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Kelly Kerr

Intranets Nurture Companies from the Inside - 22 views

internet collaboration intranet personalisation IBM

started by Kelly Kerr on 09 Apr 11
  • Kelly Kerr
    #1 Kelly Kerr on 09 Apr 11
     
    Topic : How internet technology has shaped collaboration within organisations.

    Intranets Nurture Companies from the Inside


    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E5DE103FF93AA15752C0A9679C8B63&pagewanted=all

    This New York Times technology article from 2001 is relevant when looking at corporate culture and the effect internet technologies have had on the workplace with the corporate intranet becoming an effective communications channel. Whilst many corporate intranets are used to push content to employees, the four companies in this article are taking intranet collaboration to the next level for their employees through personalisation and applications to facilitate collaboration.

    IBM, Ford, Charles Schwab and CertainTeed all have corporate intranets, and whilst the companies have different financial investments in their intranets, there are similarities of note, such as collaboration applications that connect their people allowing all staff to tap into the same information source, contribute project information and ideas, book meeting rooms, all irrespective of where staff are located.
    The article also raises the changing face of the workplace such as flexible work hours that has become an opportunity through internet technology whereby people can work from home, in fact the Ford Motor company set up a program to subsidise home computers for employees so they could access the intranet from home. In addition traditional paper based processes have been updated to operate online which has streamlined business processes, and expanded the availability of business functions.


    Reference
    Stellin, S. (2001). Intranets Nurture Companies from the Inside.
    Retrieved April 2, 2011 from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E5DE103FF93AA15752C0A9679C8B63&pagewanted=all
  • Kristy Long
    #2 Kristy Long on 16 Apr 11
     
    This article was really interesting and valuable. Thanks so much for posting!

    I work in Staff Communications where we are of course highly interested in staff engagement, trust and credible sources and lines of communication.

    It was interesting to read that IBM staff rate their company's intranet as a more useful source of information than news media, executive communication or even their direct managers. This supports what I read in the IKEA human intranet article (see my earlier post on diigo - Inside IKEA's Human Intranet Approach). It seems people are more willing to trust what they read on the intranet, than what they hear from their boss! It would be really interesting to go further into this and see some research on why this is the case.

    The other points in this article rang very true for me. As Kerr (2011) states, "The article also raises the changing face of the workplace such as flexible work hours that has become an opportunity through internet technology whereby people can work from home." It was interesting to read that Ford estimate they have saved almost $2 million in one year from some fairly straightforward stuff like people being able to change their personal address and contact details online at home, rather than handing in a form that goes through several administrative steps.

    The organisation where I work now has to deal with a disparate workforce. More than half of our staff work in the field and have limited access to corporate information and systems which are normally found via the intranet. However, I am facing difficulties internally progressing remote and home access due to arguments of security. We also have a very unionised workforce and there are beliefs that some staff might try and claim a 'working from home allowance' to complete even the smallest of tasks.

    This article has given me some hard dollar return examples from home access, which are often very difficult to prove.

    References:
    Intranets Nurture Companies from the Inside. (2001, January 29). The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2011 from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E5DE103FF93AA15752C0A9679C8B63&pagewanted=all

    Kerr, K (2011) Comments re Intranets Nurture Companies from the Inside Retrieved from http://groups.diigo.com/group/curtin_net308/content/intranets-nurture-companies-from-the-inside-2683532

    Reference Chin, P (2009) Inside IKEA's Human Intranet Approach Retrieved from http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200908/ij_08_21_09a.html
  • Kelly Kerr
    #3 Kelly Kerr on 17 Apr 11
     
    Hi Kristy,

    I really enjoyed researching for this subject as I too work on an intranet for a large corporate. It was a bit of an eye opener seeing some of the technology that we are still trying to get right today was up and running over 10 years ago! We also have flexible work options and all staff are issued with a laptop instead of PC which is excellent when we are working odd hours with people in other countries.

    Kelly

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