Time is running out. With Meta’s Workplace platform to begin the process of closing down from August 31, 2025, businesses must act now to avoid disruption and ensure seamless communication.

Imagine the chaos of a sudden communication blackout. With the platform’s impending sunset, the risk of operational disruption is real for organizations that fail to implement a reliable alternative before it’s too late.

The prospect of migrating to a new platform, retraining employees, and potentially losing valuable data and content is enough to make any business leader or IT manager break out in a cold sweat. But while the termination of Workplace may feel like a major disruption, it also presents an opportunity to reevaluate your organization’s needs and explore new solutions.

Free guide: Moving from Workplace to Interact

Replacing Meta Workplace? Seamlessly transition to a feature-rich social intranet with Interact.

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The platform that replaces it should be an investment that will support your organization’s communication, collaboration, and employee engagement goals not just for the next year or two, but well into the future.

For those looking for an alternative to Workplace from Meta, Interact is a compelling option to consider. Not only does Interact provide a robust social intranet that replaces Workplace’s features, it also offers significant additional capabilities that make it a major upgrade.

Why Interact is a powerful Workplace from Meta alternative

Interact offers powerful employee communication tools embedded within a purpose-built, modern intranet that allows teams to strengthen connections, build culture, and drive engagement across the organization. Familiar social features let employees stay up to date on company conversations, collaborate on projects, react to posts from colleagues, and stay informed on important updates.

Interact’s social intranet features offer a seamless alternative to Workplace from Meta, with capabilities that include:

Social newsfeeds

Real-time activity updates allow employees to like, comment on, and share posts while staying informed about what’s happening across the organization, fostering transparency and engagement.

Rich profiles

Employees can showcase accomplishments, skills, and roles through features like endorsements and visual badges on their profile. This allows colleagues to easily identify internal subject matter experts.

Peer-to-peer recognition

Employees can acknowledge colleagues who have gone above and beyond using a points-based rewards system, which can then be redeemed for perks.

Forums, messaging, and communities

Employees can connect with each other around shared interests, projects, or events using these collaborative spaces. Integration with messaging apps enables real-time communication.

Blogging

Users can share insights and expertise by authoring blog posts on the intranet. This can help surface knowledge that may otherwise be siloed. Embedded AI features help even the most reticent authors create compelling content.

Pulse surveys

Pulse surveys give leaders a quick and easy way to gather  meaningful feedback from employees, helping to gauge sentiment, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions so organizations can stay attuned to the needs and concerns of their workforce.

Idea Management

With Interact’s idea management solutions, employees can share their insights and suggestions for improving products, processes, and the overall employee experience. By crowdsourcing innovation, organizations can uncover creative solutions to business challenges and foster a greater sense of ownership and investment among employees.

Social Advocacy

The Social Advocacy feature of Interact empowers employees to become brand advocates, sharing company news and marketing campaigns on external platforms to increase awareness of key initiatives. It even allows employees to easily share job vacancies with their professional networks to help recruit top talent.

And for intranet managers, Interact provides moderation capabilities to help ensure the ongoing quality of user generated intranet content, such as a unified dashboard with filtering options to streamline the process of monitoring and responding to posts and comments.

Beyond Workplace social features

Interact includes a broad range of social functionality, and the possibilities don’t end there. A host of other features are available within the Interact platform to enable effective communication, collaboration, and connection across the digital workplace.

From employee directories that help people find and connect with the right colleagues, to policy management tools that ensure everyone has access to the latest guidelines and procedures, to employee mobile apps that keep employees engaged on the go, Interact is designed to be a one-stop-shop for every internal communication and employee experience initiative.

Free guide: Moving from Workplace to Interact

Replacing Meta Workplace? Seamlessly transition to a feature-rich social intranet with Interact.

Download now

With Interact, organizations can also accommodate different preferences for engaging with internal content. Desk workers, for instance, may gravitate toward platforms they frequently interact with on their work computers, such as Teams or Slack, while frontline workers may be more receptive to digital signage and employee apps.

This makes it possible to share updates in engaging formats like asynchronous video in the most effective way for every employee. By leveraging multiple touchpoints, you can cater to the varying preferences of your workforce and maximize the impact of your internal communications efforts.

What’s more, Interact tools are augmented by powerful artificial intelligence that makes the platform smarter and more intuitive over time. Interact’s AI can do everything from generating and personalizing content, to analyzing sentiment and suggesting improvements.

The platform learns from each individual’s behavior and preferences to surface the content, people, and tools that are most relevant to them. It can even translate communications instantly across multiple languages, allowing organizations to communicate and collaborate at scale, while still delivering highly relevant, targeted experiences to every individual. This makes the intranet feel like a customized solution for each employee, which in turn influences them to visit and contribute more to the platform since it feels tailored to their needs.

As engagement and adoption rates soar, Interact provides rich analytics and reporting capabilities that give admins visibility into exactly how the intranet and internal communications are performing. You can see which content is resonating, which channels are most effective, and where there are gaps or opportunities for improvement.

These insights allow users to continually refine and optimize an internal comms strategy based on real data and make informed decisions about where to focus.

20 years of commitment to service and innovation

Interact has been at the forefront of the intranet market for two decades. We have a long track record of building innovative employee engagement solutions, constantly evolving our product to meet the changing needs of our customers.

We pride ourselves on being a true partner to our customers, providing unrivalled consultation, training, and support services. When you choose Interact, you gain access to a team of intranet and employee experience experts who are dedicated to your success. We also have a thriving customer community where you can connect with and learn from other intranet leaders.

Interact can provide hands-on support throughout the implementation process and beyond, offering strategic guidance, best practices, and troubleshooting assistance. This support ensures a smooth transition and high adoption, allowing you to continually get the most value out of the platform as your needs and goals evolve. From developing an effective intranet strategy to increasing employee engagement over time, we are with you every step of the journey.

More than a collection of features, Interact is an intelligent, integrated platform that connects people, information, and systems. It’s designed to be the portal to and central hub of the digital workplace, acting as the single source of truth that employees can rely on to stay informed, engaged, and aligned with organizational goals.

Free guide: Moving from Workplace to Interact

Replacing Meta Workplace? Seamlessly transition to a feature-rich social intranet with Interact.

Download now

Interact integrates with other business applications, such as your CRM, HR system, and document management platform, so employees can access everything through a single interface. This reduces the time and friction associated with constantly switching between different tools. It also helps to break down silos between departments and functions, as everyone is working in a common digital environment.

By bringing all these capabilities together in one place, Interact streamlines the employee experience, reduces information silos, and unlocks greater levels of productivity and innovation across your enterprise.

Switching to Interact is not just about getting a new set of tools; it’s about gaining a comprehensive, AI-powered platform and a dedicated partner to help you transform your employee experience. It’s an investment in the future of your organization and your workforce.

Next steps for implementing your Workplace alternative

The clock is ticking on Workplace, so take proactive steps today to secure a smooth transition to a new platform. Interact provides a robust social intranet that not only replaces Workplace’s features, but offers significant additional capabilities that make it a major upgrade.We invite you to see Interact in action and discover why leading organizations around the world rely on us for an engaging, connected, and productive workforce.

Have questions about migrating from Workplace? Want to learn more about how Interact can elevate your employee experience? Speak with our intranet experts or book a demo today to discuss your unique needs and see our platform in action.

Free guide: Moving from Workplace to Interact

Replacing Meta Workplace? Seamlessly transition to a feature-rich social intranet with Interact.

Download now

The post The best alternative to Workplace from Meta appeared first on Interact software.

Examples of bad communication in the workplace can also be instructive, and learning from internal comms mistakes can ensure your messages don’t turn into a massacre. So, grab your pumpkin spice, sit back and read our scary tales of the employee experience gone wrong. Guaranteed to keep internal comms professionals up at night…

Is bad communication lurking in your organization?

Many large organizations are great communicators. Due to their dispersed employees and need to attract top talent, global enterprises often have a firm handle on internal messaging and employee experience. Employee communications are clear and timely, whether introducing a new policy, fresh faces within the senior leadership team, or handling fluctuations in share prices.

Lousy communication can and does happen even at the largest and most well-resourced companies. Despite their size, budget, or stature, even well-known brands occasionally get it wrong and make public internal comms mistakes. As you’ll find out below, things can spiral out of control, so it’s necessary to learn from high-profile errors.

When an engineer at a well-known search engine wrote an offensive internal memo that was leaked, the organization had to go into overdrive to try and calm the external storm.

The engineer in question sent the memo to HR and posted it on an internal forum for other employees to see. At least seven co-workers tweeted about it from their personal accounts, publicly naming the company and calling out the contents.

A popular online tech blog picked up the tweets, and the contents quickly went viral. Social media erupted in protest, defiant at the sexism on display and citing it as a reason for the gender unbalances within the tech industry.

Concerningly, further private internal messages were leaked to the media as the days went on. The tech company quickly distanced itself from the comments and was left attempting damage control. None of this drama emanated from the Internal Communications team, so it could not have been anticipated, but the episode indicates the power of peer-to-peer communications and internal communications platforms in the digital workplace. Staying alert to examples of bad practices and poor communication shouldn’t just be about the emails sent by the IC team.

What can be learned from this communication mistake?

Regularly survey staff to uncover any issues festering within the workforce.

Encourage a culture of recognition and acknowledgment to ensure employees appreciate each other and their different roles.

Uphold an internal culture of respect, where people do not fit into boxes, but each has intrinsic value within the organization’s success.

Post-pandemic, the CEO of this large tech company sent an internal memo stating an immediate change to its remote working policy. Following this announcement, employees hastily returned to the office.

However, the workforce had nearly doubled since the start of 2020, and once everyone arrived at the office, it became clear there weren’t enough desks to accommodate them all. The car park became congested as people fought for space. The in-office Wi-Fi struggled under the massive spike in demand.

Quite simply, the company wasn’t prepared, and the change communications failed. A phased return would have been much smoother, but the panic caused by the CEO’s email caused chaos. Investor confidence plummeted, and this example of bad communication planning left employees even more determined to work from home.

What can be learned from this communication mistake?

Make sure your leadership team understands the importance of unified, strategic internal comms.

Manage any significant changes to everyday work, such as a return to office-based work, with multiple messages and supportive documentation. Answer any questions employees may have, such as managing a full-capacity office.

Remember to treat your employees respectfully, particularly when communicating sensitive issues subject to internal backlash.

This online publication was infamous for breaking newsworthy stories. But what happened when the tables were turned, and it ended up struggling with a leak?

In 2013, an unknown source posted thousands of confidential internal messages online. They contained valuable and sensitive data, financial information, and confidential client conversations. After a thorough investigation, the leak was determined to be accidental. However, it was still damaging to the publication’s reputation. Nearly ten years later, the aftereffects of this leak are still remembered, despite the vast improvement in online privacy and data protection laws.

This publication was lucky – a smaller operation could have been out of business in the aftermath of such an event.

What can be learned from this mistake?

Data protection and 2FA can help protect any sensitive information.

Ensure that teams are happy, fully trained, and up to date with crisis communication procedures.

Data leaks, particularly within some sectors, such as finance, are risky and carry heavy penalties if the organization is found to be at fault. Keep open lines of communication with your teams and ensure that any problems are flagged immediately through the correct operating channels.

We hope these three very different horror stories highlight the dangers of not using a considered and multifaceted internal communications strategy.

Especially for enterprise-level organizations with brand recognition, reducing the likelihood of leaks, bad communication, and public censure begins with learning from our peers’ best or worst practices.

The post Scary tales of bad communication in the workplace appeared first on Interact software.

Communicators, HR specialists, and leaders have spent decades discussing employee engagement and satisfaction, but the last two years have been dominated by employee experience (EX). As a result, everything from human capital management systems to intranet software have been rebranded as employee experience platforms. 
 
In a sense, any internal system that consistently and frequently connects employees to employers throughout their tenure is an employee experience platform. 
 
So, business leaders have plenty of choice when it comes to products that may improve their employee experience then, but EX can be a nebulous term that relies on hard-to-quantify soft benefits. This poses a challenge because it can obscure the potential return on investment (ROI) of an intranet and make committing to a financial outlay hard to justify. 

However, there are three key ways to calculate employee experience ROI and to decide whether implementing a new system is financially worthwhile. Our intranet ROI calculator is a free tool to help you do this. 

Before you head off to discover how much a new intranet could save your organization, the following post details why employee experience has suddenly become important and outlines the three financial benefits that intranet software can drive when improving EX.

The intranet ROI calculator

Discover how gains in Productivity, Onboarding, and Retention can increase the economic impact of an intranet with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate now!

Employee experience is a growing priority

Accelerated by the pandemic and the paradigmatic shift of knowledge workers from HQ to hybrid, there has been a bleeding of the once formerly solid line between work life and home life. While many organizations have benefitted from the hard work put in by an always-on workforce, it has also resulted in workers themselves demanding better benefits and experiences. 
 
Organizations have responded to this. WTW’s 2021 Employee Experience Survey found that 91% of employers surveyed in Western Europe said that enhancing the employee experience will be an important priority at their organization over the next three years. That was up from just 40% who said it was important prior to the pandemic.

But is it enough of a priority?

Employees want better experiences across all touchpoints and employers want productive, happy employees who don’t leave in the Great Resignation. That trade-off seems so straightforward that it should make the C-Suite invest in tools to enable it. 

Having worked with intranet software for over a decade though, I have seen the same question come up countless times in response to similar proposals to improve employee experience through technology; what’s my ROI if I invest in this? Many of Interact’s customers are internal communicators and HR professionals who have encountered the same challenge from CFOs and other senior leaders. 
 
Understandably, most senior leaders want more than promises of “improved experience.” They want to know how lower churn and increased productivity will be seen on the balance sheet. They want to know what the financial value of intranet software is. 

Fortunately there are three metrics that can be used to provide that figure: productivity, onboarding, and retention. It’s these three financial markers that our free intranet ROI calculator uses to measure the value of an intranet.

The intranet ROI calculator

Discover how gains in Productivity, Onboarding, and Retention can increase the economic impact of an intranet with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate now!

The value of productivity in the ROI calculator

When we talk about productivity, we’re really talking about the value of time. In 2018, an IDC study found that data professionals admitted to losing more than 30% of their time every week searching for data. Finding information quickly and easily remains an issue for complex organizations with multiple applications and data repositories.

A modern intranet can help in terms of productivity because it acts as a single point of entry and a trusted source that enables all employees to self serve when finding information (policies, for example), accomplish tasks such as booking vacation, and resolving common HR and IT queries without contacting colleagues and generating additional work for them. 

Data from McKinsey suggests that knowledge workers lose as much as 19% of their time to inefficient searching (more than 90 minutes a day per user, based on a 40-hour week). Thinking about what we might capture back by providing a more effective system then, even a conservative view of 3% (for desk-based) and 2% (for frontline) time savings from improved content and search functionality would equal around 15 minutes a day per user. Over the course of three years the potential savings amount to hundreds of hours captured back for the organization. 

By giving employees an enterprise search tool that works well, time and money is saved for the company. 

The intranet ROI calculator

Discover how gains in Productivity, Onboarding, and Retention can increase the economic impact of an intranet with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate now!

The value of onboarding in the ROI calculator

Creating a smooth and effective onboarding process was challenging for many companies pre-pandemic, so doing it virtually has added extra complexity. Some of the cost of onboarding comes from administrative tasks done by HR or IT, but much of it is caused by a lack of productivity during the first weeks of a new hire’s role. 

No matter how good they may be, new employees are less productive in their first three months. Investopedia suggests that employees work at 25% of future capacity in their first month, 50% in their second, and 75% in their third (a 50% average). Employers can minimize the lack of productivity during this time though by using their intranets to orchestrate preboarding and onboarding. This can help new employees complete necessary paperwork, begin getting up to speed faster (e.g., understanding the purpose of their role and exploring relevant videos and documentation), meet new teammates, and enjoy (when combined with other initiatives) a better employee experience. 

By initiating new hires seamlessly through an enhanced digital experience you can upskill them quicker and reduce the burden on existing staff. This makes everyone more productive and the organization more profitable. Once again, the time saved is returned to the organization in the form of revenue-driving productivity. 

The intranet ROI calculator

Discover how gains in Productivity, Onboarding, and Retention can increase the economic impact of an intranet with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate now!

The value of retention in the ROI calculator

The cost of replacing workers when they leave is significant. In fact, conservative estimates suggest that the cost of replacing a single staff member can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary. All in all, voluntary turnover costs US businesses $1 Trillion annually. 

A higher than usual employee churn rate can lead directly to additional costs for training and onboarding, but it can also be a sign that low productivity and poor employee engagement have become entrenched within a company. This is bad for those on the low-engagement end because not only do workplaces with high engagement outperform those with low engagement on metrics of customer ratings, profitability, and productivity, but they’re also more likely to retain staff. 

One way to protect against a worsening of company culture and the additional costs caused by voluntary turnover is to improve employee experience. By engaging more employees and creating a more satisfied network, businesses stand a better chance of reducing the drain of knowledge and profit. 

Providing better internal systems that promote communication and collaboration is one way to improve employee experience and engagement. Modern intranet software supports improved one- and two-way multichannel communications using rich-text media, design, UX, and social media features. By creating a better culture of communication, an organization can help to improve morale and keep employees informed about events and activities. 

In the long-term, these engaged employees are less likely to leave and so to cause that additional financial cost. 

The intranet ROI calculator

Discover how gains in Productivity, Onboarding, and Retention can increase the economic impact of an intranet with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate now!

The benefits of communication are measurable 

The value of effective internal communication and of the digital workplace technology that supports it should not be underestimated. In many cases when making a business case for new intranet software, it is not enough to focus solely on soft ROI. Employee experience platform projects can be measured with an intranet ROI calculator and expressed in the language that CEOs and other senior leaders understand and respond to. 

Although the value of communication as a central business operation is accepted by CEOs, many comms directors will need to make a more convincing ROI case for the impact of their own work.

VMA Group, Beyond Communication

When you are able to present data and success stories together, you can show how critical internal comms is to the success of your organization. With this affirmed, you have a much higher chance of securing investment in your team and the tools you need in the future.

The intranet ROI calculator

Discover how gains in Productivity, Onboarding, and Retention can increase the economic impact of an intranet with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate now!

The post This intranet ROI calculator gives 3 financial reasons to invest in employee experience  appeared first on Interact software.

If you subscribe to Albert Camus’ view that “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth,” then Netflix’s latest South Korean hit show may provoke some urgent questions for organizations. If they’re to stop a digital information divide between the haves and the have-nots from damaging employee experience, companies must bring all co-workers together through internal communication tools that enable collaboration, integration, and far-reaching corporate communication.

Building an intranet business case

Bridging the digital divide in your organization begins with inclusive comms. Build your business case for an internal communications platform that brings people together.

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Debt-trap economies result in disparity and disengagement

If you’re one of the few people who haven’t seen it yet (no spoilers), 2021’s biggest TV show depicts the plight of 456 people so severely indebted that they agree to participate in a life-or-death competition based on a set of children’s games. 

Fiction it may be, but articles have already begun to appear suggesting that the origins of the popular show lie in a deeply fragmented South Korean economy. An economy where “heavy debt loads and yawning disparities have created deep socioeconomic problems.” 

In fact, despite having a relatively high performing economy, South Korea now ranks in the top ten countries globally for households with the highest debt-to-income ratios. This appears to have happened at least partly because growth has continued at a macro level, but rising housing costs and slow wage inflation have left many individual households struggling to cope.

This goes to show that a country (or a company) can perform incredibly well in the markets but still hold internal challenges for individuals who do not see the same increases. 

When we transpose the story to organizations, however, we move from discussing a financial divide to a digital or data divide.

Building an intranet business case

Bridging the digital divide in your organization begins with inclusive comms. Build your business case for an internal communications platform that brings people together.

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If businesses wish to create positive company cultures with outstanding employee experiences, they must prevent the emergence of two tiers of employees: the information and opportunity super wealthy vs. the time-pressed, information-starved indebted. As the workplace changes though, and remote and hybrid working become more mainstream, this is a very real challenge faced by many who feel they have less opportunity and access than their peers. 

Pre-pandemic, back when remote working was more limited, working in-office or on-location meant that most employees enjoyed the same advantages; access to fast broadband internet, advanced technologies, and ergonomically-designed spaces in which to work. With the shift to home working, however, this situation risks becoming more complex and less egalitarian.

The digital divide in the workplace

A report by The Century Foundation in 2020 highlighted that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 42 million Americans lacked the ability to purchase broadband; a situation worsened by the pandemic. 

“Roughly half of low income families have struggled to pay their internet and cell phone bills. Millions of unemployed workers had trouble navigating state unemployment websites, while almost 15 percent of students face barriers in remote learning conditions because they lack access to high-speed internet at home.” 

This is the digital divide in action. 

Building an intranet business case

Bridging the digital divide in your organization begins with inclusive comms. Build your business case for an internal communications platform that brings people together.

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Poorly performing connections and technologies for some cause disadvantages that can damage productivity and employee experience. The same problems don’t exist for those with good access and space in which to work at home—usually the more senior, affluent employees—who are free to flourish. 

In addition to reducing productivity, this differential access can cause fragmented workplaces and resentment as one part of the workforce receives more advantages and the others are pushed further from the center.

Bridging the digital divide in an organization

How can organizations fix a digital divide for all remote and hybrid workers? The solutions are complex and will depend on investment in technology and other resources. 

If they fail in the mission to provide equal access to time, technology, and space, however, the existing gulf between information rich and poor employees may intensify and leave some people at a grave disadvantage, disengaged from their work and their company’s culture. 

Although internal communications and employee experience platform tools cannot fix the situation entirely, the opportunity exists for senior leaders, HR, and communicators to create corporate communications strategies that can at least work to bring teams together in understanding and collaborative work. This would meet the goal of most communicators, to raise engagement, to improve employee experience, and to optimize company culture.

Building an intranet business case

Bridging the digital divide in your organization begins with inclusive comms. Build your business case for an internal communications platform that brings people together.

Download now

The challenge: bridging the digital divide for at-risk workplace communities

Before you develop particular internal communication solutions, you need to know which segments of an organization are facing the greatest challenges to not fall behind in the digital divide. 

Research by Gartner identifies at least three at-risk groups in the new remote and hybrid workforce. It is these employees particularly whom Gartner suggests have to suffer career disadvantages because of the challenges they face:

Digital introverts

Whether they lack digital training, are shy in front of the camera, or are reticent to constantly appear on virtual meeting screens, some of our colleagues can be characterized by their digital introversion. This is perhaps even less surprising when we consider that “Zoom dysmorphia” and mental health issues arising from associated virtual meeting pressures are having an increasing impact. 

Digital introverts may be uncomfortable with talking in virtual forums, which may result in them being overlooked for key projects or not receiving beneficial career advancements because they are quieter than some of their peers.

Building an intranet business case

Bridging the digital divide in your organization begins with inclusive comms. Build your business case for an internal communications platform that brings people together.

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Women

Data from the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that during 2020, mothers spent more time than fathers on childcare and other household responsibilities. The research identified that mothers spent two hours less on paid work and more on unpaid household duties than fathers. 

If workplaces are to ensure that disparities are minimized, gender should be considered as a potential fault line and initiatives taken around corporate communication and access to advanced employee experience platforms.

Younger staff 

Due to a lack of in-person training and mentorship, junior employees may be greatly disadvantaged by a wholesale move to remote working. These more junior colleagues and new starters—particularly those who are just starting their careers—may be hindered by lack of onboarding, digital resources, and training programs, so it’s essential that as much of this as possible can be administered smoothly through digital workplace tools like company intranet software.

The opportunities: fixing the digital divide through inclusion, understanding, and technology

The digitally introverted, women responsible for children, and younger employees have all been identified as vulnerable within a digitally divided workplace functioning along remote and hybrid lines.

One way that organizations can ensure all employees have access to the right resources, important corporate communications, and social aspects of their workplace is to use internal communications technologies to place a greater focus on diversity and inclusivity. 

Senior leaders can support this through the construction of empathetic, employee-centric cultures that place as much importance on remote, frontline, and location-based workers as they do on in-office employees. To achieve this, organizations can develop robust digital onboarding and training programs, alongside multichannel communications, to ensure that those at home benefit from the same opportunities and information. 

By creating a workplace that reaches everyone, regardless of whether they’re operating from a mobile phone or a laptop, you can at least go some way to showing how valued they are. Reducing the digital divide will certainly require investment in technology and resources, but creating a vibrant, resilient company culture may also help. 

Building an intranet business case

Bridging the digital divide in your organization begins with inclusive comms. Build your business case for an internal communications platform that brings people together.

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If you already have a supportive, open culture where voices are recognized and where two-way feedback is encouraged and technologically enabled (whether that’s in meetings or on active intranet communities, blogs, and forums) then you stand a much better chance of engaging with individuals who may feel left behind. Encouraging everyone to voice their own challenges can create a sense of shared understanding and acceptance too. 

When it comes to how they receive communications too, every individual is in a different situation. Office workers may prefer emails or notifications, but for frontline workers or those in different locations, SMS messages and mobile app push notifications may be more valuable. Your internal communications strategy should ensure that everyone has access to key company updates so they don’t find out second- or third-hand and feel devalued by the experience, which is why updates should be shared via an internal communications email platform that also enables communications across multiple other channels.

Ultimately, if business leaders want to have engaged, proactive workers, bridging the digital divide is crucial. Listening to the experiences of a workforce and putting in place structures that can match their needs and expectations can build employee advocacy in a market that grows more competitive for top talent every day.

The post Bridging the digital divide with internal communications appeared first on Interact software.

To prove that investment is justified – rather than simply ‘nice to have’ – you need to demonstrate clearly the return an intranet will bring to your business. Your greatest chance is with a strong business case.

Building an intranet business case

Discover how to write a compelling business case that senior leaders will have to listen to.

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What is a business case?

Although traditionally used to justify cost and resource requirements, a business case is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal in the bid to re-design, invest or build an intranet. Produced and delivered effectively, a business case will:

• Secure senior level buy-in, budget and commitment
• Ensure you gather the support necessary to deliver on the project
• Define the opportunity and business need
• Set out clearly the value and return of an intranet
• Outline scope, including resource, timings and cost
• Evaluate options and make a recommendation

A business case is often a process requirement, and as such, it can simply be regarded as a task on the ‘to do’ list. However, when we consider that but its core purpose is actually to persuade – to convince, argue, sell an idea – it becomes a marketing document. A business case can make – or break – your intranet project.

For many, the task of compiling a business case can seem a daunting prospect. In this blog, we outline the key steps to help you build a relevant and robust case.

1) Begin with the end in mind

Like any major project, one of the golden rules is to look to the end goal – and keep it in mind throughout the process. Start the process by answering some simple questions:

• Who is the audience?
• Who are your decision makers?
• Are you delivering the business case as a document, presentation, or both?
• Do you have an existing template or framework, or do you need to start from scratch?
• Do you need to consider any specific compliance or regulatory requirements?
• When should you submit your business case?

Map out your different stakeholders and decision makers, and their level of power and interest to influence your intranet project.

Take the time to understand their priorities, objectives and what they care about: by addressing these considerations in your business case and speaking their language, you’re more likely to secure their support and buy-in.

Top tip: Always keep one eye on the CFO and address the monetary benefits and costs throughout. While they may not demonstrate high levels of interest in an intranet project, their level of influence is usually high. Transparency about investment cost and return is key to winning over this stakeholder!

2) Define the opportunity

• What ‘unmet need’ within your business could an intranet solve?
• This step is designed to outline the current situation in your business, and point out the untapped possibility – or areas of improvement – that an intranet project could support.
• Look company-wide and consider the major stakeholders identified in step 1 for this. What are their biggest current challenges? What objectives are those different departments or individuals currently working towards, which an intranet could help address? For example, common department priorities include:

The key is to go after the ‘what’s in it for me?’ and gain an understanding of what challenges employees face on a day-to-day basis. Ideas to tap into those ideas include:

• Stakeholder interviews
• Online surveys
• Focus groups
• Workplace observation
• Usability testing
• Usage statistics and analytics of current intranet

The information you gather will help shape your opportunity statement: a clear and concise summary of what your intranet project will solve, and the expected returns. Although this comes at the beginning of the business case, it will often be revised multiple times during the process – so come back to it as one of the last things you do.

Top tip: a successful intranet addresses the needs of the whole business. Take the time to identify pain points of departmental leaders, knowledge workers and those operating remotely or in the field. It may be time consuming, but it will be worth it in the long run.

3) Identify key tangible benefits

You’ve answered the top level ‘what’s in it for me?’ questions – now it’s time to delve a little deeper. Your Board or Senior Management team want to see the business benefits – so this section sets out the gains, financial or otherwise, that will show the business case is worth progressing.

First, prioritize your objectives. An intranet can potentially solve many challenges – so highlight those key areas that those major stakeholders will be most interested in. These may include:

• Increased productivity
• Improved employee engagement
• Increased revenue
• Reduced direct costs

For each objective, you need to pin down the measure of value assigned to it. Ask the following questions;

• How is it measured?
• What is it now?
• What would you like it to be?
• What is the value of the difference?
• What’s the value over time?
  
  Top tip: Our interactive ROI calculator will help you work out the potential return on investment, using just a few basic pieces of information about your business.

Building an intranet business case

Discover how to write a compelling business case that senior leaders will have to listen to.

Download the FREE guide

Need inspiration?

Showing the benefits of a new intranet on quantitative terms can be difficult so below are some of our customer experiences, which may help you to help you identify areas where costs could be saved or extra revenue generated.

• March of Dimes achieved annual cost savings of $10,000 by eliminating outdated content and moving to a more streamlined intranet platform, reducing hardware costs by more than 60%. In addition, because of more simplified intranet administrative tools, the foundation has also been able to reallocate staff from intranet administration to other projects.
• Romec saved GBP80,000a year by setting up a preferred supplier database on their intranet which meant they could benefit from economies of scale through the integration of one process when departments bought new supplies.
• Affinity Sutton saved GBP75,000 a year in manpower by having an easy-to-use solution that anyone in the business could use, regardless of technical knowledge, so the three full-time members of staff previously devoted to the intranet functionality could be redeployed to other IT duties.

4) Identify and analyze the alternatives

You’ve set out the challenges faced by your business. You’ve defined the opportunity by looking at objectives that an intranet project may help solve. Next, you need to set out the options available.

It’s often the case that by the time you reach the point of crafting a business case, you already have a selected option in mind. However, this section should demonstrate to your decision makers that you have taken a thorough approach to researching all possible options.

Next, you need to analyze each of your selected options, in line with your objectives. Even if you know which option you’ll be putting forward, it’s best at this point to be transparent and comprehensive, if possible. We typically find that the pro-con list for options falls into three distinct categories:

• Functionality: the actual features and capabilities of the solution. What tools did you identify in steps 1 & 2 as a requirement for your business? A feature matrix that puts your options alongside one another and compares the options you need will set it out clearly for your audience.
• Cost-benefit analysis: looking at the investment, both in terms of direct and indirect cost, alongside the projected returns. Don’t forget additional activities or resource that fall outside the software itself, such as launch or training activities, internal resource time requirements or communication campaigns surrounding your project.
• The ‘X factor’: any additional considerations for your potential vendors or solutions, such as:
  • Experience
  • Thought leadership
  • Reputation
  • Stable product
  • Stable company
  • Similar customers
  • Cultural match

(A simple comparison matrix that sets out the required features or functionality required for your intranet project to meet business objectives will help your audience see at a glance what each option offers.)

Top tip: Avoid the temptation to cut back on implementation options to recuperate or save cost. Evidence shows that 75% of business and IT executives anticipate their software projects will fail and fewer than a third of all projects were successfully completed on time and on budget over the past year. Investment in professional services from experienced providers can dramatically reduce this risk and play a critical role in ensuring your project delivers on your business objectives. It is an investment that pays.

Building an intranet business case

Discover how to write a compelling business case that senior leaders will have to listen to.

Download the FREE guide

5) Make a recommendation and assess risk

Using the analysis set out in step 4, you can use this section to set out your recommendation for the solution you feel meets your business needs. Next, you set out the risks associated with the project.

It may seem counterintuitive to include a section within a business case that outlines all the ways your project could go wrong – after all, you’re trying to convince and win over often skeptical decision makers to secure investment. However, it forms an extremely important part of your argument.

Use this section to show you’ve thought through risks, that you know how to plan for probable risks, and that your plan can survive when things go wrong. Risk factors are possible events that, if they should happen, could cause a direct impact on company revenue or profit that deviates from what has been forecast.

There are commonly two distinct types of risk:

• Implementation risk: The risk that a proposed investment may deviate from the original or expected requirements, resulting in higher costs than anticipated
• Outcome risk: Refers to the risk that the business or technology needs of the organization may not be met by the investment, resulting in lower overall total benefits

The easiest approach to this is with a simple impact vs. probability graph. Set out the potential risks in terms of how likely they are to occur, and how severe an impact they could have. Then, you can outline how you would prepare for or mitigate each risk.

6) Craft a plan

You haven’t secured your investment yet, so a comprehensive project plan isn’t what we’re looking for here. However, it will support your case if you can set out a top-level overview of what your project will cover, including:

• Timescales and next steps: estimated dates for sign-off, development, implementation and the launch of your intranet project will manage expectations for decision-makers
• Resource requirements and responsibilities: even if your project is being managed by an external vendor, there will doubtless be internal resource requirements that may impact on the business. Highlight who will be involved with the project, their role and the typical responsibilities they will have, for example:

• Deliverables: if your decision makers will expect progress reports, tender documents or finalized designs, list these here.

7) Present and persuade

You have a business case- now it’s time to put it forward. But how?

Different decision makers and stakeholders will have a diverse range of communication styles, which can be a challenge. For this reason, its best to prepare for all eventualities and preferences where possible. Typically, we find it worthwhile to create the following items:

• One-page executive summary
• Longform business case document, with full details and appendixes (if required)
• Presentation

These enable you to cater for the pragmatist, who seeks only top-level information and figures, through to the analyst who will want to review more in-depth research.

A preview page should set out concisely the document purpose, namely what the intranet business case will be used for, and be followed by your Opportunity Statement (Step 2). Don’t forget: some stakeholders may only glance at this initial overview, so it’s vital to get it right. It must be clear, concise and use powerful language to present your case.

Finish with a formal conclusion and recommendation statement. Reiterate the main points of the business case and align these with the top business objectives you’ve identified, before reminding your reader that the next step is up for them. Reiterate why they should approve investment in your intranet project and why that action is recommended.

Building a compelling intranet business case

Projects with a solid business case at their foundation deliver greater return to the business, are more aligned with overall business objectives and more likely to meet scope, stay within budget and be completed to the timescales set out.

A considered business case process will also support you in identifying the right solution to meet your needs and, if required, ensure you partner the right provider to deliver on your vision.

If you’re looking to secure investment for your own intranet project, our guide to writing a business case can help you compile the information you need and present it powerfully and persuasively to your decision makers. Download your guide for free today.

Building an intranet business case

Discover how to write a compelling business case that senior leaders will have to listen to.

Download the FREE guide

The post How to create an intranet business case appeared first on Interact software.

Maybe recurring costs look high in comparison to a traditional on-premise offering, which is putting the Senior Management team off and you’re not sure how to get them on board.

For more detail on that debate you can read our article, Cloud Intranet vs On-Premise Platform: Which is Best?

If you’re concentrating on cost saving then this may prove problematic.

The true potential of a cloud solution is to look beyond the cost saving and consider the long term objectives of the company. Let’s examine some of reasons why a cloud-based intranet can benefit your organisation:

Strategic

Every company has a plan and vision for what the future looks like, how they will operate and what they want to achieve. You need to consider how a cloud based intranet would help the company achieve this. For example are there big expansion plans which would require you to have a scalable solution that can be deployed quickly wherever and whenever you need it?

An on premise solution would need significant investment to make it scalable and given that this takes time and forward planning it would not be quick to deploy. You could plan for it in advance but this would mean that your investment would be underutilised costing you money until you need the additional capacity.

In the cloud you can scale up and down in a matter of minutes depending on the vendor and your contract. It is quick and easy to deploy – all you need is internet connectivity and a browser, so you can have new users up and running in an instant.

Financial

As I mentioned earlier cost saving should not be the only driver during this decision making process but this is not the only financial driver to think about. A traditional on premise intranet solution is generally seen as a Capital Expenditure (CapEx) spend because it has a useful life longer than the taxable year, the cost is then depreciated over the life expectancy the company associates with the intranet.

A cloud hosted intranet solution doesn’t need the initial capital investment as it is a monthly, quarterly or yearly expense depending on the agreement you have so it becomes an Operating Expenditure (OpEx). This change in cost model unlocks CapEx investment for other projects as OpEx is absorbed as part of the everyday running costs of the company.

Operational

What operational efficiencies is your company trying to achieve? Is your COO striving towards consistent operational processes and if so, is this being hampered by existing legacy systems? All companies have legacy systems which everybody wants to migrate from but, when it comes to it for some reason or other, the company ends up keeping it, as to replace would cost too much and take up valuable time.

Introducing a cloud hosted intranet or any other cloud application will give the company a push in the right direction to adopt new standards without the pain of a rip and replace that on premise solutions have to suffer, so benefits to users are almost immediate.

Technical

Is your IT department already shouting about being overstretched? New on premise intranet software may just push them over the edge! Implementing new solutions always places pressure on IT – they have to make sure that they have the right infrastructure in place to support it, enough space for another server, sufficient cooling for the additional equipment and then on top of all that they have to think about training and integration with other platforms. Not to mention the multitude of complaints from disgruntled users when the solution is rolled out and suffers teething issues.

Cloud intranets don’t require as much input from IT with your vendor of choice providing the backend servers, database and application – they may only need to ensure that browsers are upgraded to meet the basic requirements, which in comparison to the on premise solution means minimal impact on their time.

And there’s more…

There are lots of benefits a cloud hosted intranet can bring to a company, but in order to make the right decision you really need to understand your long term objectives. Without the knowledge of what your company is trying to achieve you won’t know if this solution is right for you. Interact Intranet software is available as both cloud and on premise options making it easy for you to make the right decision for your company.

The post Your intranet hosted in the cloud – turning the idea into a reality appeared first on Interact software.

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Interact for Office 365

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However, these facts mask the truth about the failed return on investment for many companies, with many discovering the hidden costs of SharePoint during and post implementation. There have been too many documented examples of costly failed SharePoint projects and reports show that cost overruns of 1 million, 10 million, even 100 million happen regularly.

In this blog we want to give you a true picture of the costs and impact of Microsoft SharePoint in order to help you and your company make an informed decision.

After all, we understand that a new intranet in your business involves a significant investment in time and money to achieve a new way of working that can have a real business impact in the long-term.

Is Microsoft SharePoint the safe choice?

When looking for a new solution for their company, every board level stakeholder analyses bottom line operational efficiency, cost reduction and risk, and considering a new intranet solution is no different. This broad analysis adds additional pressure to the team or individual responsible for investigating a new intranet solution.

The familiar phrase “nobody got fired for buying Microsoft” provides some sense of comfort when buying a so-called market-leading product. However, this is a false belief as many SharePoint projects simply fail to meet key objectives.

One example comes from the AIIM report ‘The SharePoint Puzzle’, which reveals only 28% of respondents had SharePoint in use across their whole workforce representing a huge failure in adoption.

Understand ALL of the costs

According to a recent Gartner report* “most organisations underestimate SharePoint’s maintenance and service costs. These can be two or three times more than the initial license price, once add-ons are deployed.”

Crucially, it is the hidden costs of SharePoint that are rarely considered. On the surface the license costs may seem straightforward, but this is just one minor part of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) which can be difficult to predict and can escalate quickly.

We want to ensure you consider these risks and understand what the cost of these risks are, and explain why so many companies see Interact as a smarter and more cost-effective SharePoint alternative.

How much will implementing my intranet cost?

Price is often a key concern when considering a new intranet platform. Many businesses mistakenly assume that because Microsoft SharePoint comes with their existing Microsoft licenses package it will be inexpensive to deploy.

However, there are hidden cost of SharePoint which can be very costly depending on which version of the software you opt for and which licence agreement you select. There is a large disparity between license costs and The Cost of Ownership. The SharePoint Census 2012 identified the cost of ownership per user per month to have averaged $48.47 through 2012, up from $45.77 in 2011.

Watch the hidden costs of SharePoint

The hidden costs of SharePoint are simply very expensive. Most IT managers will fail to scope these correctly as their SharePoint scope changes as the business requirements alter. The alterations often surface only after deployment.

To get the best out of Microsoft SharePoint it has to be treated as a software development project and that can be like writing a blank cheque. It is extremely hard to pinpoint and budget/forecast spend on a Microsoft SharePoint project.

Microsoft recommends that a SharePoint product deployment requires $8 of customisation services for every $1 of licence fee. This is often missed when businesses scope the on-going cost of SharePoint and results in SharePoint being one of the most expensive products available as a company’s intranet.

Gartner’s* data indicates that 90% of organisations using SharePoint face a challenging decision: either manage the complexity of a SharePoint system augmented by custom code, or use third-party add-ons to fill the gaps in SharePoint.

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When this cost is factored with maintenance and upkeep, and a potential for a poor return on investment, the financial impact on a business in the long term is enormous. As discussed in the introduction, hiring the skills to maintain this are not easy to find and not cheap when you find them.

*Gartner – Ecosystem Partners That Can Help You Mind Six Gaps in SharePoint

The software cost of SharePoint vs Interact

Finding a true comparative cost for SharePoint 2013 is unclear. Depending on the SharePoint reseller used, prices can fluctuate.

However what is clear is that the cost of implementing SharePoint 2013 is significantly higher than its predecessor 2010, a rise of 15%, as Fast Search and licences (CALs) for websites / extranets are now included. Below is a comparison of the estimated costs of SharePoint 2013 and Interact:

The cost of the server software looks cheap – but the CAL’s in Microsoft SharePoint are expensive. Conversion to $’s based on 1.5.

1. Interact Intranet additional modules are included in this cost – a typical configuration is assumed for 250, 1000, and 2500 users. Microsoft SharePoint 2013 figures taken from ‘Estimating 2013 licensing costs‘

2. Microsoft SharePoint 2010 implementation labour costs taken from: Forrester – The Total Economic ImpactTM of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

3. Interact figures based on average of 100 companies of similar size. SharePoint cost is based on an identical sized solution with a Microsoft SharePoint implementer as with Interact.

What will the impact on my IT resources be?

A SharePoint implementation requires specialist skills to develop, manage, secure, patch and back up SharePoint sites, databases, servers and farms despite being implemented in a Microsoft environment. Given the average salary for SharePoint specialists is GBP42,500 in the UK, and $74,000 in the US (much higher for professional services day rates), costs can quickly add up.

Basing these figures against The Osterman Report’s statement that the average SharePoint specialist team size is 2 people then it’s likely to be GBP85,000 (excluding UK benefits) or $148,000 (excluding US Benefits).

This is before you factor in recruitment fees (typically 15% in 2013 according to Monster) that could see you paying GBP12,500 ($19,000) to agencies to bring these resources on board.

Interact is low maintenance. It can easily be supported by a standard IT department, seamlessly integrated with your existing environment and has the option of annual support with our specialist Service Desk. We would not expect you to need to employ additional technical resources.

Microsoft SharePoint vs Interact cost comparison year 1:

Microsoft SharePoint

Likely total additional cost year one for employing SharePoint technical resources:

Interact

Likely total additional cost year one for employing Interact technical resources:

GBP0

Specialist technical skills are simply not required to implement Interact in your business.

To put this into context, you may decide to pay a third party to implement your SharePoint intranet which will attract a high initial cost, rather than opting for in-house services. Your requirements are likely to change over time needing you to re-engage the 3rd party or bring in contractors at a minimum cost of GBP350 ($525) per day on average.

If you don’t have immediate access to budget or struggle to get consultancy or contractor time when you need it, you are unlikely to be able to implement or integrate the tools you need. This creates a difficult balance between business need and available specialist resources.

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Imagine that a new feature was required, and that it takes ten days to develop. That is GBP350 x 10 = GBP3,500 ($5,250) – just to add one simple feature!

With Interact Intranet, non-technical teams run 87% of our implementations, usually in HR, Internal Communications and Marketing. We also have a great track record of working with the IT team to initially set-up and configure the solution, requiring minimal on-going administration.

Interact is an out-of-the-box solution – To enable additional functionality you simply tick a box and with three major updates available each year Interact is more flexible in meeting your changing needs compared to Microsoft’s three year product cycle. If you have development skills in-house you can also take advantage of the Developer Platform to integrate custom solutions.

Is SharePoint right for my business?

Ultimately this depends on your business requirements and a true understanding of what SharePoint is.

SharePoint has evolved to become the Swiss army knife of corporate IT departments, promising collaboration, team and project management, electronic content management (ECM), intranets and portals, records management, and more -straight out-of-the-box.

However, whilst a Swiss army knife is useful because it has many different tools, none of those would normally be the tool of choice for a professional in any single area.

It’s no secret that Microsoft SharePoint is a comprehensive Document Management System (DMS). The integrations with other Microsoft products (i.e. Microsoft Office) are compelling from this perspective.

But if you are looking for a comprehensive intranet platform that forms a key part of your internal communication strategy, is it really the right choice?

As mentioned above, SharePoint can quickly become expensive. The most successful and award winning SharePoint sites mentioned in publications such as the Nielsen Normal Group “Best Intranets’ or Ragan Awards are often for large organisations where significant budget has been allocated.

At Interact Intranet we recognise and understand that if you are an organisation with over 7500 employees, and have a significant budget set aside, then SharePoint may well be an attractive option for you.

Successful intranets are not just about the software

At Interact Intranet we know that clever software does not guarantee intranet success. For most companies the software is a crucial part, but the ultimate project success relies on so much more.

As specialists in intranet software and delivery Interact Intranet deliberately hire people who have been there and done it, ensuring our customers massively benefit from our experience and avoid the common pitfalls and repeated mistakes.

We have over 12 years of developing and deploying successful intranets and we’ve used this experience to create and refine our Intranet Success Methodology.

This methodology ensures that we provide the right balance of professional services such as consultancy, branding, training and project management to ensure intranet success.

Many Microsoft SharePoint implementers don’t have dedicated intranet consultants; they just have the technical skills that can often lead to failings in adoption and poor ROI, particularly post launch.

As Interact is an easy to deploy product, the professional service investment ensures;

• A roadmap to ensure your intranet and business objectives are met in an effective and measurable manner
• Training tailored to your needs and intranet team
• ROI is measured and tracked using our powerful Interact Analytics
• Greater intranet governance
• Successful intranet architecture
• Strong branding matching the organisations requirements
• Your intranet launch is successful (we launch 50+ intranets per year)
• You are assisted to plan and deliver your post launch phases to ensure your intranet continually delivers your needs

Find out more about our services and expertise

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Interact is designed to support your organization and its users in maximizing Office 365, helping to provide a frictionless experience for employees in the ever-evolving digital workplace.

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The post The hidden costs of SharePoint appeared first on Interact software.

Having learnt so much during SXSW 2013 it made sense to attend again. And this time I was joined by Simon Dance (VP, Product) and Rachel McCourty (COO), following a great catch-up with our US Team in Dallas.

Once again the scale of the event amazed me. For just the ‘Interactive’ part there was over 30k+ of attendees from all over the world, such is the draw of the speakers and topics.

Since the Interactive inception over $490m has been awarded to over 71 start-up companies.

And once again it was tough simply trying to decide which talks to attend. Having three people there helped!

Here are the highlights of SXSW 2104

A very popular talk was the The New Digital Age by Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google) and Jared Cohen (Director of Google Ideas, Google). This drew a strong crowd understandably. It was a fascinating discussion on the digital age and the impact specifically in emerging countries.

As part of their research for their book, Eric and Jared traveled to thirty-five countries, including some of the world’s most volatile regions. They wanted to understand how technology will change the way we approach issues like privacy and security, war, diplomacy, revolution and terrorism.

And there are many examples of the changes happening right now.

We all know the the smartphone revolution has already happened in the modern world but it’s expected to explode in the developing countries in the next 3 to 5 years. But already the impact they’re having is extraordinary. For example, children in African nations are using Google Maps to plan and share routes to school that avoid known land containing IED’s.

And In Iran the government there is so concerned with citizens accessing the internet and any information that could cause public disruption that they’ve publicly stated their intention to separate Iran’s internet access from the rest of the web. Basically creating an ‘intranet’ for Iran. Completely self-enclosed.

Eric and Jarod then went on to discuss how technology is impacting employment. For at least 20 years the employment model on manufacturing has had to shift itself due to robotics. For example in car production. Repetitive manual labour was replaced by more efficient robots to increase production. We are now starting to see this in software and other automated products where again repetitive manual labour can be made more efficient. Software is becoming more intelligent.

As Schmidt said recently at Oasis: The Montgomery Summit: “Technology is evolving from asking a question to making a relevant recommendation. It will figure out things you care about and make recommendations. That’s possible with today’s technology.”

This is something at Interact Intranet we actively embrace. We want to stop people having to manually recommend content to others and let our Intelligence Store do all the work.

One of the major keynote sessions was by the infamous Julian Assange. This drew a huge crowd as he speaks publicly very rarely.

SXSW is known for huge queues for keynotes but in this case the bigger queue was people wanting to leave. As most people know he’s currently based in the Ecuadorian embassy and so the interview was conducted via Skype.

Technical glitches aside, the answers provided by Assange to questions coming in from twitter and by the interviewer were very drawn out and simply not engaging. It was a huge deal for SXSW organisers getting Assange to speak but unfortunately it didn’t work.

Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson on the other hand then showed how a keynote should be done.

Dr Tyson is probably one the most passionate and personable speakers I’ve ever seen. Obviously extremely comfortable in speaking to large crowds he immediately engaged with the audience and began to explain science, space, and why dinosaurs never had a space program.

Mashable produced this top 10 list of his quotes from the day:

1. “A scientist is just a kid who never grew up.”

2. “Science literacy is how much do you still wonder about the world around you. What is your state of curiosity?”

3. “You can’t just choose what is true and what isn’t.”

4. “All the nine-planet people out there, just get over it. It’s eight!”

5. “There’s so much to be impressed with in the universe. I don’t want you to be distracted by things in the universe that are not.”

6. “One reason we should go space: You know the dinosaurs would have gone there if they could have. Dinosaurs didn’t have opposable thumbs or a space program, though.”

7. “To be scientifically literate is to know when someone else is full of bologna sandwich.”

8. “The missing skepticism is the problem.”

9. “If we’re trying to go into the 21st century and be competitive, we can’t just believe we’ll be competitive.”

10. “I would encourage you to not become attached to the number of things. There’s no physics in the number of things.”

In summary Dr Tyson was trying to encourage everyone to question why things work and not just accept things as they are. In other words, the power of why.

This is a mantra we at Interact Intranet strongly believe in. In order to succeed as a company we had to constantly evolve to better serve our customers. This is throughout the company and through all departments.

In or Product Team our developers look to always ensure that they question why first before starting a new project, or in Sales (an area I know very well) our intranet consultants will always question why a prospect achieve a certain goal and whether our software can assist them meeting their goal.

And certainly at a senior level I, and the other members of the leadership team, are always looking to question why, then make sensible changes to continue our success and growth.

Conventional wisdom says employees who question why are a huge pain. In reality, they are doing you a huge favour.

Understanding the importance of their work – the “why” – motivated them to get better results. A salesperson tells, a good salesperson explains and a great salesperson demonstrates.

Innovation is not for the exclusive area of leadership. Employees who respectfully ask why are demonstrating an interest in their jobs and exhibiting a curiosity that could eventually translate into leadership ability. Encouraging them is essential!

At Interact Intranet we see this as critical in the success of our company to provide successful intranets for our customers.

The post SXSW Review 2014 appeared first on Interact software.

For those of you who’ve never heard of SXSW before it originated in 1997 as a music conference and more recently grew to include Film and what we’re particularly interested in ‘Interactive’ – emerging technologies. Quite simply, this is now one of the biggest festivals in the world running for 11 days.

To give you a sense of scale, in 2012:

• SXSW directly booked nearly 11,000 individual hotel reservations totalling 50,000-plus rooms.
• 147,000 people attended from all over the globe
• The impact of SXSW operations on the Austin economy exceeded $73.7 million.

The sheer amount of sessions, workshops, keynotes, special events, and the expo itself, is actually a little overwhelming. There’s almost too many great things to attend, so you have to pick and choose carefully.

Here are the highlights of the sessions I attended at SXSW 2013:

Opening Remarks Keynote Baratunde Thurston – Credit: Bobby Longoria

Enterprise Invades the Apps Playground

This fascinating session spoke about how, according to Gartner, enterprise apps will generate nearly $40 billion in sales for developers by 2016.

In a relatively short space of time iOS devices have now become the dominant force in the enterprise. Of Fortune 500 companies, 80% of employees use an iPhone and 65% use an iPad, and according to Alex Williams, 71% of IT leaders see mobile as transformational.

Business Applications are the now fastest growing category in the App Store with:

• $44 billion mobile apps by 2016
• An average of 41 apps per device
• An estimated value $56b of apps by 2016

In a way mobile working is now the Trojan horse in the enterprise. Executives are buying these devices themselves as they want information on the move at any time and it’s facts like these that highlight the change of decision making to ‘line of business’ rather than through traditional channels.

Nigel saw this highlighted at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Santa Clara in 2012 and this trend is obviously continuing. Rather than employees asking IT for new technology they’re getting it themselves, by-passing the entire traditional decision making process.

The major drivers for change to ‘apps in the enterprise’ are simplicity and ease of use. Employees can download, install and use applications instantly, which provide information 24/7. BYOD is no longer ‘bring your own device’ but ‘brought your own device’. This has already happened. The stats above highlight this.

At Interact we recognise these drivers in everything we develop. For an intranet to be successful it’s absolutely critical that it’s very easy to use and provides a simple interface. Any technology needs to provide a hook for the user. They need to engage and see the benefit within minutes, so simplicity is critical.

Data & Gamification: Value to the Enterprise

Peter Kim, Chief Solutions Architect Dachis Group, Jeremiah Owyang Industry Analyst on Customer Strategy and a Partner at Altimeter Group and others discussed the concept of gamification in this thought provoking session. The questions that had been asked before were still there:

• Will gamification work in the enterprise?
• Will employees track and hack the systems to get to the top?
• What value will it provide to an organisation?
• Will it distract employees from getting work done?

The key is understanding a business and its employees, and then using these technologies in the right way.

Taking a perspective from the social world, sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and even Foursquare can provide interesting insights into human behaviour.

Desire to be liked / loved: People have a natural deep desire to be liked and this is seen in posts on Facebook where users are trying to drive ‘Likes’ and Shares’.

Providing value: When web forms first originated, users were very reluctant to fill them in. These days it’s common practice especially when a user understands the application will provide value. For example, LinkedIn can be used to seek out new employment opportunities.

At Interact we’ve looked at these technologies and behaviours to provide value to an intranet community.

With our Rewards Widget we provided a flexible and easy to use way of colleagues being able to reward each other for getting work done. In many cases this has really helped enhance the sense of community and camaraderie with our customers.

Or with our Influence Score widget we provide an easy interface to show where an individual fell into a league table of influence inside an organisation. For many customers these simple game mechanics, drove an increased usage of the intranet and identified experts and help share their knowledge within organisations.

For both of these examples we deliberately kept the applications very simple to use and monitored their impact inside organisations to see how they could be enhanced.

Again, the key is simplicity and ease of use. Intranet Managers can quickly add these applications into the intranet.

Keynote: Tim Berners-Lee

Without Sir Tim, I wouldn’t be writing this blog right now, or even worse, Interact may never have existed. Can you imagine a world without the Internet? It’s a strange thought.

Tim spoke in his usual rapid pace about web technologies over time and the importance of sharing and open standards for the greater benefit of everyone. The community ‘WebPlatform’ is a great example of this where developers are coming together to build an open, better web.

Tim also spoke of the continued work by W3C to support artists in world where everything is shared. In particular they’re looking into easy ways to ‘stroke’ the artists content with small easy micro-payments (i.e. 10 cents for a blog post).

Towards the end of his talk Tim references HTML5 and the exciting opportunities this can bring particularly around video and audio.

Keynote – Elon Musk

Having been a huge fan of SpaceX and particularly Tesla cars I was excited to hear this interview style keynote… And I wasn’t disappointed.

Elon Musk is essentially Tony Stark. What he’s doing to change the world is simply incredibly inspirational. With companies such as SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and Solar City he is inventing new technology at a rapid pace, and making it work.

As an exclusive at SXSW, he showed a video previously unseen of a reusable rocket taking off and landing again. Reusable rockets are the future of space travel and this video showed amazing progress in this area.

SpaceX is doing such amazing stuff that it’s no surprise to hear that NASA is actually one of Musk’s customers (and account for 25% of all of their launches), or that he recently offered (for free) to address the battery problems on Boing 787’s for Virgin Airlines (with Richard Branson being a friend of his).

Musk is also working on a almost unimaginable new mode of transport called Hyperloop which, if it actually comes to fruition, would be simply incredible.

Having read previous books on thinking big by other entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson, they cannot be compared to what Musk is doing. There’s thinking big and there’s thinking BIG.

Musk has taken fundamental world problems such as energy production, space travel and transport and turned them upside down.

As a younger man Musk spoke of being frustrated that NASA hadn’t really progressed in space travel since the moon landing and wanting to change this. It’s one thing to think this but it takes almost incomprehensible levels of guts and determination to do it.

According to Musk, “becoming an ‘interplanetary species’ will eventually be our most attractive (only?) hope for survival” and that “space travel is the best thing we can do to extend the life of humanity.” And when asked about his biggest mistake, Musk produced an answer that really summed up the man:

“The biggest mistake, in general, I’ve made, is to put too much of a weighting on someone’s talent and not enough on their personality. And I’ve made that mistake several times. I think it actually matters whether somebody has a good heart, it really does. I’ve made the mistake of thinking that it’s sometimes just about the brain.”

For a man who comes across as calm and unassuming, but who’s risked billions to get where he is today, this was incredibly inspiring.

Musk stated: “If you’re attempting change, you have to see if what you’re doing is going to result in disruptive change, if it is just incremental, it is not likely to be substantial.”

At Interact we want to create amazing and essential intranet technology that really transforms the way a business operates and creates true value. To do this you simply cannot progress at ‘normal’ levels. You have to innovate and make big step changes and this means taking risk.

For some this seems a scary thought but if you look at all the successful entrepreneurs it all involves taking risk. True, some of these risks fail and you have to embrace these, but others provide massive payback.

Richard Branson is famous for his statement ‘Screw it, just do it’ and at Interact this is something we refer back to again and again. It’s easy to make little step changes but taking big ones requires vision and ultimately, belief.

When it comes to intranets you can apply this mantra in many ways. Let’s imagine you want to launch social technologies in your product but you’re concerned about people misusing the technology and the eventual feedback to senior sponsors.

I’d say, convince your sponsors to think ‘Screw it, just do it’. What’s the worse that can happen? Your employees are already communicating anyway via email, in the kitchen, by the coffee machine, and on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Why not provide them with an easy to use secure platform where they can have these conversations and so get a true understanding of what’s working, or more importantly, not working in your business?

The payoff will be worth it.

Coming next week we’ll look at Tina Roth Eisenberg’s list and how to apply to intranets.

The post SXSW Review: Tim Berners-Lee and Tony Stark inspire appeared first on Interact software.

So what do I mean by an essential intranet and how do we define this?

An essential intranet is one that a company depends on to carry out critical business processes. We define this as one that mixes the right blend of communications, business processes and collaboration (or social if you’re feeling brave) to achieve ultimate intranet success.

The amount of each element required in an essential intranet shouldn’t be fixed – it should constantly evolve just as the nature of business does itself. Some businesses may have a larger section of collaboration, some may have more communication – it’s about finding the right blend of all three components that is suitable for your organisation.

Let’s look at this in detail.

Communications

Intranets were born to deliver content. Back in 1996/1997 the fundamental aim was for them to be a central hub in an organisation where employees could view the latest news and policies. This has worked successfully over the years and although it’s rarely the sole function of a modern day intranet, it still forms part of its makeup as it is a way of pushing important content to employees. For example, the HR department will always need a central place to publish a new policy or procedure – information that needs to be pushed to employees.

Business Processes

I recently attended the J Boye conference in Philadelphia and was present in a great informal session on ‘Intranet Killer Apps’ run by Lau Andreasen (see my blog entry). Intranet Managers from across the globe were discussing what ‘the killer apps’ were on their intranet. What was driving the traffic and what did the employees rave about? Not surprisingly these apps were very business process orientated with examples such as booking rooms, processing expenses, requesting holiday and even ordering their lunch (often the most essential!)

There’s no doubt business processes will continue to be a significant part of intranets in the future. These pull users into the intranet – they come because they need it to carry out a critical business process that can’t be carried out without the use of the intranet.

Collaboration

Collaborating on an intranet by introducing social tools has rapidly been gaining momentum over the last 4/5 years. From simple features such as blogs and forums back in 2008/2009 to more engaging tools in today’s intranets such as teams, @ & # tagging, micro-blogging, feeds and gamification.

Discover more about the three elements needed for an essential intranet and discover the role your intranet plays in the technically advancing workplace in our free webinar with digital communications specialist and author of ‘The Digital Workplace – how technology is liberating work’, Paul Miller.

Although published in 2010 this diagram by Dion Hinchcliffe still provides a useful insight how the intranet landscape has changed. This shift to social has grown and grown. Many organisations now use social software in some form on their intranet (present on 87% of organisation intranets, according to the findings of the Intranet 2.0 Global Study.)

As the study reveals, even though the organisations have the tools, they have not yet deployed them enterprise wide. In fact fewer than 10% of organisations have a truly social intranet that incorporates social media at most levels and encourages the use of these tools by all employees.

This will change however as evidence is published on their effectiveness in an organisation.
McKinsey and Company has reported that the revenue growth of social businesses is 24% higher than less social firms and data from Frost and Sullivan backs that up across various KPIs.

Jacob Morgan also unearthed a new Frost and Sullivan report that has interesting data about collaborative tools concluding that: Companies that deployed collaboration tools saw improved performance in innovation (68% vs 39% that didn’t deploy), sales growth (76% vs 50% that didn’t deploy), and profit growth (71% vs 45% that didn’t deploy.)

Social intranet tools are now really starting to gain traction. Employees want to communicate in tools that are familiar to them. We all know about generation Y (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y) and their expectations on how to communicate are moving into the business world. For example, who uses email these days to organise a night out?

The Essential Intranet Blend

At Interact we believe that the correct blend of the three components – communication, business processes and collaboration, creates an essential intranet. This blend of course is different for every organisation.

We have experienced this first hand at Interact. For example, many organisations when launching their intranet often hold back on the social technologies. Their blend at launch could almost be described as traditional with a mix of push communication, business processes (i.e. eforms) and a little sprinkling of social such as document comments and blogging.

This blend then changes over time and adapts as the intranet grows, develops and gains traction. Employees adapt to the social technology, they begin to collaborate to solve business problems and share best practice and suddenly this technology goes from a ‘nice to have’ to essential. Unlike other tools, Interact Intranet allows organisations to introduce social tools at their own pace and grow as required.

Intelligent Blend

So now that we have our blend, how do we combine the three? At Interact we’ve long believed that intelligent intranet is the future of intranet technology. As previously mentioned in Nigel Danson’s CMSWire post pushing relevant content to users dramatically improve intranet engagement.

The intelligent store and intelligent features in Interact Intranet link the three methodologies together in many ways.

For example, in the recently released version 5.1 of Interact Intranet, we’ve launched a fantastic new application called Activity Management. This really focuses on linking all three elements.

Activity Management offers a unique way of distributing activities to individuals or groups within an organisation. Built around documents (traditionally push), this module gives managers and head office staff full transparency on how employees are progressing with activities and quickly identifies quickly identifies if deadlines are not being achieved.

As well as employees being able to easily see their list of assigned activities using the Activity app on their intranet homepage, they are able to comment on their progress, publicly or privately, and feedback once the activity has been completed.

By allowing people to collaborate around activities – efficiency is increased and problems are solved faster, helping to create a successful social intranet that solves business issues through collective intelligence.

This application intelligently combines:

• Communication –using documents traditionally used as push content
• Business processes –the activities being assigned to an employee or group to get work done
• Collaboration –the ability for employees to collaborate and share best practice

It’s the types of tools that combine these concepts which will assist companies in their quest to achieve an essential intranet.

Analogy Time:

Think about coffee for a moment – not so long ago coffee (in the UK at least) consisted of freeze-dried granules from a glass jar, mixed with a hot water and dash of milk. It did the job – a hot beverage that kept you alert. This is how I think of traditional intranets many years ago – a ‘flat white coffee.’

How things have evolved today. We now have an entire coffee menu and coffee machine’s which blend our perfect coffee (get the ‘blend’now?). It’s still a hot drink that keeps you alert but it has been blended to produce an even better coffee that is personalised for you. Just as an essential intranet today has elements that are blended together to produce an intranet that is the life-blood of the organisation.

Discover more about the three elements needed for an essential intranet and discover the role your intranet plays in the technically advancing workplace in our free webinar with digital communications specialist and author of ‘The Digital Workplace – how technology is liberating work’, Paul Miller.

The post The essential intranet blend appeared first on Interact software.

For me it was a challenge. I wanted my initials flashing at the top as I knew my friends played the same game. It was rewarding when I achieved this, kept me engaged with the game so I kept playing, and quite a buzz!

Why is this relevant you ask?

Well, in today’s world many companies are using game theory or ‘gamification‘ within technology in many fields including health, social and education to drive user adoption by making technology more engaging and appealing, where traditionally it may have lacked appeal.

The use of badges, leader-boards, incentives and rewards within these applications are using gamification to drive usage and sustain momentum. They try to entice people to re-use an application over and over by tapping into their competitive and inquisitive natures.

In education these types of projects have been launched to reward students. For example, receiving ‘on target’ badges or ‘reading points’ creating leader boards for the students.

In the social world, applications such as the ‘Friend Report Card’ for Facebook make it really easy to list all friends in a leader-board based on the number of ‘Likes’ and ‘Comments’ they have generated around an individual’s posts.

Foursquare is also an excellent example of an application using gamification to drive on-going usage as members gain new badges and earn points.

So how does this apply to the intranet world?

To start, most modern intranets (like Interact Intranet – shameless plug) already have the essential ingredients including:

• Lots of employees and information about them
• Different ways of categorising people (departments, groups, locations, job roles, social circles, teams)
• A recorded history of activity (i.e. comments posted, activity, questions asked, documents viewed etc etc)
• Applications and usage stats

What can you do with this data is the key question. Many intranet companies, including us here at Interact, have been continually looking at ways of introducing elements of gamification that will assist in user adoption and continued momentum of usage.

After all that’s the ultimate goal – usage and adoption. An intranet has multiple purposes for different people but for those managing the application they want success, which instant and continued usage is a crucial factor.

So, what are examples of ‘gamification’ in intranets?

The classic example is Sabre, an international travel company. In 2008 on their self-built intranet they launched a concept of Karma Points for contributing and answering questions, with great success.

Another example is Idea Street, a project by the UK based Department of Work and Pensions which uses employee idea submission (ideation) combined with leader boards to drive employee engagement and share ideas.

In Interact Intranet we have introduced leader boards for our recently launched Interact Answers tool.

We’ve found this simple idea has really gained traction with our clients’ users desperate to see their names at the top of the board, for answering the most questions.

Gamification is not only used to assist in continued usage and adoption but can be also used for other purposes such as an intranet launch. Romec Ltd used an innovative game to launch their intranet with huge success.

At a wider scale, positive contribution to intranets by employees can overlap into many areas including HR. For example, a manager in an organisation may look at an employees’ intranet contribution such as ‘questions answered’ as part of their yearly review.

There’s no doubt these types of tools have to be introduced with careful consideration by intranet teams. There is definitely a ‘cultural fit’ issue and some companies will have more success than others.

However the trend is continuing. Gartner saysby 2015, more than 50 percent of organisations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes.

In summary gamification can definitely have a positive impact on today’s modern intranets. Used and managed carefully this type of technology can really benefit an organisation by driving innovation, connecting employees and reinforcing a company’s culture.

The post The power of ‘Game Theory’… in your intranet? appeared first on Interact software.