An Intranet Redesign on a Tight Budget

Therese Griffin, Mgr. Marketing & Philanthropy Christy Season, Sr. Intranet Strategist 11.05.10

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Please note: SCANA is not endorsing SharePoint over any other product. We are simply sharing our experiences with SharePoint.

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SCANA Corporation is a Fortune 500 energy-based holding company with businesses in NC, SC, and GA.

• • • • • Headquartered in Cayce, SC ~ 10,000 employees and contractors (6,700 have access to intranet) Corporate Communications: 8 employees (1 dedicated intranet strategist) Web team (internal/external): 3 employees IT (internal): 3 employees (about 25% dedicated to intranet) 3

Agenda

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Where we started Our redesign process Where we are now What the future holds

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Early warning signs

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Communications survey indicated need for change

– In 2008, 67% of employees use intranet at least once per day o 58% in 2005 and only 44% in 2002 – In 2008 about 99% of employee respondents said they have access to the intranet – Employee intranet use grew 25% in just 2 years – Employees indicated need for search functionality 5

Old Intranet 6

What we started with…

Old intranet had been around for four to five years • Experienced typical problems of any home grown intranet – No search – No Web metrics – No processes or governance – Corporate Communications managed all sites; every • department site update went through our dept.

– Not a flexible template, heavy reliance on already busy IT resources Fixing these issues usually requires multiple vendor solutions and a large budget.

• Biggest problem = No Funding!

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But we did have SharePoint

• IT Dept. purchased SharePoint as a project collaboration tool for • • employees (2005) SharePoint was rolled out ‘quietly’ (more pull than push) Employee adoption of SharePoint grew over time – number of team sites quickly multiplied • Realized after getting familiar with SharePoint that a lot of our problems could be solved with SharePoint “out of the box” – SharePoint already purchased, continuously updated with new features as Microsoft updates product – Search functionality – Web Analytics – Blogs – CMS  giving others outside our department the ability to edit content on the intranet By ‘converting’ our intranet to SharePoint, we would get the benefit of SharePoint functionality at zero additional cost.

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I ntranet C onversion

We didn’t want SharePoint ‘out-of-the-box’ because of limitations with design and formatting • Developed Business Requirements for a new Intranet based on • employee research (usability tests, survey results, etc.) Met with IT – IT could easily customize style and design – Extra functionality that wasn’t ‘out-of-the-box’ SharePoint IT could provide by building custom Web parts Called redesign project “Intranet Conversion” because “conversion” communicates zero budget increase as opposed to “redesign”.

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Usability Testing Key Driver

• Conducted several usability tests prior to redesign – Card sorting with employees o Group of employees who represented general employee population o Wrote every site (over 1000) from old intranet on separate index card o Asked employees to sort cards in logical groupings o Data was main driver for top level navigation categories – One-on-one interviews and observation of employee intranet use o Traveled to different locations and watched employees use intranet (office, plants, business offices) o Gained great insight into how different employees were using intranet daily and what major needs existed 10

Redesign Lesson Learned

• Used agile development process throughout 18 month redesign – Used process called ‘SCRUM’ o Write all deliverables on index cards o Organize by priority o Separate into manageable smaller phases, called “sprints” o Address each phase in predefined time period (we used two weeks) – Allows for easier change management and a more flexible timeline 11

Employee Feedback

• • Asked for employee input throughout process Pilot Testing – Pulled together intranet power users (site owners, IT employees, Marketing & Communications employees) – Opened up access to pilot testing group month prior to official launch date – Created forum for group to post feedback – Found many issues and small typos our team overlooked – Identified areas that needed greater communication than others for launch 12

Intranet Pilot Test site 13

New Intranet 14

New Intranet in edit mode 15

Employee Benefits Site 16

Example of Corp. Comm. managed interior site 17

Content Search Results 18

People Search Results 19

People Profile 20

Video Communications 21

Content Decentralization

• • • New platform has less reliance on IT resources – Documented all technical and administrative info related to the new intranet – Multiple resources across IT and Corporate Communications will be knowledgeable in all aspects of the new intranet Corporate Communications can now manage and coordinate intranet layout, structure, and security Utilizing SharePoint allows for easy content decentralization – Site Owners Community o Identified and created a group of site owners who represent department sites on the intranet o Trained group in building and maintaining their department sites on the new platform o Provided with guidelines and will participate in future content audits o Win/Win for everyone 22

Example Department Site 23

Grassroots communication plan

• • • • • Needed to communicate new intranet launch with minimal cost and time Created 30 second ‘commercial’ videos as teasers and posted on old intranet prior to launch – Used employees as actors; filmed in office Involved Site Owners Community & Pilot Test Group – E-mailed signs to print and hang in their work area “Ask me about The Edge” – Created stickers and mailed them to Department Site Owners and pilot group testers to wear on launch day – Asked group to act as ambassadors and answer questions Held live Web cast during lunch on launch day giving tour of new intranet 24

Grassroots communication plan

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The Edge – Apply directly to your workday Extreme Edge Makeover

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Where we are now…

• • 6,700 employees and contractors have access to the intranet Usage up for 2010 – About 91% of employees who can access intranet did at least once per month in 2009 – Currently through September, about 92% access on a monthly basis – Helps build case that it’s not just office employees using intranet anymore

The Edge Unique Employee Visits

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Search Analytics

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What we track…

– – Top search keywords Keyword searches with no Best Bets – Searches with no clicks on results

How this helps…

– – Identifies popular topics, need for more info Identifies need for additional Best Bets – Alerts us if employees can’t find info on topics

We’re continuously improving search so employees can easily find info to do their job

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Where we are now…

• • Employees are using search consistently. It is one of the most popular tools on the new intranet Top search keywords are typically online work tools specific to job functions or locations 28

Employee Feedback

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Surveyed employees about six months after launch of new intranet Goals

– Measure usage and satisfaction with the new Intranet compared with the previous version – Measure usage and satisfaction of specific sections of content and tools within The Edge – Identify unmet demand for functionality and customization 29

Employee Feedback

81% of respondents use The Edge daily Q: During the average work week, how often do you use the corporate Intranet (The Edge)?

1% 5% 13% Ongoing basis / several times a day At least once a day 30% 51% Few times a week Once a week Rarely / never 30

Employee Feedback

Over half of the respondents would be affected within a day if The Edge was unavailable.

Q: If The Edge were not available, how long would it take for your work activities to be affected?

21% 4% 15% 19% 25% 16% Almost immediately Within 1 to 5 hours Within a day Within a week Within a month It wouldn't affect my work at all 31

Employee Feedback

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Asked several open ended questions

– What site improvements can we make to help employees find information more easily?

– What changes or improvements would help improve the People Search?

– If there was a magic button on the home page that would make your job easier, what would it be named and what would it do if you clicked on it?

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Employee Feedback

Humorous Magic Button responses… – – – – –

"Bonus" and it would deposit $1000 into my checking account.

it would be called the "employee improvement/eraser" button and it would bestow knowledge and a proper work ethic on any employee you thought needed it including yourself. However if the button was pushed more than 3 times for any specific person in a 24 hour period by 3 different individuals than that person would simply vanish.

Let me order food in Cafe and have it delivered to my desk.

The button would be named "Clear" and it would automatically and intuitively clear my calendar from unnecessary meetings or meetings with no agenda. The button would be named "Park" and it would magically rearrange the cars in the parking lot to place my car closest to the walkway with empty spaces on either side to prevent door dings.

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Employee Feedback

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Categorized responses into top themes

– Personalization/Customization of home page – Continuous improvement to search tool – Improve content organization – Not aware of available tools, sites, content Biggest theme: need for greater customization and personalization – employees want to get to their critical online work tools easily.

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What’s next?

• • • • • IT updating to SharePoint 2010 (includes potential for added social functionality) Creating ‘My Links’ section on home page for employees to customize with work tools they use frequently Customizable RSS feeds on home page of industry news feeds and targeted information Mobile Intranet Commenting/Rating on news articles, videos, and other content 35

Social Intranet

• • • • Very family oriented which leads well into social media Aging workforce and a large percentage of employees eligible for retirement – Social and collaborative tools could help capture and retain a great deal of knowledge from employees that might otherwise be lost Recently implemented and communicated Social Media Guidelines But are we ready?

– Sr. level leadership still not completely comfortable with social media • Regulated utility, growing culture of compliance – Conservative culture – Resource constraints 36

Testing the social media waters CEO Blog

• Initially blogged about new corporate campus, but • • • need arose to discuss other topics (economy) CEO writes his own blogs – speaks in his own voice, uses humor – blogs about economy and major company initiatives Latest posting reached over 2,500 employees Comments sparse at first, but employees • getting more comfortable leaving comments No anonymity 37

CEO Blog 38

Employee Bulletin Board (internal Craigslist) 39

Ask SCANA Q & A site for employees 40

Frontline – online employee-focused publication 41

Customer Service Challenge – Employees submit ideas 42

What we learned…

Look for in-house solutions by partnering with your IT department. If your company has already made the investment in SharePoint or another technology, take advantage of the “free” functionality it has to offer.

Involve employees as much as possible throughout the entire process. Involve them in defining your needs, testing, and for getting continuous feedback for future enhancements.

We recognize that we are a conservative company and not quite ready for all the bells and whistles of a full-scale social intranet. Right now we have to focus on strategy first and build the social media business case using existing Web 2.0 tools and pilot programs.

Originally, thought intranet would be used primarily by office employees; however, metrics show much wider adoption among all employees.

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Thank You.

Questions??

Therese Griffin [email protected] @taneida Christy A. Season, CAPM [email protected]

@christyseason 44