http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/ Martin's perspectives on developments in intranets, extranets, content management, enterprise search and the information management industry en-gb Intranet Focus Ltd 2006 martin.white@intranetfocus.com Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:05:50 +0100 PHP5 An increasing interest in SharePoint 2007 seems to be driven by the twin assumptions that social software applications will have an immediate and significant positive impact on business performance and that SharePoint is the only social software application worth consideration. Both assumptions are wrong but understandable. As far as social software is concerned there has been very little independent analysis of the products that are available, which are both more numerous and complex in their functionality than is generally recognised. As a result this  Thu, 3 Jul 2008 13:05:40 +0100 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=40 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=40 Over the last year or so there have been a number of surveys that have indicated how difficult it is to find information inside the average enterprise but on their own they do not make a case for the value of information as an asset to the enterprise. In the June 2008 issue of Harvard Business Review (pp61-70) there is a paper by Gary Neilson, Karla Martin and Elizabeth Powers (all at Booz and Co.) entitled The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution. The core message of the paper is that there are four fundamental building blocks to ensure effective strategy execution, and the most powerful of these is effective information management Wed, 28 May 2008 23:16:38 +0100 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=39 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=39 This year's Enterprise Search Summit was the best so far, and that is not just because I had been invited to give the opening keynote. At a guess around 300 delegates attended the event. Overall the quality of the papers was very high, and even the presentations by the search engine vendors were not out-and-out sales pitches. The programme, developed this year by Michelle Manafy (Editor of EConent magazine) had tracks designed to appeal to experienced practitioners, delegates with a degree of enterprise search experience, and finally delegates who were coming to enterprise search for the first time Thu, 22 May 2008 14:21:06 +0100 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=38 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=38 Can you also consider signing up to participate in the Global Intranet Survey 2008 developed by Jane McConnell of NetStrategyJMC. Jane has made a highly innovative contribution to our understanding of the ways in which intranets are used by organisations, and how they are managed. The value of the survey will increase substantially if the number of respondents continues to increase each year. I have found immense value in the 2006 and 2007 reports and I would ask you to participate in the survey no matter how small your organisation or intranet Mon, 19 May 2008 03:47:35 +0100 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=37 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=37 The closing date for the Intranet Innovation Awards 2008, sponsored by Step Two Designs, was 16 May, but James Robertson has told me that this deadline has been extended to 23 May. Please do consider entering. Even if there are some elements of your intranet that should not see the light of day there are almost certainly some innovative approaches that you have implemented that would be of interest to a global audience of intranet managers Mon, 19 May 2008 03:38:03 +0100 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=36 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=36 Over the last couple of years some well-researched studies have indicated that at best 50% of employees are satisfied with the enterprise search provided by their organisation, and the indications are that in fact the situation is worse than even this appalling figure. In general organisations have little idea of how to specify a search engine, and even less about what it takes in terms of staff expertise to get the best of whatever has been selected. Of course if the selection itself is flawed then there is little that can be done in terms of post-installation tuning Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:41:47 +0100 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=35 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=35 In March this year Capgemini released The Information Opportunity Report. This report provides all the evidence you are ever going to need to convince senior executives that just investing in information technology without thinking strategically about information management is not going to have the expected impact on business performance. The report highlights the fact that organisations are generating increasing volumes of information but this simply is not reaching decision makers on time Wed, 2 Apr 2008 16:07:27 +0100 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=34 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=34 There is no doubt that Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS07) is the fastest-growing information platform of all time, with already over 100 million seats licensed, even if not all being used. The publishing industry also sees considerable revenues in MOSS07 and the shelves at even your local Borders are groaning under the weight of books on how to develop MOSS07 applications. However at every event I attend, and from many of my clients, I find that IT departments are promoting the view that MOSS07 will meet every conceivable information platform requirement, especially intranet content management Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:51:19 +0000 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=33 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=33 James Robertson has announced that entries are now open for this year's Intranet Innovation Awards, with a closing date of 16 May 2008. All intranet teams are encouraged to enter their innovative approaches to the design or delivery intranets. This may be may be an entirely new piece of intranet functionality, or a good idea implemented particularly well. This is a very different approach than that taken by the Nielsen Norman Group in its Intranet Design Annual, where an organisation's entire intranet is assessed Sat, 8 Mar 2008 18:40:01 +0000 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=32 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=32 The number of intranet-related conferences is starting to increase, which is very welcome. The events that I am aware of at present are listed below. If you have a good travel budget there is almost one per month you can attend. Please let me know if there are any important events that are missing. Intrateam Intranet Conference, Copenhagen, 5-6 March Intranet Usability, Melbourne, 5-7 March Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:07:46 +0000 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=31 http://www.intranetfocus.com/blog/entry.php?entry=31