When BT’s intranet started in December 1994 one of the key demands from people was to easily find and connect with other people in BT.  Along with the BT Homepage and BT today, BT Directory was one of the ‘killer application/content’ that encouraged people to want to use BT’s intranet because it gave them a tool that helped make their life easier.

Today Directory is still as critical as when it started.  It is the easiest and quickest way to find out who you need to contact in BT.  I have shared some examples of BT Directory for you to see.

Ease of use (slides 1 and 2)

It is very easy to find anyone in BT.  You can use Directory to find people from any page on BT’s intranet using the Global Navigation Bar (GNB).  You can see I have entered my name as an example of what you do, then just press ‘Go’.  Their details will appear from Directory (slide 3).  You can also click on the Directory heading in the GNB to enter to use all the features on Directory (slide 2).

People information (slides 3 – 5)

You can find a person’s contact details – office and mobile phone nos., email, address -  their job title, manager and what part of BT they work in.  Again, I’ve used myself for the example (slide 3). 

You can also check their whereabouts (downloaded automatically each day from Outlook Calendar) to be able to choose when to contact them and if their office or mobile no. is better.  It helps when planning calls or meetings too (slide 4).

You can also see who is in their team as well as their manager and where in the BT organisation structure a person is.  I’ve used myself to show my team and where in BT – Group Communications – I fit in (slide 5).

Extra features (slides 6 – 9)

You can use a power search to find someone by just knowing their phone no., which location they may be at, part of their name or even initials (slide 6).

You can find out who else has a particular work interest, activity or title.  The example shows how many people with a connection with ‘intranet’ in BT (slide 7).

Mobile users can also use a cut down version of Directory to find people’s contact details (slide 8).  The results shown are the key contact details you will need (slide 9).

As social media tools continue to grow in BT, Directory will be a hub to help you find out more useful information to help them connect easily and quickly with the best people who can help you.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts BT today as BT’s main intranet news site for the latest news affecting everyone in BT.  But I don’t feel I’ve given it full justice until now.  The problem is where to start as it has so much to offer!

BT today was one of the first sites on BT’s intranet when it was launched in 1994.  It meant people could find out the latest news, whenever they wanted to and reduced the overload (and cost) of information being sent to everyone each day.

Since it’s launch BT today has been one of the most popular sites on BT’s intranet.  BT raises several tens of thousands of pounds from digital advertising on the site.  It has now grown to include:

• Up to 10 news stories published each day
• PDA version available for mobile users
• Subscribing to different RSS news feeds
• Raising issues that people across BT contribute to
• Sharing important events like birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

I’ve shared some examples of BT today for you to see these.

Along with BT Homepage and Directory, the BT today news site is one of the key sites that encouraged people to start using the BT Intranet.  Offering a wider range of news services has encouraged people to use it more, and more frequently.

Future plans include more use of photos for each story, larger photos where suitable for stories and people able to comment on each story.

On 31 October we started the 1000 day countdown to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games.  To mark this BT gave an amazing lights and fireworks display from the BT Tower.

Just like the athletes who are preparing for the Games, BT is setting its sights high with the Team BT 2012 Challenge.  It will help everyone in the company focus on the future.  The ‘challenge’ we are taking on is a simple one – to make BT a better business with a better future.

To showcase the launch key intranet sites, including BT Homepage promoted the 2012 Challenge.  You can see from these examples how we have coordinated the changes.

There will be some more changes to BT Homepage’s structure which I will share with you later this month.

BT’s intranet search engine, Search BT, is the biggest instance of Ultraseek run in Europe.  It searches nearly 2 million different pieces of content.  This includes what we call formal, verified, content as well as collaborative, user generated content.

Here’s an example of how a couple of minor changes to an intranet page had a major impact on its findability for no cost.

People wanting to review or change sharesave plans needed to download and complete a form from the BT intranet and email it to the right group.

When they searched for the form by typing in its name to Search BT the top result was a form called ‘Saveshare Changes’.  So they filled it in and sent it off.  But the top result was the wrong form!

The form people needed to use was under a link on the same saveshare changes page as other forms including the wrong form.  With no meta data or keywords on that page to help direct the search engine, it meant the top result took you to one of several saveshare changes forms, not the page for the right form.

Once the meta data was added in the page, it rose to the top result shown on Search BT for search queries on saveshare changes.

That minor tweak to one page saved people acting on the forms a lot of time and BT money in productivity savings.  It also speeded up the time for changes people wanted made saving a lot of frustration.

I’ve seen how social bookmarking and feed aggregators are increasingly being used by internet users.  People can aggregate syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, even vlogs in one place for easy use.

Examples of internet social bookmarking tools that can do this are Digg, StumbleUpon and Delicious.

I’m interested in how BT’s intranet can use this to help people share content on our wiki, blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds with others with similar interests and work areas across all parts of BT.

So which social bookmarking tools could work best on BT’s intranet?  I would love to find out more from you……!

Over the last few months I’ve been involved with testing different publishing tools to replace what we currently use for intranet content.  This is for what we call formal, verified, content rather than collaborative, user generated content.

Using a set of user stories to explain business and users needs I could consistently assess each tool and compare with more confidence.

Now I’ve completed the testing I think:

For larger sites Oracle UCM could be a better choice than Confluence.  It may be more complex but it has powerful site-wide control features.  For smaller sites Oracle has said the set up and publisher training overheads require too much effort for the benefit to be gained.

For smaller sites WordPress could be a better choice than Confluence for its ease of use and rapid deployment advantages.  WordPress has limited site-wide control features but these are less likely to be required on smaller sites.  I feel WordPress’ more straightforward template control ability can overcome these. 

I think Confluence is a good collaborative tool but maybe not the ideal choice for publishing formal content.

I’ve used some criteria for the size of a site.  If any site meets the 5 points below then I believe it is more suited for WordPress.  If it doesn’t then I think it is more suited for Oracle UCM:

1. One site owner and ten or less publishers.
2. Usage below 1 million views per month
3. Would benefit from the use of RSS (incoming and outgoing)
4. Initially below 200 pages until I see how the templates cope, then and I might increase this.
5. Does not have complex requirements for third party access

I need to agree this with my colleagues in BT.  It may be the recommendations are not affordable with the current economic climate.  There are technical or security reasons for choosing a different solution.

Whatever happens, I’m sure BT will continue to use Confluence for collaborative content.

BT’s intranet is everyone’s workplace for whatever they need to for their work.  Whether it is reading the latest news, collaborating with people or completing a task you need to use the BT intranet.

So it is vital BT makes sure people are 100% confident they can rely on the integrity of the information and applications on BT’s intranet. 

BT does this with a small central team to set standards and prevent errors happening so everyone can rely on  the BT Intranet.  These include:

Clauses in contracts

In BT’s procurement process there is a clause to make sure any web service bought meets the UK Disability and Discrimination Act 1995 for web accessibility.  BT aims for WAI W3C AA standards.  There is also a clause on the usability standards the web service needs to meet.  These clauses help prevent web services being implemented that don’t meet BT’s intranet standards.

Standards for developing web services

The same applies for web services BT develops as well as buys on accessibility and usability.  The developers refer to our accessibility and usability standards and apply them to the software they develop.  This gives a consistent approach to any new web service for BT Intranet users.

Publishing templates

For all types of content published BT has built as many standards as possible into the templates used.  This saves time training publishers and it doesn’t dely them publishing content.  Templates are AA compliant for web accessibility, usable .  Templates have links to PDA format, print, A-Z, global navigation bar, name of page owner, review date, etc.  Users see the same information in the same parts of the screen across BT’s intranet giving a consistently valuable experience.

Publishing training

Before anyone can publish format content they need to show they have completed online training covering publishing standards.  This builds up a consistent level of awareness and understanding before anyone publishes.  For other content types like blogs people don’t need approval or training – they just start publishing……….

All of these have combined to reduce issues to a minimum that cause a loss of productivity, business decisions taken on inaccurate information and unnecessary helpdesk queries.

In a recession every penny spent investing in BT’s intranet is closely monitored.  So the chance to generate some revenue is very welcome.  Whenever I say BT makes money from its intranet to people they raise their eyebrows and ask the obvious questions ”What?” and “How?”. 

Here are two examples showing ‘what’ and ‘how’ BT’s intranet has made money.

External advertising on intranet

BT allows external organisations to advertise on one intranet site only.  This is our corporate news site, BT today.  People in BT have accepted for years that adverts appear in the magazine as they do for other newspapers.

We extended advertising to the BT today news site in a way that didn’t distract users from their main purpose for using the site – finding the latest news – while encouraging them to click on the adverts.  It brings in valuable revenue – tens of thousands of pounds each year.

We haven’t had any complaints about adverts being too invasive or distracting.

Sponsored links on search engine

BT has a business partnership with Yahoo!  Intranet users have a BT Yahoo! internet search option.  It means Yahoo! gets more clicks to its internet search and BT gets a % of the sponsored links people in BT click on when searching.  This has come to several thousands of pounds over the past year.

These internet search links appear on BT Homepage and Search BT, our intranet search engine with a short message promoting the benefits to BT.

I had another call with Oracle to build on their initial response to my first call and my recent meeting with Oracle about my UCM improvements wish list.  This focused on the usability issues BT has with Oracle  UCM version 10GR3.

They have attempted to address the issues we have raised.  There are changes with 10GR4 and 11GR which Oracle claim will improve the usability of UCM.  However I’m not sure whether BT can justify the resources required to use UCM ‘well enough’ to gain these benefits.

I really want UCM to have simpler, fewer, features that mean user with little or no technical skills can easily use it for publishing content.  Oracle’s focus is also on improving usability but for the highly skilled technical minded people not the majority of users.

I’m not the only one with issues.  Look at the SWOT analysis on UCM the University of Minnesota carried out.

So, Oracle are making improvements.  Oracle have offered to pick up the outstanding issues not fixed by releases already completed with BT later in October.

So, continue to let me know of the issues you have that I can raise on your behalf by commenting, tweeting or emailing me.

My first meeting with Oracle last week went well.  Oracle agreed with my usability issues and promised to improve their usability.  My call on Friday with Oracle to cover my UCM issues started off well.  Oracle agreed I did have good points about UCM’s usability.  Oracle agreed to email me with actions, owners and timescales. 

However that didn’t happened.  Instead of a commitment to say what version would solve which problem and involving me in any unsolved issues all I have been offered is another call this Friday to cover what Oracle can do.

Maybe I’m being impatient but since it was 3 months ago that I originally raised these same issues it is disappointing the answers are not ready to hand on what Oracle can do.

So while I am making progress on wider usability issues with Oracle products through the Customer Advisory Council, the news isn’t so good for UCM…………….so far.

I’ll update you on any news after Friday’s call.