Melcrum Publishing has just published a research report entitled Transforming Your Intranet.’
I got an email about it yesterday and my first thought was: yet another expensive report about intranets with the same old late-90s view about them and the org-chart approach on how to use them.
But then I read the synopsis (PDF). And then I looked at who the authors are. And I concluded: this one looks very different.
This is the first report of its type I’ve seen which includes a significant focus on social media such as blogs and delivery mechansims like RSS:
[] Helping you understand new technology such as RSS, wikis, blogs and social computing and whether you should include them on your organization’s intranet.
What you’ll take away:
* Expert advice on whether you should integrate new technology into your intranet, and if so, how to go about it.
* A weblog strategy used by a major consulting firm that interlinks five different types of blogs in order to disseminate employee, client and sales lead information much faster.
* Extensive lists of further resources – websites where you can download RSS, urls for best-practice CEO blogs or download and employee blogging guidelines that you can adapt for your own company.
* Case studies on implementing RSS at Siemens, and social bookmarking and wikis at IBM.
I know two of the nine authors – Euan Semple and Dave Wallace – both of whom I’ve worked with before in presenting workshops that address internal communication and social media. While I haven’t read the report itself, if Euan and Dave are involved with it then that elevates its credibility to a high level in my eyes.
The report costs 255/$395/370. Is it pricey? Depends on how you look at it. If it gives you the knowledge that helps you make some smart decisions on what you can do with your intranet – the long list of blue-chip companies as case studies is impressive, too – then it would be a worthwhile investment.
(Disclosure: I have a relationship with Melcrum through presenting workshops for them. That relationship has zero influence on what I say in this post.)
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Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.
Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.
