Kiwi Intranet shin dig

It's that time of year again and together with BrightStar we've got a great Intranet conference for all those New Zealand Intranet folks, starting next week.

For those of you who may be following the action in the alternate channels I thought I'd post the Agenda and the hash tag for everyone to use Monday and Tuesday next week.

I've had a hell of a couple of weeks so I'm really looking forward to seeing some great presentations, hearing some super questions and learning a lot.

James Robertson of StepTwo designs is giving the key note, so expect to be challenged.


Hash tag for the event #nzIntSum09 - looking forward to your blog and twitter posts

Agenda

9th Annual Strategic Intranet Summit

Day One, Monday, 31 August 2009

9:00am Opening Remarks from the Chair

Dorje McKinnon, Intranet Overseer

SUNGARD SYSTEMS NZ LTD

9:10am Keynote Address: Building Momentum for the Intranet Team

James Robertson, Managing Director

STEP TWO DESIGN PTY LTD

10:00am CASE STUDY: Realising the Vision of the Intranet as the Workplace

Helen Rayner, Information Manager Policy & Strategy

TELECOM NZ LTD

Nadine Burnett, Senior Consultant

THE SYSDOC GROUP

Ruth Miles, Information Manager Intranet Roadmap

TELECOM NZ LTD

10:50am Delegate Insights

10:55am Morning Break and Refreshments

11:20am Web and Enterprise 2.0: Governance Strategies and Techniques

Darren Wood, Senior UI Designer

MARKER STUDIO

12:10pm CASE STUDY: A Business Application with no code - just using SharePoint OOTB

functions to achieve business outcomes

Tracey Lyon, Process Improvement Analyst

KIWIBANK

Chandima Kulathilake, Director, SharePoint Consultant

KNOWLEDGE CUE

1:00pm Lunch

2:00pm Roundtable 1: Improving Working Processes with Web 2.0 Applications

Darren Wood, Senior UI Designer

MARKER STUDIO

Roundtable 2: Gaining Senior Management Buy-in

Dorje McKinnon, Intranet Overseer

SUNGARD SYSTEMS NZ LTD

Roundtable 3: Getting Organisational Value from SharePoint

Steph Beath, Interaction Designer

COMSEN LTD

2:50pm Online Collaboration: Delivering Benefits for Organisations and Participants

Dan Randow, Chief Wrangler

ONLINEGROUPS.NET

3:40pm Delegate Insights

3:45pm Afternoon Break & Refreshments

4:05pm CASE STUDY: Governing in the Context of Organisational Culture

Ellen Fitzsimons, Team Leader, Content and Website

PARLIAMENTARY SERVICES

Tracy Parsons, Resources Manager & Info. Managment Development Manager

PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY

4:55pm Exposing Intranet Insecurities

John McColl, Security Consultant

SECURITY-ASSESSMENT.COM LTD

5:25pm Closing Remarks from the Chair, Followed by Networking Drinks

Dorje McKinnon, Intranet Overseer

SUNGARD SYSTEMS NZ LTD

9th Annual Strategic Intranet Summit

31 August & 1 September 2009

Duxton Hotel, Wellington

Day Two, Tuesday, 1 September 2009

9:00am Opening Remarks from the Chair

Dorje McKinnon, Intranet Overseer

SUNGARD SYSTEMS NZ LTD

9:10am What is Your Intranet Really Worth? How to Demonstrate ROI to Strengthen the

Case for Investment

Hayden Sanders, IT/Marketing & Communications

HEALTH SPONSORSHIP COUNCIL

10:00am CASE STUDY: Vodafone NZ Intranet Recovery Project

Mark Harrison, Intranet Manager, Corporate Comms

VODAFONE NZ LIMITED

10:50am Delegate Insights

10:55am Morning Break and Refreshments

11:15am CASE STUDY: Being Branded: How the Use of Branding and Interface Design Has

Given AMI’s Intranet an Identity without Killing its Usability

Kaye Churches, Content Manager

AMI INSURANCE LTD – HEAD OFFICE

12:05pm CASE STUDY: The Milkyway Story - From Zero to Hero for Fonterra's Global

Employee Intranet

Sandy Cobussen, Project Manager

COBUSSEN & COBUSSEN LTD

12:55pm Lunch

1:45pm Mini Workshop: Turbo Charged Solutions for Resolving Your Issues through Group

Work and Information Sharing

Dorje McKinnon, Intranet Overseer

SUNGARD SYSTEMS NZ LTD

2:40pm Acting as an Effective Conduit between Technical and Non-Technical Teams to

Allow for Greater Intranet Functionality

Vaughan Robertson, Manager - Beca Applied Technologies

BECA

3:30pm Delegate Insights

3:35pm Afternoon Break & Refreshments

3:55pm Open Forum Discussion: Applying the Key Learnings from the Summit to you

situation

Dorje McKinnon, Intranet Overseer

SUNGARD SYSTEMS NZ LTD

James Robertson, Managing Director

STEP T WO DESIGN PTY LTD

Mark Harrison, Intranet Manager, Corporate Comms

VODAFONE NZ LTD

4:40pm Summary Remarks from the Chair and Conclusion of Summit

Global Intranet Strategies Survey

Jane McConnell has asked me to remind you there are only a few days before the 4Th Annual global intranet strategies survey will close, at the end of August.

I’ve worked with Jane on this for a couple of years [Disclosure: I have helped, unpaid, Jane improve the report by being an opinionated fellow from across the sea] and can highly recommend participation. If you fill in the survey you get a free copy of the Trends Report, Jane’s analysis of the data. It is really great material and helps with many aspects related to running an intranet.

How to sign up to participate this year

http://tinyurl.com/lmrsxh

Some preliminary findings:

- The intranet as the single point of entry into the online workplace is beginning, with approximately 15 % of the organizations saying this is already the case.

- Home pages are primarily news-based (60 %) versus navigational or work tool-based.

- Social networking applications (such as Facebook) are still rare, existing in fewer than 15% of the organizations. However, another 20 % are experimenting!

- Internal blogs exist in around 45 % of the organizations.

- Approximately 35% of the organizations attempt to measure the value the intranet brings to the organization, business and staff.


http://www.netjmc.net/

Yammer and puddles

Recently I was asked

" What are the top 10 points you think are important to get across to staff at all levels in an organisation about Yammer? "

My initial reaction was "Tough ask", mainly because I've seen great write ups on what organisations get out of Yammer but very few that talk directly to the user benefits. Many articles give the usual cop out "users can't see the point, until they get it"

I admit I was in that boat when I started using Twitter, a public micro blogging platform. But just like they said "once I used it I got it". What they didn't say was that it took a while and it suits certain people better than others. So as with all things in the social media space, be aware that culture change not the technology may be your biggest challenge.

So what does Yammer, a microblogging platform for organisational use, do for real employees that is compelling enough for them to spend the time to "Get it" ?

First off Yammer is setup to be for anyone who has the same email address as you.
What does that give you ?

It gives you an instant level of trust with the other people also using Yammer from your organisation. Many people won't notice this implicity trust between members of the same organisation, but if you ask about it you'll find it exists. It all has to do with a shared experience all employees have with the organisation.

Trust is important in this system that is why I mention it first.


Yammer benefits you the staff member

1 - Yammer means you are able to benefit anyone in the organisation.
You can either reply to questions asked of all staff, asked of groups you’re a member of, or asked of you. Others may ask you directly, because you've filled out your profile with details meaning other staff are able to find you or because what you say via Yammer is of interest to them.
During performance reviews you can use your Yammer contributions to illustrate the tangible value you're delivering to the organisation.

2 - Yammer means you will have less email to deal with.
Email can go back to being for 1 to 1 interactions or specific requests. No more everyone.xyzproject@mycompany.com emails to deal with. No more CC everyone "just in case". Create a yam, tag it with #xyzproject or post it to the project group on yammer, and everyone who knows the project can find it again.
See Bill Winer's outline of how Yammer like tools help project managers and team leaders specifically.

3 - Yammer increases your productivity.
You check Yammer when it suits you. Yammer doesn't interrupt you.

4 - Yammer helps you find experts.
Unless you know an expert in the field you need you can't find them easily. Yammer gives you a way to find them by searching profiles. You can then see if they're real experts by looking at what they've got to say, what they have Yammed, then you can make your own mind up about the value they deliver.

The Question is at the bottom with replies sequentially up the list [reverse chronological order]

5 - Yammer involves you in the organisation as a whole.
Yammer gives you a window onto the entire organisation and what they're collectively thinking about and working on.

6 - Yammer gets you answers fast.
When finding the answer any other way would take a lot of effort Yammer can get it for you quickly.

Yammer benefits the organisation too

1 - flatter
Yammer gives those who participate the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge of all the other participants.
Yammer gives the organisation the benefits inherent in smarter faster better decisions being made and work being done.

2 - Sharing
Yammer facilitates sharing and thus benefits the organisation.
Great diagram of what sharing leads to.

3 - Serendipity
Yammer provides a way for opportunities within the organisation to be grasped rather than lost.
How serendipity helped elephants

The Question is at the bottom with replies sequentially up the list [reverse chronological order]

4 - Speed
You get responses quicker.
The image at right covers an interaction that would have taken days of effort, or a very lucky break, to resolve prior to Yammer.

5 - Reach
Yammer lets individual staff tap the abilities of ALL the organisation's staff, not just those they know.

6 - Trust
Yammer helps build trust
"Your staff can create value within your business if you let them - or outside of it if you stifle them"

7 - Connectors
Yammer lets organisation see who those staff are that connect the organisation. Meaning organisational value of those staff that connect the organisation can be recognised.

Some other benefits of Yammer

• Yammer helps staff get to know and help other staff across business units / segments / timezones and continents.
• Yammer helps staff to brainstorm and get immediate responses.
• Yammer helps to leverage the creativity of it's staff, as Delloitte have done for advertising tag lines
• Yammer helps to fill the communication gaps between meetings and email, especially useful for staff in multi location/timezone teams

Yammer is to organisations what rain is to puddles.
With rain puddles form and then overflow into each other creating a stream.
With Yammer the human networks and communication channels within the organisation come together so that any individual can add value to the organisation. It is no longer a matter of being on the right committee or the correct email group, or known to the movers and shakers.

It isn't all sweetness and light though - as with any tool, social media or otherwise, it is A TOOL. use it for what it is good for within your organisation, don't use it if it doesn't help. My goal with this post was to shed light on where and why it can be useful. Guidelines, ambassadors and examples are also improtant in ensuring your organisation gets the most value from any tool, including Yammer.

What makes microblogging valuable, and compelling, for those within your organisation ?