All posts in the topic What's in a [intranet] name?
Summary
- There are 11 posts — by 9 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Andrew Bunn at May 05 14:59 NZST
| From | File | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Steph Beath | DecentWork.gif | May 05 14:33 NZST |
| Andrew Bunn | reg.png | May 05 14:59 NZST |
At last week's Effective Intranet Management conference (Sydney, Ark Group) it was clear that a 50/50 division still exists on naming the Intranet something other than "Intranet". A quick poll around the 50 or so delegates also revealed that of those that answered that their intranet did not have a name - answered the question as "our intranet has no name". That's interesting as the Vodafone intranet is named "Intranet" and I suspect most organisations don't acknowledge this. We love names after all don't we? However, Vodafone, unfortunately, has continued down the blandness of naming conventions for our "web workplaces" - I'll get to that in a minute - by "naming" it's Wiki as "Blog" it's survey applications as "Vodafone Survey" and renaming the collaboration space from SharePoint (which is a brand name) to - yep, "Collaboration". If these spaces were not already branded red - they should be blushing - but Joking aside - what do you call your Web workplace? So about that phrase: Web Workplace? Well it appears that there is some strong thought on moving away from the traditional term intranet. Is it indicative of the Web 2.0, 21st Century internal business web space? When you tell your friends and family that you manage the work intranet do they look at you blankly? Try telling them you manage you business' internal web or the Web Workplace..... Here's what Step2 Design's Column Two has to say on the topic http://www.steptwo.com.au/columntwo/future-principle-its-more-than-the-i ntranet/ Have a good weekend Regards <email obscured> Intranet Manager Internal Communications Corporate Affairs Vodafone NZ Ltd
Here's a list of intranet names currently in use. http://bit.ly/9twgHQ
Hi Mark,
I agree with half of the delegates that had a name for their intranets. It's
important for people to be able to identify and relate to their intranet and
also from a branding perspective.
In my previous role at NZAID all of our in-house computer systems had a Maori
name which had a particular meaning. Our intranet was called 'Waharoa' which
translated to 'gateway'. The name was closely aligned with the overall goals
that we were attempting to achieve with our intranet, one of which was to be a
hub for which people went to for their main source of information amongst other
goals.
I hope if you're thinking about using a name for your intranet from an
organisational tool perspective, you'll consider how it helps to build your
brand and create a virtual identity for the intranet.
That's my thoughts,
Anna
Thanks Anna - it's certainly an important cultural aspect as you have mentioned
and there is no wrong or right answer on this, as it has to fit the
organisation and have meaning to the users.
Here at Vodafone we have a defined local as well as a global brand culture. So
it comes as no surprise that our web channels are generically named to their
function to keep it "Simple" - one of our internal values.
Greater Wellington's Intranet is called "GWennie". This is the outcome of a
staff competition some years ago. GWennie is an acronym for
Greater
Wellington
employee
news
network and
information
exchange
And that's what is is consistently referred to.
I don't think it matters what an Intranet is called. More important is that
people know that it's there and what they can use it for.
I suspect like most organistions, most staff use the Intranet to get phone
numbers and contact details for other staff.
I'm a strong believer in having a named intranet. Time & again I've seen staff
confused by the terms Internet, intranet and website. We know that the brandng
opportunity with internal apps is valuable and important for creating loyalty
but aside from that I think a well chosen name just makes life simpler for
people.
I like that idea of having a staff competition to name GWennie - it taps into
the idea of encouraging user engagement. I'll suggest we do the same for our
new Intranet site.
By contrast, our intranet is called InHouse and that name is seldom used in
conversation.
To back Steph's point about people mixing up the terms internet, intranet and
website: I just had a meeting with an older member of staff who is no expert
about online and he had to stop and think about whether to use 'intra' or
'inter'. It was clearly confusing for him...
There is the now-famous "Boris" as another good example: http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_cityofcasey/index.html (Apparently he has a thing for Edna, another intranet at a nearby local council!) Cheers, James On 5/05/10 12:03 PM, <email obscured> wrote: > I like that idea of having a staff competition to name GWennie - it taps into the idea of encouraging user engagement. I'll suggest we do the same for our new Intranet site. > > By contrast, our intranet is called InHouse and that name is seldom used in conversation. > > To back Steph's point about people mixing up the terms internet, intranet and website: I just had a meeting with an older member of staff who is no expert about online and he had to stop and think about whether to use 'intra' or 'inter'. It was clearly confusing for him...
I agree a name is important - we only use our intranet's name - which is part
of a wider internal branding design - our intranet is called mysite and within
it we have myhealth, mytraining etc and the logo etc are part of an internal
brand family. While this may seem a bit OTT it works really well and clearly
labels everything 'about me' for staff.
Good luck with the name.
Kaye Churches
I note the use of the character to illustrate the name Boris in your link
James. I think it's worth mentioning the different impact a personal name
gives to an intranet. Giving the intranet a person's name appears to make
users think of it very differently. They bond with it - almost as if it was
another colleague. If the intranet is helpful to them, it's a colleague they
like, if the intranet is hard work, then they talk about it just like a
colleague they find hard work, etc. Whatever - they think of it as their work
colleague after a short time. The most successful namings I have seen have been
done this way.
The PSA intranet is called 'Homer' (no - not the yellow idiot, the ancient
great thinker) and it's persona is a kea. This was a character arrived at
through design brainstorming sessions with staff - asking them to define the
character of the organisation. The PSA is a union, full of strong willed,
clever and tenacious people so you can see how the character of a kea would fit
well :)
All staff refer to Homer in standard conversation.
I've attached one of the cartoons of him for you.
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Hi all,
Our current intranet is simply called "intranet" and I agree that staff can get
confused between the terms internet and intranet.
We're currently rebuilding our intranet on SilverStripe and opted (based on
staff suggestions) to give it an identity - "Reg", short for Regional. We hope
that this will be easy for staff to drop into conversation and
remember/identify with on a regular basis.
I've attached a snapshot of Reg, pretty much finalised.
The following file was added to this topic:
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