Notes

Outline

Microsoft Case Study:  Portals as Communities for Knowledge Sharing Mary Lee Kennedy Director, Knowledge Network Group Microsoft Corporation KnowledgeNets 2001 May 17th, 2001, New York

The Topic “The case study will focus on the intranet knowledge capture, organization, access, and delivery and reuse strategy to put what we know at our fingertips.”

Community as Social Capital

Why Bother? Brain power Top companies in 20 industries ranked according to their levels of knowledge capital with ave. company’s KC having 3 times their book value or $21 billion. (1999 Knowledge Capital Scorecard*) http://www.intellectualcapital.nl/ *“Seeing is Believing,” CFO, 2/1999 – NYU Stern School of Business, Prof. Baruch Lev

Microsoft Employees… On average spend 2.31 hours a day engaging with information 50% of that time is looking for it and 50% of the time is using it. Are avid users of both tacit expertise and explicit information in electronic environment Want one-stop shopping, faster access/real-time access, easier/more accessibility to web sites, a good/powerful search engine and relevant information. Expect “everything” to be specific, measurable, relevant and tangible i.e. there is an expectation of value, value creation and contextual understanding.

Slide 6

“Community” Levers Content (Information and knowledge) Tools Services

Explicit Content FY01 Top 15 Requests: 77% - MS product/tech info 70% - Training materials 68% - Technical or white papers 68% - Internal project websites 62% - Internal news and features 61% - Presentations 60% - Standards & specifications 54% - Books 53% - External News 48% - Trade journals (electronic) 47% - Competitor Product info 44% - Competitor websites 42% - Conference proceedings 37% - Org charts 37% - Trade journals (print)

Implicit Content

Intranet Tools “Officialdom” engagement Electronic connectivity Workgroup collaboration

Corporate Portal

People/Roles

Connectivity

Contribution/Consumption

Workgroup Collaboration

Group Collaboration

Intranet Web Services Taxonomy Schemas Search and tag taxonomy Navigation taxonomy

Search

Navigation

Today’s Pro’s and Con’s Pro’s Peer recognition motivating factor in workgroup collaboration Grass-roots, “middle” and technology drivers are cultural fit – and productive Intense levels of informal sharing and information publishing based on meritocracy Subject matter is organizational catalyst in enterprise/divisional communities Joint commitment to platform, content, and services Con’s Multiple efforts Deep knowledge of user experience within each portal but not across the intranet (other than MSWeb) Potential for confusion and ignorance on key content and internal messaging “Deer in the headlights syndrome”

Evolution

The Challenge of Islands

Next Wave:  XML Web Services

Employee Engagement

Common Goals Strategy Establish an internal network of major portal owners to adopt standards and best practices, including: Portal planning User experience Content quality Business and employee information and knowledge, Information architecture Editorial programming, and Applications platform.

Vision for the Intranet Empower Microsoft employees through seamless access to tools, services, information and knowledge any time, anywhere, on any device.

Value Proposition The Company will have an efficient and effective information and knowledge management solution for employees, and one to share with our customers. Employees can easily find, share and reuse information and knowledge, understand its significance/relevance, and apply it as intended by the employee. Network members Will meet their audience needs faster than they would when operating independently.

Framework

FY02 Success Increase reuse of the most valuable content, tools and knowledge Increase employee ability to identify and understand key business topics Decrease multiple portal efforts and increase efficiencies Increase user satisfaction across the intranet experience Have a great story to tell our customers.

Key “Mantras” Culture defines what works when establishing community The dynamic duo Technology can enable it People drive it Common understanding and desired end-state keep it productive

Questions Mary Lee Kennedy marylken@microsoft.com

Planning Objective Establish a cross-portal business-owner driven strategy for the intranet that ensures a measurable benefit to employees and to Microsoft. First steps “Vote with your wallet” Research sub-team to establish intranet baseline Collaborative workspace Executive sponsorship Internet/Intranet review

User Experience Objective Design a simple, intuitive and flexible user experience which provides seamless navigation across the major portals First steps Baseline exploratory research on intranet user expectations including community tools and preferred method of engaging with peers, experts and the “company” Audience (employee) understanding thru a Persona Village Tie-ins between intranet/internet/extranet

Editorial Programming Objective Coordinate editorial content that increases employee understanding First steps Requirements for a consistent  employee understanding Editorial roles and responsibilities Common programming schedule Editorial standards Content quality standards

Information Architecture Objective Design and implement an information architecture that provides The employee-base with the ability to find (through search and browse) the authoritative, consistent, exhaustive information needed The publishers and aggregators the ability to add metadata based on a shared taxonomy with a minimum expense of time and effort. First steps Core taxonomies (search, tag, navigation) What makes a “Best Bet” Use of common content management tool

Information and Knowledge Objective Guarantee that critical content sets meet business and employee productivity needs First steps Baseline information needs assessment Identification and valuation of key information and knowledge sets Articulation of roles and responsibilities Agreement on content quality standards

Applications Platform Objective Provide reusable platform solutions with architectural guidance and a synchronization path that ensures fastest deployment. First steps Construct an architectural guidance process Review current platforms…identify audience/planned use opportunities Engage product groups