Claromentis Intranet Software Blog

It is great when you join up a process and see seamless integration in software solutions to really support you across the whole process.

We use our own intranet software to deal with website leads and sales management of opportunities that result from them. Whereas previously we used Process Manager to manage the leads and Sales Manager to manage opportunities once meaningful interactions had occurred and an account manager needed to be involved - we had no clean implementation to produce a truly integrated approach. Recently two developments have really boosted our sales efficiency :

•    We started to use Process Manager SLAs to act as auto responders, which meant people who had shown interest in our software were sent personal emails and useful data sheets via 3 emails

•    If an interaction takes place we developed a Process Manager Plug-in to provide a one click process to generate a CRM company, contact and opportunity record in Sales Manager.

The net result has been a very significant increase in discussions with potential customers, and a really efficient enquiry handling process for our own business.

Corporate News, General Intranet Posts, intranet applications integration, intranet software, processes

We are often asked how long a ‘typical’ intranet project takes to launch, and what factors can speed up the process.

Well of course firstly it is really hard to find a typical project, but we do know  that from choosing Claromentis to be your provider to deploying phase 1 has over the last 5 years taken an average of 7 weeks.

Software as a service can be deployed within one day, using standard designs and our own infrastructure, if the requirements are simple.

I believe our world record is one week and I will refrain from discussing some of the longer projects, always extended by the demands of assembling and validating content, and nothing to do with technology.

In terms of what factors can speed this up, here are some of the most important :

• Provide a style guide and general instructions but let our team provide the interface. We have an established process and are just so fast at working within Claromentis.
• Restrict your project team to a manageable number.
• Expedite your sign off procedures for approval of designs or if relevant development.
• Keep phase 1 to what is really important, and not a very long list of functionality that is really only there ‘because we can’. This provides a sense of business focus and urgency.
• Provide a project manager yourselves and take the project management service from Claromentis. Then focus on the critical path, especially early on – prepare for all tasks that are on that path at the expense, if necessary – of those that are not.
• Use telephone conferences and webinars over physical meetings whenever appropriate to do so, they help preserve the focus on what needs to be done and are much shorter.

Finally – if it makes sense for your business to consider our Intranet Software as a Service solution that is the factor that above all else speeds up delivery – mainly because we don’t have to deal with your infrastructure, IT and active directory – but also because the lack of upfront investment makes it a less political project for our customers internally – freeing up motivated staff to just get the job done!

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It is always great when clients appreciate your work - but even more so when they send you a crate of Beer Lao to let you know!

Today Albany suprised us with exactly that to acknowledge the hard work the support team have put in recently for them, so thanks to Howard and the IT team at Albany, and here’s Julian about to consume the first one..

Cheers Albany!

Just don’t ask him for anything too technical later today!

Corporate News, General Intranet Posts, People and Cultural Issues, Services, Technical Support client appreciation, support

We have many clients who enthusiastically embrace blogs and new media, which of course is engaging and excellent.

However with these clients I have seen a tendency to launch similar departmental intranet home pages, each of which has a video introduction to the department from the relevant VP or member of the management team, and the blog – along with of course rich and relevant departmental information – documents, self service, general contextual information and e-forms.

These can be very powerful templates – but what worries me is that talking head video from the VP is only interesting the first, or at best second, time you hear it. Therafter it can be very irritating, however relevant the message.

What I like is a component that checks if a user has seen that video, and if so switches it out for another relevant content or RSS feed that fits well with the design.

Intranets should be multimedia and rich – but they absolutely must be fresh!

Corporate News, Design and User Interface, General Intranet Posts, People and Cultural Issues, Products, Services, Visual Interface intranet software, intranet videos

We make Claromentis Intranet Software available on a range of devices, according to our customers needs. However the truth is I have often wondered just how practical this is.

Then recently I found myself in the car park of a potential new client, having completely forgotten the names if the main contacts I was meeting with. We had arranged the meeting in somewhat of a rush and over the phone, so emails didn’t help me.

Within a few minutes I had logged onto our intranet on my i-phone, found the opportunity in Claromentis Sales Manager – and had everything I needed.

Sometimes it really is useful to have your intranet accessible from any modern device!

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We are really sure now that we are making the whole process of selecting a design for  a new Claromentis Intranet just too difficult for the typical company that joins us. For a certain type of company, with the relevant skills and indeed ambitions the existing process is fine – but not for many!

Precisely because Claromentis can easily be given a design that can be completely bespoke – exactly what you would like it to be – we have  encouraged clients to think hard about what they would like the design to be.

But actually it seems that most new companies would prefer that we just tell them!

So we going now through an exciting process to develop questionnaires and models that will allow us to present the new intranet customer with a great design at the first pass – and then just let them comment on it and make minor changes.

What are the positives :

1.    The client gets an intranet with a great and relevant design, fit for purpose, in very little time.

2.    We know from experience most customers refresh their designs in year two or three anyway, after the experience of actually using it.

3.    The client can focus on content, functionality, training and deployment issues – which is probably the best use of their time.

The truth is that we now know this is the best for all concerned – but we still find it difficult to move away from a completely bespoke and individual design for each client – because that is such a strength of Claromentis.

I am reminded of the fact that in previous engagements with intranet clients over the years we should say that certain clients just did things “because we can” – perhaps this is seeing our own process in exactly the same way. Just because we can deploy a completely individual intranet design for every customer does not actually mean that we should!

Corporate News, Design and User Interface, General Intranet Posts, Products, Services, Visual Interface Design, intranet software

I was reading an article this week about an event back in the good old days when computers were brand new and we all got excited by a little blinking cursor that said c:/> or something similar.

This article was about a couple of guys who won a computer back then and had no idea what to do with it. A friend duly showed up, and gave them a demo of the latest word processing – which at that time was not far short of all it was good for.

However the demo fell flat – the reason being these guys had never even used a typewriter – and so couldn’t see any use for such an easy to use, simple to correct, spell-checking replacement for a machine they didn’t own in the first place.

This got me thinking about our own situation with potential new clients. They seem to fall into some familiar camps:

1.    We don’t currently have any intranet at all ( unbelievably we still get a lot of these – really a lot ).

2.    Somebody wrote one themselves, but really it needs replacing – or – a slight variation – the person who wrote it has left and we have no idea how to maintain it.

3.    We have a product but we all hate it.

Of course we treat all of these with equal interest – but in reality there are some big differences in our engagements with these different types of new customers.

In general I would say that those in the first camp – Group 1 - will start off Googling away and come up with a list of what they expect we will be able to provide, because someone out there has written articles or summaries about what in their view is really essential from an intranet provider. I tend to refer to this as an “outward focussed” approach – in the sense that they look out to see what is possible, and then probably find a few suppliers and ask them to tender against this somewhat arbitrary list of ‘features’ that has little to do with the business they are in, improving their innovation or driving their business forwards.

Group 2 vary a lot – often they are not sure if what the employee created really is “an intranet” in the first place, or if it should be taken seriously – but at least they have some experience of using something.

Group 3 are interesting – their frustrations probably relate to legacy software that uses old approaches like i-frames, or isn’t being improved, or where the vendor has gone bust – but at least they have real ideas about “what a better solution should do for them”. Notice the “for them” – they do have real ideas about what their own company needs, not just a checklist of arbitrary functionality. I refer to this as an “inward focus”

Paradoxically “inward focus” in this sense sounds somewhat negative, as if they lack vision – but of course this is not the case at all, and in many business senses a company that is always spending some time looking to analyze itself and improve has a great  attitude.

The truth is that for us engaging with all of these types of new customers is interesting and varied. The world of intranet software is a large one and we do our best to explain it as honestly and professionally to all companies that ask about our products and services - whether they ever saw that blinking green cursor or not!

Corporate News, General Intranet Posts, People and Cultural Issues intranet software

I have seen articles recently that praise the fact that intranet 2.0 is starting to deliver value and becoming more mainstream.

Great! But then I read on and they are talking about the same old functionality : Forums, Wikis and blogs.

This is a shame - I think many corporate intranets and extranets are missing the true synergy of innovation and collaboration that a web 2.0 intranet should address - which at Claromentis means the progression of a concept from an idea, through to a collaboration space and then onto execution in a project - the “shout - collaborate - execute” mantra of Claromentis 6.0

Missing the point

Yes we do implement - and for certain company cultures see a lot of value - in the intranet equivalents of Twitter - our “what am I dong at work” concept for example - and certainly Blogs are really adding dynamism and freshness to many of our implementations - but in our view intranet 2.0 is a platform for collaboration, innovation and establishing connections in the workforce to break down silos and encourage lessons learned from best practice.

We need to unearth new ideas, bring them through to sharing with hitherto unknown colleagues from disparate experiences and then actually take that shout and make something different for the company that didn’t exist before – in summary we need innovation!

Many of the applications and approaches that others see as getting a tick in the box for intranet 2.0 we view as latest generation approaches to information management – a truly important piece of the puzzle – but not the answer.

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As an integrated framework that provides significant applications it is great to see how easy it has become to link between them – and how pragmatic and useful the resultant functionality is for companies.

One great example is the use of Claromentis for managing a customer relationship – from initial lead processing, through to sales management and onto the implementation using Project Manager. In all cases the integration is simple, effective and efficient.

• Lead processing : managed using InfoCapture auto responders and using notifications and SLAs – the leads are responded to and useful information provided. At any stage manual interaction can take place, and auto responders are then set on hold. When gates are passed and the lead qualifies as relevant and appropriate – one click generates a company, opportunity and contact record in the relevant Sales Manager territory.

Direct Integration

• Sales Management : from this point all relevant information, activities and documents are captured as the new account moves through a customizable sales cycle.

• As soon as the project is approved, a direct link form the sales Manager record is generated to the new Project in the correct Programme in Project Manager to deliver the products and services that have been ordered.

For completeness the project metadata can link back to the Sales Manager records – so there is no need to duplicate relevant documents and data in project manager.

This level of integration and support is a pleasure to use and really offers the sales and project managers an integrated platform of information on which to ensure success for both our company and our new clients.

In our own company as we continue to accelerate our rate of customer acquisition this platform also allows us to scales up our delivery side with no loss of quality. It is becoming one of the most critical sides of our business as we continue to grow - which is particularly satisfying when we recommend this approach to our own clients.

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We have talked a lot about the fact that there are so many ways to do things in Claromentis that sometimes new clients can get confused. What kind of format should this information be in? A document or a page? Should my intranet home page list of job vacancies be a small bespoke addition, an e-forms solution or a smart object looking at dynamic data on a forum?

Intranet choice

We are learning a lot about how to approach new clients – the truth is that in certain situations it is better just to implement what we think is best – rather than distract the project team with discussions about choosing between approaches that they really don’t yet understand – after all they are not yet a client. We would spend too long training them on each approach just so they can then chose one - it is better they stay focussed on the project objectives and let us just implement the most appropriate solution based on our extensive experience.

After all they can always change it later, or on a refresh project – by that time they will really understand how the relevant applications work, and can make a much more informed decision.

This paralysis through being presented with a choice is actually the most pronounced when we are at the design stage – so not the details of how to provide the functionality at all yet - but going through a mock up process on how the intranet home page should be designed to match objectives for the project as well as reinforce the company culture through branding and embracing intranet 2.0, for example.

There are important principles at stake here. One of the most relevant is the sense of ownership that a new client gets from being involved with the process, rather than just being presented with the answer. Participating in the creative process has significant implications for the sustained interest levels from the client project team – and this is fundamental for the longevity and ROI of the project.

So it seems we are in a dilemma. We often know the answer, but we should not tell them because they will then lose the sense of ownership that is fundamental for the ongoing project success.

Corporate News, General Intranet Posts, People and Cultural Issues choice, intranet