Last week, I ran a workshop at Intranatverk with an enthusiastic group of intranet people to cover what is the best publishing model for their intranet. The slides I used for the workshop are available for you to share.
I took this subject from my book ‘Digital success or digital disaster?‘ j.mp/MMDigitalSuccess which covers all the other areas of intranet governance you need to develop when improving how your intranet is managed.
The publishing model you choose needs to meet your organisation’s needs. It also needs to fit within a wider governance framework that includes your publishing roles and responsibilities, standards, and support.
1. Governance Hierarchy: How roles can help to
govern your intranet
Owner, Champion, and Steering Group
Intranet Manager
Intranet Team
Content Owners and Editors
Intranet Users
4 intranet
publishing
models for good
governance
Mark Morrell
Intranet Pioneer
and author of…
2. Publishing models for different requirements
•Flexible approach on
who is responsible for
publishing, updating and
managing the content
•Third parties will
normally publish and
manage content on a
day-to-day basis
•Content owner or editor
is responsible for
publishing, updating, and
managing the content
•Central team responsible
for publishing, updating,
and managing the
content
Centralised Decentralised
HybridOutsourced
3. Publishing model factors
• Type of organisation your intranet will be supporting:
o Small
o Dynamic
o Large
o Complex
• Culture will help you choose a model to meet strategic aims
• How you manage all your intranet content and applications
• How your governance framework needs to operate
• How you will improve your publishing and user experiences
4. Publishing models for different requirements
•Flexible approach on
who is responsible for
publishing, updating and
managing the content
•Third parties will
normally publish and
manage content on a
day-to-day basis
•Content owner or editor
is responsible for
publishing, updating, and
managing the content
•Central team responsible
for publishing, updating,
and managing the
content
Centralised Decentralised
HybridOutsourced
5. Centralised: strengths
• You can set right direction and monitor progress. Strategy
coordination is strong.
• You can make changes to your governance quickly.
• Your training costs are minimal with small team to publish.
You train people quickly so they become productive.
• Knowledge shared easily across a small team.
• Shared understanding of how governance supports publishing
and user experiences.
6. Centralised: weaknesses
• May quickly outgrow this model if organisation expands from
a small number of tightly knit people in one location to many.
• Increasingly difficult to know everyone risking delays.
• Frustration between content owners and central team.
• New people mean new ideas on how the strategy and
governance could be improved which central team may resist.
• Growing risk of being isolated and detached from changing
needs of business areas/functions as organisation expands.
7. Publishing models for different requirements
•Flexible approach on
who is responsible for
publishing, updating and
managing the content
•Third parties will
normally publish and
manage content on a
day-to-day basis
•Content owner or editor
is responsible for
publishing, updating, and
managing the content
•Central team responsible
for publishing, updating,
and managing the
content
Centralised Decentralised
HybridOutsourced
8. Decentralised: strengths
• Helps you separate day-to-day publishing needs from strategic
and governance responsibilities.
• You are able to manage the look and feel of your intranet
design using publishing templates and governance features.
• No need for content owners to spend time designing or have
high technical skills to use templates.
• Content owner is responsible for publishing, updating and
managing the content.
• Compliance with publishing standards will be your core team’s
responsibility to check and inform content owners.
9. Decentralised: weaknesses
• You, your core team, and business area/ function representatives
may not agree on strategy and governance priorities.
• Delays, wasted effort, and conflicting approaches pursued, cause
confusion and poor user experience.
• Your organisation may not see the intranet contributing to its key
priorities or adding any value.
• It may want to review intranet’s purpose, strategy, governance
framework, publishing model, and roles and responsibilities.
• Risk your team communicates and coordinates in a confused or
fragmented way. Aims of core team and publishers may conflict.
10. Publishing models for different requirements
•Flexible approach on
who is responsible for
publishing, updating and
managing the content
•Third parties will
normally publish and
manage content on a
day-to-day basis
•Content owner or editor
is responsible for
publishing, updating, and
managing the content
•Central team responsible
for publishing, updating,
and managing the
content
Centralised Decentralised
HybridOutsourced
11. Outsourced: strengths
• There can be significant cost savings made by outsourcing the
publishing and managing of your intranet’s content.
• Possible to improve speed of publishing with rigorous service
level agreement covering publishing speed & content quality.
• Dedicated team of outsourced people helps, developing an
understanding about how your organisation’s custom and
practices and language used (acronyms, etc.).
12. Outsourced: weaknesses
• Expected savings may not always be achievable with extra
costs, previously hidden, included in contract.
• It may take longer to do the same activity, removing savings.
• There may be more errors, adding hidden costs, with delays in
the publishing or lowering of the content’s quality.
• Goodwill between people within organisation may disappear
with service level agreement.
• You may outsource more than is needed. If contract stopped
prematurely it may cause extra costs not budgeted for.
13. Publishing models for different requirements
•Flexible approach on
who is responsible for
publishing, updating and
managing the content
•Third parties will
normally publish and
manage content on a
day-to-day basis
•Content owner or editor
is responsible for
publishing, updating, and
managing the content
•Central team responsible
for publishing, updating,
and managing the
content
Centralised Decentralised
HybridOutsourced
14. Hybrid: strengths
• Gives opportunity to test out and combine approaches before
adopting publishing model that works best.
• Helps prevent the unnecessary extra costs that would come if
you took an approach that has major problems.
• Working with your core team, business representatives, and
content owners and editors help to adopt right approach.
• With goodwill from everyone, it helps to ensure the overall
publishing and user experience is consistent and strong.
15. Hybrid: weaknesses
• Risk of testing different approaches is that the overall
strategic direction for your intranet may be overlooked.
• Pragmatic approach risks delays to critical areas needing
urgent attention and action.
• Your approach may need consensus. Some things will never
be agreeable to everyone. Organisations are not democratic.
• May open up divisions that have an impact on other ways you
manage your intranet or the direction it is moving in.
• May create a fragmented experience as you adopt each phase
16. Which publishing model is best for you?
•Flexible approach on
who is responsible for
publishing, updating and
managing the content
•Third parties will
normally publish and
manage content on a
day-to-day basis
•Content owner or editor
is responsible for
publishing, updating, and
managing the content
•Central team responsible
for publishing, updating,
and managing the
content
Centralised Decentralised
HybridOutsourced
17. Centralised is best for
A smaller organisation that is stable in
size and culture or an organisation
using an intranet for the first time.
18. Decentralised is best for
An organisation based in many locations. It is
large enough to support a core team with
business area and business function
representatives to manage the intranet. You
should consider a decentralised publishing
model for a digital workspace, benefiting from
its extended reach and added complexity.
19. Outsourcing is best for
An organisation that has budget challenges
and a mature intranet is more suited to
outsourcing its activities. The outsourcing
will normally cover the publishing and
managing of content on a day-to-day basis.
It rarely covers the strategy or purpose of
the governance framework.
20. Hybrid is best for
An organisation that has a culture where
the direction is set from its centre and
accepted after consultation is more suited
to a hybrid version of a publishing model
that is adapted to meet your requirements
There will be three groups in the hierarchy who will be responsible for delivery the Digital Workspace strategy and ensuring governance is implemented for the full benefits to be realised. These will then be headed up by a strategic board.
Digital Workspace Strategic Board: Council key stakeholders
Digital Workspace Operations Group: led by the Digital Workspace manager
Content owners/editors: publishing community
Content owner
This person will be responsible for creating and maintaining the accredited content they own in the digital workspace throughout its life cycle. The content owner must comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. In some cases it may be better to delegate the publishing responsibility to a content editor to act on their behalf e.g. Executive Director responsible for a Council policy with staff member in their online process publishing it.
Content editor
This person will publish content on behalf of the content owner. The content editor must also comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. Before any changes are made to the content they need to get the approval of the content owner first.
Publishing community
It is important that content owners and editors are clear on their roles and responsibilities: why they need to do it, what they need to do and how to do it. All too often publishers can forget these with other priorities and limited time. They are publishing not just for their benefit but also for staff who need to use this information to help with their work. Support will be provided in different ways to minimise costs to reinforce their roles and responsibilities.
Publishing support
By adopting a decentralised publishing model the best way to encourage a common understanding and sense of belonging to a community is to create a digital workspace for content owners and editors to use. It can provide guidance on the best way to publish information. It also helps to show by example how the digital workspace can help publishers and therefore other staff.
Content editors will be updated with any changes or developments that affect what they publish and how they do it. This can be provided through a news desk showing the latest articles or a blog that editors subscribe to and feedback comments. Emails with any urgent and/or important news can be sent directly to content editors and owners. Content owners and editors will have an easy source of helpful information to quickly answer any queries preventing them being able to publish.
Content owner
This person will be responsible for creating and maintaining the accredited content they own in the digital workspace throughout its life cycle. The content owner must comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. In some cases it may be better to delegate the publishing responsibility to a content editor to act on their behalf e.g. Executive Director responsible for a Council policy with staff member in their online process publishing it.
Content editor
This person will publish content on behalf of the content owner. The content editor must also comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. Before any changes are made to the content they need to get the approval of the content owner first.
Publishing community
It is important that content owners and editors are clear on their roles and responsibilities: why they need to do it, what they need to do and how to do it. All too often publishers can forget these with other priorities and limited time. They are publishing not just for their benefit but also for staff who need to use this information to help with their work. Support will be provided in different ways to minimise costs to reinforce their roles and responsibilities.
Publishing support
By adopting a decentralised publishing model the best way to encourage a common understanding and sense of belonging to a community is to create a digital workspace for content owners and editors to use. It can provide guidance on the best way to publish information. It also helps to show by example how the digital workspace can help publishers and therefore other staff.
Content editors will be updated with any changes or developments that affect what they publish and how they do it. This can be provided through a news desk showing the latest articles or a blog that editors subscribe to and feedback comments. Emails with any urgent and/or important news can be sent directly to content editors and owners. Content owners and editors will have an easy source of helpful information to quickly answer any queries preventing them being able to publish.
Content owner
This person will be responsible for creating and maintaining the accredited content they own in the digital workspace throughout its life cycle. The content owner must comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. In some cases it may be better to delegate the publishing responsibility to a content editor to act on their behalf e.g. Executive Director responsible for a Council policy with staff member in their online process publishing it.
Content editor
This person will publish content on behalf of the content owner. The content editor must also comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. Before any changes are made to the content they need to get the approval of the content owner first.
Publishing community
It is important that content owners and editors are clear on their roles and responsibilities: why they need to do it, what they need to do and how to do it. All too often publishers can forget these with other priorities and limited time. They are publishing not just for their benefit but also for staff who need to use this information to help with their work. Support will be provided in different ways to minimise costs to reinforce their roles and responsibilities.
Publishing support
By adopting a decentralised publishing model the best way to encourage a common understanding and sense of belonging to a community is to create a digital workspace for content owners and editors to use. It can provide guidance on the best way to publish information. It also helps to show by example how the digital workspace can help publishers and therefore other staff.
Content editors will be updated with any changes or developments that affect what they publish and how they do it. This can be provided through a news desk showing the latest articles or a blog that editors subscribe to and feedback comments. Emails with any urgent and/or important news can be sent directly to content editors and owners. Content owners and editors will have an easy source of helpful information to quickly answer any queries preventing them being able to publish.
Content owner
This person will be responsible for creating and maintaining the accredited content they own in the digital workspace throughout its life cycle. The content owner must comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. In some cases it may be better to delegate the publishing responsibility to a content editor to act on their behalf e.g. Executive Director responsible for a Council policy with staff member in their online process publishing it.
Content editor
This person will publish content on behalf of the content owner. The content editor must also comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. Before any changes are made to the content they need to get the approval of the content owner first.
Publishing community
It is important that content owners and editors are clear on their roles and responsibilities: why they need to do it, what they need to do and how to do it. All too often publishers can forget these with other priorities and limited time. They are publishing not just for their benefit but also for staff who need to use this information to help with their work. Support will be provided in different ways to minimise costs to reinforce their roles and responsibilities.
Publishing support
By adopting a decentralised publishing model the best way to encourage a common understanding and sense of belonging to a community is to create a digital workspace for content owners and editors to use. It can provide guidance on the best way to publish information. It also helps to show by example how the digital workspace can help publishers and therefore other staff.
Content editors will be updated with any changes or developments that affect what they publish and how they do it. This can be provided through a news desk showing the latest articles or a blog that editors subscribe to and feedback comments. Emails with any urgent and/or important news can be sent directly to content editors and owners. Content owners and editors will have an easy source of helpful information to quickly answer any queries preventing them being able to publish.
Content owner
This person will be responsible for creating and maintaining the accredited content they own in the digital workspace throughout its life cycle. The content owner must comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. In some cases it may be better to delegate the publishing responsibility to a content editor to act on their behalf e.g. Executive Director responsible for a Council policy with staff member in their online process publishing it.
Content editor
This person will publish content on behalf of the content owner. The content editor must also comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. Before any changes are made to the content they need to get the approval of the content owner first.
Publishing community
It is important that content owners and editors are clear on their roles and responsibilities: why they need to do it, what they need to do and how to do it. All too often publishers can forget these with other priorities and limited time. They are publishing not just for their benefit but also for staff who need to use this information to help with their work. Support will be provided in different ways to minimise costs to reinforce their roles and responsibilities.
Publishing support
By adopting a decentralised publishing model the best way to encourage a common understanding and sense of belonging to a community is to create a digital workspace for content owners and editors to use. It can provide guidance on the best way to publish information. It also helps to show by example how the digital workspace can help publishers and therefore other staff.
Content editors will be updated with any changes or developments that affect what they publish and how they do it. This can be provided through a news desk showing the latest articles or a blog that editors subscribe to and feedback comments. Emails with any urgent and/or important news can be sent directly to content editors and owners. Content owners and editors will have an easy source of helpful information to quickly answer any queries preventing them being able to publish.
Content owner
This person will be responsible for creating and maintaining the accredited content they own in the digital workspace throughout its life cycle. The content owner must comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. In some cases it may be better to delegate the publishing responsibility to a content editor to act on their behalf e.g. Executive Director responsible for a Council policy with staff member in their online process publishing it.
Content editor
This person will publish content on behalf of the content owner. The content editor must also comply with all the publishing standards and use the publishing templates provided for the content. Before any changes are made to the content they need to get the approval of the content owner first.
Publishing community
It is important that content owners and editors are clear on their roles and responsibilities: why they need to do it, what they need to do and how to do it. All too often publishers can forget these with other priorities and limited time. They are publishing not just for their benefit but also for staff who need to use this information to help with their work. Support will be provided in different ways to minimise costs to reinforce their roles and responsibilities.
Publishing support
By adopting a decentralised publishing model the best way to encourage a common understanding and sense of belonging to a community is to create a digital workspace for content owners and editors to use. It can provide guidance on the best way to publish information. It also helps to show by example how the digital workspace can help publishers and therefore other staff.
Content editors will be updated with any changes or developments that affect what they publish and how they do it. This can be provided through a news desk showing the latest articles or a blog that editors subscribe to and feedback comments. Emails with any urgent and/or important news can be sent directly to content editors and owners. Content owners and editors will have an easy source of helpful information to quickly answer any queries preventing them being able to publish.