There is much debate about the value and success of personalisation on the intranet. The IBF have just released a new research report on this topic, by Abigail Lewis-Bowen. It examines why organisations are getting such mixed results despite the expectations on personalisation to reduce information overload for employees and ensure they get the right information. The report also looks at the impact of Web 2.0 technologies such as RSS and tagging on more traditional personalisation techniques.
One of the issues that intranet managers face in successfully implementing personalisation, is the sheer amount of effort and hard work that go into getting it right, and without which it fails to deliver on it’s promise. Implementers face a number of key challenges:
- Mapping content to user profiles
- Developing accurate profile data
- Awkward user experience
- Meeting the needs of all users
Abigail then goes on to look at the ground rules for effective personalisation (such as common authentication for users, straightforward publishing processes for content authors, and pre-populating profile data) and the importance of measuring to track success (such as satisfaction, use and productivity).
As well as looking at personalisation from the more traditional, rules-based perspective, the report also examines how social computing tools such as RSS, tagging and mash-ups can enhance this approach. These tools allow the user greater control over content, achieving a balance of ‘push’ and ‘pull’, as well as leveraging information gathered from user behaviours. However these technologies will take time for people to adopt, while the basic ground rules for successful personalisation still remain key to realising it’s full potential.
IBF members can download the report from the extranet (PDF file).
