Presentation: The Trials, Tribulations (and Rewards!) of Launching a Social Intranet
Presented by: Kristie Helms, Vice President, Interactive and Social Media, State Street
State Street launched Collaborate – our new social intranet – globally to 29,000 employees in 26 countries just a few weeks ago. Find out what it took to persuade a 222-year-old company to embrace a new model of communications, how we convinced employees to form their own adoption program, and how Collaborate is already fueling State Street’s broader external social media strategy.
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The Trials, Tribulations (and Rewards!) of Launching a Social Intranet - BDI 3/6 Financial Services Social Business Leadership Forum
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The Trials, Tribulations (and Rewards!) of
Launching a Social Intranet
Kristie Helms
VP, Head of Content and Social Business
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GLOBAL MARKETING
We Launched a Social Intranet
And You Can Too!
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Stunningly SIMPLE Reasons We Decided to Do It
Ridiculous Things I WISH Someone Had Told Me Before I Pushed For This
Awesome Things That Made It Totally Worthwhile
(plus 1 COOL, bonus secret I’ll let you know)
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GLOBAL MARKETING
Reasons to Launch A Social Intranet
1. We Wanted Our Business to Be A Social Business
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• Even though it wasn’t even close
to being easy to embrace “social”
– We’re both multi-national (29,000
employees in 29 countries) and
highly regulated.
– We’ve also been around awhile. We
were founded in 1792. Yes, you
read that right.
– And still we were named
Information Week’s social business
leader of the year in 2013.
• It’s how we keep our clients at the
center of our universe
– Social gives us tools to connect
effectively with our clients and have
a rich, meaningful dialogue.
Client
ENGAGETARGET
INTERNAL
COLLABOR-
ATION
PUBLISH
LISTEN
GAIN
INSIGHT
Social Surround Sound
that allows you to gather insights
and information that you can use
to help clients overcome the
challenges they face
Insights Into Actions
You start to change the business
when you can get insights from
external social to the right people
internally
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GLOBAL MARKETING
Reasons to Launch A Social Intranet
2. Because What We Were Doing Wasn’t Working
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Pre-Social Intranet
Legacy Intranet Intranet
Established 1999
• Content that didn’t get
migrated in 2010
Established 2010
• Structured access to
policies, forms, directories,
business groups and
corporate functions
SharePoint Collaborate
Established 2004(?)
• Designed for document
management with
customized document
libraries
Established 2012
• Designed for knowledge
and expertise sharing with
a simple document library
• Information is “crowd-
sourced”
#1 complaint about the intranet
pre-2014?
SEARCH DOESN’T
WORK.
Of course it didn’t.
Search couldn’t cross the
multitude of platforms we were
using for content
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Reasons to Launch A Social Intranet
3. We’re a Global Company Serving Global Clients
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• REAL-TIME UPDATES
Employees receive communications immediately
• TARGETED MESSAGES
Those employees who need the information will
see it
• DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS
Interact directly with employees – and get their
input immediately
• BETTER ORGANIZATION
Eliminates multiple intranet sites; global and
regional content can be organized in a better way
– and changed quickly when necessary
• ENHANCED SEARCH
Locate content more quickly and more efficiently
When I need information about
something, usually I just ask
someone.“
”
. . . Let’s connect globally
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GLOBAL MARKETING
Lessons Learned
Spread the Word
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1. These People Will Be Your Best
Friends.
Our early adopters (Collaborate Champions)
ran our training programs. 150 of them
personally trained nearly 10,000 employees.
Which of the following best
describes where information can
be found?
Information is
always where I
expect it to be
Information is
usually where I
expect it to be
Information is
occasionally where
I expect it to be
I cannot find
information
2. A Pilot Isn’t Just a Good Idea.
We tested the platform with more than 75 invited users, asking about
user experience and if they understood social communications. We
built our training program on the results. Bonus? The pilot helped us
spread the word.
3. Publicize What Works.
We turned our business use
cases into a full marketing
campaign including a video
montage of 18 employees
detailing in < 1 min how they use
Collaborate to get work done.
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GLOBAL MARKETING
What Made It Worthwhile
1. A group of 33 employees with a variety of skills and experience
– and representing each region – collectively weighed in on
ways to improve workflows after the final NAV is calculated.
2. Our sales team now uses the social intranet to centralize wins
tracking, sales slide categorization and dissemination,
competitive intelligence and overall organization
3. Live Chat forums and real-time postings are giving
employees unprecedented access to senior leaders.
Switching to Social Made Doing Work Easier
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You Can Make Time Zones Irrelevant
Question recently asked by employee in
Quincy, answered by colleague in Sydney.
Crowdsourcing
Works
Sometimes the best
ideas and innovations
are sourced from
within.
Executives Become Real People
When placed within the right context and used
in the right forms, social communications can
help open up a different type of dialog.
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Making It Cool Collaboration Stations
• Held during “soft launch” when employees could check out the
social intranet, but it wasn’t their only source for information
• Collaborate Champions answered questions, walked through
issues and help employees get started
• Staffed by volunteer Collaborate Champions in Boston, Quincy,
London, Kansas City, Sydney and Dublin
• Hired a professional photographer to take profile pictures at key
stations
Collaboration Pop-Up Stations
• Designed for a focused training within a team, business group or
region
• Contained everything to run a training including guides, handouts
and give-aways
• Staffed by either a volunteer Collaborate Champion, or local team
member
Don’t Forget The Fun
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