This is a guest blog post from independent consultant Deirdre Joy, former intranet manager at Royal Mail, who recently lead a Special Interest Group on Metrics for IBF members.
Having managed an intranet for 8 years and also having been involved in metrics, I’m aware how much of a challenge this is for intranet managers. Listening to members at the recent Metrics SIG, everyone appreciated that it is important to understand what intranet success means but not everyone had measures in place to demonstrate this success. It was also agreed that without metrics it is difficult to demonstrate the value of the intranet or to prioritise resources.
I took a look at some of the metrics available on an intranet, ranging in cost from team time to expensive software packages. We had some great discussions around:
- User/Customer satisfaction
- Content accessed/User Journeys
- Performance of site
- Readability score of content
- Search terms used
- Time to complete transactions
- Number of participants in social areas
Key points:
User/Customer satisfaction surveys
- Make sure you know how you are going to analyse the data before you set up the survey
Analytics packages
- Ensure that you provide tailored reports to the target audience so they can use the data
Performance of site
- Need to understand how your end users experience the site
Readability Score
- Not all attendees were aware that you can measure the readability and some were going to set it as a measure for content quality
Search Terms used
- Some attendees were already measuring this and we had a good discussion about how to use this data
Transaction Time
- This is a great metric for demonstrating the value of your intranet
Number of participants in social areas
- We had to curtail the discussion about use of social areas on intranets!
Some of the actions that came out of the session for participants were:
- Define success criteria for the intranet
- Identify correct metrics and then report appropriately
- Build business case for analytics package
- Make reports relevant to target audience
- Get better understanding of users
And the key messages that came out:
- Quantitative information is key tool for any intranet manager.
- Decide your metrics, measure, report, analyse and take action to improve.
As well as offering members benchmarking in Metrics & Performance, IBF has also recently launched the Intranet Financial Value Benchmark.
Related reading:
- How can the effectiveness of intranets be measured?
- Put your intranet on your balance sheet as an asset
