Rebuilding aging portals is a daunting task. Years of accumulated knowledge and information are stored in portals that have become too big and too convoluted to function efficiently. The potential value of the information stored there is clear, but cleaning portals up and transforming them into a modern, flexible, and scalable digital workspace is no small feat. Our speakers discuss devising and executing a program to transform a dinosaur of a portal into an active hub of multilateral information exchange, describing how they did it and what they learned along the way. This includes the structured and patterned approach to redesign and rebuild the old portal in a systematic and predictable way; the role of internal social networks as tools for both communication and collaboration; the role of information items and contextual search as building blocks of information repositories; introducing the concepts of portal transformation to content owners who were initially resistant and functionally fixed; and selling the large information management project to C-level executives. Merck (known as MSD outside of the U.S. and Canada) is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop, and provide innovative products and services that save and improve lives around the world. Hear how it implemented a KM strategy for self-service that considered user experience-driven technology, as well as a change execution management methodology that included process, people, and content. Get tips and success factors on the case for change and the holistic solution for an IT self-service portal that included people, process, content, and technology components.

The idea of the “customer experience” is a powerful one, and it’s a strategic consideration for most big organizations. As a result, we’ve seen a huge degree of customer-centric digital transformation. Within the enterprise, the concept of the “employee experience” is equally powerful. Going beyond basic usability and UX, it takes a holistic view of how solutions are designed and delivered. This practical session outlines how digital workplace professionals and projects can use the employee experience as a strategic driver for change. Real-world examples of great employee experiences from around the globe are shared.

This mini-workshop features a number of practitioners who share their experiences and tips for using SharePoint to support KM in the digital workplaces within their organizations. Lean KM in engineering and process development is focused on efficient use of knowledge and Thorpe introduces the key practices from A3 Thinking to the creation of reusable knowledge. He emphasizes developing the ability of leaders in the organization to recognize and mentor the process and building a KM platform to allow teams to quickly find and reuse the knowledge captured as they solve problems. He shares how Intel’s Manufacturing Validation Engineering organization has scaled these practices across its 5,000-person workforce, the challenges faced in developing SharePoint-based KM tools to facilitate the adoption of these practices in Intel teams, and the internal KM rules developed based on precedents shared by other members of the KMWorld community. KM in Deere is taking shape with various aspects being piloted in different functions including CoPs, new employee on-boarding process, training scorecard, skill assessment, knowledge leadership path, engineering knowledge vault, etc. Bapat discusses developing a skill set assessment system (SSAS) and dashboard for manufacturing engineering (ME) to put a more user-friendly, low-maintenance, and sustainable process in place. He describes how Deere used SharePoint and Tableau as tools, how the system allows locating the experts in specific skills in ME organization, and how these are used to achieve a KM objective of highlighting the mix of skills available to the organization and enabling findability of specific skill experts. Collaboration and efficient business processes are key to organizational success, and NASCO speakers share how they have used out-of-the-box features of SharePoint to facilitate KM activities across their organization and provide solutions for real business problems such as moving its SharePoint platform beyond simple document storage to connecting the vital tools and business processes employees use on a day-to-day basis. Don’t operate SharePoint flying blind says Fried, who explores the role of analytics and reporting in the world of SharePoint portals and intranets. He looks into the value of SharePoint analytics and the insight it brings to organizations; how analytics have changed through the versions of SharePoint 2010, 2013, and SharePoint 2016—sometimes not for the better; what’s available online and on-prem and how this is evolving in the Microsoft road map; what options are available beyond out-of-the-box reports—building your own, and add-on dashboards and reports. He shares real-world examples, shows how people actually use analytics, and demos some of the tools available. Take away new ways to manage business processes or content while greatly reducing reliance on manual intervention using SharePoint tools and the tips from our speakers.

This is a continuation of B103.

For 11 years, the global Intranet and Digital Workplace Awards have uncovered and shared remarkable solutions. This year is no exception! See the best of this year’s winners from the U.S., Europe, and beyond. They range from small ideas to entire platforms, giving something for everyone to take away. Ismail discusses the challenges of developing a rigorous and robust, efficient and effective digital workplace environment in a multi-cultural, decentralized organization and what means and methods can be used to create a viable digital workplace. A variety of different tools are recognized, such as the intranet, internal and external collaboration platforms, and enterprise search.