Intranet Blog :: Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure

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Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure

by Toby Ward on Mon 29 Jun 2009 10:41 PM PDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos

An organization without a 2.0 strategy risks being left behind, or outright failure (though death may be slow). Employees want to work for progressive and innovative organizations, and expect 2.0 environments from employers of choice.

561 organizations of all sizes from across the planet participated in the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey and the results reveal rapid adoption of social media on the corporate intranet in the past year.

Once a nice-to-have or a future wish, Intranet 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis and other vehicles have become mainstream, and are present in nearly 50% of organizations (regardless of size) in the Western World.

Intranet blogs, wikis and discussion forums are quite pervasive, while other less common tools such as podcasts and mashups remain an after-thought at most organizations:

47% have intranet wikis (17% enterprise deployment); 10% have no plans or interest
45% have intranet blogs (13% enterprise deployment); 11% have no plans or interest
46% have intranet discussion forums (19% enterprise use); 9% have no plans or interest
46% have intranet instant messaging (29% enterprise use); 21% have no plans or interest
19% have intranet social networking (6% enterprise use); 20% have no plans or interest

Microsoft dominance

Microsoft is leading the 2.0 charge and dominating all competition. For those organizations that have deployed 2.0 tools inside the firewall, about half of all organizations have SharePoint (in some shape or form):

48% of organizations use SharePoint
20% of organizations use Facebook,17% of organizations use MediaWiki,16% of organizations use WordPress

Cost of Intranet 2.0

Intranet 2.0 is cheap. Of those organizations that have implemented 2.0 tools, almost half have spent $10,000 or less on these tools:

46% have spent $10,000 or less
35% have spent between $10,000 and $100,000,19% have spent $100,000 or more

Poor execution

Sadly though, despite the low cost of entry and ease of technology, satisfaction levels with Intranet 2.0 tools are dangerously low:

Only 29% of organizations rate the tool functionality as good or very good; 24% rate them as poor or very poor
Satisfaction rates with executives is dangerously low: only 23% of executives rate the 2.0 tools as good or very good; 38% rate them as poor or very poor

To download a free, summarized version of the report please visit:

http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/download-summary-report-of-intranet-2-0-global-survey

To purchase the full, 44-page report of analysis & recommendations please visit: http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/purchase-intranet-2-0-global-survey-report

-- 30 --

For more information please contact:

Toby Ward, CEO

Prescient Digital Media

416.926.8800

toby@prescientdigital.com

About the Intranet 2.0 Survey

561 organizations took the survey:

36% come from the U.S; 24% from Europe; 11% from Canada; 11% from Australia / New Zealand; 10% from UK
61% have more than 1,000 employees; 32% have 6,000 or more employees; 39% have less than 1000 employees
53% of organizations have had an intranet for 7 or more years; 17% of organizations have had an intranet for 2 years or less
13% of the organizations are government; 13% from technology; 12% from financial services; 6% from healthcare
The survey was led by Toby Ward, President, Prescient Digital Media

About Prescient Digital Media

Prescient Digital Media is a group of senior intranet and Internet consultants that provide strategic Internet and intranet consulting, planning and communications services to organizations of all sizes. Our clients include: Amgen, Covidien, CBC, CIBC, HSBC, Liberty Mutual, Manulife Financial, Mastercard, Nintendo, Pepsi, RBC Financial Group, TD, and more than 100 others. Prescient’s focus includes the assessment, planning, technology selection, content and launch of intranets, websites, and web-based tools. For more information please contact Prescient Digital Media through the website at www.PrescientDigital.com or phone 416.926.8800.

Additional reading

Intranet articles & case studies – www.IntanetBlog.com

Join the Intranet Global Forum on Facebook – www.Facebook.com/group.php?gid=2723005032

View our presentations on intranets on our SlideShare channel – www.slideshare.net/prescient

Watch Toby discussing the future of intranets – www.YouTube.com/watch?v=kaTMOTpRVQk

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Keywords: wiki, Ward, intranet

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Comments

Re: Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure

by Mac on Tue 30 Jun 2009 05:47 PM PDT | Permanent Link

Very interesting statistics. Why do you think executives are so negative about the 2.0 tools?

They may think they are time wasters but they would probably be the ones to benefit most from connecting with their employees

Re: Re: Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure

by Anonymous on Thu 02 Jul 2009 09:02 AM PDT | Permanent Link

Why is Intranet 2.0 so important or even why are Intranets so important to organisations and companies?

I expect on 99% of Intranets the most popular 3 areas if you asked employees are:-

1.) Employee Search / Directory
2.) Internal Job Vacancies
3.) Employee Classifieds

How would you sell an Intranet and the new Intranet 2.0 to the CEO or board?
What can it bring to the company?
Will an Intranet save us money and how?
Will our employees waste time on the Intranet instead of doing their day jobs?

Re: Re: Re: Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure

by Toby Ward on Thu 02 Jul 2009 11:00 AM PDT | Profile | Permanent Link

Why is it so important? If you're not innovating, you're dying. Death may be slow, and take a few years, but it will come. Most of the S&P; 500 in 1970 don't exist anymore (they're assets & intellectual property gobbled up long ago by another, bigger, faster competitor).

Here are some numbers, not in the study, to consider:

- About 90% of adults under the age of 40 are on Facebook (higher in Canada & Northern Europe, a little lower in the US)
- 39% of employees under the age of 25 would consider leaving their job if their company banned tools such as Facebook

How can a company survive without attracting and keeping the next generation of employees? How can a company ignore the 2.0 revolution -- a revolution that has permanently changed the Internet, which permanently changed business as we know it -- while the competition embraces it?

There's no better way to get an executive's attention by saying "the competition is doing it and if we don't we risk losing out." Point to some of the case study examples I've documented on this site (e.g. Sabre, BT, Placemaking, Janssen-Cilag and others) as proof, and cross-reference those against the adoption rates and findings in the study.

The question is not whether or not an intranet or 2.0 is important to companies, the question is your company part of the revolution or being left behind?

Re: Re: Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure

by Toby Ward on Thu 02 Jul 2009 10:45 AM PDT | Profile | Permanent Link

Employers are necessarily "negative" about 2.0 tools, but many don't understand them and therefore they're not a priority. However, if we line managers, supervisors and directors under them "educate" them on the value, then they'll be better informed and likely will embrace 2.0 because the competition is. There's no better way to get an executive's attention by saying "the competition is doing it and if we don't we risk losing out."

Re: Re: Re: Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure

by Anonymous on Fri 03 Jul 2009 01:24 AM PDT | Permanent Link

Toby

I would say that employers and senior management are negative about Intranets in general whether its 1st generation Intranets or Intranet 2.0

Many give prority to their externals websites and the customers they serve rather than the Intranet and it's employees. It has been said that as an Intranet doesn't deal with the public/customers it should have a lower priority as the website in terms of importance and investment.

You also mention that 39% of employees under 25 would consider leaving their post if Facebook was banned? Why do they need facebook during their working day to help them conduct their job? For example why do accountants in the finance dept or even social workers in the social services dept need to access Facebook, twitter or any other Web 2.0 tool to help them in their job?

Why do they need twitter like tools such as Yammer in the workplace, when they already have email and more importantly the most effective form of two way communication the telephone?

In large companies (5000 employees +) where not all employees are office based, how would an Intranet or Intranet 2.0 be important to them, as they don't have access to a PC everyday. How can an Intranet be key to the companies success?

What is the purpose of an Intranet - a communications tool? or can it offer an organisation more than this. How do you ensure that employees have to visit the Intranet to conduct their daily jobs instead of visiting the Intranet just as an afterthought.

Many Intranets have just become document dumping grounds, where departments have been told to get it on the Intranet with no actual thought or strategy which results in thousands of docs dumped on the Intranet, many out of date and more importantly which nobody (or only a minority) actually reads.

You mention BT and I have read studies posted on BA namely on their self service offerings via their Intranet such as their payslips onlin and these are the killer apps I feel that could enable senior management buy in for Intranet investment. However this brings further problems for self service to work these apps need to be accessed via single sign on.

In my organisation and I am guessing it is the same in 90% of other organisations worldwide, employees have to remember up to 15 passwords for many of the disperate systems that they have to access.

Finally how can you educate senior management etc on value of the Intranet and what risks can we possibly face by not having an effective Intranet and.or using Enterprise 2.0 tools? Where are the actual examples of the cost savings or how it can improve how their employees carry out their daily tasks?

Re: Adopt Intranet 2.0 or risk failure

by inter4522 on Tue 18 Jan 2011 10:32 AM PST | Profile | Permanent Link

They are so right about this. We have to make this right before failure. The changes need to be made for this. Keep up the good work. auto loan

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