Top 5 intranet KPIs

In many ways, websites and intranets are like telephone systems – they assist us in accomplishing mission-critical work all the time but their true value is rarely measured.

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Most people and organizations inherently know and understand the value of the telephone and don’t require a detailed ROI balance sheet before buying a phone. Like the telephone, most organizations inherently understand the value of an intranet, but don’t truly measure its value beyond HITS.

Failure to measure your intranet’s performance above and beyond simple analytics (e.g. HITS and page views) is a failure of responsibility (particularly in this economy where most organizations are looking cut costs wherever they find them).

Here are five noteworthy key performance indicators (KPIs) that you need to adopt:

1. Sales – if you’re intranet is not helping your organization increase sales, then you’re missing out. It’s far too easy to accomplish with a little planning and execution. Among the benefits:

• Provide the sales team with better information, more efficiently

• Solicit and reward employee leads & referrals

Additional reading:

Intranet Insider World Tour: Sodexho USA

2. User satisfaction – more important than what employees are reading, and how often / much, is their satisfaction with the intranet. How happy are they? In particular, user satisfaction with:

• Design

• Content

• Navigation

• Tools

• Search

Among the satisfaction metrics BT tracks on their intranet (see Satisfied BT Intranet users В« Mark Morrell):

 

• 83% satisfied with the intranet (down 3%)

• 42% extremely/very satisfied with the intranet (down 3%)

• 6% are dissatisfied with the intranet (up 2%)

• 79% satisfied with BT Homepage (new design) the corporate intranet portal (down 3%)

• 43% extremely/very satisfied the BT Homepage (down 5%)

• 3% dissatisfied with BT Homepage (no change)

   

3. Productivity – the intranet can significantly boost employee productivity and their ability to find information and tools to complete their work. Among the productivity metrics that Microsoft, IBM and BT track:

• 33% of Microsoft employee survey participants (33%) agree completely that the Microsoft intranet (MSWeb) saves them time

• 27% agree completely that MSWeb has helped to improve their productivity (8 or 9 on a nine-point scale)

• 80% IBM employees visit w3 (the intranet) at least once per day

• 68% view the intranet as crucial to their jobs

• 52% are more satisfied to be an IBM employee because of information obtained on w3

• 48% agree the BT Intranet improves everyday working life

• 57% agree the BT Intranet saves me time in my working day

• 59% agree the BT Intranet helps me to be more efficient in my job

Additional reading:

Intranet 2.0 case study: BT

Leading intranet case study: IBM’s W3

 

4. Stakeholder satisfaction – a far more critical and discerning audience are those managers and executives (stakeholders) that have a hand in or ownership of the intranet. Our intranet consultants (Prescient Digital Media) have solicited and surveyed stakeholders for their opinions and ratings of the for more than 100 intranet clients. Why? It’s not just about making users happy, but also making management happy.

    

Additional reading:

Creating A Measurable Intranet Strategy Prescient Digital Media (PPT with case study from PNC Bank)

 

5. Cost savings – why have an intranet if it’s not saving your organization money? Improved communications and HR are nice, soft benefits, but if the intranet is delivering those benefits, then it’s probably delivering cost savings that you just haven’t measured. Everything from paper, software, technology, administration, distribution / delivery, and travel costs to just about anything under the sun. There are hundreds of areas to save money with your intranet.

    

Additional reading:

Finding ROI: Measuring Intranet Investments (free white paper)

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