In an earlier post, we talked about the advantages of filling out your intranet profile page. Especially in big organizations where staff members don’t meet each other in person, intranet profile pages help employees get familiar with each other and discover people with specific skills. This aids productivity and collaboration.

In fact, more and more of our prospects are looking for user profile pages in their intranets.

Unfortunately, some intranet users may not see the value in keeping their profile pages updated.

What can you do to encourage your intranet users to have a fully filled out profile page?

Here are some ideas:

Make it a requirement for new employees

You probably have a process for getting new staff members on board, including setting up user accounts and passwords. Make the intranet profile page part of that process. Better yet, make it a gate for other requirements, such as getting their permanent employee ID. (That’s just an example, I’m sure you can think of something that better suits your organization.)

Hold a contest

Contest are motivating. Even more so if you make it a contest between departments. Make it a race to see which department will have complete profiles first. Staff will not want to make their department lose. And employees will tend to push their team members.

Just for fun, and to keep intranet users engaged, you can have thematic or seasonal contests, such as best Christmas profile picture, or cutest profile picture with a pet.

Set a good example

Do whatever you have to do to make sure the top executives in your organization have complete intranet user profiles. If their profiles are incomplete, it sends a message that intranet profiles are not that important. In contrast, if the CEO and the rest of the C-suite and department heads all have updated profile photos and complete profiles, then their staff would be motivated to follow suit.

Do your intranet users use their profile pages to their full potential? How do you get them to fill out their profile pages? What have you tried that worked well, and what hasn’t worked? Do tell!

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

Have you ever had event participants get lost, because they didn’t know how to get to the venue?

You can minimize the chances of that happening when you provide location details in Noodle intranet’s calendar application.

Watch this video to learn how:

If you don’t have Noodle intranet software yet, click the button below to start your free, fully-functional 30-day trial (no credit card required):

Need more help to find the most suitable intranet software for your company or organization? Download our free guide, “20 Questions: What You Should Know to Find the Best Intranet Solution for Your Organization”

Click here to request your copy

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

More and more it seems companies want their intranets to resemble social networking sites. Facebook, to be exact.

Just last week, during a product demo, the prospect asked, “Can I ‘like’ an item?”

In fact, some organizations use Facebook itself as their intranet, or at least to provide the “social” part of their intranet.

Are these people insane, or are they on to something here?

The Advantages of a Facebook-Like Intranet

There are benefits to a Facebook-like intranet.

User adoption

For one thing, it will probably be a lot easier to get staff to use it than a traditional, boring intranet. If they’re Facebook users to begin with, then a similar interface would be familiar with them already. Plus, Facebook is associated with fun.

Personal connections

Another advantage to an intranet that looks like a social network is that it lets staff connect with each other more easily. They can post updates, photos, and videos. They can give each other thumb-ups. They can comment on each other’s status updates, comment on other people’s comments, and even get a small discussion going.

Curious about a person? Simply click on their profile page and you get an entire timeline. You’ll get snapshots of this person’s most life milestones.

An intranet that can do all this, or close to it, makes it easier for employees to collaborate with each other by building trust and familiarity.

The Disadvantages of a Facebook-Like Intranet

Of course, nothing is all good. There are drawbacks to using Facebook as the model for your intranet.

Poor archiving and searchability

If you’ve ever tried to find an old post (even your own) on Facebook, you’ll realize it’s a poor tool for document management. Everything gets buried as new updates are published. This means it’s hard for you to find what you need when you need it.

Waste of time

Also, you may be surprised, but the truth is, some people simply don’t want their intranets to be overly social. They may see social networking as idle chatter, unproductive. Some prospects I’ve talked to want to switch OFF the social features of Noodle intranet, like user profiles, instant messaging, and status updates.

The problem of “likes”

Finally, some social network conventions are ambiguous and of limited usefulness in a work setting. Take the action of “liking” a status update or giving a thumbs up. Intranetizen has rightfully asked: what does “liking” actually mean? Is it useful at all? (Read the debate and share your two cents here)

“Liking” sure is an easy way to acknowledge a co-worker’s status update. But it can also be a cop-out. I’m in a rush, so instead of typing and posting a comment on your status, I will simply click on the thumb-up button and get on my way. Meanwhile, you bask in the glow of having so many “likes” but in the end, you have very little usable information.

In a work setting, would you settle for “likes,” or would you need comments?

Another problem with “liking” on Facebook is how it affects your update’s visibility. If your update gets plenty of “likes” and comments, Facebook tends to bump it up on your friends’ news feeds, so that more of your friends are likely to see it. This means content gets more exposure based on popularity — not usefulness. Is this how you want to vet content on your intranet?

What Can Intranets Learn From Social Networks

Facebook and other social networks may not be the perfect model for our intranets. But we can certainly learn a lot from them.

We can learn that our users want an intranet that’s easy to use, fun, and familiar. They want to be able to express themselves. They want an environment that’s rich in media — not purely text but also to have images, moving pictures, and sound. Most of all, they want to be able to interact with each other and actually build and strengthen relationships, even though its on a computer screen.

How about you? Do you wish your intranet were more like Facebook? Or Twitter, or LinkedIn? Or some other social network? What social networking features do you want to see in your intranet?

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Are you looking for an intranet software? Download our free guide, “20 Questions: What You Should Know to Find the Best Intranet Solution for Your Organization”

Click here to request your copy

Noodle is the social intranet software that improves communication, enhances collaboration, and encourages innovation in the enterprise. It brings microblogging, wikis, document sharing, instant messaging and other social business tools in a single portal. Click here to schedule a custom demo.

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

In Noodle intranet, each user has a profile page where users can share their contact information and other data. Sometime you want to add more information on the profile page than what’s included by default. You can do so by adding custom fields. This video shows you how:

Got questions about this video? Post them in the comments below.

If you don’t have Noodle intranet software yet, click the button below to start your free, fully-functional 30-day trial (no credit card required):

Need more help to find the most suitable intranet software for your company or organization? Download our free guide, “20 Questions: What You Should Know to Find the Best Intranet Solution for Your Organization”

Click here to request your copy

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

Libraries, by their nature, use lots and lots of paper.

But for the Essex County Library, reducing the amount of paper they used actually made them more productive and even improved their customer service.

In their pre-intranet days, library staff used to make 20 copies of their thick manual, policies, procedures, and instructions.

This is a common practice in many organizations. Everybody wants to have their most important documents within an arm’s reach, and so they make and keep their own copies.

Aside from killing trees, this practice made staff lose hours in productivity. They spent a lot of time making copies, and then more time finding what document they needed — and making sure it was the most recent one. Not to mention needing to find the space to keep all those paper documents!

It also meant not being able to respond to their clients’ queries and needs promptly.

According to Essex County Library representative Janet Woodbridge, they had the following objectives for their intranet:

• reduce the amount of paperwork they produce
• communicate information to all staff at the same time (a challenge given the library has 14 locations!)
• make work information accessible and easy to find

They also needed a solution that was easy enough for their library staff to use, since they weren’t tech savvy.

The Intranet Solution

To help the Essex County Library reach its goals, Vialect set up an intranet for them using Noodle intranet software.

The biggest part of rolling out their intranet was transforming their paper manuals and documents into wiki-style web pages.

With Noodle intranet’s WYSIWYG editor, this task was easy. Now the library’s wiki documents are fully searchable, easy to navigate, and  accessible in any of the library’s branches.

Staff are assured they’re always referring to the most recent, updated version of any document. More importantly, the information is easy to find when they need it — resulting in better service to their customers.

Essex County Library’s Noodle intranet is now an essential tool for its staff.

Click here to read the full Essex County Library intranet case study.

Knowledge Management Challenge to Libraries

As “knowledge institutions,” libraries are gateways to knowledge and culture. Yet traditional practices of archiving and disseminating information are no longer effective today. Technology allows us to share information instantly, and library users are aware of that. Their expectations for accurate and timely service are higher than in previous years.

It’s a challenge for today’s libraries to meet rising expectations and demands from their customers. Budgets and manpower are limited, and may even be smaller than before. And older library employees and managers may not have the skills and comfort level required to use existing and emerging technologies.

But the Essex County Library experience shows that these challenges can be overcome by finding the right tools for their requirements and resources.

Are you a library seeking a better way to manage your internal information and knowledge? What are the challenges you face? What solutions are you looking for? Share your experiences in the comments below.

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Are you looking for an intranet software? Download our free guide, “20 Questions: What You Should Know to Find the Best Intranet Solution for Your Organization”

Click here to request your copy

Noodle is the social intranet software that improves communication, enhances collaboration, and encourages innovation in the enterprise. It brings microblogging, wikis, document sharing, instant messaging and other social business tools in a single portal. Click here to schedule a custom demo.

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

If you need to manually add many intranet users, some of whom share the same contact information or settings, then use the Template User feature of Noodle intranet. Template Users make adding users a lot faster and easier, because you won’t need to do the settings or type the data for each one. The Template User will automatically add these for you.

Watch this video to see how Template User works:

If you don’t have Noodle intranet software yet, click the button below to start your free, fully-functional 30-day trial (no credit card required):

Need more help to find the most suitable intranet software for your company or organization? Download our free guide, “20 Questions: What You Should Know to Find the Best Intranet Solution for Your Organization”

Click here to request your copy

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

Spring is an exciting time for gardeners. Even before warm weather sets in, gardeners must complete a set of activities that will pay off in an abundant growing season.

It’s the same with your intranet.

Maintenance tasks need to be completed daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly to keep your intranet fresh, lively, and useful.

Below are some things you can do right now to have a thriving, lush intranet.

Clean

As the snow melts, the garden is at its ugliest. Plants haven’t sprung back to from their Winter sleep. Disease and clutter that’s been hidden by snow is revealed. It’s time for Spring cleaning. And for some plants, a little bit of pruning means healthier, stronger growth.

Your intranet needs some cleaning and pruning, too. Go through folders to find and remove obsolete intranet content. Look at your intranet statistics to identify which pages never get any visits. Perhaps there’s a reason for that: nobody needs them! So why keep them in your intranet?

Another intranet task worth doing is removing duplicates of files. Look for documents that may have been archived in two different sections and photos saved in different names. This may be time consuming, but totally worth the effort. It may be a good task to delegate to summer interns.

Plant

As soon as the danger of frost has passed, it’s time to put plants in the ground to set the stage for summer blooms and harvests.

An intranet needs a constant supply of fresh, relevant content. Before you go off to your summer holiday, now is the time to “plant” intranet content that you can reap later. Some ideas:

• Tap and train new intranet authors now, to ensure a continuous flow of content throughout summer.
• Fill out your intranet editorial calendar for the next 4-6 months. Encourage your intranet’s bloggers to do the same.
• Running out of content ideas? Try rotating a monthly intranet meme. It’s a fun way to get intranet users engaged in the intranet.
• Make sure newly added intranet users have been trained adequately to access, add, comment, modify, and do other intranet-related tasks.

Harvest

Some ornamental plants begin blooming in the Spring, just as vegetables and herbs like arugula, kale, and parsley are ready to be harvested.

If you’ve done your intranet Spring cleaning and content “planting,” you should begin to see the fruits of your work before Summer arrives. Increased engagement, higher user satisfaction, and increased productivity are some of the rewards you can look forward to.

Being an intranet manager is no easy job. But if you work at it regularly and proactively, you’ll have fewer and smaller fires to put out.

What intranet maintenance tasks do you usually do this time of the year?

PS: If you liked this post, type your email address in the form below to get new posts straight to your email inbox.

Image by © Stanicat | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images

Are you looking for an intranet software? Download our free guide, “20 Questions: What You Should Know to Find the Best Intranet Solution for Your Organization”

Click here to request your copy

Noodle is the social intranet software that improves communication, enhances collaboration, and encourages innovation in the enterprise. It brings microblogging, wikis, document sharing, instant messaging and other social business tools in a single portal. Click here to schedule a custom demo.

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

By properly labeling your events in Noodle intranet calendar, you can easily find a common free time to schedule a meeting or appointment with your colleagues. Watch this video to learn how to label your events as either Free, Busy, Tentative, or Out of the Office:

Click here to learn how to create an event in Noodle intranet calendar.

If you don’t have Noodle intranet software yet, click the button below to start your free, fully-functional 30-day trial (no credit card required):

Need more help to find the most suitable intranet software for your company or organization? Download our free guide, “20 Questions: What You Should Know to Find the Best Intranet Solution for Your Organization”

Click here to request your copy

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

Nothing annoys me more than having friends gloat on Facebook or Twitter that they’ve gotten their email inboxes down to zero.

In my entire history of using email, I’ve accomplished inbox zero maybe 3 times. Once with a brand-new email account, so that may not even count.

Having a good intranet can certainly help cut down on emails. You don’t have to email documents as attachments, for example.

But on the other hand, the intranet can lead to more emails, especially if you set up automatic email notifications.

Clearly, intranet or not, we cannot escape from emails.

Having several full inboxes doesn’t bother me. But for most, it seems that inbox zero has some appeal.

What’s the Big Deal About an Empty In-box Anyway?

For example, Merlin Mann, the guy who came up with the phrase (and a methodology for achieving it) “inbox zero” to begin with, says an empty inbox helps allocate our finite and irreplaceable time and attention. In other words, you get more stuff done.

Others say an empty inbox relieves their stress.

Finally, being able to annihilate 12,891 emails apparently brings feelings of freedom and accomplishment, still others say.

If this is true, then I’m missing a lot!

Should I give this zero inbox thing another try?

3 Approaches to Process Your Inbox to Zero

The general idea to achieving an empty inbox is to process it to zero. Touch an email only once, or as little as possible, decided which actions they require. As you do what is needful, the email is removed from the inbox.

Getting Things Done

The first time I ever tried to process email was when I read David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.”

Allen’s recommendation is to handle everything as minimally as possible by following a workflow. Respond to an email only if it can be done in two minutes or less. Place other emails in folders:

• @waiting for – for delegated items that need to be tracked or followed up on
• @action – for emails that require action

All other emails are either filed or deleted.

By following this workflow, you can quickly empty your inbox.

Inbox Zero

Merlin Mann, writer and founder of 43 folders productivity site, was inspired by GTD when he came up with his own system, better known as Inbox Zero. In fact, Mann began an entire movement of people striving to get to inbox zero.

Mann’s approach is also to process emails once to get them out of your inbox. The following are the possible actions on each email:

• delete or archive – Either erase the email or file it away in a folder. Mann warns against having so many folders that you’ll forget which folder is the right one. Keep your archives simple.
• delegate – Forward the email for someone else to work on. Put a reminder for you somewhere, to follow up on that task later on.
• respond – As in the GTD system, if you can respond to an email quickly, do so and get it over with. Learn to reply in 1-2 sentences, certainly not more than 5.
• defer – If an email needs your response, but requires outside work that can’t be completed in a couple of minutes, put it in a “to respond” folder. Empty that folder at the end of every day.
• do – Do what needs to be done, or capture it into a calendar or task list. Don’t use your email inbox as a to-do lit.

Yesterbox

This is a variation to GTD and Inbox Zero, which was created by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.

In the Yesterbox approach, you process yesterday’s emails today. You read that write. See Hsieh’s premise is that today’s to-do list actually came from yesterday’s inbox.

The possible actions to yesterday’s emails are:

• reply
• file
• delete
• calendar

If you’re itching to look at today’s email, there is an “escape.” Process 10 of yesterday’s emails, and you get a free pass to read today’s emails. However, you can only either delete, file, or forward yesterday’s emails. You cannot reply to them. Unless an email absolutely cannot wait 48 hours, leave it alone. It is not your problem today; deal with it tomorrow.

Obviously, Yesterbox is not applicable for certain people, like those in customer support.

There’s a long list of “rules” in Yesterbox. You can read them here.

There’s an App for That

The popularity of processing email inboxes to zero have inspired the creation of applications that make such processing easier and faster.

An example is the web app, Mailstrom. It interacts with your email accounts and analyzies them so you can easily see which emails are useful and which ones can be deleted. You can sort emails by sender, subject line, file size, etc.

Mailbox is an iOS app that only works with Gmail so far. With this app, you easily process emails with a quick swipe of your finger.

With 78,373 emails in my Gmail inbox alone, it overwhelms me to even think of getting to inbox zero. But I have been processing my emails differently, using a combination of GTD and Inbox Zero. I’m surprised at how quickly I can process my emails and get them out of my inbox. The only problem is the emails from previous months. Maybe I should just mass delete them?

How about you? What does your inbox look like? How do you manage your emails? Do share!

PS: Did you like this post? Type your email address in the form below to get new posts straight to your email inbox.

Image © seeingimages | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images

Are you looking for an intranet software? Download our free guide, “20 Questions: What You Should Know to Find the Best Intranet Solution for Your Organization”

Click here to request your copy

Noodle is the social intranet software that improves communication, enhances collaboration, and encourages innovation in the enterprise. It brings microblogging, wikis, document sharing, instant messaging and other social business tools in a single portal. Click here to schedule a custom demo.

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

If you’re creating an electronic form where the values of one field come from another database, use the Database Connector Field. This field allows users to get information from an existing database in your Noodle intranet, and use it to populate a field in another database. Watch this video to see how it works:

If you’re not yet familiar with Noodle intranet software’s Database Application, you can watch the video here.

Do you have questions about this tutorial? Post them in the comments below.

If you don’t have Noodle intranet software yet, click the button below to start your free, fully-functional 30-day trial (no credit card required):

Need more help to find the most suitable intranet software for your company or organization? Download our free guide, “20 Questions: What You Should Know to Find the Best Intranet Solution for Your Organization”

Click here to request your copy

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration