Microsoft Case Study: Portals as Communities for Knowledge Sharing Mary Lee Kennedy Director, Knowledge Network Group Microsoft Corporation KnowledgeNets 2001 May 17 th, 2001, New York

The Topic “The case study will focus on the intranet knowledge capture, organization, access, and delivery and reuse strategy to put what we know at our fingertips.”

Community as Social Capital “Officialdom” Understanding Connectivity  Peer to peer  Peer to expert  Expert to expert Collaboration LowHigh Individual/Group Effort Individual/Group Engagement High

Why Bother? Brain power Brain power  Top companies in 20 industries ranked according to their levels of knowledge capital with ave. company’s KC having 3 times their book value or $21 billion. (1999 Knowledge Capital Scorecard*) *“Seeing is Believing,” CFO, 2/1999 – NYU Stern School of Business, Prof. Baruch Lev

Microsoft Employees… On average spend 2.31 hours a day engaging with information On average spend 2.31 hours a day engaging with information  50% of that time is looking for it and 50% of the time is using it. Are avid users of both tacit expertise and explicit information in electronic environment Are avid users of both tacit expertise and explicit information in electronic environment Want one-stop shopping, faster access/real-time access, easier/more accessibility to web sites, a good/powerful search engine and relevant information. Want one-stop shopping, faster access/real-time access, easier/more accessibility to web sites, a good/powerful search engine and relevant information. Expect “everything” to be specific, measurable, relevant and tangible i.e. there is an expectation of value, value creation and contextual understanding. Expect “everything” to be specific, measurable, relevant and tangible i.e. there is an expectation of value, value creation and contextual understanding.

“Community” Levers Content (Information and knowledge) Content (Information and knowledge) Tools Tools Services Services

Explicit Content FY01 Top 15 Requests: 77% - MS product/tech info 77% - MS product/tech info 70% - Training materials 70% - Training materials 68% - Technical or white papers 68% - Technical or white papers 68% - Internal project websites 68% - Internal project websites 62% - Internal news and features 62% - Internal news and features 61% - Presentations 61% - Presentations 60% - Standards & specifications 60% - Standards & specifications 54% - Books 54% - Books 53% - External News 53% - External News 48% - Trade journals (electronic) 48% - Trade journals (electronic) 47% - Competitor Product info 47% - Competitor Product info 44% - Competitor websites 44% - Competitor websites 42% - Conference proceedings 42% - Conference proceedings 37% - Org charts 37% - Org charts 37% - Trade journals (print) 37% - Trade journals (print)

Implicit Content

Intranet Tools “Officialdom” engagement “Officialdom” engagement Electronic connectivity Electronic connectivity Workgroup collaboration Workgroup collaboration

Corporate Portal

People/Roles

Connectivity

Contribution/Consumption New Hire Employee in training, professional development Senior Employee Contributionvs.Consumption Experienced Kn. Worker Develop or Procure Mentor & Collaborate Reuse (delivery or publish)

Workgroup Collaboration

Group Collaboration

Intranet Web Services Taxonomy Taxonomy  Schemas  Search and tag taxonomy  Navigation taxonomy

Search

Navigation

Today’s Pro’s and Con’s Pro’s Pro’s  Peer recognition motivating factor in workgroup collaboration  Grass-roots, “middle” and technology drivers are cultural fit – and productive  Intense levels of informal sharing and information publishing based on meritocracy  Subject matter is organizational catalyst in enterprise/divisional communities  Joint commitment to platform, content, and services Con’s Con’s  Multiple efforts  Deep knowledge of user experience within each portal but not across the intranet (other than MSWeb)  Potential for confusion and ignorance on key content and internal messaging  “Deer in the headlights syndrome”

Evolution Web-site Access Industry Information Events LOB Information Architecture Microsoft Community “Anywhere On any Device” FY1996FY1999FY2000 FY2001/2002

The Challenge of Islands ? ? ? ?

Browse the Web Program the Web Next Wave: XML Web Services Technology Web Services XML Programmability HTML Web Pages Presentation Standard FTP, E -mail, Gopher T C P/IP Connectivity Innovation

Employee Engagement BrendanBrian Patty Dianne HenryHeath

Common Goals Strategy Establish an internal network of major portal owners to adopt standards and best practices, including: Establish an internal network of major portal owners to adopt standards and best practices, including:  Portal planning  User experience  Content quality  Business and employee information and knowledge,  Information architecture  Editorial programming, and  Applications platform.

Vision for the Intranet Empower Microsoft employees through seamless access to tools, services, information and knowledge any time, anywhere, on any device. Empower Microsoft employees through seamless access to tools, services, information and knowledge any time, anywhere, on any device. i.e. information and knowledge at your fingertips!

Value Proposition The Company The Company  will have an efficient and effective information and knowledge management solution for employees, and one to share with our customers. Employees Employees  can easily find, share and reuse information and knowledge, understand its significance/relevance, and apply it as intended by the employee. Network members Network members  Will meet their audience needs faster than they would when operating independently.

Framework Infrastructure (Assumed) User Experience Editorial Programming Information Architecture Information and Knowledge Applications Platform Collect/Manage/Share/Metrics Customers Partners Employees Planning

FY02 Success Increase reuse of the most valuable content, tools and knowledge Increase reuse of the most valuable content, tools and knowledge Increase employee ability to identify and understand key business topics Increase employee ability to identify and understand key business topics Decrease multiple portal efforts and increase efficiencies Decrease multiple portal efforts and increase efficiencies Increase user satisfaction across the intranet experience Increase user satisfaction across the intranet experience Have a great story to tell our customers. Have a great story to tell our customers.

Key “Mantras” Culture defines what works when establishing community Culture defines what works when establishing community The dynamic duo The dynamic duo  Technology can enable it  People drive it Common understanding and desired end-state keep it productive Common understanding and desired end-state keep it productive

Questions Mary Lee Kennedy Mary Lee Kennedy

Planning Objective Objective  Establish a cross-portal business-owner driven strategy for the intranet that ensures a measurable benefit to employees and to Microsoft. First steps First steps  “Vote with your wallet”  Research sub-team to establish intranet baseline  Collaborative workspace  Executive sponsorship  Internet/Intranet review

User Experience Objective Objective  Design a simple, intuitive and flexible user experience which provides seamless navigation across the major portals First steps First steps  Baseline exploratory research on intranet user expectations including community tools and preferred method of engaging with peers, experts and the “company”  Audience (employee) understanding thru a Persona Village  Tie-ins between intranet/internet/extranet

Editorial Programming Objective Objective  Coordinate editorial content that increases employee understanding First steps First steps  Requirements for a consistent employee understanding  Editorial roles and responsibilities  Common programming schedule  Editorial standards  Content quality standards

Information Architecture Objective Objective  Design and implement an information architecture that provides  The employee-base with the ability to find (through search and browse) the authoritative, consistent, exhaustive information needed  The publishers and aggregators the ability to add metadata based on a shared taxonomy with a minimum expense of time and effort. First steps First steps  Core taxonomies (search, tag, navigation)  What makes a “Best Bet”  Use of common content management tool

Information and Knowledge Objective Objective  Guarantee that critical content sets meet business and employee productivity needs First steps First steps  Baseline information needs assessment  Identification and valuation of key information and knowledge sets  Articulation of roles and responsibilities  Agreement on content quality standards

Applications Platform Objective Objective  Provide reusable platform solutions with architectural guidance and a synchronization path that ensures fastest deployment. First steps First steps  Construct an architectural guidance process  Review current platforms…identify audience/planned use opportunities  Engage product groups