Intranet DASHBOARD released key data from the first Australian and rest of world [ROW] intranet usage and trends comparison at the launch of Intranet DASHBOARD 2.0 at CeBIT Australia May 1, 2007.

Campbell Dobbin, CEO of Intranet DASHBOARD said: “The groundbreaking Global Intranet Benchmarking Survey conducted by Intranet DASHBOARD showed IT departments and marcoms were battling for control of the intranet, and if global trends are any indication this conflict will only escalate.”

Dobbin said this trend was evident in the sales process for iD in Australia and globally where the departments seek to control what is considered the most powerful communications and productivity tool within the corporation.

Key Australia comparisons with the rest of the world (ROW) that were revealed in the 27 question Global Intranet Benchmarking Survey which garnered 386 responses were:

Control of the intranet:

  • 39% of Australian IT depts. hold the budget for the intranet compared to 36% ROW
  • 29% of Australian Marketing & Communications depts. have overall responsibility for the day to day intranet operations compared to 34% ROW.

Social Networking adoption:

  • 53% of Australian companies are interested in adopting social networking tools, but have not implemented any as yet. This compares to 41% of companies from ROW
  • 26% of Australian companies are using social networking tools, such as wikis (15%), blogs (10%) and podcasts (6%) in their organizations, in addition to other more familiar social networking tools which have been on the scene for longer, Bookmarking/Linking (29%), Discussion Forums (23%) and RSS Feeds (22%)
  • Over 1 in 3 Australian companies plan to implement these social networking tools into their organizations in the future.
  • Australians are more likely to adopt social networking technologies that they have previously had experience with. Over half of respondents are very likely to use book marking/linking (55%) or Discussion forums (53%), and (41%) of respondents are very likely to use RSS feeds. 1 in 3 are likely to use Blogs (29%) or Wikis (33%) and 1 in 5 would be very likely to use podcasts.

Collaboration role:

  • 1 in 3 Australian companies use their intranet as a collaborative environment and 37% of these companies find these collaborative work environments to be very to extremely valuable. 60% ROW use intranet as a collaborative work environment.

Overall the survey found from all respondents that:

  • 59% responded that “Improve internal communications” was the highest priority challenge they hope to overcome in the next 12 months
  • 67% rated their intranet as “valuable – extremely valuable” to their organization
  • Most popular intranet functionality:
    - Document Management
    - Search
    - News
    - Shared Calendars
  • It appears that when it comes to social networking, companies are taking a cautious approach and slowly adopting tools/functionality.
  • When asked what social networking tools they are likely to implement, the tools/functionality that have been in use for a longer period of time were most likely to be implemented – Bookmarking, Discussion Forums & RSS Feeds. Blog is the tool companies are least likely to implement.
    - 47% of companies said they are interested in social networking but have not implemented any tools
    - Only 7% of companies have deployed and are using social networking tools
    - 25% said they have no interest at this time
  • Top 3 challenges hope to over come in next 12mths:
    - Improve Internal Comms
    - Improve Content Management
    - Improve Usability

iD 2.0 Launch CeBIT May 1, 2007

“Our customers, which range from small business, to large global companies, needs are always changing, they are the foundation of our success, and providing them the best, most affordable and easiest to use corporate intranet solutions, is paramount to the Intranet DASHBOARD mission,” said Campbell Dobbin, CEO, Intranet DASHBOARD.

“With Intranet DASHBOARD 2.0, we are not only releasing fantastic new applications, but perhaps more importantly, we are applying our thorough understanding of all aspects of our client’s workflow to deliver solutions that drive productivity.”

“They spoke, and we listened, that’s what we do best, we provide ONE product and ONE solution from ONE company, rather than a multi-vendor solution which inherently brings an added level of complexity to corporate intranet roll-outs,” said Dobbin.

“The need for corporate intranets with solutions like Intranet DASHBOARD is escalating as clients worldwide demand sophisticated online collaboration and communication tools. More companies also now depend on the intranet as the glue that binds together the organizational culture and helps deliver on the core business mission.”

  • Intranet DASHBOARD 2.0 includes, a comprehensive collection of applications that enable efficient task such as, Dynamic Linking, which allows companies to maintain links regardless of where you move the document.
  • For ultimate corporate intranet control and ease of use, version 2.0 includes, Advanced Content Publishing and Document Management, enabling content check in and out, version control, content undelete options, and notification alerts on new content additions, as well as content expiry controls.
  • Keeping up with clients needs, version 2.0 now allows for Enterprise-level load balancing, which enables robust data storage, performance efficiencies, faster and more efficient data access.
  • Intranet DASHBOARD version 2.0 also includes, new streamlined interface skins, with slick new themes, providing a current new look and feel.