Take Charge Of Intranet 2.0 Initiatives

1. For IT Decision Makers Take Charge of Your Intranet 2.0 Initiatives by Mark Fidelman MindTouch, Inc. For centuries, their credit has been claimed by others. They are routinely robbed of promotions and blamed for failures. But, look who’s laughing now. Middle managers are at the center of the Intranet 2.0 universe, and it’s about time. In the business world today, you must innovate or die, and the plug is pulled quickly on those that don’t make it. Smart companies don’t wait for the next Steve Jobs to show up at their door; they use the power of collective thought – primarily from those middle managers – to generate and implement innovative ideas. To motivate and empower that collective thought, the corporate Intranet has become the platform of choice. At the most effective and competitive organizations, an Intranet 2.0 platform supports the rapid development of strong personal networks that connect people and their ideas to facilitate collaboration, knowledge sharing, and project execution. Yet, many companies have not implemented Intranet 2.0 concepts. Their Intranets remain encyclopedic; the users are merely students of static information. This paper looks at the role of the middle manager in initiating a MindTouch Intranet 2.0 solution, building consensus in its use, and expanding its reach across the enterprise to create a collaborative environment that fosters innovation. table of Contents Innovation and the Collaborative Intranet .......................................1 Uniquely Situated .......................2 MindTouch Support for Pilot Projects.......................................2 User Adoption Grows – No Problem for MindTouch Standard .....................................3 MindTouch Enterprise – Implement Innovation .................3 InnovatIon and the CollaboratIve Intranet Web 2.0 revealed the value that can be derived from mass participation. Intranet 2.0 adapts those same social technologies to the smaller enterprise domain to create a collaborative Intranet. Innovation grows as collective thought is both enhanced and subjected to the increased scrutiny of real-time collaborators. It all makes sense when one understands Intranet 2.0 implementation best practices. Absent the depth and cultural motivation of open web social networks, a collaborative Intranet can only go where user adoption takes it. And, like the consensus of collective thought, user adoption is a more reliable indicator of valuable innovation. User adoption and collective thought grow more efficiently

2. 2 Take Charge of Your Intranet 2.0 Initiatives For IT Decision Makers and produce more innovation rising from participation than descending from top-down mandates. There is no master plan for the successful implementation of a collaborative Intranet, just as one can’t plan innovation. The process is iterative and ongoing, and is based on deliberate experimentation, testing, and refinement of ideas. Solutions are deemed successful when business goals are achieved. The key is to have a powerful development platform that supports collaborative Intranet initiatives. While innovative ideas can come from anywhere in the organization, and the driving force behind an Intranet 2.0 implementation can be any of many factors, both evolve more often and more efficiently from middle managers. And while a master plan defeats the purpose, we can offer a few tips to the middle manager contemplating an Intranet pilot project. tIp – select the best project team The success of a social Intranet pilot project will depend entirely the society. Keep the group to a manageable size – no more than 50 or so – but have enough people to constitute a small community. Choose people open to new ideas and technology. Include a senior executive, preferably one with access to a budget or influence on budgeting decisions. UnIqUely sItUated Middle managers are uniquely situated at the confluence of ideas and action, with a finger on the pulse of their departments or project teams and the voice of senior management in their ear. They print and spend the currency of innovation – the pilot project. Only middle managers are ideally positioned to launch and assess pilot projects, drive user adoption, and form the consensus that substantiates the business case for collaborative Intranet initiatives. tIp – build the project Around a Specific requirement or event A successful evaluation requires real-world analysis. Pick a closed-end project or apply collaboration to a real event. Budget owners need to see real benefits and final results to justify an investment. MIndtoUCh sUpport for pIlot projeCts Innovative middle managers can implement a collaborative Intranet solution for a department or work group quickly and with only minimal corporate resources using MindTouch Core, the open source development platform that is rated as the best collaboration software by industry analysts. MindTouch Core is ideal for technical enthusiasts that can get by initially without the productivity tools and plug-and-play enterprise connectivity provided by MindTouch licensed solutions. Managers can confidently undertake grassroots initiatives because Core is simple enough to be immediately useful. Intranet 2.0 success depends on building active, sustainable participation, and Core delivers a platform that enables rapid application development – and rapid re-development to quickly respond to early user feedback. Pilot projects have every chance for success October 28, 2009 © 2009, MindTouch, Inc.

3. 3 Take Charge of Your Intranet 2.0 Initiatives For IT Decision Makers due to MindTouch Core’s low costs, flexibility, and ease of use. User adoptIon Grows – no probleM wIth MIndtoUCh standard Whether the initial project attracts users or other departments see that success and jump on the Intranet 2.0 bandwagon, MindTouch 2009 is a seamless upgrade that adds functional support for a growing user base. This low cost, licensed solution provides access to enterprise features that deliver instant ROI, including database and CRM adapters, charting tools, full featured LDAP. Additionally, MindTouch Desktop Productivity Tools, provide drag- and-drop integration with any Windows application. As importantly, the MindTouch 2009 license comes with basic support. The growing user base is supported, and managers can focus on developing new functionality. tIp – Kick-start the project A blank screen isn’t going to excite any one. Start the project by creating a basic navigation structure and uploading/creating some initial content. tIp – Create and build activity Introduce the pilot by assigning initial tasks to be completed by team members that add content or commentary to the site. Enable notifications and RSS feeds so that others can see the increasing activity around the community. Figure 1. MindTouch Executive Dashboard tIp – announce, launch, and promote the site Publicize the imminent launch of the pilot site to team members and senior executives. After launching, encourage usage through follow-up meetings, new assignments, and announced successes. MIndtoUCh enterprIse – IMpleMent InnovatIon Enabled by MindTouch to launch Intranet 2.0 applications without corporate resources, middle managers become the incubator of new ideas that prove business value as user adoption grows. The tools created can be used across October 28, 2009 © 2009, MindTouch, Inc.

4. 4 Take Charge of Your Intranet 2.0 Initiatives For IT Decision Makers the enterprise both internally, to increase efficiency and productivity, and externally to communicate with customers and other stakeholders. MindTouch 2009 is a complete collaborative Intranet solution that offers robust enterprise-grade capabilities and scalability for medium sized and large organizations. Large scale, high traffic, unlimited user deployments are supported, and each user is able to create customized views of all organizational data to empower individual and collective innovation. October 28, 2009 © 2009, MindTouch, Inc.

5. headquarters Mindtouch partners Certified vendors MindTouch, Inc. 555 West Beech Street Knowledge-n-Aber Pty. Ltd. ASK San Diego, CA 92101 Nukak Technologies Corra Tech Tel: +1 619.795.8459 Productive Edge Elvenite AB Fax: +1 619.795.3948 Solutions First Esolia Email: marketing@mindtouch.com Tinval Fairway Technologies www.mindtouch.com Intertesto technology partners MindTouch Inc. is the leader in Enterprise 2.0 Collaborative Networks and is changing the way businesses capture, share and collaborate on information. With MindTouch, companies are revolutionizing how they work and increasing returns on investment from existing software, hardware and humanware. Pentaho Aurelia Reporter Salesforce.com GroundWork ScreenSteps Kaltura SugarCRM Microsoft The Washington Post MySQL Novell join Mindtouch MindTouch serves more than 16 million users and thousands of companies. Customers include Mozilla, Microsoft, Intel, Intuit, The Washington Post, EMC, Harvard, Timberland, The US Army and The United Nations. MindTouch users report double-digit percentage increases in productivity and orders of magnitude of return on investment from their MindTouch powered Collaborative Intranets, Extranets and Documentation Portals.