Intranet 2.0 Global Study 2010: Highlights

by Michael Marchionda - This year’s Intranet 2.0 Study comprises feedback collected from hundreds of survey-takers around the world who were asked specific questions about their organizations’ intranet. The feedback provided Prescient with valuable information on global intranet trends including intranet adoption rates, the prevalence and types of Intranet 2.0 tools organizations are using, and employee satisfaction rates with these tools.

Prescient will be sharing this information in a complementary webinar on September 28, 2010, hosted by CEO and president Toby Ward.

The results confirm Prescient’s previous assumption that we are in the early stage of the intranet’s next evolvement, one that many in the industry are referring to as the social intranet. Social intranets are those that have the widespread adoption of multiple social media tools for most or all employees to use as collaboration vehicles for sharing knowledge with other employees. With 87% of organization intranets (regardless of size) having at least one intranet 2.0 tool, and less than 10% of organizations having no interest nor plans for implementing at least one intranet 2.0 tool, the findings confirm that we are indeed entering the age of the social intranet.

Intranet 2.0 tools are getting smarter, faster and easier to use. Employees are using these tools more often and more efficiently than ever before, and thus their satisfaction with them is increasing. They are beginning to realize the benefits of these tools including improved employee collaboration, knowledge management, and employee engagement, which are some of the main reasons they implemented intranet 2.0 tools in the first place.  More effective change management may also be playing a role in the satisfaction level increase.

This realization is not only being experienced by employees, but by executives too. Executives are contributing to intranet 2.0 tools on a more regular basis. Of course not all executives are exemplary bloggers, as half have never contributed or infrequently contribute (less than monthly) to an intranet 2.0 tool (e.g. blog), but the numbers do suggest they are warming up to the idea. Satisfaction rates amongst executives are already increasing and are not nearly as concerning as they were only a year ago. As methods of measuring the ROI of these tools continue to develop, and the effects of these tools become more apparent, so too will executives’ support and satisfaction of these tools grow. A correlation exists between executive satisfaction with intranet 2.0 tools and executives’ contribution to them, so with continual improvement to these tools and with more experience, we can expect to see executives contributing more to intranet 2.0 tools in the years to come.

All of the social media tools included in the survey, including intranet blogs, forums and instant messaging, experienced an increase in adoption rates from last year (18%, 13% and 11% respectively for these particular tools). Included for the first time in this study are statistics on user commenting, photo and video sharing, and tagging, each of which are used in more than a quarter of organizations. Intranet mash-ups, which combine data from two sources to create a new service (the best known examples from the web are probably Foursquare and Twittervision, amongst others) experienced the largest growth at 75%, while intranet wikis experienced the smallest growth, at just 4%.

Other notable statistics from the study include:

  • Nearly a quarter of organizations still don't know how often employees are using the intranet. Not enough organizations are measuring their intranet’s traffic and therefore are missing out on the opportunity to more accurately identify which areas of their intranet need improvement or need to be marketed more effectively.

  • More organizations are using a CMS for their intranet compared to last year. Not surprising, SharePoint is leading the way. In January of 2010, Prescient forecasted the continued growth of SharePoint’s market share, and the increase (up 13% from last year’s study) of organizations with 2.0 tools using SharePoint suggests this forecast was accurate.

  • A very high percentage (89%) of organizations does not measure ROI for Intranet 2.0 tools. See Prescient’s Finding ROI: Measuring the Value of Intranet Investments for more information on this topic.

  • The majority of blogs and wikis used in organizations are not being deployed enterprise wide. Instead, employees are enjoying only limited of these tools.


Register now for the accompanying webinar, in which Toby Ward will expand upon on the survey’s findings and explains why it matters to you.

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