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The work that has gone into intranets so far is much like that which a company puts into a new product before preparing to introduce it to the public. A product is devised based on the assessment of a need. A strategy for the product's configuration, market niche, and other elements is developed based on research. A team is assembled that comprises the various specialists needed to bring the product to fruition: there are designers, engineers, and assemblers.
But even as production ramps up and the first products roll off the line, there is much work to be done. The company cannot simply toss the products onto store shelves and sit back waiting for profits to come flooding in. The product needs to be introduced to the marketplace. Its niche must be established. The need for the product must be explained. Its benefits must be demonstrated. These are the tasks of departments such as Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations.
Introducing an intranet is no different. All the work that has been done preparing the system can be undone if the groundwork is not laid to prepare the audience that will use the system. In order to ensure that employees will understand the system and take their first tentative steps to use it, you will need to avail yourself of the services of several resources, including the departments responsible for:
In this chapter, we will identify the key elements of launching an intranet and the activities you must undertake to ensure the overall success of the launch. These activities will result in an employee population that understands the intranet, how to use it, and how it will improve their ability to do their jobs and succeed in the company.
On the Internet, World Wide Web designers must make trade-offs between the features available to them because of advancements in HTML and browser technology, and the knowledge that there is a lowest common denominator of browsers out there that does not accommodate most of these new features.
Web site administrators have used a variety of techniques to overcome this problem. On many sites, visitors are greeted with the option of taking one path that features pages "enhanced" to accommodate the latest version of Netscape (the browser of choice, according to market-share statistics), and an alternate path that features only text, or limited use of graphics, so that it can be viewed in older browsers, such as the original release of Mosaic, Cello, or Netscape 1.0. (Some of these pages are designed to meet the needs of users who still have "shell" accounts, in which they use a terminal emulation program to dial into a service provider, and search the Web using Lynx, a text-only browser that resides on the server rather than on the client computer.
Other administrators simply include a graphic image of the Netscape logo (and, increasingly, the Microsoft Internet Explorer logo), with some text that indicates the page is best viewed using these browsers; click on the logo and you can immediately download and install the new, up-to-date browser and take advantage of all the graphics and other enhancements the site has to offer.
In many organizations, intranet administrators have the same problem. Some employees who have an inherent interest in the World Wide Web make it a point to install the latest browser. Others have reluctantly installed a browser because they have been instructed to do so, or a technician has made the rounds of all workstations installing a browser. As updates and upgrades have been released, however, these employees have not taken advantage of them, and they retain the original version on their desktops. (If employees are reluctant to update their virus definitions every month, how likely are they to download a multi-megabyte browser file?)
Within the boundaries of an organization, however, you do not have to put up with the inconsistencies of multiple browser standards. You can specify the browser requirement; purchasing a site license for the browser you decide on can ensure that employees use that browser.
Based on the strategy you developed using techniques described earlier in this book, you will find your intranet emerging with a number of features and characteristics. Not all browsers are created equal, though, so you should be sure to take the time to explore what the browsers you are considering using can and cannot do in order to select one for use throughout the organization. After all, it will be far more time-consuming and costly to change to another browser later; similarly, it will not benefit your organization to scale back on the functionality of the intranet simply because you selected a browser that could not accommodate those features. Let's explore just what you want your browser to do:
Your browser needs to accommodate the format that will allow employees to most easily use and navigate the system. For example, do you want to use frames? Tables? These features can make the intranet's Web pages more useful to employees and easier to navigate. More important, tables in particular become necessary when developing complicated forms, such as a benefits enrollment form. Browsers that will not handle tables, then, will not allow you to develop these more complicated functions (or, at least, will challenge you to come up with complicated and less-than-elegant solutions to the problem).
Some browsers will allow for the use of "helper" applications that you can introduce as the system grows and evolves. Will you make use of Real Audio? It can be a very effective way to deliver segments of speeches and meetings to employees who otherwise would not be able to hear them. Java applets? The potential for Java is exciting. At its most basic, if you are considering using the intranet to allow employees to do any kind of calculations, Java allows calculations to happen on the client side, rather than the server side, which makes the process much faster. MPEG video? Given the ability to handle the bandwidth (which may seem unlikely today, but may be far more feasible in five years), you may be able to handle live broadcasts of such events as the shareholder's meeting and the annual sales meeting, as well as allowing employees to play back such events when they have the time. Plug-ins? The development of plug-ins has speeded up considerably over the last several months, providing everything from three-dimensional viewing to server-side spreadsheets to viewers that allow documents in other formats (such as Adobe Acrobat) to appear as part of the browser itself rather than be launched as a helper application.
Granted, some of these features may be a ways off in the future. Be sure to take your system's capabilities into consideration when determining the functionality you plan to add to the intranet right away. It's fine to plan for MPEG video streams, but can you accommodate it now? Real-time video in a 10BASET is like trying to force an elephant through a straw: Even if it made it in, nothing else could get through until it was out. You need to consider these factors before rushing out to incorporate whiz-bang components to the intranet, and raising the expectations of the employees in the audience.
Nevertheless, you are making the investment in a browser-and possibly a site license-now. Will you choose a browser that can accommodate these features, even if it's a ways down the road? It will depend on your plans for the intranet-and your foresight!
Along the same lines, you should consider whether the license you buy will entitle you to upgrades of the product. Getting routine upgrades will be much more effective-and less costly-than buying a new version of the product each time it is upgraded.
The time will come during the life of your intranet when you will run into a stumbling block and need to contact the browser company for help. These situations can range from the ability to put certain types of code in certain places (I ran into this a couple years back when I needed to put a form inside the cell of a table) to printer incompatibility issues. To get the help you need, you will need to have obtained a browser from a company that provides technical support. Make sure you read the terms of the support. If free support is only for a limited period, find out how much ongoing support licenses cost and add them to your budget.
Some browsers can only parse HTML. If you plan to incorporate gopher, FTP, newsgroups, or other functionality into your intranet, it is important that employees be able to access the information provided by those servers via the Web browser. Remember, the Web is the glue that holds the rest of the intranet together; it is the common interface for all intranet activity. To do so, you will need a browser that has the ability to recognize these servers built in. (Most of the current crop of browsers do.) Even if you are certain you will not use any of these, you still need to consider the integration of e-mail into the browser.
No matter what you do, you will find employees who will use something other than the browser you specify. Here are some solutions for dealing with these situations:
Some employees will be intimidated by the process of upgrading software or downloading a file. To prevent this from happening in the first place, make sure employees know there is some place they can call for help. Often, just having someone to talk them through the process-even over the phone-can put these employees at ease. In a worst-case scenario, allow the employee to schedule a visit with someone who can handle it for them-and train them for future downloads and/or upgrades while they're at it.
Employees are very busy these days, and it takes time to download and upgrade software. If your organization does not employ people to handle upgrades on behalf of non-technical employees, it is likely that, despite an effort to inform employees that a new update is available, many employees will simply not do it-they won't have the time. These employees will call the Help Desk, though, when they encounter a problem (based on a feature that was built because the browser update could handle it). At that point, a gentle reminder that the update will solve the problem can be enough to get these employees off the dime and motivate them to take the time to go through the update process. Those who have difficulties can take advantage of Help Desk assistance, or schedule a visit from the systems group.
Making updates and upgrades available from a site on the intranet- and announcing them on the intranet home page when they become available-can entice a greater number of employees to download and install the new version.
There are, of course, employees who think they have a better product than the one you use. (Hey, I did this myself, loading my own copy of Windows 95 on a computer at work when the company specifically said it was holding off for evaluation; I simply said I was part of the evaluation process.) Often, people simply prefer to work with software with which they are already comfortable. You need to be careful of this on a number of counts, not the least of which is the terms of the license. You also should be concerned about unauthorized software from unknown sources (and the potential for viruses).
Still, you can't exactly stop it from happening. Better to make sure every employee understands why the browser was selected and what the policy is for using applications from sources other than the company itself. A well-informed work force is less likely to break the rules than one that thinks there are no rules!
When employees using these unauthorized browsers call with problems, you might well be able to point out that the problem is associated with the browser they're using. "That's why we selected the browser we did," you can say; "we knew that wouldn't work on the one you brought in from home." On the other hand, you might consider allowing some employees to use a different browser, if for no other reason than to provide you with feedback about its effectiveness.
It is advantageous to set the company home page as the default on employee's systems. The intranet home page as a launching point ensures that the employees see information the company believes is important each time they crank up the computer. Let's consider some of the reasons it makes sense for employees to start at the home page.
An intranet, as I have pointed out several times, is a "pull" communication device. Some information, however, still needs to be "pushed" at employees, particularly if it is important that employees hear about the news from the company before they hear about it from some other source. A recurring spot on the home page for the most important news of the day can make sure employees see the information, and provide them with links to deeper levels of detail. When Silicon Graphics acquired Cray, for example, it was a major headline on their intranet home page. Every employee logging into the intranet saw that the acquisition had been announced, and could get additional details by clicking on the headline.
As new information is added to the intranet, employees need to be aware that the information is available; navigation needs to be provided to the information as well. By ensuring employees see the home page first, they can be alerted to new sources of information and where the links to that information reside.
An intranet can grow to amazing proportions; some existing intranets have tens of thousands of pages. At Silicon Graphics, the bottom of the intranet home page is occupied by a changing horizontal strip ad; each time an employee visits the home page, this ad highlights a different section of the intranet about which the employee may not have known. You could promote the presence of everything from feature articles to collaborative team sites to informative departmental home pages. These strip ads (or whatever approach you take) can link employees directly to the information they reference.
Employees naturally focus on their work. Elements of their jobs that are not directly related to their work often fall by the wayside. Benefits enrollment deadlines are passed; performance evaluations are undone; calls are made to take advantage of special offers when the offer is no longer available. The employee home page can help remind employees of deadlines and other requirements. (You can even take a lesson from the InfoSeek Personal home page at http://personal.infoseek.com that enables individuals to create their own personal version of the home page that includes not only general information that goes to all subscribers but also personal information related directly to the subscriber himself. Imagine such a feature on an intranet and the ability for an employee to see, upon logging in, "You have a performance review for Jane Smith due in two days; don't forget!"
The easiest way to find information that an employee has not bookmarked on the intranet is from the home page. That's where the key categories reside, designed for an employee to drill through them quickly to information. It is also the primary residence of the search engine. Thus, it makes sense for employees to start at the home page rather than call the Help Desk asking, "What is the URL for the page I'm looking for?"
Employees can change the default home page to something other than the company home page, so if it is important to prevent this change, you will have to decide on the best approach for your organization's culture. A good choice would be to explain the rationale and recommend that employees retain the company home page as the default. This would allow employees to make decisions for themselves based on their knowledge of their unique needs, while making it clear that there are benefits to starting out at the company home page. Providing content that engages the interest of employees or to employee's work is a good way to reinforce the recommendation.
Some recommendation is necessary to communicate the importance of starting at the company home page. It would, however, be counterproductive to mandate the default since enforcement would be impossible as well as a waste of time.
Browsers have a feature called "bookmarks" that allow the marking of valued sites so they can be recalled quickly. Instructing employees on this feature will encourage them to leave the default alone and it will encourage them to use a great feature.
I opened this chapter by comparing the launch of an intranet to the launch of a new product or service. You may have been involved in the customer side of a company's preparation to introduce a new product if you have participated in a focus group or survey. The product team can speculate all it likes about the product's design, its functionality, and how it should be positioned in the marketplace. The fact is, the only one who really knows the answers to these questions is the customer.
With an intranet (which you can view as a comprehensive service), the customer is the employee who will be using it. And the intranet development team will not know how well it has anticipated employee need and use patterns until employees have used it and handed back an assessment. The best way to take assure the intranet is designed to meet the real needs of real employees is to set up a beta test.
The beta test should be scheduled after an alpha test has been completed. The alpha test is the period of time during which the intranet team subjects the system to extensive use, finding bugs and awkward navigation and fixing them until the team is satisfied that the system is now working the way it should. At that point, a specially selected group of employees should take their best shot at the system.
There's a lot of work involved in conducting an effective beta test, but it's important work. You might save time up front by not following this process, but it's time you will spend-and more-correcting the system after it is introduced. Have you heard the old expression, "There's never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over?" The beta test is your opportunity to do it right.
But that doesn't mean you have to do it alone. Within your organization, there may well be professionals with expertise who can help you conduct this phase of intranet development. Check with your professional communicators, Marketing Research, and Management Development departments (or their counterparts). Explain what you're trying to do-you can even have them read this chapter! Those that are equipped to do this kind of work could become your most valuable resource. If you don't have such a resource internally, there are external consultants that can provide the expertise; you should budget for their involvement if you need to.
The participants in the beta test panel need to represent a cross-section of your employee population. There are four primary factors to consider in selecting the panel:
You should plan separate beta panels in each major geographic location. There are cultural differences among employees in different locations, as well as basic differences in the kind of work done in each location; these differences should be noted in the beta test results. Within each geographic location, you should plan separate focus groups for each platform. Certain functional aspects of the browsers are different between the platforms, and in order to compare apples to apples, you need to make sure a panel of Windows users, for example, does not end up comparing its navigation problems to those of users working with Macintoshes. (Ultimately, the navigation must work for all platforms, but when the beta testers make notes on their beta logs or engage in discussions during focus group meetings, it will be much easier to understand issues that relate directly to the use of the intranet than the differences between platforms.
Within each panel, you should make sure there is broad representation of departments, as well as a spread of computer knowledge. Ideally, a panel should cover the spectrum from an experienced member of the Systems department to an employee whose work does not rely on computers and who has little or no experience using one. The reason for this spread is that it represents the people who will be using the intranet; if the system is difficult for an inexperienced user, then only the experienced users in your organization will use the intranet! The intranet, in this instance, is unlike a new software product that is aimed only at individuals who are likely to want to use such a product. The intranet is for all employees. Additionally, you will find that people who are new to computers will offer insights that other users might shrug off, but that ultimately help make the intranet easier for everybody to use.
Invite each participant by sending a memo and following the memo with a phone call. The memo should make it clear that, if they are unable to participate, they need to let you know so you can identify a substitute. The memo should simply indicate that they have been selected to participate in the beta test of the company's new intranet, and that the short-term beta panel on which they will participate will be explained at the beta test meeting. Each beta panel should attend a separate meeting.
The ideal environment for introducing the beta program to the selected participants is a computer training room, if one is available in your organization. These rooms have a workstation at every desk. If one is not available, and you have the budget, you may want to bring ten computers into a conference room and network them. If you have absolutely no alternative, though, you can bring panel participants into a conference room with a single computer connecting to some kind of projection system so all participants can watch your actions on the computer screen.
Open the meeting by thanking the attendants for their participation. Explain what the intranet is and what objectives have been established for it. Then outline the purpose of the beta test panels. Note that there are other panels, and be candid about the composition of the various groups.
Explain that you will take the panel on a brief tour of the intranet, after which you will distribute a beta log. You expect that each participant will spend some time each day over the next two weeks using the intranet and making notations on the log. At the end of the two-week period, the panel will reconvene in order to turn in their beta logs and discuss their general impressions.
The demonstration of the intranet should not be extensive. In fact, it is imperative that the beta panel not have any more information than the average employee would have when first exploring the intranet. Start at the home page, explain the key components, then journey about one level deep into two or three major sub-sections of the intranet. Use the search engine to find information, and complete a form (if you have one) in order to submit information or manipulate a database.
Distribute the beta log. Using this log, beta participants will record any problems they have. The beta log should be laid out horizontally (landscape-style). Down the left-hand column, participants will enter the URL of the page that has motivated the notation. Next, they will indicate the type of problem they are having:
The log should include an area where the employee can jot down notes that explain the problem. The last column is reserved for a notation of whether the problem recurred later, and if not, what did the employee do differently, if anything. There should be only three or four lines on each page of the log, ensuring the employee has enough room to write comments; thus, the log should include about ten pages.
If you have a room equipped with multiple computer workstations, give the employees about half an hour to play with the intranet under your supervision. You can see how quickly the participants catch on to the navigation and features of the intranet, and assess preliminary problems and questions. After the half-hour surfing period is over, send the employees back to their workstations with the admonition that they are to use the intranet every day. If it helps and you think it is appropriate, you can add that you have their supervisors' support for their participation in the beta test.
Finally, make sure all participants have a phone number they can call if they have questions or problems, and encourage them to use it. Better they seek advice or answers from you or your team than abandon the beta test altogether!
You could arrange to collect beta logs every day so that you can be working on solving problems and improving processes while the beta panels continue their work. Or you can collect them all at once from the participants at the focus group meetings that follow the test period.
At the conclusion of the two-week test period, reconvene the panels; you do not need to be in a room with computers, since the primary purpose of this meeting is the open focus-group discussion in which the panelists will participate. In case you are wondering if it is really necessary to reconvene the panelists for a face-to-face discussion, you should be aware that there is a significant benefit for this: interactivity among the participants. For example, one person adamantly states X and everybody else says, "What are you talking about? That was no problem." Or one person says X and everybody else jumps up and says, "Hey, she's right, that was a problem, and we didn't even think about it!"
At this point, it would be a good idea to bring a member of your organization's training and development staff on board to conduct the focus group. Members of the intranet development team may attend, but must remain silent. Another group to invite to listen in is the Help Desk staff, since they will be the ones dealing with problems that arise with the entire work force once the intranet is actually launched. These groups will be observers only. (If you do not have a training and development department, you may check with your organizational communications department, where some professionals may be trained to conduct focus groups, as well.) Discuss with the focus group facilitator your objectives, and make sure he or she is familiar with the intranet and can understand what the beta panel participants are talking about.
The facilitator should collect the beta (if they haven't been collected daily), then introduce the focus group discussion. During the discussion, panelists are encouraged to discuss their experiences using the intranet. The role of the facilitator is to keep the discussion on track and to make sure everybody has a chance to be heard.
Additionally, the focus group should spend some time addressing how well the intranet met its objectives. This is clearly a different subject than how well the intranet functioned. Instead, this topic addresses how well the intranet allowed people to access information quickly, how quickly they actually were able to get their hands on the information they needed, how well it encouraged teamwork and interactivity- ultimately, how well the system did what it was designed to do.
The focus group environment creates some interesting dynamics and produces results that may not be evident in the beta logs. One beta panelist may indicate that he had tremendous problems with a particular part of the Intranet, but fellow panelists may disagree. Conversely, the problem one employee identifies may spark recognition among other panelists who had not indicated that problem on their beta logs.
One of the dynamics to watch in the focus group is the vehemence and enthusiasm with which participants discuss various issues. Take copious notes; you will need to compare the focus group results with the information you glean from the beta logs. I mean it when I say take notes, do not video or audio tape the focus group because it's intimidating and tends to have a negative impact on the free flow of discussion. In many focus groups, anonymity is granted in order to allow employees to speak their minds freely. Each focus group session should last about 90 minutes.
Your first cut at the beta logs that were collected in the focus group sessions should be by panel. Among the panelists, are there any common denominators? Do any particular URLs or sub-sections jump out as routinely troublesome? (You can, of course, test any pages that are listed as not working or causing computer problems and make any fixes required to address the problems.)
Next, consolidate the results with those of other panels using the same platform-Windows with Windows, Macintosh with Macintosh, and UNIX with UNIX. Are there problems that emerge that appear to be unique to the platform? These could indicate flaws with the platform-unique version of the browser.
Next, consolidate all results. Again, look for common denominators. Do particular areas jump out as concerns? For instance, do people have more trouble navigating, say, the Human Resources department's site than any other?
Finally, compare the results from all three cuts at the data with focus group results. Are there consistencies? Inconsistencies?
The beta panel will turn up issues large and small. Each panel will turn up different results based on the company's objectives for the intranet, the scope of the project, the type of information that is contained, and the range of functionality contained within the intranet. Large issues can involve some of the following issues:
How the intranet's Web interface looks can affect people differently. They may find that it does not reflect the company's image or its values. They may find it too "flip," too cute, too unprofessional-or, conversely, they may find that it is too businesslike and cold and should be more fun. They may also dislike color schemes, or find that colors do not work on their monitors. They may find graphics take too long to paint.
The basic navigation tools are vitally important to employees who need to be able to find their way around quickly. Getting lost is the greatest disincentive to continued intranet use. If employees do get lost, or find that navigation icons take them to places other than where they thought they were, you will need to modify the navigation in order to make it easier for employees to get around.
If employees find the information contained on the intranet is not something they will spend time using, or they find that the information is not particularly useful or believable, they will have no reason to use the intranet at all. Since the intranet is designed, at its core, to provide information that employees need to get their jobs done, if this result emerges from the beta test, some serious re-thinking will be required. It may be useful to go back to employees to find out more about what turned them off. You may find, for example, that the information they needed was there, but they couldn't find it; they said the information was not valuable because what they found only scratched the surface. That, then, becomes a navigation issue, as well as one of presentation of information. On the other hand, if employees are genuinely skeptical of the value of the information, you may need to consider changing the kind of text you are posting-which could take additional research. If this wasn't what employees need, you might ask, what would they find valuable on the intranet?
Small issues that emerge from the beta test can be nearly as important as the large ones. I was involved in a project to put an employee handbook on a LAN. Employees backed out of various levels of the program by using their Escape key; it was also the Escape key that exited the program from the highest level. Employees who had drilled several levels deep simply hit the Escape key repeatedly, and suddenly found themselves at a C:> prompt; they had to re-launch the program to continue using it. This observation led us to change the method of exiting the program to a combination of Alt-X, so repeated hitting of the Escape key would only take you to the top level of the program, but not inadvertently exit the application. This is the type of detail you can address to make the system more usable, since this is precisely the type of problem that can turn people off and inhibit them from routinely using the intranet.
Your original schedule for the development of the intranet should include adequate time to accommodate revisions based on user feedback. Even though a beta test generally occurs after a feature set has been locked into place, this is your first and best opportunity to get feedback from those who will actually use the system. Since an intranet eventually will grow based on the contributions of the users, the user (or customer) is the only thing that really matters. Don't be afraid to make substantial changes to the system to accommodate their needs and to make it more useful and, ultimately, more successful. By building in the time to make those revisions based on beta logs and focus groups, you will be able to deliver a finished intranet ready for employee use on time. And, if your initial efforts meet the needs of the beta group, requiring few changes, you might even wind up ahead of schedule!
Imagine the latest blockbuster movie opening without a single ad, without a single review or billboard or trailer during the coming attractions portion of a movie program. Who would know the movie was opening? Who would go see it? Of course, this never happens. The studios sink considerable money-sometimes as much as they spent making the movie-into promoting it and generating audience interest.
An employee audience requires the same kind of attention with a different approach to communicating. Employees are far more sophisticated than movie-going audiences in terms of the information they need and how they respond to it. Employees spend the greatest proportion of their lives working at the company. They are privy to all sorts of information, ranging from official pronouncements to the gossip they gather at the coffee machine. They have a sense of what is true and what isn't. Introducing and explaining the intranet, then, is a task that will require a level of sophistication aimed at meeting the information needs of this special audience.
In your company, there is a professional who understands the process of communicating for results. In most organizations, this is an Employee Communications specialist. If your company does not have an Employee Communications department, look for this expertise in Corporate Communications, Public Relations, and even Human Resources. Whatever title this professional bears, I strongly advise that you leave the communication in his or her hands.
This effort should begin early, so that the information will be communicated and absorbed long before the intranet has been rolled out. You may want to consider involving the communicator in the project team so that he or she has a clear understanding of the intranet, and is communicating the issues in synch with your understanding of them.
In order to be able to support the communicator and understand the approach he or she is taking to the project, you need to understand the components of an effective communication plan. There are six:
Why is it that a communication effort is required? All communication is designed to influence opinions or behavior. In this instance, the opportunity is clear. You want to introduce employees to the intranet in order to gain company-wide support for the system and encourage its rapid adoption as employees' primary information and communication resource.
The audience will vary from company to company. In some organizations, all employees will constitute the audience. In others, it will be segments of the employee population, such as all managers, all administrative employees, or all employees with access to workstations. Don't stop at that superficial level of audience identification, though. Dig deeper. What is the education level of the audience? Language skills? Experience using computers, and online resources? Develop a profile of the audience in order to have an information base that will help you create communications that will reach the members of the audience.
You can't fix what you can't measure. The final stage of a strategic communication planning process-evaluation-depends upon having objectives that can, in fact, be evaluated. Your objectives should be tied directly to the strategic focus of the intranet, although you can add additional objectives such as reducing help desk calls, improving employee access to information, and reducing the turnaround time required for employees to respond to customer requests.
The plan is designed to achieve the objectives. This, too, will depend on a variety of factors unique to your organization. You will need to look at the existing communication tools that are most effective, the budget available for communication, and the communication environment.
Many communication plans follow a conventional pattern. Introductory communications announce the system. Then comes more detailed information about how to use the system. Follow-up material that addresses feedback and answers questions concludes the process.
It is vital that you keep in mind that, from the point of view of employees, the communication issue is not a computer system made up of servers, routers, clients, IP addresses, and the like. From the employee perspective, the issue is one of value-what's in it for them? How can this new system make their lives easier, reduce the day-to-day hassles of getting the job done, help them succeed in their efforts? Case studies, examples of how individuals can take advantage of the system, and first-person testimony (perhaps from members of the beta team) should be highlighted.
Early communications should note that the intranet will be a growing, living thing, and employee contributions will be welcomed. Provide a method (both on paper and on the intranet initially, then just on the intranet) for employees to offer their comments, ideas, and feedback-just like the 'Comment to Webmaster' links on external World Wide Web pages.
You also should be sure to include an implementation timetable so employees know what's coming and when. If the intranet is going to completely replace some traditional tools in the organization-such as paper forms-- you need to make that clear. Let employees know what resources will be available to help them through the transition. Be candid about the cost of the system to the company, but also about the cost savings and less tangible benefits. Feel free to discuss how intranets have benefited other organizations.
The communication plan should cover the entire roll-out. Include updates about glitches and how they have been addressed, early success stories, and reminders about the next steps. At this point, you can also expect to begin to use the intranet itself for this type of communication.
However, you should also set up a system that advises them when new information is available on the intranet-such as an e-mail notification that a new bulletin is available from such-and-such URL.
With your planning done, the information will be rolled out: brochures and bulletins will be printed, bulletin board notices will be posted, articles in employee publications will appear. Despite the fact that most of the communication in this older, more traditional communication model is one-way and top-down, you should make every effort to ensure that it is a two-way process. Assess the reaction of employees to the information and revise the program based on the feedback you get.
This is the time to kick in the measurement tools you established when you set the objectives. The results will let you know if you need to continue communicating with any particular segment of the audience, if some messages did not get through or were misinterpreted, or if the reality of using the intranet has not matched the messages that were communicated. If the results of the evaluation indicate additional communication is needed, work with Employee Communications to develop that next phase.
Not all evaluation tools need to provide statistical measurement. The most effective way to find out if employees are getting their job done faster, for example, is to ask them. A simple survey can do the trick; you might even be able to build questions into an employee attitude survey or communications audit that is already planned (most companies conduct these from time to time). By the same token, you should be able to extrapolate results that meet your needs from the studies that other departments already are conducting. Most employee communication audits, for example, ask if employees have access to information. If you can track an improvement from one year's audit to the next, and the only change that was made was the inauguration of the intranet, it's easy to credit the intranet with the improvement. Continued improvements in subsequent years can be attributed to enhancements made to the intranet.
It is not uncommon to believe that little or no training is required in order to use an intranet. After all, how hard can it be, considering the entire system is based on pointing a cursor and clicking a mouse?
The fact is, computers continue to intimidate a lot of modern workers. While it is true that we are only a few years away from a work force dominated by people who have grown up with computers, today the work force consists largely of people to whom computers were introduced at some point after they began working, accustomed to using other tools. If most employees were entirely comfortable with computers, we would see less resistance to e-mail and greater use of company databases as a means of analyzing information and making decisions. We would see more acceptance of groupware systems like Lotus Notes in companies where it has been implemented, rather than the pockets of use only among those who are amenable to learning the systems.
Easing all the fears of employees and generating greater acceptance of what the intranet has to offer might mean holding the hands of many employees through the initial stages of getting used to it. Working with your organization's Training and Development department, you can develop programs and tools that will make the transition to an integrated information infrastructure easier for those employees who are not inclined to jump right in and embrace the intranet.
The specific tools that you make available will depend on the training resources already available in the organization and the kinds of training that are acceptable within the organization's culture. Following are some of the tools that could be of value during the intranet's introductory phase.
At Adobe Systems Incorporated, the addition of interactive features of the company's intranet, Inside Adobe, was introduced with special event-oriented days at each of the company's key locations. The Systems department set computers up at key locations and conducted demonstrations, allowing employees to sit at workstations and take the intranet out for a spin.
Such an event can be accompanied by posters, prizes, and other elements that generate excitement and interest.
For employees who learn best when guided by others, you can set up a Resource Center. This is a room dedicated to teaching employees how to use the intranet. In it, you set up a few workstations connected to the network. Inform employees through the organization's standard communication vehicles of the Resource Center's location and hours of operation. During those hours, have trained personnel standing by to help employees figure out how to use the intranet in a hands-on environment.
During an introductory period-the first three-to-six months, perhaps- employees should be able to dial a number to reach support staff who can help them through their problems using the intranet. In some organizations-notably those that already provide telephone support for other computer and systems questions-the Help Desk can continue to be available on an ongoing basis.
The intranet itself should contain an extensive, detailed section that covers how to use the system, easily reached from the intranet home page. A logical structure for this section is a two-part site:
A printed copy of the information in the Online Support section of the intranet can be tailored for those who are more comfortable learning from a traditional paper format. The material can be reproduced in one color to save money and be distributed to all employees or made available to those who request it.
Once employees have started using the intranet, you need to make sure they keep coming back and grow accustomed to visiting the site for their information needs and to learn what's going on in the organization. There are two basic ways to entice employees to keep returning to the intranet: keep the site fresh and offer special incentives during the introductory period.
Maintaining new content will be an ongoing challenge well beyond the in
troductory period, but it is particularly important during the first few months. If employees return to the intranet home page to find nothing different from the last time they visited, the intranet will become an electronic equivalent of an employee handbook, hauled out only when employees need information they know is inside. Even before new content areas are developed, you can ensure freshness by:
For the launch of the Web portion of its intranet, Tektronix developed an anniversary site to commemorate the founding of the company. In addition to the usual elements such a site might include, Tektronix established a special section with old photos of the company and invited employees to submit their own captions. Each day, the previous day's caption submissions were displayed. Some of them were serious, with employees calling upon their memories of past events. In some cases, the captions were hilarious. The site grew in popularity such that employees couldn't let a day go by without checking in to see what their colleagues had written for the previous day's photo.
Such gimmicks can serve as a real enticement for employees to get into the habit of checking into the intranet. Other ideas you can employ include:
In this chapter, we have covered the basic elements involved in preparing to launch an intranet. At this point, you should have a clear understanding of the advantages an intranet can bring to an organization, the process of developing the intranet in order to achieve that advantage, and how to prepare the employees for the intranet launch.