With 2011 officially in the books, many have turned their gaze to the coming year. Here at Passageways we are no different. In fact, we have come up with some predictions for the new year. Here are the Top 10 trends we expect to either continue or start in 2012.
1. Mobile Intranets break through.
With the tablet crazy sustaining and executive suite increasingly walking into meetings with iPads, most employee intranets and (especially) board portals will be accessed using the mobile browsers. Mobile apps through itunes will also become more popular and start to be demanded by end users.
2. More blogging will take place.
The blog-o-sphere is an ever growing tool being taken advantage of by firms from all industries. Blogs are an essential tool to putting a face to your organization and creating a public persona. In an age when everyone from Target to Bank of America is being held accountable by the public for their alleged actions, the transparency offered by a blog is invaluable. Blogging creates a new level of communication that is much more real and accessible to the average client. The same rules apply within the organization as well, so Blogging on your Employee Intranet and board portals to communicate your mission, plans and key initiatives will become commonplace.
3. Increased use of video within the Employee intranet.
Either in the form of interviews with industry professionals or simple informative messages, video is becoming an essential vehicle for communicating internally. Think about recording a video with your C-level team to communicate news and initiatives to your staff and post them on the homepage of your intranet. This is especially relevant now with an increasing number of remote employees.
4. More resources added to intranet search.
One constant battle for the intranet team is the one waged everyday aimed at increasing traffic within your intranet. As more positions become more reliant on the internet as a whole for solutions to problems, we will see ground give in this battle as search options are added to the intranet itself. The customizability of an intranet search function will allow users to Google, or Wiki their questions from directly within the portal without visiting other pages on the internet proper. Recently Google’s Real-Time Search has even become assessable to Google Search Appliance users, enabling intranet owners to return real-time tweets related to search queries. Demands for such tools and additions to your Intranet and Board portals will gain momentum.
5. More intranets become cloud based.
According to studies conducted by TNS and funded by the CSC, 64% of companies that moved to a cloud based system report a significant decrease in waste and energy consumption. Besides the obvious “green” implications for your organization this result suggests increased savings from both of these areas as well. An even more impressive statistic from the same study of 3,645 IT decision makers from 8 countries shows 93% of organizations moving to some sort of cloud based application showed improvement in their IT department. It’s hard to argue with the numbers on this one. The cloud just makes sense.
6. Collaboration is a more popular term than web 2.0
Web 2.0 started as a term to include all new fangled tools, with any web technology invented in last 3-4 years. This set of additions generally allowed for user driven content. With several of these tools now becoming standard collaboration tools, we are all set to jump back to the future and refer to these tools (like profile wall, commenting, status updates, blogs, etc.) as collaboration tools.
7. The use of microblogging achieves a break through.
Microblogging is not blogging. When we talk about microblogging we are primarily talking about Twitter or tools like it. Since its introduction to the world opinions on Twitter have landed most into one of two camps. You both love Twitter and find it to be a magical tool for collaboration, communication, and creation or you don’t understand the point. As 2011 came to a close you couldn’t turn on any program on television, including the news, without seeing “#blahblah” in the corner. You might not even have realized what this indicated, but essentially it is an instruction to those active on twitter on how to communicate on this topic via the social networking site. Sometimes you only need 140 characters to share your thought, and in 2012 more will realize the value of a short sentence and the wildfire like capability to spread your message.
8. Crowdsourcing to gather employee ideas.
Social tools have given a voice to the every-man. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook any Joe can directly communicate with a company or manufacturer by simply mentioning their name. In 2012 this power will be realized and harnessed within the portal by enabling those employees of yours that might not otherwise have a voice to chime in on issues. I’m not telling you that you need to let your employees have a voice in every decision you make, but why discount their voice on key initiatives if it could enhance your business? The portal’s social tools offer a perfect way to engage your employees in a controlled environment that will benefit both you and them in the pursuit towards increased revenue.
9. More on the intranet will be commented on.
Keeping with the previous predictions the social tools within the portal will give rise to new discussions. The ability to comment on a section of the intranet will allow employees to open a stream of positive dialogue that will undoubtedly lead to new discovery and certainly be a vehicle for change. Make no mistake about it, your employee’s do talk to each other and allowing this dialogue to take place within the intranet will lead to discussions on the topics you want, as opposed to those shadowy water cooler conversations. Sometimes you don’t have to set a policy to change a behavior, you need only provide the path for your employees to walk down.
10. The use of ‘My Pages’ on Employee Intranet increases.
With so much information on hand, employees will leverage the ‘My Pages’ section of their Employee Intranets a LOT more. An average user today has become quite savvy when it comes to piecing together their own view with ‘My Expense reports’, ‘My Help Desk Tickets’, ‘My Forms’, and ‘My Courses’ etc. Watch for an increased use of the age old 'My Pages' toolset.
So there you have it! What other predictions can you come up with?