1. "What's in it for me?" User Adoption & Employee
Engagement Strategies for Enterprise Social
Computing Projects(Making SharePoint Sexy)
Prepared for:
SHARE Conference
April 2013
Jeff Willinger & Patrick Coglianese
@jwillie

2. About Jeff
Director of Social Computing at Rightpoint.
Rightpoint is a Gold Certified and Managed Microsoft Partner
with a specialization in SharePoint
2010, 2013, Collaboration, Social Computing, Networking
yammer & mobile.
Regular speaker and evangelist on the value of Social
Networking, Social Media and Social Computing
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn Expert.
I am buying YOU a beer or cocktail TODAY(and giving away
Socialized! books!)
Follow @jwillie and Tweet this:
“ Listening to @jwillie rant and rave about SharePoint,
social computing and employee engagement #share4biz ”
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

3. LIKE Jeff
Director of Social Computing at Rightpoint.
Rightpoint is a Gold Certified and Managed Microsoft
Partner with a specialization in MOSS 2007, Collaboration
& Social Networking.
Regular speaker and evangelist on the value of Social
Networking, Social Media and Social Computing
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn Expert.
I am buying YOU lunch TODAY!
Tweet this:
“ Listening to @jwillie rant and rave about SharePoint,
social computing and employee engagement #aliee ”
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

4. Employee Engagement starts when you are young
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

5. Session Objectives
Overview:
• Discuss why many enterprise social computing projects
miss the mark due to lack of employee engagement
and low end-user adoption. Show what is in the social
sphere and what you can do outside your 4 walls.
Key take-away:
• Provide a framework that drives employee
engagement & end-user adoption enabling
organizations to realize the full benefit of their
enterprise social computing return on investment.
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

6. Definition
Social Intranet (sō’shəl) • (ĭn’trə-nĕt’) An intranet
that utilizes social technologies to enhance the every
day activities and transactions necessary for
employees to learn, plan and do their jobs thereby
making them more engaged and productive.
Increases employee engagement and user adoption if
deployed properly(possibly SharePoint 2010).
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

7. Intranet Employee Engagement
Top 5 Best Practices
Create an Engaging User Experience
Provide Rich Media (Photos/Videos)
Employee
Recognition
Incorporate Rich Media
Deliver Targeted Content &
Enable Personalization
Integrate
Social Computing
Apr 2013 Employee Engagement and Intranets

8. Myths
Some of the Employee Engagement Myths
• Size matters
• I’m too busy
• It won’t pay off
• The business won’t care
• Should “corporate” or marketing own this?
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

9. Truths Part 1
Your old, standard intranet is one-way
communication. A social intranet is two-way
communication.
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

10. Truths Part 2
Key Learning’s for building engagement:
• Be clear on where you are different and that it’s the
right fit. You must be believable and relevant.
• Start somewhere and keep the message simple.
• Make it “personal” to create emotional
engagement with the brand.
• Provide “new News” to enhance your recruiting
and retention efforts.
• It starts with external activities. Awards are noticed
by the Team, Executives, Employees, Suppliers and
Community.
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

11. Portal & Collaboration
Pitfalls & Best Practices
Apr 2013 Driving Employee Engagement
1. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
• Do: Think big, but start small.
2. Don’t overcomplicate the user interface.
• Do: Keep it simple (KISS).
3. Don’t assume user adoption will happen.
• Do: “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t necessarily
work. Ensure (1) business goals, (2) end-user goals and
(3) technology goals in completely in sync.

12. Portal & Collaboration
Pitfalls & Best Practices
Apr 2013 Driving Employee Engagement
4. Don’t underestimate the importance of
governance and alignment with your culture.
• Do: Put a proper governance plan in place day 1 and
align your solution with your culture.
5. Don’t “customize” when you can “configure”.
• Do: Leverage out-of-the-box features whenever
possible.
6. Don’t underestimate the breadth of SharePoint’s
capabilities.
• Do: Educate yourself on what is possible with the
platform

14. Quick Survey
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

15. Quick Survey
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

16. Our Experience
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement
Excited
Adopters
(33%)
On the Fence
(33%)
Not Going
to Adopt
(33%)

17. Our Goal
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement
Not Going
to Adopt
(33%)
Critical
Mass:
Excited
Adopters
(66%)

18. Why Do Some Enterprise
Social Computing Projects
Miss The Mark?

19. Top 3 Reasons Why Some Enterprise
Social Computing Projects Miss The Mark
1. Stakeholders don’t start with “Why?”.
2. End-users don’t fully understand
“What’s in it for me?”
3. The user experience is not as “engaging” and
“intuitive” as mainstream social media tools.
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

20. A Recipe for Failure
Typical enterprise social computing project:
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement
Requirements
Definition
Design &
Configuration
Testing Pilot Launch
Training &
Deployment

21. About Patrick
Runner, dog-lover, and current donut eating champion at
New Balance…
Oversees various digital applications and projects.
Previous experience in CRM, B2B, & SFA.
Current architect for intranet & business workflows.
Also involved in ecommerce application.
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

22. The Journey at New Balance | NBLink
First launched around 2005; built on FatWire CMS
Consensus to rebuild in 2009, but with what technology?
• Selected SharePoint (2007) as Enterprise collaboration / CMS platform
• SharePoint was fit for several initiatives
• Committed on path of building rich interactive applications as part of this process
For “social” features, did build vs. buy assessment with tools such as
Newsgator.
Built custom site using Silverlight and SharePoint; launched in 2010
Moved to more out of the box approach with 2010 migration
Currently looking at next iteration

23. unEngaged
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

24. unEngaged part 1
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

25. NBLink (2007 + Silverlight)

26. NBLink (2007 + Silverlight)

29. NBLink (2010)

30. What worked / Didn’t work | NBLink
Some support challenges with custom site in 2007.
Underestimated importance of “look and feel” with move to 2010. But
out of the box approach has been maintenance-free.
Consistently hear that “it’s hard to find things”; intranet I/A is a challenge,
no right answer.
Have not seen significant use of engagement features. Need more
engaging content and more incentive to engage.
SharePoint platform overall has been extremely stable. CMS features are
good.
Justification to invest in intranet is always a challenge. Need executive
support; also need to be realistic with overall company priorities.

31. The Journey at New Balance | iNB
Major R&D initiative going back to 2008
Goal was collaboration and interaction within the global R&D team in the
context of the design process
• Content repository
• Project management tool
• Ideation
• Fun, social, place to hang out
Implemented as custom Silverlight application, using SharePoint (2010)
wherever possible

32. Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

33. Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

34. Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

35. Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement

36. What worked / Didn’t work | iNB
Partnership between Business and IT on feature set and complexity
• Some bells and whistles increase support challenges; need to
compromise on scope
A lot of browser and Mac issues with Silverlight
A ton of engagement with Idea Palace; but fizzled when ideas went
nowhere
• Currently thinking about how to make Idea Palace an Enterprise tool
For a project-based application, important that all aspects and members
of project are in the application
For both projects, finding a good long-term partner was a win!

37. thank you.
stay connected:
Jeff Willinger 312.622.2300
www.linkedin.com/jeffwillinger
www.facebook.com/jeffwillinger
www.twitter.com/jwillie
www.gplus.com/jeff
jwillinger@rightpoint.com
Patrick Coglianese
patrick.coglianese@newbalance.com
Apr 2013 Drive Employee Engagement