Betting the Farm on SharePoint: Why BT chose to go the Microsoft route
By Mark Morrell
When you have one of the best intranets globally – don’t take my word for it, ask the Intranet Benchmarking Forum who independently assessed it – why would you decide to make the biggest change to your intranet since it was created over 15 years ago?
As the BT Intranet manager I was involved in making the decision to change all our intranet tools, starting with collaboration tools and People Finder, to SharePoint 2010.
First off, BT has a very successful intranet. People in BT take it for granted that it is always available. It is accessible from office, home or mobile locations. It is very well governed and managed. Standards ensure people are confident they can rely on the integrity of the information they use. Collaboration tools encourage knowledge sharing and self-service applications enable people to complete many tasks online.
But to use the farm analogy, it was like having a mixed farm with the land being used for many different animals and crops, each needing specialised attention, support, different fencing to separate them and harvested with different tools by people with different experience and expensive skills.
You’re starting to see the problem a little clearer now aren’t you?
BT has various intranet tools for historic reasons that fitted the intranet strategy at that time. BT had 3 content management tools, several best of breed collaboration tools and a few more home-grown tools like Directory and Podcast Central. Individually they were right for what was needed but collectively it became harder to ensure standards, look and feel, and functionality was similar and what everyone expected it to be.
Know your business needs
What was the solution that overall gave BT the best value – good user experience, technology and support cost savings – from its investment in its intranet?
When BT’s board approved a Knowledge Management and Collaboration (KM&C) strategy in late 2009, it led to requirements being created to assess collaboration, content and document management and people finding tools. These were created based on business and user, not just IT, needs and shared with senior management stakeholders across BT before being adopted.
Some organisations I know have made the mistake of just using IT requirements and have struggled to gain the benefits from the technology chosen.
Requirements can include examples like people being able to share knowledge on a wiki or blog, publish content, and check the audit trail of documents, as well as the speed of finding someone using keywords. For an intranet manager it is how to manage functionality and look and feel as well who has permission to see, create or edit different types of information.
The tools assessed with these requirements were based on existing strategic relationships between BT and IT companies as well as other new companies that came top for value, functionality and fit with BT’s requirements.
Why SharePoint 2010?
While SharePoint 2010 was not the best of breed solution for every requirement it was good enough overall to clearly show it would give BT the best value for its needs. The alternative was to stay with what BT already had.
For the first time people in BT can now easily share in one place all the knowledge, experience and people they are connected to along with other useful information. For the first time anyone can find a person or piece of knowledge that can also help you find other related information and people to help you further.
The first priority of the KM&C strategy was to improve collaboration, making it easier for people to share knowledge. BT is a global organisation with around 100,000 employees operating in over 170 countries. The different time zones and locations make meeting people face to face very difficult and not quickly achieved.
There were other challenges:
1. The alternative of sharing online was good but could be made easier. For example, the BT Directory gave a person’s contact details, whereabouts, job title, hierarchical position which was automatically updated from HR systems every day. All very good but if you wanted to add links to sites you owned or a community of interest you belonged to it wasn’t possible to add. There was no space available on Directory with its limited functionality.
2. Blogs are available on demand to anyone in BT on the WordPress platform. There are many helpful, active and informative posts. But it wasn’t easy to link to your blog from your personal details in Directory.
3. You can create a new article or add to an existing article in BTpedia, the corporate wiki or in project wikis. Again it isn’t possible to link from Directory to this rich information.
4. Documents you have created or edited that are stored in OpenText’s document management system can’t be linked to from Directory.
5. The same applies for web sites you own or publish to part of in OpenText’s content management system.
So you see what I am getting at. Collaboration does work in BT but it could be improved even more. That is what drove collaboration to be in the first phase of the rollout of SharePoint 2010.
Every page on BT’s intranet has a global navigation bar with the same headings and links. An extra link, People Finder, was added to the bar to give people the choice to search for someone using SharePoint 2010. The result took you to MyProfile for the person you searched for. For most people this was their first experience of SharePoint 2010 (and we know what people say about first impressions being important).
MyProfile gives you the same information found in Directory – contact details, hierarchy and whereabouts – and much, much, more. You also have:
• About me – you can add a biography or other personal information you want to share;
• Ask me about – you can add topics you can share expert views and experience with;
• Keywords – so people find your areas of expertise you can help others with;
• Organisation – shows pictures as well as names of colleagues you are connected to on projects, as well as your line management hierarchy and members of your own team;
• Overview – shows your skills which you can update;
• What’s on my mind - Facebook type feature where you show your mood that day;
• Recent activities – you can add useful views and experiences about things you have done;
• Links to your blog, wiki articles, documents (people only see what they have permission to use).
As well as this rich functionality, it is all in one place, either on the same page or just one click away. The look and feel is the same removing any need to adjust to a different format and set of features for a blog, wiki or Directory page.
Knowledge sharing made easier
Sharing knowledge and finding people has become much simpler, leading to better productivity and huge time saving. Calculate 5-10 minutes a day for over 100,000 people using People Finder and it is a big figure! Further savings from closing other existing intranet tools add to the benefits to be gained.
Back to that farm analogy, it is a more efficient operation. Everyone has the right skills and tools to care for the crops grown. Harvests are managed better with investment available for future improvements.
Most importantly, it makes a BT a more efficient and effective business, sharpening that competitive edge needed to continue to be successful in the years ahead.
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About Mark Morrell
Mark Morrell is an intranet pioneer combining strategic thinking with implementation skills. Since 1996, he has developed intranet strategies and has first-hand practical experience of implementing major technology and change projects. As the former BT Intranet manager (a position he held for 9 years), he transformed the site into one of the best intranets for engagement, governance and collaboration.
Mark now heads up Mark Morrell Ltd., helping large organisations with their intranet strategy, governance, standards and use of collaboration tools.
Follow Mark's blog at http://intranet-pioneer.com/.
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