Intranet Lounge

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/

Name:	http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/
Score:	285
Last Seen:	2 days, 3 hours, 8 minutes ago
Member Since:	22 November, 2011

The Business is the Bottleneck « Ellen's Digital Workplace

“Ellen, could you have this site up and running in about 2 weeks?” my clients often asked. “Yes, I could, but can you?” I always answered, “my experience is that the business, and that is YOU, is usually the bottleneck.”

The client always looked a bit annoyed when I said that. And that was a good starting point for a conversation about roles and responsibilities. Understandable, because the business does not always know what is expected of them, and when they know it, they do not always know how to do it. Read on to learn how we tried to manage mutual expectations.

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 2 days, 3 hours, 8 minutes ago

Tags: Project Management, Sharepoint, testing category: Management, Governance & Strategy

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The Perils of InfoPath « Ellen's Digital Workplace

Our Business Solutions team has not used InfoPath very often. It is really a very cool tool, and I love its transparency, but people often experienced an access denied or other annoying error message that prevented them from working with it. It may have had to do with our customization.

Next to that, some forms can be very complex, especially when you need different views for different people, or if they take data from other systems. I have had to refuse support for one of those forms. And we have had more issues...read on!

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 13 days, 18 hours, 44 minutes ago

Tags: Forms, InfoPath, Sharepoint category: Technology & Features

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Software cost reductions in a Team Site « Ellen's Digital Workplace

In the series of “Do More With SharePoint-Examples” this time I will explain a process where a Survey saved our IT-department lots of time and effort. Technically/functionally it is one of the most simple examples, but from a change management perspective, and because the idea is easy to transfer to other organizations, I thought I’d share. What was the problem? Many employees had rather expensive Software X on their PC, and local IT wanted to reduce licensing costs by providing a cheaper alternative, but were afraid of the administrative burden of emailing back and forth with 100 users. SharePoint came to the rescue...read on!

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 41 days, 4 hours, 13 minutes ago

Tags: Efficiency, Sharepoint, Survey category: Content & Communication

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Oh good – our intranet upgrade budget has been cancelled! « Ellen's Digital Workplace

So, there is a new version of SharePoint coming up, so you may be thinking about moving to the latest version. But there’s an economic crisis going on, so your budget may be under attack.

In any case, I expect some very interesting discussions will take place in many organizations on this subject. And if your management decides not to spend money at this time, please do not despair! There will be other opportunities to improve your intranet, and you will now have the time to explore them. Read on!

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 54 days, 22 hours, 27 minutes ago

Tags: budget, relaunch, upgrade category: Management, Governance & Strategy

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How do I spring-clean my intranet? « Ellen's Digital Workplace

In my last post, I mentioned why it is important to review and remove your intranet content on a regular basis. This time I will share some guidelines on how to do a cleanup action, even though I realize that every situation is different. What do you need and how do you actually do it? Read on!

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 68 days, 7 hours, 29 minutes ago

Tags: Content Management, Usability category: Content & Communication

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It is time for intranet spring-cleaning! « Ellen's Digital Workplace

Perhaps some of you are doing a regular spring cleaning in your home. But it is also useful to regularly clean up your intranet, especially if there are no plans for a platform upgrade or a merger with another intranet. How much dust have your documents collected? How many contributors have left the company? How many Team Sites have been left unattended? All this unmanaged content keeps showing up in search results and taking up disk space. And remember, the usability of your intranet decreases with increasing amount of content! In this post I will focus on the reasons for spring-cleaning your intranet; next post will contain some guidelines on how to do it.

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 82 days, 2 hours, 49 minutes ago

Tags: Content Management, Usability category: Content & Communication

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How NOT to implement a Discussion Forum « Ellen's Digital Workplace

I hope that everyone by now knows how to start and manage a Discussion Board or Forum. But just in case you are new to this, let me share my experiences as a warning! We received a request from the CEO to collect tips for cost reductions (and revenue increases) throughout the company. A global topic, of high relevance, and endorsed by the CEO; this was a wonderful opportunity to use our Forum functionality. In the first few weeks, the Forum received many suggestions and it looked as if this was going to be very successful project. Until two things happened...

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 89 days, 6 hours, 43 minutes ago

Tags: Crowdsourcing, Forum, internal comms, social media category: Management, Governance & Strategy

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A little Bring-Your-Own Drama « Ellen's Digital Workplace

Today is going to be an exciting day! With my new iPad fashionably dressed for the occasion, I head into the office. Today we are starting Bring-Your-Own-Device to work! How wonderful it will be to work with one computer! No more struggling with Dropbox or USB sticks. And I can't wait to see what our intranet looks like on my iPad. But remember, you pay a price for bringing your own device...Read on!

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 104 days, 23 hours, 36 minutes ago

Tags: byod, intranet, Sharepoint category: Technology & Features

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The 80-120 rule for IT Projects. « Ellen's Digital Workplace

As you will know, I have helped many colleagues with setting up SharePoint Team Sites. These could be simple project sites, mainly used for sharing documents, but also sites where important processes were facilitated. My clients were very diverse. Each initial interview was therefore exciting. What kind of person would be in front of me? The Hesitator, the System-Lover or the Ideal Partner? Or the person who inspired the 80-120 rule? Read on!

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 120 days, 1 hour, 38 minutes ago

Tags: collaboration, Sharepoint, Team Sites category: Management, Governance & Strategy

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Managing a Program in a Team Site

As promised in my last post I will elaborate some more on the “PMO Team Site”. - When do you use this configuration? - What are the benefits of this setup? - What is the Site setup? - Using traffic lights for status - Ways to display information

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 127 days, 21 hours, 51 minutes ago

Tags: intranet, Projectmanagement, Sharepoint category: Social intranet & Collaboration

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Project Management in a Team Site « Ellen's Digital Workplace

Over the years, we have used Team Sites extensively for managing and working in projects. Depending on the type of project, we have used them in different ways: - Simple Projects: stand-alone Team Sites - Recurring projects: Team Site with templated subsites - Multiple projects: 1. PMO Team Site - Multiple projects: 2. Program Site Collection.

Read on to learn more.

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 139 days, 19 hours, 13 minutes ago

Tags: Project Management, Sharepoint, Team Sites category: Usability & Design

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KISS: Keep Intranet Statistics Simple!

I may be irritating KPI-addicts, mathematicians, or other people who like counting, measuring and comparing, but what gets measured does not always get done!

Of course that requires some explanation.

When we moved from a custom-built intranet to SharePoint, we had to think about usage statistics. SharePoint could not get us the statstics in the way we wanted, so we asked a third party to develop it. We got a little carried away withe the functional requirements, with dramatic results....

Source: mydigitalworkplace.wordpress.com Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 154 days, 1 hour, 45 minutes ago

Tags: intranet, Sharepoint, statistics category: Management, Governance & Strategy

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How confidential is an intranet design?

When I was developing snack products, I was never allowed to talk about my work with people outside my company. Others might copy our ideas! But in intranets, things are really different!That is because only the content can be confidential, but not the design, navigation etc.

Source: wp.me Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 172 days, 19 hours, 16 minutes ago

Tags: confidentiality, design, knowledge sharing category: Usability & Design

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Crisis Management in a Team Site « Ellen's Digital Workplace

If you have ever been involved in a product recall or another crisis, you will know that this is a stressful time! Everything that can relieve that stress is more than welcome. Read about a Team Site setup that has helped a team with their recalls and crisis situations, so they could save time, reduce stress and improve collaboration.

Source: wp.me Posted by

http://ellenvanaken.wordpress.com/ 182 days, 5 hours, 6 minutes ago