and the second benchmark. Some interesting things to note:

• The average response for each question has improved by about 10% the second time around. Meaning that it would be reasonable to say that these intranets overall have improved on average by 10%.
• The average ranking for each question the first time the organisation completed the survey was 87.1 (from 170 surveys). The second time around this ranking improved dramatically to more than 20 places to 65.9 (from 170 surveys)
• The average time between the first and second survey is 539 days (nearly 1.5 years)
• The chart below:
  • Ranks the questions in order from biggest improvement (Collaboration 30.2%) to least improvement (Speed 1.7%)
  • Shows the average score for each question for both the first and second surveys
• Interesting to note that the question "Collaborate with other staff (eg. using online work spaces or team rooms)" has improved the most (30.2%). This perhaps indicates that the 'social intranet' is a priority for improving intranets 
• Also interesting to note that Mobile access has improved by almost 20% - indicating another priority area of improvement (though off-site access improved only 11.1%)
• So does it pay to benchmark? It would seem so. One of the big benefits that organisations mention when they participate in the WIC is that it helps focus the intranet team on measurable objectives. The fact that there are goals that can be measured is enough to focus and inspire teams to work towards these goals
• Interested in participating? Register for the Worldwide Intranet Challenge.