Intranet benchmarking: a mashup of why & how

I’ve mashed up a new post about benchmarking based on my original blog post “Vanity” or “Specific value” benchmarking? and the extraordinary outpouring of lengthy reactions and comments (including Mark Morrell’s post Benchmark to get the best value). Thank you all for your contributions.

The text below is written by the Globally Local readers!

Why benchmark?

Comparing your intranet to others is useful because intranets exist within organisations and are somewhat ‘oblivious’ to what happens outside the company. It is hard to look over the fence. That’s where the value of benchmarking comes in.

As an intranet manager, you need to show the actual value of your investment to prove that you are actually helping the organisation save money / work more efficiently / ‘live’ a strategic agenda / etc.

Benchmarking should…

• Be part of a more detailed analysis, requirements and benefits realisation exercise – not an end in itself.
• Emerge into actions, decisions and behaviours.
• Provide us not only with the ‘snapshot’ but the roadmap for the continuing journey.

In short, acquiring a ‘benchmarking artefact’ is only the first stage of what’s interesting about the process.

Benchmarking lets you …

• Quantify an impartial view of strength and weakness and catalyze an action plan.
• Obtain valuable feedback and expert advice from both the benchmarking organisation and other other participants in the benchmark.
• Measure the evolution of the intranet as a result of changes that have been implemented.
• Share tips and techniques that can be helpful to other organisations.
• Provide evidence for senior management.

Speaking of senior management …

Senior management want to know what the competitors are doing, how do they compare, how can they do better. It’s also a sad fact that many companies turn a deaf ear to employees yet listen with great attention to the same message from external representatives.

Organisations are not logical. Whether it’s driven by egos or politics (or both) a benchmarking report certainly becomes an asset in dealing with internal personalities.

4 tips for benchmarking and using the results

• Look at the intranet strategy and compare “actual” with “required”, assuming the intranet strategy is appropriate in the first place.
• Identify (1) specific business indicators aligned with business processes and (2) “people indicators” based on interactivity and collaboration.
• Make sure you are not simply copying or cloning, just because it brings security and validation.
• Know what is transferable to your intranet, and how to use the data to justify further investment in your intranet.

One Response to “Intranet benchmarking: a mashup of why & how”

1. Nancyatibforum Says:
   January 29th, 2010 at 3:32 pm

   It was quite interesting to see how much buzz this topic generated.
   This is an insightful mashup of the various contributions, Jane! Thanks for launching this discussion on the value of intranet benchmarking.
   Keep these healthy debates coming.

Comments are now closed