“Not your mother’s intranet”

1. “Not your mother’s intranet” Transforming the impact of your staff, your board, your partners. Presenter: Rich Whitney, YMCA of USA Presenter: Tuba Coskun, Engender Health, Turkey Moderator: Chris Wolz, Forum One Communications

2. “Not your mother’s intranet” Session introduction Moderator: Chris Wolz Forum One Communications wolz@forumone.com

3. Why are intranets and extranets important today? • Your public web site is done! Yay! • Though - it targets a diffuse, mass audience • So… what are you doing for those important folks who are “near and dear” to you? • Staff, partners, coalitions, board, funders, etc? • Tight resources – you need to do more with less • Work processes / systems – already very electronic • Rising expectations of staff, etc – to work online

4. Why are intranets and extranets important today? Intranets/extranets can improve: • Efficiency – access to common resources • Operations – support critical workflow • Collaboration – platform for dialogue • Culture – support creative, flexible thinking • Connections – enable new organizing approaches • Impact – on the ground results

5. How can intranets/extranets enhance your impact?

6. Key issues: building it • Audience centric: • Know and nail your audience’s needs • People want tools to get their jobs done • (not just information) • Email email email: still a key way to reach people • It’s a birthing, not a “launch”

7. Key issues: managing it • Centralize/decentralize • Centralize: technology, design, training • Decentralize: content management • Management planning • Need: steering, managing, contributing, tracking • Incentives: why will people contribute? • They have to – it’s their “job”(?) • Peer recognition • Ownership, control, professional satisfaction • Professional growth

8. Hierarchy of information value? “I don’t need a reference library – I need a reference librarian!” Archival library What’s going on… Self service – professional and personal needs Admin chores: time keeping, expenses Project tracking Are we doing anything new on “x” Who’s who Does anyone know how to…

9. YMCAexchange Developing an extranet to support 18,000 nationwide staff Rich Whitney Director of IT YMCA of the USA Richard.Whitney@YMCA.NET

10. YMCA of the USA • National resource organization for all YMCAs in the United States & Puerto Rico • 980 YMCAs • 2,600 locations • 18,000 full time employees

11. What we did • Replaced old, organically grown site that was developed part time by a single individual • Hired outside consultants to help design new site • Involved more than 100 staff from 60 YMCAs across the U.S. • Involved representative sample of YMCAs • Large, med, small organizations; all areas of US. • Cross-departmental project, not an IT project • Sponsor was Marketing & Communications dept.

12. User involvement • Online survey taken - available to everyone • 554 responses • Joint application design sessions • Field Studies (observational shadowing) • Card-sorting activities • HTML prototype review • Beta testing before go-live

13. Key aspects • New site incrementally replaced old site • Design and development took 7 months • Roll-out took 8 months • Re-survey of users is planned in 6 months • “Email subscribe” feature • Users can subscribe to “sections” of site and get periodic emails detailing changes and additions to their area of interest • Used a content management system (Atomz)

14. Key lessons • Involve End Users throughout the site’s development • Distribute burden of site maintenance by empowering departments to create/update their own content • Keep content fresh, especially on the Home Page • Measure site usage

15. Read more • YMCA builds extensive online community (1/24/05) • http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/012405ymca.html

16. EngenderHealth Intranet A centralized virtual repository of information with decentralized management Tuba Coskun Program Associate/Technology Team EngenderHealth tcoskun@engenderhealth.org

17. EngenderHealth Briefly • Founded in 1943, EngenderHealth is a nonprofit organization that works internationally to support and strengthen reproductive health services for women and men worldwide. • EH has worked in over 90 countries, 5 continents • Currently EH works in over 30 countries and has over 15 field and satellite offices

18. The need for an Intranet • Over 300 staff, 75% are located in the field. • Information must be: • Available around-the-clock • Available to all staff • Timely • Accurate

19. The need for an Intranet • Provide 24-7 access to information • No matter where someone sits (Bangkok or NY), information is there • For all staff

20. History • EngenderHealth Intranet is 9 years old • The technology department saw the need and started the initiative • Could one webmaster do it all?

21. History • First training for selected field office staff in 1998. • Staff from Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Thailand and Turkey were brought together in Turkey for a one week training on learning web design. • They became the first “intranet gurus” of EngenderHealth

22. What is there? • Every Field Office has a home page • Every department within EngenderHealth has a home page • All these are maintained by intranet gurus of those country offices or departments.

28. What else is there? • Web-mail • Citrix Applications • ASP Applications • Online file manager • Time reports for New York and Field Offices • Budget and workplan applications

29. What else is there? • Financial reports/forms (even sample vouchers) • Access to financial systems (AFW) • Access to data bases (like personnel data base) • Standard Operating Procedures for New York and Field • Travel procedures • Emergency Closing

30. What else is there? • Technologies how to’s • Wireless • Scanning printing • E-mail FAQs • Video conferencing • Remote computing • and the list goes on…..

31. What else is there? • Training Tools • Robo demo • Apreso • Manuals/Instructions

32. What else is there? • World Wide Staff Directory • Who does what in New York and Field Offices with pictures, e-mails etc. • HR Procedures • New hire forms • New hire orientation • Corporate card application

33. EngenderHealth Intranet The only, trusted source for information

34. Keeping it up to date and interesting Timely: As new information becomes available, post it immediately Monthly updates about new postings Don’t attach it to an e-mail, post it!

35. Keeping it up to date and interesting • It belongs to us • Pictures of company picnics/parties • Pictures of staff • Pictures from field visits IT BRINGS STAFF TOGETHER…….

36. Measuring Success Satisfaction Surveys every three years “one stop shop” “I love it” “where I go when I need answers”

37. Challenges • Refresher Trainings • New technologies – staying abreast of them • Time/intranet gurus have many other job responsibilities.

38. Must for an intranet one thing is a must: Fast and reliable internet connection • EH has standardized connectivity requirements by office size, ranging from 56kb for a small office, to 256kb for a Regional Office