Content Migration-Yikes!

I read this great white paper the other day by James Robertson of Step Two. In it he goes over some great concepts and preparatory work that must to go into your project for a large scale content migration. Content migration: options and strategies.

I read the article and then thought "Hey, I just worked on a project just like that." So here are some of my thoughts in response to James' white paper.

1. Planning: You can never do enough of this. And part of the planning phase needs to include Stakeholder agreement and support. Tell the VPs and Directors of departments you need X number of content managers for X amount of time, BEFORE you start the project. It sets expectations on the resources needed for the project. Create a Content Owner Agreement, stating if this department wishes to have a presence on the intranet this is what they are required to do.

2. Automated Migration: The Automated migration sounds great but can be completely disastrous if you have not completed proper pilot for the migration. Do not choose a small site in which to run the pilot. And if you have more than one source of content. Most big companies that do not have good intranets. Content can be found on both the CMS and front page homegrown sites making the automation process impossible. So you may have to come up with a few strategies for each type of content.

Content Migration can be a life safer for some companies, finally have one place to find information, saving time doing endless searches and having your new CMS system work better with your existing tools. But you need to be prepared before taking on a project of this magnitude. Plan Carefully.

Social Media and Intranets

I just attended an online webinar about Social Media. It was called “Get Past the Social Media Hype” and presented by 1to1 media. I found it very informative. The subtopics included community building, content sharing and content syndication. All of this was presented well and made a lot of sense. And for me, it gave me a lot of ideas and thoughts. Please check it out.

However one of the presenters made an umbrella statement about Social Media and Intranets that truly surprised me. It was "an internal blog will replace the company's intranet". They went on to explain that CEO blogs are increasingly important and popular. It allows employees to find out what is happening inside the company. The blog is an excellent way to market internally to employees letting them know about new products, launches and direction the company is going. But can a blog that completely replace a company's intranet?

I know the webinar was presented with marketers in mind as the main consumer of this content, so I am not the intended audience. But a blog to replace a whole intranet is misleading statement to make. Blogs can be an essential part of an intranet but not to take over the entire thing. Most Intranets serve many functions within the company. Intranets can be used collaboratively, like on projects. It can be used to engage employees, as document repository or to increase employee productivity.

While it is obvious that blogs will help engage employees and help teams collaborate on projects, but how will it increase employee productivity? How will a blog help the employee do their job? It is great for providing information and opinion but what about job process and documentation?

I believe that Social Media is vital to the collaboration and information sharing across a company. And it will be a huge benefit to employees when a company decides to add these features to grow the organization. Social Media and Intranets should work together, seamlessly as components of a knowledge repository of a company, not as competitors.