Re-ignite your intranet

Why having no budget is not all bad

J Boye 2010 – Aarhus – 03-11-2010

About me

Arla Foods in brief

- The world’s largest supplier of organic dairy products- The 8th largest dairy company in the world- Owned by around 7,600 Danish and Swedish farmers- Turnover in 2009: DKK 46bn (~EUR 6.2bn)- Employees in total (2009): 16,231- With intranet access: ~9,000.

Employees by countryDenmarkSwedenUKFinlandPolandHollandOther

Arla Foods’ World

A few words about the Arla Foods Intranet – ”My Workplace”

MWP - Overview

• Role portals (eg. ”Mgr. Self Service”)

• Department sites

• Collaboration• Workflows/SAP

integration(eg. invoice handling)

• News• Search• 3 languages

My Workplace – Status 2009

• MWP launched in 2004.• Well known intranet brand.• Many plans for

development – but only plans.

• Who ”owns” the intranet?• Owner = Comms dept.• Budgets = IT dept.

• Global/Local imbalance

Credit Crunch time!

16-04-09: Arla announces plans to save 1bn DKK• Goodbye to 250+

colleagues• No travelling• All ”non-strategic” projects

are closed down – including IT projects.

• No external consultants!

Edward Munch ”Skriket” (1893) Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslohttp://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/munch/munch.scream.jpg

While we wait for the crisis to recede

We need to improve but…• We have no money.• Ressources are scarce in more

ways than one.• Tech competences have been

outsourced which makes it even harder to get things moving.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emrank/2435273839/

Now what? Can we get something for ’free’?Yes! Of course you can!

Strategy, Vision, Mission

In 2008 Arla launched1. Company ’Strategy 2015’2. ”Closer to Nature” branding3. Values: Lead, Sense, Create

An Intranet strategy project was initiated in Jan 2009 with external partners before the crisis hit Arla but was shut down due to savings.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klashback/126950259/

My Workplace Vision

Building on the work carried out in the intranet strategy project we now have an intranet vision:

The ONE place that brings Arla closer to You by nurturing efficient communication, knowledge sharing,

and collaboration

…and three mission statements:

Enable communication of corporate messages both globally and locally to support the ONE company agenda.

Facilitate knowledge

sharing & collaboration across geographical as well as organisational borders.

Improve internal efficiency by providing

relevant self service solutions.

Intranet Governance

• Intranet ownership transferred from HR to Communications.

• Existing steering Committee ’dusted off’ and put in charge of the intranet strategy – at least on paper

• Make ’governance’ operational by increasing coordination between IT and the Arla business.

• The challenge is to keep momentum when nothing is actually moving.

My Workplace Governance

Strategy

•MWP Governance Board (Comms / HR / IT)

•Meeting Frequency: 2-4 times/year

•Long term planning and ensuring that the MWP strategy is aligned with both Arla’s overall strategy and the IT strategy.

Tactical

Operation

s

•MWP Operational Planning (MWP Team)

•Meeting Frequency: 6-12 times/year

•Planning and prioritizing of tasks and projects approved by the Governance Board.

Day to

Day

•MWP Coordination (Arla/Suppliers)

•Meeting Frequency: Bi-weekly

•Practical day-to-day coordination and status on the ongoing work.

13 April 2023 13

User satisfaction survey + benchmark

• No structured exploration has been done previously.

• No hard ”evidence” that things need to change – only rumours. We need facts!

• State of the intranet: How are we doing compared to others?

• Establishing a baseline for future reference.

• 800 out of 3000 responded.

Intranet User SatisfactionThree factor model

The long version: http://bit.ly/bGjOLs

The short version:You must succeed with Primary factors before you can succeed with the secondary, etc. If you try to pass one of the barriers WITHOUT meeting user’s demands, the satisfaction will not improve

How does this relate to Arla?Survey show that speed & stability are extremely poor. Accuracy and News are OK, but the overall rating still remains low.

My Workplace Survey

• Results show that the average satisfaction is 60% which is low.

• However, the intranet is considered both useful and important!

• Major gaps identified (quite a few confirmed rumours).

• Served as a serious eye-opener for several in the organisation.

• Survey is now annual!

How useful is My Workplace?

How important is My Workplace?

What we learned…

• A forced ’pause’ is a great opportunity for re-focusing and getting your priorities straight and focus on the right things.

• Look at your to-do list – where’s the free stuff? In Arla’s case1. Strategy, Vision, Mission review2. Governance review3. User Survey(s)

• …but just don’t fall into the self-pity trap!

Basically, It’s all about creating a burning platform. The big challenge is that when everything has come to a halt, everybody is trying to do so – you just have to build the platform with the most fire!

Thank you!

Martin Risgaard Rasmussen

mrira@arlafoods.com

@risgaard