an intranet redesign on a tight budget -...

An Intranet Redesignon a Tight Budget

Therese Griffin, Mgr. Marketing & PhilanthropyChristy Season, Sr. Intranet Strategist

11.05.10

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Please note: SCANA is not endorsing SharePoint over any other product. We are simply sharing our experiences with SharePoint.

SCANA Corporation is a Fortune 500 energy-based holding company with businesses in NC, SC, and GA.

• Headquartered in Cayce, SC• ~ 10,000 employees and contractors (6,700 have access to intranet)• Corporate Communications: 8 employees (1 dedicated intranet strategist)• Web team (internal/external): 3 employees• IT (internal): 3 employees (about 25% dedicated to intranet)

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Agenda

• Where we started

• Our redesign process

• Where we are now

• What the future holds

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Early warning signs

• Communications survey indicated need for change

– In 2008, 67% of employees use intranet at least once per day

o58% in 2005 and only 44% in 2002

– In 2008 about 99% of employee respondents said they have access to the intranet

– Employee intranet use grew 25% in just 2 years

– Employees indicated need for search functionality

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Old Intranet

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What we started with…

Old intranet had been around for four to five years• Experienced typical problems of any home grown intranet

– No search– No Web metrics– No processes or governance– Corporate Communications managed all sites; every

department site update went through our dept.– Not a flexible template, heavy reliance on already busy IT

resources• Fixing these issues usually requires multiple vendor solutions

and a large budget.• Biggest problem = No Funding!

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But we did have SharePoint

• IT Dept. purchased SharePoint as a project collaboration tool for employees (2005)

• SharePoint was rolled out ‘quietly’ (more pull than push)• Employee adoption of SharePoint grew over time – number of team sites

quickly multiplied• Realized after getting familiar with SharePoint that a lot of our problems

could be solved with SharePoint “out of the box”– SharePoint already purchased, continuously updated with new

features as Microsoft updates product– Search functionality– Web Analytics– Blogs– CMS giving others outside our department the ability to edit

content on the intranet

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By ‘converting’ our intranet to SharePoint, we would get the benefit of SharePoint functionality at zero additional cost.

Intranet Conversion

We didn’t want SharePoint ‘out-of-the-box’ because of limitations with design and formatting

• Developed Business Requirements for a new Intranet based on employee research (usability tests, survey results, etc.)

• Met with IT– IT could easily customize style and design– Extra functionality that wasn’t ‘out-of-the-box’ SharePoint

IT could provide by building custom Web parts

Called redesign project “Intranet Conversion” because “conversion” communicates zero budget increase as opposed to “redesign”.

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Usability Testing Key Driver

• Conducted several usability tests prior to redesign– Card sorting with employees

o Group of employees who represented general employee population

o Wrote every site (over 1000) from old intranet on separate index card

o Asked employees to sort cards in logical groupings

o Data was main driver for top level navigation categories

– One-on-one interviews and observation of employee intranet useo Traveled to different locations and watched employees use

intranet (office, plants, business offices)

o Gained great insight into how different employees were using intranet daily and what major needs existed

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Redesign Lesson Learned

• Used agile development process throughout 18 month redesign– Used process called ‘SCRUM’

o Write all deliverables on index cards

o Organize by priority

o Separate into manageable smaller phases, called “sprints”

o Address each phase in predefined time period (we used two weeks)

– Allows for easier change management and a more flexible timeline

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Employee Feedback

• Asked for employee input throughout process

• Pilot Testing

– Pulled together intranet power users (site owners, IT employees, Marketing & Communications employees)

– Opened up access to pilot testing group month prior to official launch date

– Created forum for group to post feedback

– Found many issues and small typos our team overlooked

– Identified areas that needed greater communication than others for launch

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Intranet Pilot Test site

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New Intranet

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New Intranet in edit mode

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Employee Benefits Site

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Example of Corp. Comm. managed interior site

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Content Search Results

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People Search Results

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People Profile

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Video Communications

• New platform has less reliance on IT resources– Documented all technical and administrative info related to the

new intranet– Multiple resources across IT and Corporate Communications will

be knowledgeable in all aspects of the new intranet

• Corporate Communications can now manage and coordinate intranet layout, structure, and security

• Utilizing SharePoint allows for easy content decentralization– Site Owners Community

o Identified and created a group of site owners who represent department sites on the intranet

o Trained group in building and maintaining their department sites on the new platform

o Provided with guidelines and will participate in future content auditso Win/Win for everyone

Content Decentralization

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Example Department Site

• Needed to communicate new intranet launch with minimal cost and time

• Created 30 second ‘commercial’ videos as teasers and posted on old intranet prior to launch

– Used employees as actors; filmed in office

• Involved Site Owners Community & PilotTest Group

– E-mailed signs to print and hang in theirwork area

• “Ask me about The Edge”

– Created stickers and mailed them to Department Site Owners and pilot group testers to wear on launch day

– Asked group to act as ambassadors and answer questions

• Held live Web cast during lunch on launch day giving tour of new intranet

Grassroots communication plan

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Grassroots communication plan

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• The Edge – Apply directly to your workday

• Extreme Edge Makeover

Where we are now…• 6,700 employees and contractors have access to the intranet• Usage up for 2010

– About 91% of employees who can access intranet did at least once per month in 2009

– Currently through September, about 92% access on a monthly basis– Helps build case that it’s not just office employees using intranet anymore

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The Edge Unique Employee Visits

Search Analytics

• What we track…– Top search keywords

– Keyword searches with no Best Bets

– Searches with no clicks on results

• How this helps…– Identifies popular topics, need for more info

– Identifies need for additional Best Bets

– Alerts us if employees can’t find info on topics

• We’re continuously improving search so employees can easily find info to do their job

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Where we are now…

• Employees are using search consistently. It is one of the most popular tools on the new intranet

• Top search keywords are typically online work tools specific to job functions or locations

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Employee Feedback

• Surveyed employees about six months after launch of new intranet

• Goals– Measure usage and satisfaction with the new Intranet

compared with the previous version

– Measure usage and satisfaction of specific sections of content and tools within The Edge

– Identify unmet demand for functionality and customization

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Employee Feedback

81% of respondents use The Edge daily

51%

30%

13%

5%

1%

Q: During the average work week, how often do you use the corporate Intranet (The Edge)?

Ongoing basis / several times a day

At least once a day

Few times a week

Once a week

Rarely / never

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Employee Feedback

Over half of the respondents would be affected within a day if The Edge was unavailable.

25%

16%

19%

15%

4%

21%

Q: If The Edge were not available, how long would it take for your work activities to be affected?

Almost immediately

Within 1 to 5 hours

Within a day

Within a week

Within a month

It wouldn't affect my work at all

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Employee Feedback

• Asked several open ended questions– What site improvements can we make to help employees

find information more easily?

– What changes or improvements would help improve the People Search?

– If there was a magic button on the home page that would make your job easier, what would it be named and what would it do if you clicked on it?

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Employee Feedback

Humorous Magic Button responses…

– "Bonus" and it would deposit $1000 into my checking account.– it would be called the "employee improvement/eraser" button

and it would bestow knowledge and a proper work ethic on any employee you thought needed it including yourself. However if the button was pushed more than 3 times for any specific person in a 24 hour period by 3 different individuals than that person would simply vanish.

– Let me order food in Cafe and have it delivered to my desk.– The button would be named "Clear" and it would automatically

and intuitively clear my calendar from unnecessary meetings or meetings with no agenda.

– The button would be named "Park" and it would magically rearrange the cars in the parking lot to place my car closest to the walkway with empty spaces on either side to prevent door dings.

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Employee Feedback

• Categorized responses into top themes

– Personalization/Customization of home page

– Continuous improvement to search tool

– Improve content organization

– Not aware of available tools, sites, content

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Biggest theme: need for greater customization and personalization – employees want to get to their critical online work tools easily.

What’s next?

• IT updating to SharePoint 2010 (includes potential for added social functionality)

• Creating ‘My Links’ section on home page for employees to customize with work tools they use frequently

• Customizable RSS feeds on home page of industry news feeds and targeted information

• Mobile Intranet

• Commenting/Rating on news articles, videos, and other content

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Social Intranet

• Very family oriented which leads well into social media

• Aging workforce and a large percentage of employees eligible for retirement

– Social and collaborative tools could help capture and retain a great deal of knowledge from employees that might otherwise be lost

• Recently implemented and communicated Social Media Guidelines

• But are we ready?

– Sr. level leadership still not completely comfortable with social media• Regulated utility, growing culture of compliance

– Conservative culture

– Resource constraints

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Testing the social media waters

CEO Blog• Initially blogged about new corporate campus, but need arose to discuss other topics (economy)

• CEO writes his own blogs– speaks in his own voice, uses humor– blogs about economy and major company initiatives

• Latest posting reached over 2,500 employees• Comments sparse at first, but employees

getting more comfortable leaving comments• No anonymity

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CEO Blog

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Employee Bulletin Board (internal Craigslist)

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Ask SCANA Q & A site for employees

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Frontline – online employee-focused publication

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Customer Service Challenge – Employees submit ideas

What we learned…

Look for in-house solutions by partnering with your IT department. If your company has already made the investment in SharePoint or another technology, take advantage of the “free” functionality it has to offer.

Involve employees as much as possible throughout the entire process. Involve them in defining your needs, testing, and for getting continuous feedback for future enhancements.

We recognize that we are a conservative company and not quite ready for all the bells and whistles of a full-scale social intranet. Right now we have to focus on strategy first and build the social media business case using existing Web 2.0 tools and pilot programs.

Originally, thought intranet would be used primarily by office employees; however, metrics show much wider adoption among all employees.

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Thank You.

Questions??

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Therese Griffintgriffin@scana.com

@taneida

Christy A. Season, CAPMcseason@scana.com

@christyseason