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Webinar video: What does learning look like in the modern workplace?

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey
  • What does learning look like in the modern workplace?
  • How can the L&D function deliver techniques such as nudge learning and blended learning?
  • How can you inject collaboration into the learning mix?
  • How can you deliver learning in the natural flow of work?

These are all key questions on the lips of L&D managers and we’re going to try to answer them for you.

Content Formula, a leading London consultancy in the digital workplace, is excited to announce a new partnership with LMS365 – an up-and-coming and important disrupter in the Learning Management System space. Join us to see some of our ideas and some of the tools and techniques that leading innovators in the learning space are using in the modern workplace.

In this webinar we’ll cover:

  • Modern learning techniques
  • Challenges faced when employing such techniques
  • How learning can be made seamless and delivered within the flow of work
  • Some of the features and functionalities that a modern LMS should offer

PowerApps and COVID-19: Microsoft’s Crisis Communication template to help customers coordinate information

Posted on by Joe Perry

With news of the further spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) globally, Microsoft this week have announced a solution that is available to customers of Office 365 and PowerApps to help coordinate their own information sharing and team collaboration.

App in Teams

The solution combines capabilities of Power Apps, Power Automate, Teams, and SharePoint. It can be used on the web, mobile or in Teams.

Key features include:

  • Employees can report their work status (e.g., working from home) and make requests. This helps managers coordinate across their teams and helps central response teams track status across an organisation.
  • Admins can use the app to push news, updates, and content specific to their organisation, and can provide emergency contacts specific to different locations.
  • The app includes the ability to add RSS feeds of up-to-date information from reputable sources such as WHO, CDC, or a local authority.

Use the Power Apps template for Crisis Communications to share information and report work status

As part of this effort, Microsoft are also giving all Power Apps users temporary access to a premium feature, Power Apps Push Notifications, so you wont need any premium licenses to use Power Apps to push information to users. They have also reclassified Push Notifications as a standard connector for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.

The solution also comes with PowerBI reports that will allow you to track the current presence status across locations of employees who have updated their status within the PowerApp.

Edit Query

If you’d like any more information on PowerApps and how you can roll out this solution, or any other solutions to employees in your organisation, then get in touch with us.

Source: Crisis Communication: a Power Platform template

 

Did you miss our ‘3 great PowerApps examples that can enhance your digital workplace’ webinar? Watch the video…

Can I use SharePoint home sites to launch a SharePoint intranet out of the box?

Posted on by John Scott

Over the past couple of years Microsoft has continued to release different functionality and features across Office 365 and, more specifically, modern SharePoint Online that intranet teams can use out of the box to enhance digital communications.

Communication sites, for example, have been a great way to deliver relatively simple updates with a nice user experience that is also easy to administer. There has also been a range of other measures such as hub sites and support for mega-menus that bring an intranet type structure and experience to SharePoint Online.

An intranet out of the box?

Of course, using SharePoint Online straight out of the box for an intranet is potentially a mouth-watering prospect particularly for IT functions who can see potentially huge savings with no need for a separate intranet product or CMS.

Internal communications functions and intranet teams may not be so keen as the publishing features such as content targeting, publishing workflow attractive templates and governance controls are usually not sophisticated enough to support the communications needs of large, medium and complex companies. These teams will still need to invest in a modern intranet platform like Wizdom to deliver the kind of intranet and digital workplace experience employees expect.

However, every time that Microsoft release a new intranet-ready feature in SharePoint it does offer teams more options. The latest of these is home sites, which should now be fully rolled out globally.

What are home sites?

Home sites were originally announced back in May 2019 and were described by Microsoft as the landing sites for your organization that bring together news, events, content, conversations and video to deliver an engaging experience that reflects your voice, your priorities, and your brand. Indeed, Wizdom was also announced as one of the partners working with Microsoft on home sites.

Essentially a home site is designed to replicate a corporate intranet homepage; potentially it is a structured entry point into a SharePoint ecosystem that could involve multiple communication sites and hub sites, and provides some kind of global navigation and search, as well as being the official home of enterprise-wide communications. Although this sounds complex, a home site is actually built on the same template as a communication site; in fact, you could consider it as a communication site with unique powers that:

  • Allow for the site to be configured with organisation-wide news (that can be labelled as such with a special power block)
  • Automatically sets the search scope to be tenant-wide not to just that SharePoint site itself (which is the usual default setting)
  • Has some integration with the SharePoint start page that starts to deliver a more consistent intranet experience.

Renowned SharePoint and intranet expert Susan Hanley has written a very useful article that expands on how home sites integrate with the SharePoint start page in three ways:

  • Via a link on the home site that automatically takes a user to their personalised SharePoint start page
  • By automatically replicating the default mega-menu you have on your home site on the SharePoint start page, meaning this navigation can be more easily recached from any SharePoint site
  • By automatically replicating the branding on your home site to the SharePoint start page.

 

Can I use home sites to create an intranet?

The potential for home sites is exciting, and IT functions and digital workplace teams will be asking themselves if they can now use a home site as the enterprise homepage for an intranet thats completely or more or less out the box.

If youre a smaller organisation with straightforward needs the answer could well be yes but before you plunge straight in, there are some questions to consider.

1. Will using SharePoint out of the box deliver the intranet we need?

Before you decide that a home site is going to be your de facto intranet homepage and youre going to rely on out-of-the-box SharePoint for your intranet environment, make sure you go on with your eyes open. Is it really going go meet the needs of your internal communicators and the expectations of your users?

If you are a smaller organisation with straightforward communication needs, then a home site could really make an out-of-the-box SharePoint intranet viable at last. However, if your communication needs and user expectations are more sophisticated, or you want your intranet to be more of a front door to the wider digital workplace, a home site may not quite cut the mustard. As with any major technology deployment, make sure you have fully worked out hour requirements before making the leap.

2. Are we ready for a home site?

If you havent had a proper intranet or a home site before and the intranet is more like a disparate collection of different modern team sites, communication sites and some hub sites, the temptation might be to get a home site up and running as quickly as possible. But you may not necessarily be ready.

A home site suddenly places the need for some order and governance on what may have been a much looser environment. Intranets bring structure and governance to your environment and a home site can throw up various questions such as:

  • Who owns the home site?
  • What do other site owners think?
  • Who has the final say on what the navigation will be?

Its also worth considering whether the tenant-enabled search featured on a home site by default will highlight documents that previously have been hard to find but may now potentially be surfaced. Have sensitive documents got the right permission on them? Implementing a home site may throw up some content, search and governance issues that you previously hadnt thought about.

3. Will we need to implement any other out-of-the-box features with my home site?

To get the most out of home sites and to create a convincing out-of-the-box intranet you will need to combine a home site with other out-of-the-box intranet innovations introduced by Microsoft such as support for mega-menus and content targeting. Make sure you introduce all the necessary features that will make your sites a true intranet.

4. Do we have the skills in-house to set up and configure home sites?

The advances Microsoft, SharePoint modern and other Office 365 tools have made in allowing non-IT professionals to configure and administer tools is considerable. The over-reliance on IT functions for everyday changes from the days of SharePoint classic are truly gone; however its still worth remembering that SharePoint is still a highly sophisticated and complex tool, that is even more powerful when you combine It with other tools like Teams of Power Automate (Flow).

To get the best out of SharePoint Online you need to have some experience and know what you are doing. While adding individual widgets to configure a homepage looks super easy, information and data architecture is considerably more complex. Having experience of the platform will also allow you to integrate with other elements of the 365 platform in the best way possible. While its good to experiment, we often get called by teams either frustrated with their SharePoint configuration or who have got themselves into problems because of relative inexperience with the platform.

5. Should we wait to implement a home site?

Home sites have only just been rolled out globally and there arent many examples out there of home sites use. Other features that make out of the box intranets more viable will also inevitably on Microsofts road map. If youre not particularly in a hurry, there may be a case for waiting to see how home sites evolve and also seeing If some of your peers have successfully implemented one.

 

Need advice on an out-of-the-box SharePoint Online intranet? Get in touch!

Were working with more and more clients who are excited about the potential for an out-of-the-box SharePoint intranet but arent quite sure where to start or need an expert eye to guide them through the optimal set-up for their needs. If you need advice on setting up an out-of-the-box SharePoint Online intranet or arent quite sure if its a viable option for you, then get in touch!

The omnipresent intranet that is in your flow of work is here

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

One of our 2020 predictions for the intranet and digital workplace is that intranets outgrow the homepage. We believe employees, particularly in knowledge organisations, will increasingly be able to access intranet content from whatever application they are in, driving a less fragmented digital workplace experience. In this article Im going to explore this concept and describe how we are now seeing the rise of the omnipresent intranet.

The trouble with the intranet as a destination

The corporate intranet is an essential part of any digital workplace and is a key channel and a destination for news, communications, policies, task completion and social interaction. However, the intranet is not always the destination of choice unless an employee has a specific objective such as a task to complete or a piece of information to find. Employees rarely go there just to see whats going on.

The applications dilemma for intranets

One of the problems for intranets in knowledge organisations is that employees spend most of their working day in applications. Some of these are ubiquitous for all of us Word, Excel, Outlook and increasingly Teams while others are specialist for a particular function or role such as Salesforce for Marketing or ServiceNow for IT support. Nobody spends most of their time working in the intranet apart from the intranet team.

A dilemma for intranet teams and internal communicators will be how to ensure that the intranet is worth visiting to justify that additional effort it takes to get there. While a user may make the effort because they are completing an uncommon task, they are less likely to visit to just read the latest news. How do you get a user to come out of Teams, ServiceNow or Salesforce and read the latest corporate messaging?

An omnipresent intranet in the flow of work

Imagine how convenient it would be then if there was an intranet that was truly omnipresent and could be accessed from whatever corner of the digital workplace a person was in. An intranet where you could view news and information or perform searches from within Teams, Salesforce or through the Windows 10 desktop? It reduces the effort to visit the intranet and therefore removes a barrier.

This represents a significant shift in thinking of how we deliver intranets and how users experience intranets; is the homepage the only way that a user should access intranet content? Thats not to say the homepage is not important it will still be a primary way that users view news and communications and access search, especially if you have it set as the default browser homepage but it doesnt need to be the only way.

The direction of travel

The omnipresent intranet is in fact how is currently evolving an intranet that can be accessed from within any application, not just from Office 365 suite or the Microsoft stack, but potentially any popular workplace application including Salesforce, Slack and Jira.

I agree with Wizdoms CEO John Wainer, who recently wrote about the ethos behind the product:

If intranets are there to help employees get things done and be more efficient, then why not allow intranet and its related content to be accessed from within the applications employees are already working in all day? This is clearly more helpful and efficient for the user than having to open up a new application.

The idea of the omnipresent intranet also aligns to the current direction of travel of the Office 365 roadmap (where integrations are getting easier and easier) as well as Microsofts continuing investment in Teams.

One of the reasons Teams is so successful is that you can easily integrate other applications within it, viewing critical information and also completing simple transactions, sometimes with AI or the automation of Microsofts Power Platform working in the background, sometimes selecting from the out-of-the-box integrations available for popular applications. Here adoption of other applications both benefits enormously by being directly in the flow of work; for example, a Learning Management System

The power of the Power Panel

Wizdoms execution of the omnipresent intranet is primarily through two experiences; allows the intranet to be viewed through Teams, while the Power Panel creates a personalised toolbar that can essentially be accessed from wherever an employee is in the digital workplace.

The Power Panel has proved popular with digital workplace teams who can configure it to include intranet content, links into applications, a set dashboard experience, the ability to drive simple transactions and potentially even a chatbot. It provides a simple, convenient, consistent and relevant gateway into the entire digital workplace that simultaneously drives efficiency, findability and supports internal communications for employees. It brings the intranet to where busy employees work rather than the other way around.

 

Intranets evolve for the better

The rise of an omnipresent intranet is an exciting development and a new step in the direction of the evolution in the intranet. Intranets have always evolved for the better to make them more relevant and useful, and I think were going to see more and more examples of intranet features and content being able to be accessed across the digital workplace. This will result in greater consistency and efficiency, and less fragmentation and frustration. If youd like to discuss how you can start to create an omnipresent intranet then get in touch!

Help! Our Office 365 roll-out is an epic fail

Posted on by John Scott

Rolling out Office 365 or a 365 intranet certainly has its challenges. While some of these may be technical, there can also be problems with adoption, governance, findabilty and more. Your users may be bewildered and confused by your array of tools, or your central team may simply be overwhelmed by the change management efforts to roll everything out. Perhaps youre a victim of your success and MS Teams is already running out of control?  There could be risk issues because restricted documents are being loaded to your intranet. Maybe your employees are addicted to Slack, email and spreadsheets, and you cant get them to use the new tools at their disposal?

Sometimes IT functions and digital workplace teams experience a number of these issues and conclude that their Office 365 roll-out or SharePoint Online intranet is not a success and needs some kind of re-boot. At its worst, we have had clients declare it an epic fail and asked for advice on how to rescue the roll-out and get things back on track.

If you feel your Office 365 or SharePoint Online intranet is an epic fail, firstly dont panic. Youre certainly not alone! There are a variety of things you can do to try and make the situation better and although it realistically will involve more work its good to move forwards rather than stagnate with an unsuccessful programme.

Here are some of the approaches that can help rescue a failing Office 365 intranet or programme.

1. Revisit your strategy

We often find out that when an intranet or digital workplace programme is failing, it might be that the original strategy wasnt quite right. Perhaps it had the wrong focus, the wrong prioritisation, or the wrong scope. Perhaps circumstances have changed and what you were originally planned has less chance of succeeding.

If things simply arent working out, pause your efforts and revisit your strategy. It could be time for a fundamental rethink and also helps to draw a line under your previous approach. Revisiting your strategy is an opportunity to get things back on track; many of the suggestions below are steps that might be a part of or help you define your new strategy.

2. Set a more realistic roadmap

Rolling out Office 365 or some of its constituent tools like Microsoft Teams or a SharePoint Online intranet requires ongoing support and change management to be successful. Central teams can trip themselves up with inadequate resourcing and difficult logistics if a launch programme is too ambitious, finding themselves simultaneously rolling out and supporting what theyve just rolled-out.  In these cases, either the launch methodology or the change management effort may suffer, impacting the overall success of a programme. If this is the case, a more realistically paced or phased roadmap may be required.

3. Identify use cases that are going to make the difference

You can do multiple things with Office 365 and its tools covering collaboration, communications, workflow, mobile apps, innovation, reporting dashboards and more. Many of these may be constituent parts of  a 365 intranet. The range of capabilities means it can be difficult to know where to start.

Successful Office 365 programmes tend to identify clear use cases where the use of Office 365 tools is a no-brainer because it drives efficiency or effectiveness. Identifying the right use cases helps drive adoption and establishes ROI and  can make all the difference to success.

4. Do some fresh user research

If you are revisiting your strategy it may be necessary to do some fresh user research to gain insights into what may be going wrong with your current Office 365 programme. If you dont know why things arent going right, you cant take corrective action. Understanding your users through workshops, interviews, surveys, observation and more, as well as understanding the priorities of your stakeholders, is rarely a waste of time. If you didnt carry out user research before, it may also explain why your current Office 365 programme is an epic fail.

5. Work on the governance side of things

Having a robust governance framework in place is key for Office 365 or SharePoint Online intranet success. Without the policies, roles, processes, structures and guidelines in place that clear governance establishes, then adoption, findability and user experience can suffer. You need a stack of governance in place for a successful intranet, and even more for the wider focus of a digital workplace or Office 365 programme.

The types of governance you need can be widespread, covering everything from agreement on ownership and strategy to guidance on which tools to use when, to data security and privacy policies and more. It can also be quite specific for example putting some processes in site provisioning around Microsoft Teams can avoid the proliferation of unused, duplicate and high-risk sites. If your Office 365 is failing, then a lack of governance could be what you need to address.

6. Create custom business apps

Sometimes organisations work in specific ways that arent quite met by the range of different Office 365 tools on offer. In these cases, creating some custom business apps that are wrapped around the way people work can have a huge impact. If you wrap these into your Office 365 intranet, even better. For example, at Moving Made Easy we crafted a whole custom digital workplace centred around key business processes, enabling digital transformation, and super-charging the Office 365 programme.

7. Use your SharePoint Online intranet as an integral part of Office 365

If you have an Office 365 programme it makes sense to include a SharePoint Online intranet as part of your roll-out. This can make any programme more successful, actively contributing to other aspects of your digital workplace,  including:

  • integrating other Office 365 tools into your intranet to drive business efficiency, and workflow
  • driving adoption by helping people find sites and spaces they are members of
  • supporting governance by encouraging use of certain tools
  • helping drive digital literacy through internal communications and access to resources.

As Microsoft continues ever closer integration between different Office 365 tools, your intranet can become the front door and the guide to the wider Office 365 universe.

8. Double down on change management efforts

As stated above, you usually need some kind of change management effort to support the best use of Office 365, a SharePoint Online intranet and the range of different tools. Change management can consist of a variety of different approaches including formal training, communications and support resources. A network of champions or evangelists who can promote your digital workplace to their peers is also now a common and highly effective way of rolling out Office 365. If your main problem relates to adoption, then doubling down on your change management efforts will be an effective tactic.

Still stuck?

Another option is to bring in external expertise and help to get Office 365 unstuck. Weve supported Office 365 and digital workplace teams both with advice as well as development work thats resulted in better tool adoption and a refreshed momentum. If your Office 365 roll-out is an epic fail and youd like to discuss ways to stop the rot then get in touch!

Webinar: What does learning look like in the modern workplace?

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

Webinar details

Date:  4th March 2020
Time:  2:00pm to 3:00pm UK time
Presented by:  Dan Hawtrey, John Scott and Joe Perry

  • What does learning look like in the modern workplace?
  • How can the L&D function deliver techniques such as nudge learning and blended learning?
  • How can you inject collaboration into the learning mix?
  • How can you deliver learning in the natural flow of work?

These are all key questions on the lips of L&D managers and we’re going to try to answer them for you.

Content Formula, a leading London consultancy in the digital workplace, is excited to announce a new partnership with LMS365 – an up-and-coming and important disrupter in the Learning Management System space. Join us to see some of our ideas and some of the tools and techniques that leading innovators in the learning space are using in the modern workplace.

In this webinar we’ll cover:

  • Modern learning techniques
  • Challenges faced when employing such techniques
  • How learning can be made seamless and delivered within the flow of work
  • Some of the features and functionalities that a modern LMS should offer

Register now

Skype for Business Online retires in July 2021: seven tips for your upgrade to MS Teams

Posted on by Joe Perry

In the Summer of 2019 Microsoft announced the retirement of Skype for Business Online giving organisations two years to upgrade to Microsoft Teams by 31st July 2021 at the very latest when the service was being switched off. Meanwhile new Office 365 customers go directly onto MS Teams.

The forced switch to Teams is not a huge surprise. MS Teams has been a huge success for Microsoft and in our experiences most users (once they get used to it) seem favourable and adoption levels are good. Microsoft continue to expand and add to MS Teams and it seems like it will be at the centre of many digital workplaces for the next few years.

While Skype for Business formerly Lync has been a mainstay of Microsofts enterprise software for a while, and has been a critical tool in the digital workplace landscape driving instant messaging, video calls and voice calls, it makes sense for these capabilities to sit alongside the enhanced collaboration features of Teams.

Six months have passed since the announcement. The clock is still very much ticking, and you now have almost exactly eighteen months to get over to Teams, and obviously less if youre reading this after January 2020.

If you havent migrated yet we would recommend you start planning it now, particularly if you are a large or complex organisation with many users. The good news is that when you have upgraded, Teams can prove to be an excellent product to drive collaboration and communication across your organisation. But an implementation (and therefore a switch over from Skype for Business) does come with some challenges. In this article well look at some tips and approaches you need to consider in order to prepare for the big switch.

1. Dont leave it to the last minute

If youre reading this in January 2020 then you have eighteen months, but in terms of IT planning thats not actually that long for a major change like the upgrade to Teams. And every day that period is getting less and less. Larger organisations may need to go for some kind of phased approach due to resourcing to roll-out Teams. Dont leave the switch to the day before Microsoft turn off Skype for Business for good.

2. Get familiar with Microsofts upgrade framework

Microsoft have created a detailed upgrade framework that takes organisations through the multiple steps to retire Skype For Business and introduce Teams. From Get started through to Implement your upgrade and Operate, adopt and optimize the framework covers the technical, strategic and change management steps required. It also provides plenty of resources and a downloadable toolkit including templates covering project plans, testing and preparing users for the change. Do make sure you are familiar with the upgrade framework before planning your upgrade project.

3. Be wary of a long transition period

In most large organisations we know the roll-out of Microsoft Teams has been phased. This is mainly due to logistics, but it can also be down to more than one licensing agreement being in place (particularly where companies have been acquired and are still on different Microsoft plans). In a long transition period this can bring some confusion for users as to what tool to use to communicate with others. The Microsoft upgrade framework has steps in place to allow the outgoing Skype for Business and incoming Teams to overlap but with two options everybody has the option to use one or the other or select bits of capability are available in one tool and not the other. In terms of a smooth change, while a transition period will be necessary, one that is too long may cause issues.

4. Have a strategy for Teams

MS Teams is a potentially pivotal technology for the digital workplace that is the linchpin for team collaboration and communication. Its not something you just roll out without thought you need to have a properly scoped out strategy that will help to define, among other things:

  • ownership and responsibilities
  • any technical aspects and issues
  • purpose and objectives
  • usage
  • user support
  • the relationship with other applications that have an overlap in functionality
  • configuration Teams can be configured with lots of integrations, feeds and more (for example a Wizdom intranet can be viewed through Teams)
  • site lifecycle (provisioning through to archive)
  • change management
  • And more!

A strategy also needs to be cross-functional with input from both IT, support functions and the business. In our view launching Teams is big its not a typical IT implementation.

5. Get your change management ducks in a row

Microsoft are right when they say Upgrading from Skype for Business to Teams is more than a technical migration. It represents a transformation in how users communicate and collaborate, and change is not always easy.

MS Teams is a complex environment that can be confusing even for more confident users. You absolutely need to invest in a change management approach that both addresses the specifics about moving over from Skype for Business but also the new possibilities with Teams. Using a Champions Network for peer to peer support and communications is a good option here, perhaps also addressing other digital workplace options to put Teams into full context.

6. Set up Teams site provisioning from the get-go

Because employees use Teams for chat and calls it means that on the surface the adoption of the tool is not necessarily an issue. Weve also found that the setting up of Teams spaces can take off surprisingly quickly. Initially you may be delighted with this, but its amazing how quickly the environment can spin out of control with duplicate Teams spaces, unused spaces, high risk uses and badly named spaces that are impossible to find.

Rather than wait a year and then have a clean-up exercise, it can be worth putting in a simple site provisioning process with approval workflow to keep the environment tidy and on-point. Wizdom, for example, has a great provisioning tool that also allows you to configure different templates for Teams.

7. Speak to others or get external advice

If youre planning your switch over its always worth speaking to your peers from other organisations to hear about their experiences. Hearing those tips and tricks and little pitfalls to avoid can be gold dust. If youre looking for more support, there is always the option of getting external advice that covers technical and strategic aspects. Do get in touch with us if youd like advice on switching over from Skype for Business or if youre rolling out Teams.

Start your planning now!

Organisation and your users will benefit hugely from the upgrade to Teams, but you need the right strategy in place and adequate planning. If you havent started your planning for the switch, you should do so now. This is a significant change act now.

Why you should consider creating a SharePoint extranet

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

For most of us in the digital workplace and intranet space, Office 365 is a predominantly a platform that drives amazing possibilities to improve the digital employee experience. However, it can also be an excellent base technology to craft experiences for external audiences too. Extranets are nothing new theyve been around since the mid-nineties. However, increasingly were seeing our customers interested in the possibilities of leveraging Office 365 and its constituent tools to build extranets that improve business processes and interaction involving external parties beyond the firewall. In this post were going to look at some of the key use cases for an extranet.

What is an extranet?

There are various different definitions of an extranet but for our purposes lets regard an extranet as a restricted online environment provided by an organisation where external individuals and parties must authenticate in to see privileged information or content or to carry out related transactions.

Generally, the advantages of an extranet are:

  • Improved processes, usually more efficient than email
  • The ability to build automation between internal and external-facing processes and interactions
  • The ability to drive closer relationships with external parties
  • Better communication with everyone able to see the same data and content
  • More efficient distribution of information to multiple parties
  • More efficient collection of information from multiple parties

 

Get in touch to discuss your project

 

Why are we seeing more focus on extranets?

Recently weve started to see more and more focus on extranets. This seems to be happening for various different reasons.

Firstly, the rapid advance of Teams is spotlighting the easier capability to collaborate with external parties using Office 365 tools. This is making people ask what other kinds of extranet facilities could help them communicate with others and improve business processes.

Secondly, more and more organisations have implemented an Office 365 digital workplace that is now working well for them with decent levels of adoption. A natural question for these organisations is what is the next for my digital workplace? An evolution involving an extranet which extends the digital workplace outwards is just one potential next stage of digital workplace maturity, along with elements such as more automation, for example.

An example of this is the work we carried out for Moving Made Easy where we built a comprehensive digital workplace around the core internal business process of selling a property; at some stage the management may well extend access to customers so they can directly track the progress of the sale.

Sharepoint extranet example

Thirdly, we see the notion of what is internal and external to a company continuing to blur. For example, there are more freelancers around who arent employees but are working for a company. Similarly, start-up and innovation culture and agile methodologies are continuing to drive some interesting collaborations on specific projects that involve multiple organisation where interactions are facilitated by digital tools. Extranets are the way to go here.

Lastly, the blur between the internal and external digital workplace has always been there, as customers and suppliers are brought more and more into core processes driven by automation. For example, some employees may spend more time interacting directly with suppliers than colleagues. Again, this interaction may be facilitated by an extranet.

What are the use cases?

There are various different use cases for an extranet. Here are a few of the key ones.

1Project Collaboration

Extranets that facilitate project collaboration is already a common use case. We already see significant levels of project collaboration that may involve MS Teams or Team Sites, where project team members from multiple organisations can access documents, discussions, calendars and task management capabilities.

2Onboarding and alumni platforms

Recently there has been more emphasis on the value of the digital employee experience right through the employee life cycle from hire through to fire. Having a portal dedicated to employee onboarding that new hires can access even prior to their first day to access information and carry out tasks before they start can be a great way to help drive onboarding. We have seen a great example of Wizdom, an intranet in-a-box, being accessed by new hires to find out about the company they are about to join so they are better prepared for their first day at work. Similarly, alumni portals can help maintain relationships with important influencers and referrers, or even people who may come back to work for you one day.

3Training portal

Training material, courses and other learning resources may be appropriate for your customers, suppliers or contractors, particularly if you offer a technical product or service. An extranet is a great way to disseminate course and learning material for example through a Learning Management System (LMS). LMS365, an LMS that integrates with Office 365, is frequently offered externally as an extranet.

4Customer portals

Customer portals provide opportunities to both drive brand loyalty but also drive efficiencies in customer support both for B2C and B2B organisations. For example, the ability for customers to track orders, see FAQs, access documentation, interact online with customer support by raising tickets and submit accurate information about themselves can be a win for everyone involved. Traditionally customer portals are powered by information in CRM systems such as Salesforce or Dynamics. Again, an intranet product like Wizdom can also be used as a customer extranet.

5Supplier portals

A supplier extranet or portal is an excellent way to distribute and receive information from your supply chain, helping to maintain standards, streamline processes, co-ordinate activities and monitor progress. In some industries such as retail or manufacturing where the supply chain activity is critical and needs to be co-ordinated in real time, then an extranet facility can assume great operational importance.

6Procurement portals

Linked to suppliers a procurement portal can help do a lot of the heavy lifting around procurement processes, as well as keep supplier contact and relationship information up to date.

7Alliances and joint venture workspaces

In some sectors alliances between multiple parties and joint ventures can be common. A portal can help cement collaboration, improve co-ordination and allow for the central distribution of common assets and credentials.

8Brand portals

Brand portals help to distribute brand assets, design guidelines and more for large projects. As a digital agency we find access to a clients brand portal always very helpful!

9Freelancers and contractor extranet

More and more organisations are using freelancers and contractors as an extended talent pool to meet short term and project needs. A freelancer or contractor portal can help to manage work communication and collaboration, and even to be able to distribute work to the right provider. Technically this may be a supplier or procurement portal but tends to focus on individuals and perhaps shorter pieces of work. A portal might be themed around a particular task translating content for example.

Get in touch to discuss your project

 

Extranets in 2020

Extranets can be a great way to extend the capability of your digital workplace and improve both business processes and relationships. An Office 365 or SharePoint extranet can prove to be a highly effective platform to create an extranet, enabling collaboration, presentation of content and workflow. If youd like more advice on creating a SharePoint extranet or adding an external twist to your existing Wizdom intranet get in touch!

 

Introducing LMS365, a Learning Management System for SharePoint, Teams and Office 365

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

Content Formula is excited to announce our new partnership with ELEARNINGFORCE, the creators of LMS365, a modern, cloud-based Learning Management System (LMS) based on Office 365. The partnership means we will be offering LMS365 to our clients, joining our offerings from Wizdom / LiveTiles as well as our bespoke Office 365 and SharePoint development and consultancy.

What is LMS365?

LMS365 is a mature, very well-designed SharePoint LMS that includes all the essential features of an LMS with the unique quality of being able to work seamlessly with Office 365. For any organisation building a digital workplace based on Office 365 and wanting to advance learning with an LMS, or a company simply seeking to replace a clunky LMS that feels out of the flow of daily work, then LMS365 is a compelling choice. A great product like LMS365 combined with the power of Office 365 is highly attractive.

The creators of LMS365 are ELEARNINGFORCE, a Danish company and Microsoft Gold Partner, with a close relationship with Microsoft spanning over a number of years. They are super smart people who are easy to work with, and were really looking forward to our partnership growing over the coming months.

What are the key features of LMS365?

LMS365 provides all the headline features of a mature LMS that youd expect such as SCORM compliant material, with great, intuitive interfaces both for users and admins, as well as seamless integration with your Office 365 environment.  Users can search through a course catalogue, enrol on courses (including classroom-based training), take online learning and access other resources. Meanwhile admins can auto-enrol people (super useful for compliance training) and closely monitor training and get the reporting they need. As you would expect, everyone also accesses LMS seamlessly via their Windows / Office 365 password (through Active Directory), so there are no awkward passwords to remember.

Lets look at the core features of LMS365  in more detail.

1.
Personalised user dashboard with gamification elements

Many LMS have all the learning nuts and bolts you need but then fail on user experience. This is a strong point of LMS365 with an attractive, personalised  dashboard for users that includes gamification features (leader boards etc.), social learning elements and clear reporting of learning progress. There is also a dashboard for managers.
2.
Strong reporting

LMS365 has flexible and detailed reporting (and analytics) to track learning progress by user, team or company, identify trends and get a real-time snapshot of usage. This is available onscreen as part of the product, but you can also create PowerBI dashboards and export some data to Excel.
3.
Training plans

Course material can be arranged into training plans with prerequisites. In turn these training plans can be assigned to specific Microsoft Teams or Office 365 groups, leveraging the tight integration between LMS365 and Office 365.
4.
A mobile app

There’s also a nice LMS365 mobile app so users can view learning material on the go. We particularly like how the app also provides offline access, so users can use the LMS on the commute home or in remote areas with poor connectivity, with results synchronized once back online.
5.
Certificates and compliance-based training

Many organisations will have mandatory and compliance-based training requirements. This is fully supported by LMS365 with capabilities such as learning certificates, annual re-trainings, trackable confirmations, reminders, reporting and more.
6.
Office 365 adoption material

Another interesting feature is that LMS365 have teamed up with content providers to supply Office 365 training material that can help drive adoption. Using an Office 365-based LMS to learn about Office 365 seems like a great idea!
7.
Easy set-up

A real strength is the ease and speed of setting up LMS365. Because it is cloud-based and sits alongside Office 365 it really can be up and running in a day or so.
8.
Integration with Office 365, MS Teams and beyond

The integration with Office 365 is an obvious strength of LMS365, so for example you can easily embed a display of personalized training on any SharePoint page and bring learning right into your intranet (be it a SharePoint or Wizdom intranet) to help drive adoption.There is also an attractive integration with Teams that allows learning to be delivered right into the flow of work. Here you can share course material in channels, use a special LMS365 bot to find individual training plans and courses, embed dashboards and more.There is also a modern API that means integration with other non-Office 365 systems such as your HR or ERP system is relatively straightforward.

SharePoint Office 365 Teams LMS LMS365

Key benefits

We believe all of the above adds up to a compelling learning proposition for any organisation, particularly for those companies on an Office 365 journey. Its why we’ve chosen to work with ELEARNINGFORCE.

The business benefits from any LMS include:


More knowledgeable workforce better equipped to carry out their role


Helps new starters get up to speed more quickly


Easy management of compliance-based training


More engaged workforce.


The benefits for an LMS like LMS365 include:


High adoption and easy access to learning material: An LMS that is in the daily flow of work and a core component of your digital workplace, accessible via AAD and easily integrated or reached from core Office 365 tools including a SharePoint Online intranet and MS Teams.

A highly versatile platform to suit all learning needs and styles: An LMS that handles online learning but also classroom based training, as well as different content types.

A mature, stable product with deep capabilities: A reliable platform with the elements you need such as good analytics and reporting, certification and more.

True learning for a mobile and frontline workforce: Anytime access in the cloud and a strong mobile app.


Strong user experience: Attractive and intuitive design, not always a given in an LMS


Strong admin experience: Very easy set-up and configuration plus some powerful tools to easily create courses and modules


Easy deployment: Quick and easy to launch.



Interested? Get in touch!

We’ve already had several clients very interested in what LMS365 has to offer and were excited about its potential too. If you’d like to discuss and see how LMS365 might be able to help you then get in touch to arrange a demo.


Find out more about LMS365...

Request a call back with one of our experts, for a free consultation about how LMS365 can benefit your business.

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Ten intranet trends for 2020

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

The new year is always a good time to take stock and think about the bigger picture. Its also when intranet managers and their teams may be planning the months ahead, working out their specific objectives and prioritising activities.

For any planning process a useful reference point are the deeper trends seen across the world of intranets and digital workplaces.  Factors such as the software market, AI and the Office 365 roadmap (for SharePoint Online intranets) can present both opportunities and challenges for intranet teams, and its always good to anticipate the trends that will be occurring over the next year or so.

We often get asked by clients planning a new intranet what will happen in the market in the short, medium and long-term future. While its always impossible to be completely certain about whats going to happen, there are some intranet trends that are happening now that we can expect to become more prevalent in 2020.

So, to help planning here is our view of ten of the intranet trends we can except to see in 2020.

1. Intranets continue to be strategically important

Sometimes intranets get a bad press and are not regarded as particularly valuable, but the fact is that after 20 years intranets are still very much part of the enterprise digital landscape. One of the reasons they have survived so long is because intranets adapt and evolve to the needs of organisations and employees, absorbing new capabilities, and taking influence by developments on the web. Currently SharePoint Online intranets (and intranets in general) are starting to absorb more automation and can even be accessed through other applications like Microsoft Teams. Intranets continue to drive efficiency and engagement, and organisations continue to choose to invest in them.

2. AI becomes normalised on the intranet

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the subject of feverish and prolonged media attention, but were now starting to see AI creeping into everyday work processes and appearing as a useful feature of the intranet, particularly through chatbots. For example, within the suite of WIzdom and LiveTiles products AI is being used to remind employees to complete their people profiles and making tagging suggestions for content owners. Chatbots also help employees to find things and drive employee self-service, relieving some of the pressure on IT and HR helpdesks. During 2020 we can expect to see AI increasingly normalised on the intranet in ways that are actually useful.

3. Intranets outgrow the homepage

For a long time, the intranet has been the key destination and the starting point for navigating around content, services and increasingly apps. However, employees dont spend their working day in the intranet, they work within applications like Microsoft Teams and Salesforce. Therefore, when an employee goes to the intranet homepage, it is quite possible it breaks the flow of their natural work. Increasingly we see employees wanting less and less fragmentation across the digital workplace and wanting to access intranet content and features from wherever they are.

In 2020 we believe well start to see more and more intranet content being accessible from within applications, bypassing the homepage altogether. In intranet products like Wizdom this is already possible with elements such as the Power Panel and Wizdom for Teams, presenting a genuinely new paradigm for intranet design.

4. SharePoint intranets become intertwined with Office 365

One of the directions of travel for Office 365 has been the easier and more consistent integration of the different tools and services within it, including SharePoint Online. This means it is becoming easier and easier to add web parts that reflect content from Yammer, Teams or elsewhere into a SharePoint Online intranet, as well as take advantage of the Microsoft Power Platform capabilities around workflow and automation. In 2020 we believe SharePoint Online intranets well become ever intertwined with Office 365, helping leverage the investment in Office 365 and usefully surfacing the range of tools for employees.

5. An intranet has a digital employee experience mandate

Digital employee experience (DEX) has been a term that has grown in use over the past year, referring to a more holistic and strategic view of how digital channels can enhance the overall employee experience at all stages through the employee lifecycle. Just as customer experience is understood by stakeholders, the term employee experience similarly resonates, particularly with HR functions.

Armed with a mandate to drive a better digital employee experience, intranets are being considered more as part of a whole ecosystem that contributes to moments that matter for employees such as onboarding, internal promotion, and more, as well as driving everyday efficiency and engagement.

6. Microsoft investment continues to stimulate options

Over the past two years Microsoft has continued to introduce features that support an enterprise intranet experience straight out of the box using modern SharePoint, for example extending capabilities around content targeting and navigation. This year they also announced the creation of home sites to bring something starting to resemble an enterprise intranet homepage. In 2020 we believe Microsofts investment will continue to add more options for intranet teams while also driving innovation within in a box products like Wizdom. Essentially this means teams have more options and SharePoint intranets get better!

7. Knowledge management comes back into focus

In late 2019 Microsoft announced an intriguing new service currently in development as Project Cortex This uses AI to organise content into different topics such as projects, products and processes, and also assemble related knowledge networks based on information from the Microsoft Graph. This effectively brings automation to Knowledge Management (KM), with the intranet an obvious place for output such as related learning content or even curated knowledge centres. We think as Project Cortex starts to be revealed, it will bring KM sharply back into focus with the intranet as a key delivery channel. KM has never really gone away, but it may now get some of the attention it deserves.

8. Personalisation becomes the key to intranet success

Intranets keep on improving but many of their more sophisticated capabilities such as content subscriptions and targeting, ability to view relevant apps, links and sites, and the intelligent elements such as AI require some level of personalisation.

Personalisation allows individual employees to fully leverage the power of intranets as a relevant experience that helps them with their working day and is centred around their needs. A frontline employee based in South Africa and back office employee in France have completely different information and communication needs. Through 2020 we expect to see personalisation continue to become increasingly important for intranet success.

9. Persistent toolbars become productivity engines

A common design feature of intranets has been persistent toolbars that follow users from page to page. Partly designed to reduce clutter on the homepage, increasingly these allow employees to view personalised sets of links and apps, sites you a member of, aggregated notifications and more.

These toolbars are often designed to help employees get things done and find what they need, driving efficiency and replacing email. In Wizdom, for example, the

10. Intranets support the democratisation of automation

Weve long admired the way Microsoft has designed systems like PowerApps and Power Automate (previously Flow) to be able to be configured by power users rather than non-developers, effectively democratising automation and allowing departments to drive their own process efficiencies without wholly relying on IT functions. The easier integration of the Power Platform apps into SharePoint Online, the general use of workflow and forms on intranets and even the increase in the use of bots means that we see intranets continuing to support the non-IT creation of automaton and workflows.  This will make intranets even more business relevant through 2020.

Stay with us through 2020

We hope youve found our run down of the themes for 2020 useful. For more insights, continue to check our blog and watch out for details of webinars and presentations through the coming year. If youd like to discuss any of the themes or you need help planning out your intranet or digital workplace strategy for 2020 then get in touch!

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