Demonstrating intranet value in tough times

We’ve focussed a lot recently on what we’re referring to at IBF as the campaign for the recession-strength intranet. Watching the intranet news and blogosphere I’m noticing this getting more coverage which is encouraging as intranet managers need all the support they can get as the economic downturn continues. In a post this week Jane McConnell sums up the risks of sidelining the intranet sparked by some of the responses to her pre-survey quick poll:

“Organizations are taking huge risks by ignoring or down playing the intranet during these tough times. Those that decide to leverage the intranet to help the organization save time, decrease and avoid costs, and communicate and collaborate better are those that will have a better chance at surviving the crisis and becoming stronger. I wonder how many organizations have actually calculated what they save by downsizing intranet teams versus what they will be losing.  Practically none, in my opinion.”

This point is also emphasized in a timely article by Rachel Lei published on CIO.com this week on Leveraging the Power of the intranet:

“When businesses are faced with a scary and volatile market, the intranet often falls by the wayside and attention is focused outward. Increasing revenue is the primary goal even in the best of economies. What we all miss at times is turning inward and taking stock of how we can better serve the customers we already have. Your intranet can be key in helping your employees provide exceptional customer service, and it can make it easier for them to drive more sales and provide added value.”

It goes on to mention some of the other ways that the intranet can help to provide cost savings such as moving printed materials online and enabling employee collaboration. These kind of cost saving initiatives on the intranet are key to its survival in the times we’re in. If you haven’t read it yet I really recommend the free research paper we released earlier this year “The Recession-strength intranet” with its real life examples of how smart intranets are “finding ways for the intranet to release previously unexploited value and make a major contribution to the organisation’s bottom line.”

But what about intranets that are already providing value but this value isn’t being  measured and importantly acknowledged at the highest levels of the organisation? With intranet metrics often falling off the bottom of the intranet team’s to do list, this is a real issue. A recent poll at Intranets Live showed that people tend to underestimate the value of the intranet compared to what IBF has found through the Intranet Financial Value Benchmark - as a live tweet from the session sums it up:

 

In a timely article on Ragan.com aptly titled Without metrics, intranets languish Toby Ward comments on this issue:

“Executives have no respect for the intranet," explains Toby Ward, CEO of consulting firm Prescient Digital. "They see no value in it, little future for it, and they see it as a cost center. There are a few execs who get it—but most don’t, and that’s why it’s stagnating at most organizations.”

Demonstrating value can range from a baseline of having a clear “elevator pitch” on intranet value, through a more fully fledged metrics program, right through to the full-blown Intranet Financial Value Benchmark that IBF recently launched. All three levels have been looked at in recent posts:

The bare essentials or “elevator pitch” in Measuring the effectiveness of intranets:

"The three main points that every Intranet Manager should be prepared to demonstrate at any time are:
1.    State the current investment levels and business as usual costs
2.    List current intranet services and deliverables including their benefits to the organisation
3.    List additional beneficial intranet services that can be added at low cost to help the organisation improve or cut costs"

Developing a more fully fledged metrics program was the topic of a recent Special Interest Group, the highlights of which appeared in Demonstrating intranet success using metrics which looked at practical ways to measure and report metrics (including low cost methods):

•    User/Customer satisfaction
•    Content accessed/User Journeys
•    Performance of site
•    Readability score of content
•    Search terms used
•    Time to complete transactions
•    Number of participants in social areas

And the full blown analysis developed by IBF that is the Intranet Financial Value Tool in What is the financial value of your intranet? Now we have the answer... which quantifies the exploited and unexploited contribution of an intranet in terms of financial cost savings, revenue gains and reduced risks - and in a way that will certainly make the CFO sit up and pay attention.

Wherever you start, demonstrating the value of the intranet is certainly coming to the fore in the current climate. Intranet managers can take encouragement from the recent Watson Wyatt survey which found that since the start of the economic slump 72% of employers have increased intranet use, signalling an acknowledgement of how the intranet can help (and again emphasising  the importance of being able to make sure this is recognised at senior levels).

Is your intranet recession-strength? How are you demonstrating its value in tough times? It would be great to hear your answers to these questions as we’ll be continuing to dig into them moving forward.