How to monitor your intranet performance

Only few organisations are capable or required to demonstrate the ROI of their intranet. Increasing demands on accountability lead to the awareness that the online internal communications can and should be monitored. Web performance management is not exclusively the domain of e-commerce websites any more. Read how to monitor your intranet continuously and get a grip on its effectiveness.

Monitoring effectiveness

Jungle Rating developed the Internet Scorecard, an approach based on the Balanced Scorecard, that enables you to demonstrably increase the returns on your online investments. The method centres on the company's internet or intranet strategy. The purpose of the Internet Scorecard is to help you measure the performance of your website and, where necessary, improve it. Let’s look how Internet Scorecard applies to the intranet.

Key to success: four related perspectives

An intranet could be first class in usability, design or technical performance. However, if the content does not connect to the ‘new’ employees from a merger of two years ago, is hardly been used or cannot be updated on a regular basis, the intranet site is not successful and only costs money. Several perspectives need to be taken into account at once.

The degree of website effectiveness depends on the relation between four perspectives:

Based upon: De Internet Scorecard

Based upon: ‘De Internet Scorecard’ – Jungle Rating

Financial perspective: To what extent does the intranet contribute to the financial results of my company? Think of costs and returns (or cost savings)
Visitor perspective: Who exactly are my visitors and how satisfied are they? Think of reach, visits, conversion, retention and satisfaction
Website perspective: What do we have to accomplish to have a successful intranet site? Think of content, usability, design and technical performance
Organisation perspective: How to organise the intranet activities to enable an effective intranet site? Think of structure (meetings and responsibilities), knowledge, systems and tools

The strength of the Internet Scorecard methodology is found in its coherent approach: a company can create an effective intranet based on an effective web organisation (with the right people and resources). Effective in terms of content, user-friendliness, design and technical performance, ultimately resulting in satisfied visitors and – accordingly – commercial success or cost saving.

How to get started

The method of the Internet Scorecard may help you to start a continuous web performance management cycle.

Based upon: De Internet Scorecard

Based upon: ‘De Internet Scorecard’ – Jungle Rating

Define an intranet strategy
Outline an intranet strategy with your goals and ambitions forms a starting point for the entire intranet presence and effectiveness. First thing you should do is outline a clear and ambitious strategy. Involve senior management in the process. As Jane McConnell notices in Global Intranet Strategies Today & Tomorrow, senior management still has a stronger role to play in the intranet. They are not yet fully aware of the role and the potential of the intranet nor on their own responsibilities regarding the intranet.
Formulate success factors, key performance indicators and targets
Determine realistic yet ambitious success factors, KPIs and targets. Do this for each of the four perspectives. Add actions that need to be undertaken when research has shown that your goals have not been met. Look how you can draw up a measurable KPI with specific targets for a general subject like usability:

Example based upon: ‘De Internet Scorecard’ – Jungle Rating
Select the appropriate research methods and start measuring.
Choose an adequate research method for the KPIs you have formulated. With all sorts of research either executed by yourself or a professional you can monitor your intranet’s performance. Be aware that web analytics can be very useful, but are in itself not sufficient in most cases. The most effective way is to perform different kinds of research. Organise a focus group discussion to gather in depth the needs, wishes and expectations of a representative group employees. Perform an online survey if you want to get a grasp of the visitor profile and the satisfaction rate of the intranet site.

Another important method is to regularly check the content of your intranet site.

Tips and tricks

Don’t bother to start a web performance cycle if you don’t have a clear intranet strategy. When you don’t have a clear idea of your ambitions, it is impossible to define useful KPIs and targets.
When implementing a Web Performance Management cycle into your organisation, involve staff members from several divisions and teams. Don’t forget the senior management.
Make sure you regularly monitor the performance of your intranet. Generate your web statistics for example each month, analyse the results and undertake action if needed. Perform additional research regularly (every three months or twice a year). Present the results in a standard format that shows the most significant results at a glance (see Krem’s example below).

Example score card