I’net Strategy
Overview
Outcomes of
K-solutions Study
CONTENTS
1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................ 4
2 Executive Summary............................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Key Targets suggested from the Study........................................................................... 4
2.1.1 Productivity gains target at >10% per employee................................................................... 4
2.1.2 Revenue generation...................................................................................................................... 5
3 Recommendations from the outcomes
of the Study................................................... 5
3.1 One stop information from Intranet, Internet and Extranets to all
systems. 5
3.2 Lead by targeting the needs of the audiences........................................................... 5
3.3 Evolve from an organisation based web site to a process-led
applications based site. 6
3.4 Move from ad hoc funding to a service oriented funding model.................. 6
3.5 Subscription services................................................................................................................... 7
3.6 Move to a pre-designed Group Architecture that may be used to
rationalise current systems and evolve to future best in class 7
3.7 I’net availability of key legacy systems....................................................................... 7
K-solutions having studied the trends for future web integrations
suggests establishing ways to evolve both the Intranet and Internet web sites
to ensure that they can be measured against current ‘best in class’ I’net web
sites. These sites have been reviewed
to gain an understanding of the best in class Intranet and Internet standards
and a set of recommendations have been established. The definition for private
(intranet), public (internet) and specific (extranet) security is known as I’net
This paper has been produced as a communication aid to allow a
better understanding of the Strategy for I’net.
According to the UK Fletcher Report and IDC World-wide, best in class I’net today measures its return through revenue generating or productivity gains. In measured corporations, 10% productivity gain per employee is seen as a normal expectation. E-business revenue has traditionally been generated through savings made in communication but is expected to move to a measured revenue opportunity. The leading corporations invest between £250,000 and £2m on I’net per annum and expect a productivity return of >10% per employee. An application maintenance return of 15% is also expected by aligning to group wide applications where appropriate. Each e-business application is separately measured for return.
To establish “the connected enterprise”, there suggests a need to provide a seamless Intranet , Internet and Extranet. These will be referred to as I’net services. They will be tailored to key audiences, provide growth in knowledge and simplify value-added processes.
The approach will be:
Ÿ Audience led;
Ÿ Authenticated access for anybody, anywhere, anytime;
Ÿ To adhere to a unified rule set by using group architecture;
Ÿ To support the new way of working;
Ÿ To support doing business;
Ÿ To support growth in the use of I’net;
Ÿ To evolve from communication and marketing audiences to revenue generating audiences;
Ÿ To measure the returns internally to best in class externally;
Ÿ
Flexible, to allow for any future
organisational and technology changes.
To be achieved by:
· one time information gathering;
· group wide economies of scale.
Specifically:
Ÿ Trade on internal knowledge and information externally and vice versa;
Ÿ Cross fertilisation to all business units within the regulation framework;
Ÿ One stop group intelligence;
Ÿ Best Practice access for all;
Ÿ Individual and team performance improvement processes;
Ÿ Group wide services e.g., e-business with suppliers, shared business process intelligence, travel, and procurement
Ÿ Distance Learning.
Achieved through:
Ÿ E-commerce
Ÿ Facilitation of the speed to have an number of companies active in a joint venture
Ÿ Partnering enablement - partner information network;
Ÿ
Legal obligation adhered to more
efficiently - health, safety, environmental
The initial recommendations to achieve best in class include:
The publication mechanism will need to be integrated to allow publication to all web sites. This unifies the source of the content and information of the Intranet, Internet and Extranets. To publish, you would need to simply tick the destination of the item and then submit for approval. With this mechanism being used there will be just one set of databases and one set of standards to maintain for I’net. The Intranet may be linked to the Internet to reduce the duplication of databases. Significant savings could also be made through the reduction in the need for contracting for HTML conversion skills and the reduced reliance on several different external contractors.
It is assumed
that the Intranet is intended for internal organisations and the Internet for
external specific audiences, i.e. Intranet private use, Internet public image
with Extranets for defined specific use such as business partners. However, with the publication mechanism
simplified, more information could be made public. There will be one information base that publishes to the intranet
or the internet.
The target audience could be widened from the key city influencers, media, and opinion formers to business partners, joint ventures, regulatory bodies and potential new customers.
The requirements of the audience include:
Ÿ Access to the people support processes such as health, safety and the environment;
Ÿ Ease of partnering. Shared business intelligence and an understanding of the support mechanisms;
Ÿ Market intelligence, by providing the audience with internet and specialised feeds on other the gas chain market, analysing other companies for best practice and market share
Ÿ The ability to add new processes and tasks in a short and predictable amount of time;
Ÿ The ability to increase the capability of service by understood investment;
Ÿ
To generate revenue using e-commerce.
The feedback from the study suggests that generally the navigation of both the Intranet and Internet currently seems to be driven by an organisational unit rather than say a process. An organisation based site is fairly meaningless unless you understand the whole organisation. Most users would not have this understanding, especially the Internet users. The organisation has also developed its own language, making the understanding and interpretation quite difficult for the public audience and for many of the internal employees.
There is massive content duplication between the units because of the
form of navigation used. Best in class
sites now offer a more FAQ’s and process oriented web site. They base their sites on services and
process supported applications. Navigation is carried out by using either an
A-Z index or by following the steps of a known process from the business value
chain. Both just need common sense and
do not need organisational explanation.
Such sites include www.bp.com, www.pgees.com and www.entergy.com.
Improved navigation also causes the navigator to ‘learn as you do your
job’ For the designers of Internets, until the navigation of the web site is
more process oriented, the emphasis cannot shift from a communication marketing
aid to a revenue generating tool.
The study also showed that generally each business unit funds their own Intranet and Internet with corporate communication funding the common branding of the sites. The difficulty with this model is that it naturally creates boundaries, different styles, duplication and a content base that by nature is difficult to navigate. To ensure there is a universal look and feel, it is necessary to change the funding model to a joint funding one of one service design rather than one of complete autonomy. Currently, if one business unit does not have the funding capability, it may cut back and thus affect the whole group. Similarly, if it invests more, there will be a disproportionate look and feel in that area as opposed to the whole site. This recommendation is supported by studies carried out by IDC, Gartner Group and evaluations of sites, who recommend that a common set of standards are agreed for publishing and a holistic approach to co-ordinating the sites is made, based on a service oriented funding model.
Most Internet protocols create the expectation that people will browse and navigate with a differing degree of success. However the study found that most of the employees are used to e-mail where messages arrive in a prescribed index for you to review. Most Internet sites now offer subscription services where you can subscribe to receiving an e-mail of the latest news, investment information etc. An example where a company was moving to Lotus Domino R5 allows subscription services to be introduced both on the Internet and Intranet so that rather than remembering to browse in, an e-mail or alert will notify you of the changes.
This allows members of the Internet audience of the Internet website to receive regular investment, news or whatever your corporation wishes to push and promote to their user base. For the Intranet it allows users to be updated when specific areas change.
The study suggested that many corporations need to establish holistically designed web sites with content, process and technical architecture designed to key principles, models and standards. The study outcome suggests to move to best in class architectures to include flexibility within investment and return guidelines and audience based justification. Some of the characteristics to be considered include: principles for connectivity; user profiles; technical succession planning; holistic models; just in time server farms and standards for content image management; rapid application development for process deployment. An assessment of the current web sites will need to be carried out to establish the changes needed to achieve the levels set by the measured best in class. Examples of current problems include back and forward buttons in different places, no common home button and over 100 menus. A process of harmonisation is to be established by moving to Group Architecture.
A legacy system is one that has a life span of more than one year. A principle of I’net architecture will be to make legacy systems available through the I’net. Some legacy systems will not be able to achieve this and a plan will need to be established to either gradually retire them or replace them.
Some leading organisations such as Dell Computers www.dell.com, Daimler Chrysler www.chrysler.com, Lockheed www.lockheedmartin.com and British Telecom www.bt.com use the I’net as a business driver to change behaviour, break down organisational barriers and become best in class in business processes and business intelligence. I’net can provide a measured productivity increase in their people being smarter and having a wealth of access to information. The developed knowledge creates corporate intellectual capital that has a high rate of return.