We have had so many thousands of conversations over the last 14 years about “intranet functionality” – new clients asking us if we have this and that feature to enable them to compare us to some other potential partner in a spreadsheet, an RFP or a simple subjective decision.

As intranets evolve to become enormously powerful gateways to the digital workplace we have seen the argument shifting away from low level functionality such as ‘can I book a taxi using your system?’ to much higher level discussions that really make a difference to what a client can achieve. And that’s what we so enjoy.

When clients look for real value from a web platform they are really, it seems to me – asking some perfectly valid and basic questions about capabilities in the following areas :

• Information management – full indexing of version controlled documents, a variety of file types, record management, configurable metadata – and a world class permission system.
• News and internal communication – permission based news systems, announcements and blogs.
• Compliance – policy must reads, full auditing, audit management modules.
• Design – can the design be really, truly inspirational or just a logo and a style guide?
• Corporate social media – does the platform offer true engagement to get the users really engaged with the information.
• Business Processes – we have a lot of processes that are not the most efficient – can we move these onto the web platform and produce powerful form based workflows that help us to understand our process workloads, requirements and increase our efficiency.
• Mobile – is your offering capable of reaching out to our modern workforce with a range of needs on multiple devices.
• Deployment – do you offer truly global, cross platform, cloud or perpetual in house offerings?
• API – can we reliable and efficiently call out information to use in our own applications – for example using REST.

What we have noticed in the last couple of years is that our clients are enjoying the combination of these powerful capabilities. “It’s great to have simple business processes like recruitment that can call on document management resources, all within a permissioned process portal”. “Extensive business logic, with a corporate social media interaction available on top”. “A communication platform with commenting and Facebook style status updates and micro blogging.” “Great – Active directory integration combined with being able to log in with my Google ID.”

This is indeed powerful, and for us as a partner in these spaces really exciting. By all means start with the web platform functionality that meets your short term urgent business needs, but then add significant areas to work in a combination that is truly powerful, and makes a significant difference to your business.

The functionality discussion is moving up to truly interesting large scale areas of business needs. To me this is a natural extension of the debate, as the workplace goes digital, social and mobile and more and more fundamental business tasks and requirements are met by cross platform browser based web platforms that can grow with your business -  like Claromentis.

And by the way, in case it’s raining out there – yes you can book a taxi – you just need a very simple business process for that task – with notifications, assignments and service level agreements.

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Intranet, Prod-Process, The Framework

There are so many aspects that we consider when going through our process for agreeing the best intranet design for a new customer.

One relatively simple one to discuss is how do we make sure users can find what we assume they will be looking for – an also how can we encourage them to visit an area that they might not think would be interesting or relevant?

One part of the answer is through what Claromentis describe as “fast access buttons”

These are significantly sized buttons that provide a visual pull to certain areas of the intranet. They are also – like everything else in Claromentis – permission based so that certain groups of users will see different icons. In this way we can try to predict what should be of interest to those users, and encourage them to take the actions we require.

Andy Briggs from our custom design team recently produced a great document on intranet design, and this is a diagram from the section on fast access buttons:

For interest I also show the access areas that are promoted for me on our own Claromentis Intranet.

Lets look at the 10 buttons that are presented to me and summarize each one :

• Company Policies – Claromentis has a duty to ensure I have every chance to read our policies, and this button is extremely appropriate for discharging that responsibility
• Audits – we are a quality managed ISO9001 company and I have access to all of our internal audits, and the actions arising from them
• Dev Wiki – even in sales it is great to have access to internal technical resources!
• Discover Claromentis – our support portal – allows me to review any issues or enhancement requests that my clients may have filed
• Webex – we provide private tours for anyone interested in our software and I use this every day
• Live demo – access to our standard live intranet and business process management demonstration system
• Blog Admin – as you can see I write blogs and I don’t want to remember another set of credentials!
• Marketing database – exactly the same – provides access to a web based system that I use extensively
• Google Analytics – useful to periodically review our traffic sources and what they are looking for
• National Rail – access to the live departure board at Brighton station – I commute by train and this is just a convenience for me.

So fast access buttons provide :

• Single sign on access to other web applications – the intranet provides a gateway to your digital workspace.
• Convenience for the user
• A way for the company to encourage my participation in certain applications or information areas.

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Intranet, Services intranet design

After much elevated praise on the new Claromentis 7 web platform, the core team – well some of them anyway – today got down and dirty as part of making room for the latest developer to join the Brighton office!

As 30 minutes later we authorized yet another new hire they might as well have stayed down there for a few more minutes and ran another cable or two..

Claromentis 7, Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Intranet developer

As we start a new year we had an interesting series of reviews of some of our Intranet designs in 2011.

We have many example systems and guideline documents on intranet design, but one key in the early process for designing a new intranet is to show the customer team a large selection of designs that we have already completed. Based on their feedback the designers can then move onto the Photoshop mockup process, which is always reviewed, completed and signed off before any interface is actually built.

As a new client it seems that there is nothing worse than just being asked to describe “what you like” when confronted by a blank whiteboard with one of our designers looking at you and expectantly holding a marker pen – but the same clients can certainly point out areas of other designs that they appreciate and would like to incorporate into their own new web platform.

We all had our perspectives, but from mine working with new customers I noticed that many of our projects liked to start from a baseline with many of the elements from the image shown here:

Of course they would then request considerable changes and apply their own branding, but the base system was a very useful start for them, and enabled the creative process to start.

I think there are indeed some strong basic points about this design :

• - It is quite ‘strong’ and vibrant, even though it has more than enough white space for a system that is the core web platform for all users in a substantial global corporation.
  - It is welcoming – while still containing a significant amount of corporate information
  - The application slider bar is a nice touch, rather than a permission based text access menu – which in this system is reserved for departmental resources
  - The rounded corners and pin board effect are appropriate without being distracting
  - The corporate social networking component on the home page shows the collaborative two way intent of the system
  - Multiple and differentiated intranet news channels are appropriate for such a large client that generates a lot of information for various sets  of users
  - We liked the introductory video that shows for all new users, explaining the intent of the system and intranet guidelines.

Of course everyone in the actual design teams had their own personal favorites – but for 2011 for me this was an extremely useful base design when discussing new client intranet projects. If you have any comments or favourite designs of your own – please comment!

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Intranet, Services intranet design

We are working with a client under our sponsored development scheme to provide an e-learning module with the upcoming Claromentis 7 – and today we had the first prototype review with the client, the lead information architect and staff from Claromentis sales and marketing.

I thought some aspects of the meeting were really instructional.

The value of the prototype

Following on from the initial scoping meeting the client had provided a well thought out specifications comprising several pages of written specifications. Comparing the understanding from the written specifications with the prototype that we created is just inspiring – how any company would want to code business logic straight from written specifications is beyond me.

The value of the framework

Coding in the Claromentis framework gives us so much access to instantly available and powerful functionality – such as permission systems, universal tagging, business processes – applications can be coded so much faster and with greatly increased quality.

The value of Claromentis 7 Standards

Now that the design standards of Claromentis 7 are available in the custom development team everything is so much more consistent, giving a much better end user experience as they move from standard platform products to their custom applications.

All in all a great meeting and we look forward  to the second iteration – the prototype can be shared with all stakeholders in the client team and round two will just be a few days away!

Claromentis 7, Custom Development, Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Intranet, Solutions, The Framework

I hope this is useful – we are planning an extensive series of instructional videos for all levels of expertise and across all the platform in terms of subject areas. We will make those videos available for download as training aids – and of course from the support portal at Discover Claromentis.

Please do provide your feedback : all of us in support and marketing are excited by this and are motivated to provide a resource library that helps all of our customers get the most from their investment in Claromentis.

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Intranet, Solutions, The Framework intranet news, news management

In a previous post I committed to creating a series of articles about how in my experience a web platform like Claromentis might contribute to discrete value chain components in your business.

In this second post in this series I take a quick look at Research and Development.

The significance of R&D

New products, and specifically their design and development – is important to the growth and even survival of a company. Competitive pressures or the natural evolution of buyer preferences will ensure that innovation is highly placed on the agenda of many senior level meetings.

Leveraging a web platform can greatly assist the innovation agenda. This is true both for

1. Larger corporations with significant information stores and internal resources that need to be encouraged to share diverse expertise

2. Organizations of any size that need to reach out to partners for collaborative R&D efforts.

Fundamental characteristics of R&D in a business context

Although R&D is a general phrase, the included activities for any company will often have the following characteristics :

1. The outcome is of course unknown.

If we knew what we would get as direct benefits – this would be an investment stream with well quantified budgets and predictable return on investment – rather than R&D

2. The required resources are similarly uncertain

Similarly as the project starts and evolves, the findings and progress will require resources – both human, time and material – that were not recognized at the outset. Flexibility and locating those resources are therefore significant.

3. The returns are hard to quantify

Since we do not know the results it is impossible to estimate the returns.

4. Alliances are becoming increasingly significant

The extended enterprise includes a range of interested parties, and often an agreed alliance can offer predictability and efficiencies

5. Processes and reportability are important

From the initial submission and approval of research ideas, through to quantification of outcomes – processes and reportability are extremely important.

6. Information Centric

Clearly research and development is centered on capturing, assessing and then generating new information – often comprising relevant papers, temporary project stores and of course the publication and re-use of results.

7. Team based collaboration is central to the project

By their very nature R&D projects need the timely contribution of different resources and subject matter experts, working effectively as a team as the project evolves.

What do companies spend on R&D?

Although it is immensely variable companies in general might look to spend 2- 5% of their revenue on R&D. Sectors of course vary considerably – pharmaceutical companies might expect to spend 15-20% of their prescription sales on research and development.

What Claromentis technologies are appropriate to Research and Development?

The core intranet platform, with the included extranet permissions, form the central deployment for R&D centric portals. Business Process Manager is used to implement processes, for example internal to the project or for the approval and funding of R&D efforts at the outset.

Graphing and presentations of dashboards, status and results are also important, although these can be implemented of course within the application files if this is preferred.

How can Intranets, Extranets and Process Management in a Web Platform  Contribute to R&D?

There are many ways that a web platform can contribute to R&D, I have just suggested 6 that seem to me to be particularly important.

1. Encouraging Innovation

Corporate social networking, often reaching out to staff in partner organizations, forms a powerful way to seek out and leverage relevant experience.  Informal collaboration networks encourage contributions from people who initially may not have been identified as a valuable resource based on more conventional criteria.

These weak ties can then be explored further, strengthened and leveraged as the project team matures.

Applications such as FAQ and more formal discussion boards are also important, allowing the posting of questions and voting on answers to rapidly move information forwards.

2. Extending out through Extranets to partners

Research and Development is often an effort that needs collaboration between companies – even those companies that in other projects might be competitive. The powerful permission systems of web platforms allow such sensitive collaboration to take place securely.

3. Version control of information

The natural version control of information, such as documents, lends itself to the evolution of information as a research and development project proceeds.

4. Free collaboration on information

In contrast to formal version control and ratification systems, direct and informal collaboration can speed up team based contribution to information. Historically such technical scratch pads were the natural domain of Wikis, recently we have seen Google docs as a natural evolution in this area. This is mainly because they do not require any understanding of unusual syntax and are a more natural evolution for those staff who are used to using application files like word and excel to store information.

5. Project Planning

As research projects start and evolve they need of course an element of planning and control, web based project management tools provide access to all parties, wherever they are located, to the appropriate task and project status.

6. Research Project Approval

For many organizations processing project applications for research and development is extremely important – they need to be seen to be clear and transparent in which projects are approved, or receive funding.

For example the Nottingham University Hospitals Research and Innovation Extranet www.nuhrise.org describes a very clear process for the submission and governance approval for any research project impacting their patients, staff or facilities.

Claromentis are currently working with a national Innovation Agency for their own approval of projects. The organisation was established by the government and is responsible for the National Innovation agenda. In line with one of its core functions, it is required to ensure that government investment capital in innovation is efficiently allocated. Business Process Management starting from a public facing Extranet for project submission, and with internal approval processes and proactive notification systems, is ideal for such a process.

Summary

Web based platforms are ideal for research and development projects. Permission systems allow the collaboration of various stakeholders in a secure way, and business process management allows for clarity and transparency as decisions are made.

Modern corporate social networking implementations within web platforms are also significant – allowing companies to draw in talent that might not initially have been formally identified as relevant to a particular project.

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Document, Prod-Intranet, Prod-Process, Prod-Project, Solutions business centric portals, extranets, R&D, research, web platforms

I was looking at our own Claromentis Intranet home page ( we call ours Atlas ) and I was reminded how much useful functionality, providing real benefits, you can get from just a few inches of space. Here is a screenshot of just the top right corner of our current home page for Atlas :

My second thought was how much of that came from new suggestions from our own customer base.

In this case 3 out of the 4 have been provided as components resulting directly from customer feedback or live project requests. Now all of our customers – as well as ourselves –  can use these intranet components, and many other examples.

1)    A simple task manager – we developed this on the suggestion of one of our intranet customers. It is a highly effective simple task manager, which allows groups of users to share collaborative tasks and be reminded in their inbox – in this case on our home page – that they have tasks allocated to them, and what their current status is.

2)    News – these permission based news channels have long been a requirement.­

3)    Who’s in and who’s out. A simple application to dynamically let everyone know who is out today. It has been a pleasure to develop this – it runs directly from our intranet vacation planner. It even has a sense of humor – ‘everyone’s in – but it’s a Saturday!’

4)    Posting directly to Corporate Social Media – our new Innovate application for sharing status and ideas. This is a hugely popular application – allowing permission based discussion streams, follows, likes, replies and referencing anything in the intranet – so users for example can discuss a particular project task or document.

My final thought was that 3 of these applications did not even exist a few months ago, showing the accelerating pace with which Claromentis is developing. This is  thanks not just to our own developers and designers but to the growing customer base that provides continuous feedback and requests as they implement against their own particular requirements.

Custom Development, Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Intranet, Products, The Framework Intranet Components, intranet software

Within an intranet the use of blogs allow for informal, easy to generate and time sequenced content to be generated by relevant staff – and for interested user to be able to comment – in a very similar way to the use of blogs in the public internet space.

Some key differences are :

• The community is already created for the author
• Intranet permissions allow particular blogs to be  revealed to relevant readers only
• The reputation of the author ( CEO for example ) exists separately from the authors ability to generate interesting content.
• Blog participants are much more likely to adhere to conduct and ethical standards required by their organization

Intranet blogs are often generated by executives or the management team as a way to communicate thoughts with their staff and to communicate strategy in a way that employees might be more likely to absorb than more traditional alternative methods.

They can also be used as an interview process with key staff to capture their thoughts on how they achieve results, or by departments to encourage participation in various key initiatives.

Claromentis allows for permission based news channels to be styled as blogs whenever needed, and for those blogs to be seen as components on the home or departmental pages or directly accessed from the internal menu systems.

Commenting and interaction can be controlled with each post on a blog – alternatives are

• No commenting
• Instant publishing of comments
• Approval of comments required
• Anonymous commenting enabled

In general we recommend that commenting should be instant – as that is what participants expect and employees normally adhere­ to reasonable standards­ of language and content – or completely anonymous where ‘the truth’ is sought from the targeted audience without fear that expressing their opinions might jeopardize their careers.

Claromentis also offers corporate social networking through the new Innovate application, that provides features similar to Facebook and Twitter within the corporate intranet. For many clients this newer enterprise 2.0 application is complementing, extending and even taking over the informal collaboration requirements for which blogging and wikis were the only solution before social networking became such a mainstream technique.

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Intranet

I have decided to write a series of posts around how we can map the potential contribution of Claromentis as a web platform for your business, against the original components of a value chain as defined by Michael Porter in 1985.

To refresh our memories Mr. Porter described the following Support Activities :

• Infrastructure – Finance, planning etc
• HR Management
• Technology Development – R&D
• Procurement

And the following Primary Activities :

• Inbound Logistics
• Operations
• Outbound Logistics
• Marketing and Sales
• After Sales Service

As the significant building blocks for a value chain, they define the activity in a delivery system which creates margin for the owners of a business.

Back in the mid 80s the main approaches were looking at each of these components, and either seeking to drive down costs without compromising quality – or trying to improve quality without increasing costs.

In general terms the former led to outsourcing and the latter to total quality management.

These early models are still valid, and with technology moving so fast and web platforms like Claromentis able to contribute to so many of these areas, I thought it would be interesting to post on our recent experience in each of them.

My first one this week is likely to be R&D – as it is very much on my mind with our new Innovate 1.1 release.

Thanks also to a strategy handout from Roger Martin-Fagg, provided by Vistage – for prompting the idea of this series of posts.

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Intranet, Prod-Quality, Prod-Sales, The Framework business model, Claromentis, value, web platform