Intranets

Internal Social Networks are starting to appear inside some organizations. Early adopters are finding positive business results by helping employees connect through “internal Facebooks.” By effectively harnessing these new networks, organizations are seeing positive impacts on internal brand building, as well as employee engagement, satisfaction and motivation — which leads to higher levels of productivity, revenue, and profit.

But the world of the internal social network is the opposite of command & control. That said, reasonable guidelines, a group of informal influencers, and a posse of community managers who help keep the dialog lively and the network on track.

It’s clear that no matter where your company is on the social media ladder, social networks and Web 2.0 skills are becoming a part of today’s work landscape. All businesses need to be aware of how to deploy networks for higher ROI, collaboration, innovation and customer service.

Listen to this webinar replay to learn what works and what doesn’t in this brave new world of internal social networks from companies that are already figuring out the path to success.

What You Will Learn:

• How to avoid pitfalls and leverage opportunities as you venture into the world of building and managing social networks and a Web 2.0 savvy workforce
• How best to overcome cultural barriers and introduce social networks into traditional organizations
• How to handle the sensitives of employee privacy; governing participants’ behavior; and ensuring that participants balance professional and social time.
• How to set up strategic, internal alliances which mitigate concerns of Command & Control leaders and help build positive momentum

Reasons to Learn About Internal Social Networks

• Get more out of your existing resources by finding, unlocking, and engaging hidden employee intellectual capital Reduce company cost, waste, travel expenditures, and carbon footprint
• Establish, grow and maximize a culture savvy with social networks.
• Further your PR and Branding dollars by unleashing the silent experts that exist within your companies today
• Enhance your employees’ motivation and satisfaction in your company as a place to work
• Develop products and offerings faster, without regard to organizational silo or organization
• Build a more sustainable company which should well serve your shareholders for years to come

Lee Aase is manager of Syndications and Social Media for Mayo Clinic. His team’s focus is developing quality medical news resources for mainstream media, and using social media applications to create more in-depth, extended relationships directly with key stakeholders. You can see examples of Mayo Clinic’s social media offerings through the Mayo Clinic News Blog at http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/

By night, Lee is Chancellor of Social Media University, Global (SMUG), a free online higher education institution that provides practical, hands-on training in social media for lifelong learners. Visit SMUG.

Prior to joining Mayo Clinic in 2000, Lee spent more than a decade in political and government communications at the local, state and federal level. He received his B.S. in Political Science from Mankato (Minn.) State University in 1986.

Polly Pearson is VP Employment Brand and Strategy Engagement, EMC Corporation.

Polly Pearson is an employment branding leader passionate about Web 2.0 engagement tools with nearly twenty years of FORTUNE 500-level experience spanning marketing, human resources, branding, investor relations, public relations, advertising, and professional speaking.

Her employment branding work has recently been featured in media outlets such as CBS News, National Public Radio, Financial Times, Boston Herald, Dice.com and in the new Penguin Press business book, “Closing the Engagement Gap; How Great Companies Unlock Employee Potential For Superior Results.”

Her leadership in Investor Relations contributed to EMC being the NYSE Stock of the Decade for the 1990s, when it outperformed all other listed stock and increased in value nearly 90,000 percent.  Polly was the first woman at EMC to be promoted to Vice President. Polly writes a popular blog dedicated to careers, culture and cool.

Paul Pedrazzi heads a small team of professionals (AppsLab) focused on emerging technology and novel business practices. Most recently, his interest has been on Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and the transformation of the enterprise in light of these new modes of operation. Additionally, Mr. Pedrazzi spearheaded the creation of Oracle’s first two social network projects; Connect for internal users and Mix for customers, partners and media. Before heading AppsLab he ran product strategy for PeopleSoft’s Portal Product Suite, catapulting the flagship product into the leadership position in Gartner’s annual product evaluation. Prior to PeopleSoft, Mr. Pedrazzi held various other product strategy, marketing and consulting roles in organizations such as Deloitte & Touche LLP and Groundswell, Inc. Mr. Pedrazzi holds a BS in Managerial Economics from the University of California at Davis.

Who Should Purchase:

• Individuals responsible for employee communications, public relations, IT, corporate affairs, human resources, media relations, and issues management.

“The two case studies were excellent. Polly was a wonderful presenter; Paul was good too.”

“We’re in the process of developing a number of employee engagement communities so very timely.”

Times have changed. In today’s world, communication moves at the speed of light. People want information, and they want it now. On top of that, they want it in more creative formats than before, thanks to the social media tools taking the world by storm. And your employees are no different.

In this webinar, you will hear from two internationally recognized companies – Monsanto and Sprint – that have taken major steps recently to meet employee expectations with major initiatives to improve their employee communication strategies, tactics and tools.

Katie Sauer from Monsanto will talk about the evolution during the past two years since they launched a complete overhaul of the company’s employee communications. Specifically, she will describe Monsanto’s online news publication and why it is now regarded as a best practice in the profession.

She will explore a number of provocative questions.

• Are your employee news publication and intranet meeting their needs?
• Are you giving them honest facts or corporate-speak?
• Are you sending them weekly or monthly publications, or are you giving them up-to-the minute information?
• Are you communicating things your way or their way?

Jennifer Sniderman from Sprint will talk about how the company decided to seize unprecedented opportunity to build on their efforts to revolutionize the customer experience and use the same approach to facilitate conversations among employees and help surface the “why” behind key decisions. By blurring the lines between Sprint Space (internal social media platform) and i-Connect (the company-wide intranet) Sprint continues to drive authenticity and engage key employee influencers.

In this presentation you will learn how Sprint’s News 2.0 strategy is:

• Activating our brand from the inside out, by making employees active participants in revolutionizing the customer experience; tapping collective wisdom, acting on what we learn
• Spreading optimism at new speeds
• Driving confidence in leadership at all levels
• Decreasing communications clutter and reaching employees in ways they’ve embraced outside of work

Both of these remarkable case studies underscore the need for a plan that allows you to communicate with your employees—and vice versa—in the honest, simple and fast way they expect. At this webinar, you will learn how to create an online communication mechanism that will become an integral part or your employees’ lives.

What You Will Learn:

• How to write and produce stuff your employees will want to read—and trust
• How to integrate social media tools into your employee communication strategy
• How to get legal and management backing you
• How to use your intranet publication to change your company’s culture

Presented by:

Katie Sauer is a communications manager for Monsanto, where she is responsible for writing content for both the company’s employee news site and corporate Web site. She has worked for Monsanto since earning her bachelor’s in communication from Truman State University in Missouri. She worked in sales and marketing for Monsanto before moving to public affairs in 2006.

Jennifer Sniderman oversees employee communications channels and editorial including Sprint’s corporate Intranet and Sprint’s social media platform. She is responsible for developing the news strategy and messaging architecture for enterprise employee communications.Jennifer leads the team responsible for Sprint’s IABC Gold Quill award-winning leadership communications program and is the managing editor of i-Lead, Sprint’s bi-weekly online newsletter. Jennifer is also the executive producer/writer of a recurring talk-show broadcast to the desktop of Sprint managers nationwide. In her role at Sprint, Jennifer has developed numerous multimedia campaigns and interactive communications solutions. She is currently working on Sprint’s social media strategy for employee communications and enhancements to Sprint’s integrated online leadership community.

 Les Landes is President of Landes & Associates.  His firm provides services in the areas of planning, marketing, public relations, organizational communications, team development, and quality improvement systems.  Prior to starting his own firm, Les worked with Pet Incorporated where he served for 10 years as the company’s Director of Communications with responsibilities for corporate advertising, employee communication, public and media relations, consumer affairs, and creative services.  He also played a major role in developing and implementing Pet’s quality management system.

“This is exactly the kind of specific, here’s how we did it, replicable information (that is often difficult to find) that we were looking for. Really great stuff. We got a lot of ideas and also confirmed that in many ways, we are on the right track as well.”

“Real-life examples of the inner workings of two companies’ intranets. Informative speakers. Good tips.”

Bottom line, intranets are simply business tools, and that means they must pay their way. It also means intranet managers must be on a perpetual quest to find ways to justify the investment in the intranet and prove its value. So how do you know your intranet is any good? What is the latest thinking on intranet measurement? In this webinar, one of the world’s most experienced intranet experts describes 15 simple yet solid ways you and your team can measure your intranets impact. Using these techniques will help you better able to justify new investments to your senior management. Attend with your governance team so that everyone is on the same page. This seminar is based on a chapter of Martin’s forthcoming book,  The Intranet Governance Handbook, which is due out at the end of the year.

Learning Topics:

• How to make sense of web logs and avoid some pitfalls in analyzing them
• How to use search statistics to make better decisions about resources and usability
• How to ask survey questions about your intranet that will give you valuable information
• How to add feedback forms that provide continuous ideas for improvement

Martin White     is Managing Director of Intranet Focus Ltd. and consults on the design and management of intranets, the development of enterprise information management strategies, and the implementation of content management and enterprise search software. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield since 2002 and is also a member of the Publications Board of the Royal Society of Chemistry.  Martin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and is currently Chairman of the UK Electronic Information Group. Martin is the author of the Eureka column on enterprise search issues for EContent magazine, for which he is a Contributing Editor. He was Chairman of the Online Information Conference from 1999-2006 and is the author of The Content Management Handbook and Making Search Work, both published by Facet Publishing, and (with Stephen Arnold) Successful Enterprise Search Management published by Galatea. His new book, The Intranet Governance Handbook, will be published by Facet at the end of the year. His consulting career spans 30 countries and a temperature range from -15C to 42C (5F to 107F).

“Great use of my time since the presenter answered a lot of my questions and gave me new thought starters for my team.”

Intranets used to be about three things: storing and sharing files, self-service forms and processes and communicating company news.

Today they’re still about those things, but much more … like connection, collaboration and interactive communication. No longer the silent majority, employees are using internal social media tools to easily connect, share ideas, debate, complain, advise and work together like never before. The original promise of intranets is beginning to be realized, but the perils are also real and threatening. The trick is to let the inmates run the asylum, but keep the conversations responsible and focused on the mission and strategic direction.

No matter where you are on the social intranet continuum, you’ll benefit from spending an hour with William Amurgis. You’ll learn how to manage the new social intranet that is nothing like your father’s intranet.

What You Will Learn:

• The big promise and serious pitfalls of socializing your intranet
• Simple, zero-budget steps to a more social intranet
• Simple and fun ways to lead your organization to be more open to social
• How to respond to misbehavior and misuse of time
• Should you buy or build your internal social media platform
• How to state the business case for social

Presented by:

William Amurgis is former director of internal communications at American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio. The company’s intranet was recognized as one of the 10 best in the world by the Nielsen Norman Group in 2007, and its Ideas system received an Intranet Innovation Award in 2009. Amurgis has a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics, and a Master of Arts degree in Education, both from Ohio State University.

Niki Burke is a business consultant supporting the internal social network and collaboration tools at Nationwide Insurance. Niki also produces an internal radio show to teach users how to use Nationwide’s collaboration tools. She earned a degree in social computing infomatics from the University of Michigan and has been with Nationwide about two years.

Case Study: Version 2 Of Deloitte’s Intranet Collaboration And Knowledge Sharing

Deloitte, one of the largest professional services firms in the world, rolled out its internal portal, version 2.0, in December 2009. One of the largest NewsGator social media implementations in the marketplace, this session will showcase some of their results to help employees be more productive and collaborative through the portal.   

Presented by:

Arun Prasad is one of Deloitte’s leaders in Portal Solutions and has worked with a number of Fortune 100 and public organizations design, implement and evolve their web solutions.  In his role he works with clients in a number of industries, builds marketplace points of view and methodologies for how best to implement and manage the expanding realm of web technologies.His recent work includes:

• • Developing a Web 2.0 intranet strategy for a global software solutions vendor.  This strategy includes the deployment and integration of collaboration tools and social media on a global scale.
  • Implementing a portal platform for an insurance organization that supports employees and third-party sales resources effectively.
  • Assessing the intranet needs of a financial services organization through multiple mergers and acquisitions.

  Before joining Deloitte, Arun was co-founder of Castle Point Systems, a firm focused on web solutions consulting that built pioneering internet solutions using web technologies.

Noreen Cohen-White is a Director in the Information Technology Services organization at Deloitte. She has held various leadership roles during her 14 year tenure with the US Firms and has solid experience in managing large, complex system implementation projects and enterprise application management. In her current role, she has responsibility for a broad portfolio of enterprise applications that support the US Communications, Knowledge Mgmt, Clients and Markets and Practice Protection operations for the US Firms.Noreen Cohen-White, Deloitte Consulting

Find out how:

• An intranet with engaging storytelling, combined with collaborative work tools, can strengthen internal communications.
• Involving employees throughout the relaunch process can help focus and expedite the roll-out plan.
• Employee-generated content can drive more traffic to a site and increase workforce engagement.
• Online video, podcasts and blogging can jump start business conversations between senior executives and employees.

Presenters:

Alex Cortes is Senior Manager, Internal Communications at ESPN. He has been part of the ESPN Corporate Communications department since June 2000.  In that time he’s worked in a variety of external PR roles, including viewer response & consumer relations, TV listings and network publicity, and content management of ESPN’s media website.  In July 2008 Alex assumed his current position focused on internal communications.

In his current role Alex works on various projects designed to promote and enhance the use of ESPN’s internal communication platforms (intranet, in-house TV network, campus radio, digital lobby displays, etc.), to strengthen collaboration and awareness across the organization.  As senior manager, internal communications, he ensures that information reaches employees through a variety of sources and technology to serve the needs of the ESPN community.

Alex was graduated from Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) with a degree in Business Management & Organizational Behavior.  He currently resides in Southington, CT.

Abbie Bridges has been with the Walt Disney Company since August 2005. Prior to joining ESPN, she held a variety of internal communications positions supporting Walt Disney Parks & Resorts including, internal communications associate for Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Animal Programs and administrator of safety & healthy training and education.

At ESPN, Abbie helps lead the company’s internal communication platforms including, intranet, in-house TV network, campus radio and digital display boards.

Abbie is a graduate of the University of Georgia and holds degrees in Advertising and Sociology.

CASE STUDY: USING INNOVATION TO BUILD A SOCIAL INTRANET 

Intel has been dabbling internally with web 2.0 since 2004. Last year was spent deploying the first phases of a multi-phased approach to take the momentum and learning from the grass root efforts, and drive a globally deployed framework for social computing inside Intel.  It is no small task, says Laurie Buczek, who is leading the team leveraging social media.  “Not only do we have to evaluate and deploy solutions, but we also have to address Governance, Security Concerns, provide quantifiable ROI, capture use cases, and tackle transition change management one person and one team at a time.”  This session will be a show and tell of an intranet that is making the transition from old-style to social, with lessons learned along the way. 

Presented by:

Laurie Buczek is a Social Media Strategist within Intel Corporation’s Digital Marketing organization.  Prior to joining Digital Marketing, Laurie spent over two years as the Social Computing Program Manager where she was responsible for the major enterprise wide strategy & implementation of social computing for employees to connect & collaborate internally. Laurie began her social media journey three years ago while blazing a new trail for online marketing efforts by helping to launch & manage the first external social media community for Intel.  Laurie’s work has been published and showcased across the industry.  She is also a member of the 2.0 Adoption Council and Social Media Business Council. In addition to the experience within the social media space, Laurie has almost 18 years in high technology working in marketing, consulting and sales. In her life before Intel, Laurie worked for Forrester Research and Gateway, Inc.

Communitelligence has a special affection for IBM’s world-renowned intranet, w3. We produced two Intranet Insider World Tours of w3 in 2006 and 2008 (still available). And so it was high time to revisit this amazing intranet that in 2011 received 252 million visits and 978 million views by roughly .5 million IBMers. And oh, how they use it, with 75,000 communities, 53,000 wikis and 21,000 blogs. 

IBM’s w3 is now“social” on steriods. The long list of social tools now powering employee engagement, collaboration and innovation include:

• IBM Connections: Social software for business that includes blogs, wikis,
  profiles, communities, bookmarks, files, and activity management
  capabilities
• SocialBlue, a purely social internal network
• Blue Pages, IBM’s employee directory with rich profiles
• BlogCentral, employee blogs
• Bluepedia, an online wiki that serves as a user-driven encyclopedia about IBM
• Jams, a platform for huge, tactically-focused online discussions
• TAP, a space for employees to test, share and promote innovative technologies
• The On Demand Community, a collaborative community based on IBM’s corporate citizenship program
• Expertise Locator, a service enabling real-time, contextual connection between IBMers. 

But even more remarkable than the social business tools themselves is the way w3 has been continuously and organically improved by the good ideas of rank-and-file employees. That takes an open leadership and governance process that earns strong support by senior management.

If you want a glimpse of this amazing digital workplace, with practical takeaways for any intranet team, register for this exclusive, expert-guided tour. And invite your team to join you.

What You Will Learn:

• How and why the w3 intranet content strategy evolved from top down to employee-generated – and the valuable payoffs
• How to use social listening and analytics to drive requirements and enhancements
• How to use a wiki to write your company’s blogging and social media policies
• Why a culture of trust is crucial to a social intranet – and how to nurture it
• How to make sure top management “walks the talk” and models good digital workplace practices
• How to create a social business certification program for employees

Presented by:

Kieran Cannistra, Digital Content Strategist at IBM

Kieran coordinates publication of news content on w3 (IBM’s Intranet home page), drives use of our primary publishing tool for this space (ECM) and drives the overall content strategy for w3. Kieran began her career within IBM as an instructional designer, working within the IBM Knowledge Factory. In 2008, she moved to CHQ and began writing and editing news for the home page, covering the CIO and Innovation & Technology beats. She took over the role of senior digital content strategist for the home page news portlet in 2011, and can honestly say she has the best job on the face of our planet.

Peter J. Ceplenski, Manager, User Experience Design, IBM

Peter manages a multi-disciplinary user experience team tasked with  managing the IBM Digital Design System and intranet and internet web  properties. Peter began his career within IBM as an interaction designer and user research specialist working in a User-Centered Design consulting  practice whose main mission was to support intranet solutions. He  moved into the CIO’s office in 2004 and began managing the intranet user experience team.  In 2011 he took on responsibility for both the intranet  and internet user experience teams and together they redesigned and merged the internet and intranet design systems in support of IBM’s  Centennial.

Who Should Purchase

This practical, information-packed learning opportunity is ideal for managers and professionals in internal communications, IT, HR, PR, content, web management, and anyone responsible for creating an enterprise 2.0 social intranet to encourage employee collaboration and innovation.

This session is based on findings from the 3rd annual Global Intranet Strategies Survey conducted in the second part of 2008 with 226 enterprises around the world. 22% of the participants said the intranet was “the way of working” in their organisations. This doubled from 11% in the previous year.

How are these intranets different in terms of role, strategy, content & services and management?

This session will give you ideas for your own intranet action plans, and facts & figures you can use in your intranet business cases.

What You Will Learn:

• How leading intranets are positioned and perceived within their organisations.
• How governance is defined: strategy documents, steering committees, decision-making.
• Content strategies, collaboration and the integration of social media.
• The future role of “intranet managers” within their organisations.
• The hottest topics and real concerns in 2009
• And much more

Presented by:

Jane McConnell is an intranet and portal strategy specialist. She founded NetStrategy/JMC in 2001 and works primarily with companies and organisations with complex intranets and challenges. McConnell’s expertise is the following areas: positioning and strategy roadmaps for intranets and portals, governance and intranet management issues, customisation strategies as well as how social media concepts applied internally can bring value to organisations. More information about services and references can be found on http://www.netjmc.com.

McConnell initiated the Annual Global Intranet Strategies Survey in 2006, and publishes the annual results each October in the Global Intranet Trends Report. In 2008, 226 organisations around the world participated. She writes the column “International Intranets” for the magazine “Intranets: Enterprise Strategies and Solutions” (Information Today). She is co-author of “L’avantage internet pour l’entreprise”, the first marketing and communication-based internet business book for senior executives in France (Dunod,1996), and contributing author to “L’intranet dans tous ses etats” – (IQ Collectif, 2004).

She publishes regularly on the blog “Globally Local & Locally Global”. She can be found at netjmc on Twitter and started up the Twitter group “Intranetwatch” in 2008. Based in the south of France, McConnell has a working base in Paris and travels to client locations primarily in Europe and North America.

“It was good to hear that independent research confirms the direction we’re taking with our intranet and some of the processes we’ve already put in place.”

Mobile is changing everything, including what employees expect from your intranet and internal communications. As employees increasingly see rapid improvements in their mobile user experiences on the open Internet, they’ll demand it from their organizations as well. Now Google has further emphasized its commitment to ‘Mobile First’ with the acquisition of Motorola Mobility. This could be a major game changer as other companies react to this challenge.

Now is the time to position your organization to take advantage of mobile technologies in 2012 to make better connections with employees working away from their desks for extended periods. Join Martin White, noted intranet and mobile expert, and Terry Pulliam, Director of Communications at Sprint, in this webinar to help communicators, HR and IT professionals start mapping out a sensible mobile strategy. Hear what’s working, how one leading intranet is tackling the challenges of mobile, and what you should be thinking about right now.

What You Will Learn:

• What mobile isn’t (the desktop only smaller)
• Where to start – what do employees really want?
• Making a business case for investing in mobile
• Who should own mobile service development inside the enterprise
• The technology and governance of mobile collaboration
• Why mobile intranet design is only the tip of the iceberg
• The trade-offs between web apps and native apps
• Key considerations when choosing your mobile strategy
• Lessons to be learned from best-practice mobile intranets

Presented by:

Martin White is a leading European authority on intranets, workshop leader, columnist, book author, professor and Managing Director of Intranet Focus Ltd. Over the ten years has undertaken assignments in North America, Europe and the Middle East as well as in the UK. He has extensive business experience in the USA, having first visited in 1975. In the early 1980s he worked for Creative Strategies International, Cupertino, and from 1984 to 1989 he was a senior manager at International Data Corporation, Boston. He has keynoted a number of US conferences, including the Enterprise Search Summit in 2004 and in 2008. He is the author of The Content Management Handbook, Making Search Work, and Successful Enterprise Search Management (with Stephen Arnold).

Terry Pulliam is communications director at Sprint, where she guides the strategic direction of the company intranet and social media sites, employee communications editorial strategy and creative media services.

Terry and her team have received numerous IABC Gold, Silver and Bronze Quill awards, and her work has been recognized in industry forums including “Intranet of the Year” from the International Quality and Productivity Center, and CIO “50/50 Award” for top 50 intranets. She is a past president of the Kansas City chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

Previously, Terry was director of internal communications for Sprint’s wireless division. She has also worked for a national association and advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Missouri – Columbia.

Who Should Attend

• Intranet managers, internal communications, IT, human resources, public relations, corporate affairs, media relations, and issues management.

“Great overview.”

“Provoked thought on avenues and alternatives I hadn’t considered for addressing security concerns.”