Avoid Collapse: Build Your Intranet Foundation The Right Way - ILTACON

Presented By: Richard Harbridge & Jeff
Fried
Avoid Collapse! Build Your Intranet
Foundation The Right Way.
#ILTAG95 @RHarbridge @JeffFried

@RHarbridge #SPSNH
RICHARD
HARBRIDGE
My twitter is @RHarbridge, I’m super friendly & I am proud to work at 2toLead.
CTO & MVP | SPEAKER & AUTHOR

DIGITAL WORKPLACE
STRATEGY…
Great, we know who you are Richard, but what do you do on a daily basis?
- Intranets?
- Extranets?
- Departmental Portals?
- Project Sites & Team Sites?
- Enterprise Social Networks?
- Document Management?
- Records Management?
- Process Improvement?
- Centers Of Excellence &
Technology Adoption?
- And much more….

@RHarbridge #SPSNH
JEFF
FRIED
My twitter is @JeffFried, I love search, & I am proud to work at BA Insight.
CTO & MVP | SPEAKER & AUTHOR | SUPER SMART

WHAT I DO…
Great, we know who you are Jeff, but what do you do on a daily basis?

FOUNDATIONS
MATTER…
We have all seen the results of Intranets or technology solutions that didn’t have
a strong foundation failing to stand the test of time.

FOUNDATIONS
MATTER…
Let’s discuss the right way to build an effective SharePoint Intranet from the
ground up so that we can all be more successful.

1. Aligning With Business Needs
WHAT WE WILL TALK ABOUT TODAY…
2. Setting An Effective Technology Strategy
3. Getting Key Intranet Elements Right
4. Ensure Ongoing Intranet Success

• Look first at the neighborhood: what is the business purpose, the
overall context and constraints for your Intranet.
Step 1. Where will you build this?
What kind of property is it? What’s the right ‘fit’ for your needs?
Where should it be and why are you buying it?
BEFORE YOU BUILD YOU HAVE TO
KNOW WHERE & WHY…

The main purpose often is to improve collaboration or improve
collaborative outcomes.
COLLABORATION IS AN ATTITUDE…

Intranets Do Multiple Things
• Every Intranet does multiple things, and too often there is a
disconnect between the intranet design goals and what users want.
Every Intranet does multiple things, and too often there is a disconnect
between the intranet design goals and what users want.
WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH YOUR INTRANET?

You can better define what your Intranet needs to do via tried and tested
approaches like workshops, personae, interviews, surveys and more.
MAPPING YOUR GOALS…

• Think more broadly about the goals for your intranet.
INTRANETS AREN’T ALONE…
You often need to think more broadly about the Intranet and it’s fit and
purpose in your digital workplace.

What if we look at our own organizations technology radar?
Inspired by StepTwo’s Digital Workplace Radar
Landed (Now to 6 Months)
Circling (6-24 Months+)
In Flight (Future)
WHAT DOES YOUR TECHNOLOGY
RADAR LOOK LIKE?

AD Integration
/ SSO
Modern
Intranet
Social Integration
(Yammer)
Extranet
OneDrive For
Business
Integration With Document
Management System
Team Site
Deployment
Every organization’s journey is a little different, but often follow a similar
path to getting more out of Intranets. What do you need to plan for?
Trust The
Cloud
WHAT DOES YOUR TECHNOLOGY
RADAR LOOK LIKE?
Chat Bot(s)
Internal
Video Portal
Mandatory
Popular
Situational
Strategic FewChat Based
Workspaces
Integration Of XYZ
Systems & Processes
Enterprise
Search
AI Assisted
Recommendations
Digital Workplace
Analytics
Integrated Meeting
Workspaces

While our business objectives and needs might be complex or unending
we need to start somewhere with simple achievable direction.
KEEP IT SIMPLE…
Align
Support
Publish
Iterate
Relate
Evaluate
- to your business driver(s)
- based on value
- clearly and often
- in small projects
- to your infrastructure
- and adapt
A
S
P
I
R
E

Collaboration is not a technology, it’s an attitude. Culture needs to also
have a plan for improving alongside the technology and Intranet.
COLLABORATION IS AN ATTITUDE…

MAKING CHOICES AND
BUILDING A PLAN…
Just like when building a house we need to define our plan for the Intranet.
We need to ensure the technology foundation of our Intranet is well planned.

Technology is rarely planned in isolation, but this is especially true for SharePoint.
Your Intranet platform is meant to be used for far more than just the Intranet.
Integration
Planning
Business Process Analysis &
Improvement Planning
Education, Training
& Adoption Planning
Enteprise Social
Integration Planning
Security
Planning
Site Provisioning &
Review Process Planning
Search Planning
Information
Architecture Planning
Project & Task
Planning
Team & Group
Collaboration Planning
Intranet Planning
& Design
Technology
Strategy
SharePoint Online
Getting the most out of
SharePoint Online requires
successfully tackling key
planning activities from the
bottom up.
YammerOneDrive For Business
Skype For BusinessOffice Delve
THERE IS A LOT OF
PLANNING INVOLVED…

SharePoint As A Platform
Online & On-Premises
Build & Buy
Integration
An effective Intranet technology strategy has a few key topic areas.

WHY?
• Best practices
SHAREPOINT PROVIDES A GREAT
TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION…
The evidence is all around us from awards to enterprise usage. 70% of
corporate intranets are developed on the SharePoint platform.

It’s a platform, an integrated suite, modern, mobile enabled, business centric,
and maximizes the impact of your Intranet investments.
WHY INTRANETS ON SHAREPOINT?

It’s a platform, an integrated suite, modern, mobile enabled, business centric,
and maximizes the impact of your Intranet investments.
• Bundled
• Broad Suite
• Pre-Integrated
• Modern
• Rapid Innovation
• Platform

When it provides so much benefit it doesn’t come without some cost.

There are real challenges that come with building an Intranet on SharePoint
that you should understand before you start.
• Bundled
• Broad Suite
• Pre-Integrated
• Modern
• Rapid Innovation
• Platform
 Bloated
 Confusing Collection
 MSFT-centric
 Under Construction
 Moving Target
 You fill in the gaps

So Intranets can be built faster, iteratively, and deliver more value…
How do we achieve that ourselves?
HOW CAN WE KEEP UP AND MOVE FASTER?

SharePoint makes iterative easier. Build Intranets in an iterative way to
deliver value faster. Agility is critical when the platform is changing.
TIME TO VALUE & NAVIGATING CHANGE…

We deliver more value in far less time today. It’s not unreasonable to
expect a new modern Intranet in weeks or months instead of years.
HOW LONG SHOULD IT TAKE?

Primary drive is cost and speed or time to value. In professional service costs
alone it is typically 40% cheaper, not including hardware, maintenance and more.
SHOULD IT BE ON SERVER OR ONLINE?

THE CLOUD ENABLES US
TO KEEP PACE WITH
INDUSTRY TRENDS…
Continually improving experiences, continuous rollout of new capabilities,
continued integration with more technologies, and much more…

GETTING CLOSER TO THE
CLOUD WILL HELP…
It is more challenging to meet modern expectations on legacy technology.

Options
Configure Tailor Extend Custom
• “Out-of-the-box” SharePoint / O365
• Add-on “Ready to Go Intranet”
• Full Custom
Once you determine the platform and where to run it you still need to consider
build or buy options.
OPTIONS…

WHAT ABOUT “READY TO GO” INTRANETS?
Lists 26 products
There has been an explosion of new offerings at the same time that Microsoft
is extending its OOB Intranet capabilities.

All options require work to integrate, configure, and roll out
BUILD VS BUY CONSIDERATIONS…
OOTB (++) Buy (IIAB) Build
Development effort
Keeps up with Microsoft Innovations
Feature Set Fit Exactly to requirements
Customized to existing business processes
Effort/Cost to configure
Testing and Compliance
Licensing cost
Regular Updates/Upgrades
Impact on internal resources/other projects

WHAT SYSTEMS DO YOU NEED TO INTEGRATE?
Another very critical area of technology planning is determining what you
want to integrate, need to integrate, and how you will integrate.

of knowledge workers regularly access 4
or more systems to get the information
they need to do their jobs
61%
regularly access 11 or more systems
of a typical knowledge worker’s day is spent looking for and
consolidation information spread across a variety of systems
36%
15%
Aim to get critical mass – integrate the core systems that most people depend
on into your Intranet, and then it will be and effective hub for getting work done.
WE LIVE IN SILOS…

WHAT DOES INTEGRATION LOOK LIKE?
Make sure you understand where you need which scenarios
Common Scenarios
• Display information from external systems in UI, such as web parts,
application pages, etc.
• Client/Matter dashboards
• Allow users to interact with external data in SharePoint list format
• Crawl back-end data sources so they show up in search results
• Import external data into user profiles
• Syncing data from the source system into SharePoint
Make sure you understand where you need which scenarios.

• Buy vs. build for connectors? boils down to “buy”
What connectors should you include?
49
• Aderant
• Amazon S3
• Alfresco
• Box
• Confluence
• CuadraSTAR
• Elite / 3E
• EMC Documentum
• EMC eRoom
• Google Drive
• HP Consolidated Archive
(EAS, aka Zantaz)
• HPE Records Manager/HP TRIM
• IBM Connections
• IBM Content Manager
• IBM DB2
• IBM FileNet P8
• IBM Lotus Notes
• IBM WebSphere
• iManage Work
• Jive
• LegalKEY
• LexisNexis Interaction
• Lotus Notes Databases
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• Microsoft Exchange
• Microsoft Exchange Public Folders
• Microsoft SQL Server
• MySQL
• NetDocuments
• Neudesic The Firm Directory
• Objective
• OneDrive
• OpenText LiveLink/RM
• OpenText eDOCS DM
• Oracle Database
• Oracle WebCenter
• Oracle WebCenter Content (UCM/Stellent)
• PLC/Practical Law
• ProLaw
• Salesforce.com
• SAP ERP
• ServiceNow
• SharePoint Online
• SharePoint 2016
• SharePoint 2013
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2007
• Sitecore
• Any SQL-based CRM system
• Veeva Vault
• Veritas Enterprise Vault
(Symantec eVault)
• WestKM
• Xerox DocuShare
• Yammer
WHAT CONNECTORS SHOULD YOU INCLUDE?
Buy versus build for connectors often boils down to buy and then build on it.

PLAN FOR
IMPLEMENTATION…
The information architecture and functional requirements are like our foundation
and framing plan. We detail how things will be built and provide more detail.

Design
Organization
Experience
Search
There are many Intranet elements we need to consider carefully. Let’s
dive into a few together today.

The digital hub/center of your digital workplace strategy is your Intranet.
It helps people navigate, discover, and bring together what matters.
HOW SHOULD IT BE DESIGNED?

Improved authoring and new controls will continue to build on what
is already available such as the hero, news, events, or activity controls.

It’s not just about the homepage which should connect key experiences.
Your Intranet design should be about improving how people work today.

HOW WILL YOU MANAGE ACCESS?
Mobility and access outside of the enterprise is a requirement today.

Your Intranet should be responsive by design, but you could also enable better
experiences on mobile devices. Extending team or departmental engagement.
HOW WILL YOU ENABLE MOBILITY?

CONTENT OVER TIME…
The modern digital workplace and Intranet has a continually increasing number
of digital spaces or ‘sites’ where content is stored and shared.

HOW SHOULD USERS NAVIGATE?
While mega menus and other innovations were implemented navigation was
always structure based, or managed. With special directory style pages.

Office 365’s SharePoint home is now a more modern site directory experience.
New features like activity roll ups, and quick follow/share options are the start.

While structured and managed navigation is still valid in today’s world it is also
important to improve navigation with powerful capabilities like search.

By centralizing and governing the creation of ‘spaces’ or sites we can improve
content organization drastically with things like default metadata and templates.
HOW CAN WE BUILD SITES BETTER?

When designing news, leadership or even events pages we can take advantage
of new and improved authoring experiences. Team news can be complimentary.
HOW SHOULD NEWS BE DESIGNED?

Fast and improved news authoring will build on what is already available.
Microsoft will provide new client side web parts like hero, news, and events.

Capabilities like bookmarking, notifications, and more help you not only
stay up to date, but follow up when a better time is available.

The model of news being personalized based on region is only the beginning.
Go beyond this and target and share team, departmental and other news.
As team and departmental news
increases we want to ensure our
digital hub is helping by giving a
broader view of that important
information.

Targeted embedding of Yammer or your enterprise social platform in key parts
of the Intranet, and digital workplace like news and team sites are a good start.
HOW SHOULD SOCIAL BE ENABLED?

Personalized home pages
Explicit search center
Knowledge centers
Dynamic content/dashboards
Expertise location
Search-driven navigation
Digital Assistant
HOW DOES SEARCH FIT IN?
Every part of your intranet can be dynamic – powered by search

Great search is essential – and achievable – with attention
PERSONALIZED PAGES HELP…
Search-driven pages can by made dynamic and personalized
quickly and easily. #ILTAG9

BRAND AND TAILOR RESULTS…
We can use Display Templates to tailor results; add rich metadata to
help with findability and navigation. #ILTAG9

ADD USEFUL CONTROLS…
Search-driven pages can by made dynamic and personalized
quickly and easily with a multitude of controls. #ILTAG9
Pin & Export to ExcelType Ahead
Featured Links (aka Best Bets)
Pre-Canned
Searches
Feedback

ADD DYNAMIC DASHBOARDS…
Client/Matter Dashboards can be assembled directly from Search
#ILTAG9

DON’T FORGET TOOLS…
Use search to surface “My Favorite Tools”.
Embed search where people work (such as within Outlook). #ILTAG9

QUICKLYFINDTHERIGHTEXPERTS…
Finding the right experts is an important scenario in any legal Intranet.
#ILTAG9

• Internet-Like Search Experience
• “Search and Refine”
• Intelligent type-ahead
• Search within results
• Searching Both “for” and “within” Documents
• Finding Experts Based on Profile and Contribution
• Creating Topic-Specific Knowledge Centers
GUIDE THEUSER…
Great search is essential and achievable – with the right attention.
#ILTAG9

TAKE SEARCH IN STEPS
Search is about so much more than looking for documents.
9. Get cognitive
8. Go global
7. Personalize
6. Add apps
5. Add structure
4. Bridge silos
3.Tune it
2. Get it working
1. Understand it

DOWNLOAD OUR 70+ PAGE
WHITEPAPER ON INTRANETS
WITH OFFICE 365
It goes into much greater depth and can be found at Office365Intranets.com

Having a great foundation and plan means you can be successful.
Once it’s built we still need people to move in and take ownership.
YOUR NOT DONE YET…

PLANNING FOR ADOPTION…
We need to invest in key areas to enable and accelerate adoption. We can’t do
it alone and need to have the right foundation of structure and support.
Governance
Policies &
Guidance

Even in a mid-size firm, don’t leave the Intranet to just IT.
Create a Cross-Functional Project Team
Within the core team:
 Varied perspectives
 Access to broader range of skills
 Greater buy-in across
departments & practices
+ Project is more enjoyable
Beyond the core team:
Wider network of people involved
 Contributing content
 Working on usage + policies
 Marketing, Communications
 Launch advocates
→Project is more successful

EVALUATE YOUR POLICY AND
GUIDANCE READINESS…
There are many policies and guidance materials that should exist and be in use
for your Intranet or a modern digital workplace strategy to be effective.

Adoption
Campaigns
We need to invest in key areas to enable and accelerate adoption.
Committing to a clear plan and meaningful activity is important.

Value
Commitment
Understanding Interest
The formula for sustaining commitment is still driving interest/awareness +
guiding understanding + sharing and realizing value.
THE FORMULA FOR COMMITMENT…

1
The funnel of commitment is driving interest / awareness + guiding
understanding + sharing and realizing value until they are sold/committed.
THE FUNNEL FOR COMMITMENT…
3
Drive Interest
Guide Understanding
Realize Value
2

1
The funnel of commitment is driving interest / awareness + guiding
understanding + sharing and realizing value until they are sold/committed.
THE FUNNEL FOR COMMITMENT…
3
Often initially comprised of early adoptions. These users may adopt & use new
technology once they are aware of it or have an interest in the technology.
‘Did you know’ tips & pre-launch communication can accelerate this groups
adoption. Use this group to share and influence others.
Users need help understanding how to change. How can
they use the technology? How should they use it? Help,
coaching, how to tips, training, contests & challenges
help this group of users the most.
2 Users need to understand the value of
changing. Sharing stories, benefits,
contest winners, & business impact
of the technology will be critical.

PLAN AND EXECUTE CAMPAIGNS…
Developing a roadmap for adoption where we plan activities before launch,
during launch and after launch is important. Plan and execute campaigns!

When each day’s Yammer tip is posted by a member of the tip team it ensures
that these tips come from different users which gets more people involved.

Tips drive users to take action, should be themed, should be pre-written before
the start of the campaign, and should relate to challenges/contests.

The goal of each contest is to get the users to take an action (upload a profile picture,
download a mobile app, etc.) and those actions should be connected to a tip or tips that
had been shared (explaining how to do the action and its value).
Starter List Of Sample Contests can be found in the
“Contests, Challenges & Ideas For Office 365”
document in the Office 365 Resource Kit
(http://Office365Resources.com)

Understanding

Since you are already doing a time boxed campaign consider providing targeted training
sessions that are hands on and participatory. Even if you are performing training remotely
if the group is small enough you can create exercises and track completion.

PLANNING FOR COMMUNICATION…
Define a comprehensive communication plan along with the messaging for key
Email, Intranet posts, Yammer posts or communication for the campaign.

@RHARBRIDGE
DOWNLOAD THE DRIVING
OFFICE 365 ADOPTION &
USAGE WHITEPAPER!
Want more information on how to build effective campaigns for Intranet
adoption? Check out this extensive whitepaper at Office365Campaigns.com.

Having a campaign over a duration of days enables greater measurement,
clearer accountability, and simplifies the coordination and commitment needed.
Baseline Measure Impact Measure Continued Impact

It doesn’t need to be really difficult. Start with defining the high-level value.
MEASUREMENT
MATTERS…

http://Office365Metrics.com contains guidance on ways to measure Office 365
& samples of common business impacts it can drive.
YOU NEED TO
KNOW WHAT
IMPACT IT COULD
DRIVE…

It doesn’t need to be really difficult. Create actionable measurements based on
specific and achievable benefits.
MEASUREMENT
MATTERS…

Benefit Overview
Benefit ID OH-B6
Benefit Title Improved Employee Engagement For Leadership Communication
Benefit Owner [Removed From Sample]
Benefit Description Yammer and our news engine offer a direct channel for Leadership/Employee interaction. Use this opportunity to help company
executives gather insight into employee feedback or to stimulate conversation between them.
Related Business
Impacts
Improved Employee Engagement, Improved Leadership Engagement
Solution Tool Yammer
Measurement
Technique
Manual import of analytics data from news provided by the analytics solution and Yammer post/conversation analysis either
manually accomplished or based on the yammer analytics solution (based on exported conversations).
Metric(s) Per leader metrics would be the preference while an aggregate can provide averages and broader measurement of progress.
Number of articles from company leadership correlated with the number of views, employee responses, likes and likes.
Number of Yammer posts from company leadership and the number of employee responses per leadership post in Yammer.
Baseline
Measurement
[Removed From Sample]
Target [Removed From Sample]
Determine trailing baseline then determine company goal…
Supporting Activities 1. Provide employee Yammer access – desktop and/or mobile
2. Organize leadership Yammer-driven Question and Answer sessions
3. Encourage employee participation through Adoption Campaigns
4. Assign resources to monitor and facilitate the Question and Answer sessions
Define benefits that can be realized with simple analysis and initiatives, helping
drive business improvement faster w/ minimized additional investment.
HOW DO
YOU PROFILE
A BENEFIT?

Mark Complete once Evaluation is Complete, Analysis is Complete, and Results are Escalated to Appropriate Channels
ID Benefit May 2017 Jun 2017 Jul 2017 Aug 2017 Sep 2017 Oct 2017 Nov 2017 Dec 2017 Jan 2018 Feb 2018 Mar 2018
ID Benefit Benefit Owner(s) Measurement
Activities
Key Metrics Time
Horizon
Frequency of
Analysis
Suggested Inferences Suggested Actions
This isn’t a new concept and there are lots of examples of benefits realization
across the industry. The important thing is to actually track these!
DEFINE A
BENEFITS
REALIZATION
PLAN…

You won’t have everything you need OOTB, but it’s a great platform and start.
You have the foundation, but need experts or tools to get the most out of it.
ABILITY TO MEASURE IS
ALSO IMPORTANT…

@RHARBRIDGE
DOWNLOAD THE
MEASURING THE BUSINESS
IMPACT OF OFFICE 365
WHITEPAPER!
It goes into much greater depth and can be found at Office365Metrics.com.

REACH OUT TO US! | WE ARE SUPER FRIENDLY!
Connect with us on Twitter at: @RHarbridge & @JeffFried, or on LinkedIn.
Email us at Richard@2toLead.com and JFried@BAInsight.com.
Next Steps
Checkouttheseofferings&
resources…
• Office365Intranets.com
• Enterprise Search Assessment
• Search Connectors
• Office365Campaigns.com
• Office365Metrics.com

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