Workers are finding company newsletters, employee phone listings, human resources information and even menus for the corporate cafeteria being posted on companies' internet networks, or intranets.
By DAVE GUSSOW
Published March 8, 2004
[Times art: Jeff Goertzen]
Not long ago, whenever Smith & Nephew in Largo changed its marketing or prices, it had to print new material and send it to staffers to insert into three-ring binders.
It was a slow and costly process. Now, the binders and paper shuffling are history at the subsidiary of a British medical supply company, replaced by an electronic system that provides staffers access to current information at their computers.
"It gives all the nuts and bolts to the sales and marketing organizations, all the tools to meet with customers," said Greg Ericson, vice president of information services for the company. "This is a cultural shift in how we operate."
It's not e-mail, and it's not quite the Internet. It's an intranet, an internal Web site that a business uses to communicate with employees, to post policies and prices and increasingly to allow employees to handle their benefits online.
Company newsletters on paper? An endangered species. A trip to human resources? Less and less necessary. Online collaboration among team members? Easier. Job training at the desktop? Now available. Discounts for hotels, attractions and services? These perks are popping up online. Even the menu at the company cafeteria often is available, according to a sampling of Tampa Bay area companies with intranets.
An intranet can be called up on a Web browser like any outside Web site as long as the user is on the company's computer network or, in some cases, signs on from outside with an authorized user name and password.
Intranets have generated enough buzz locally that the Tampa Bay chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (www.iabctampabay.com) is trying to organize an intranet user's group so companies can share info about how they use the technology.
"It is the one place where all the resources come together," said Pam Stanford, IBM's director of on-demand workplaces and an expert on intranets. "The real value of a system like this is to have it so people can find things."
And the one thing most people really want, Stanford says, is a company phone directory, which she calls the "killer app" of intranets. Not only does an intranet directory have up-to-date information, but it saves time, paper and money that used to be spent on printed lists that often were outdated as soon as they rolled off a printing press.
One company, described by Stanford as a global manufacturing company with more than 300,000 employees, saved $700,000 by moving its directory to the intranet.
No bay area company interviewed could quantify how much money its intranet has saved, but all praised the improvements the online systems provided.
"I don't think anyone has put energy" into a cost analysis, said Robin Pokoj, vice president of e-business at Evatone in Clearwater, which produces printed materials, audio cassettes, custom CDs and DVDs. "We just knew it was the right thing to do."
But a company that starts an intranet site takes on the burden of keeping it useful, easy to navigate and up-to-date.
"That's one of our biggest challenges," said Tammy Bennett, director of corporate Internet technology at Cox Target Media in Largo. It started what became its intranet in the mid 1990s, long before it became trendy. "We have so much content. . . . We have people constantly reviewing the site, telling people to bring (information) up to date or it's coming down."
While most business intranets share some predictable features, such as company news items and announcements, here are some examples of ways bay area companies have tailored their in-house Web sites to meet their needs:
Benefits: If an online phone directory is the must-have feature, allowing employees to handle their benefits electronically is becoming a close second.
During the past three years, the number of businesses allowing employees to go online for what it calls "self-service" has grown dramatically, according to Towers Perrin human resources consultants, which surveyed companies with 1,000 or more employees.
Two-thirds let employees change benefits online after events such as marriage or the birth of a child, compared with 21 percent in 2000. Almost three-quarters let employees sign up for benefits, compared with a third in 2000, and about 90 percent allow employees to make changes in their 401(k) retirement plans online, compared with 58 percent in 2000.
"We had open enrollment online for the first time, and we drove that through the intranet," said Kyle Parks, vice president of marketing and communications for the Jim Walter Homebuilding Group in Tampa.
Yet while some Walter employees flocked to the intranet, only about a third of its work force uses a computer. So most employees still have to do it the old-fashioned way, on paper forms.
Most companies provide at least basic benefits information online, but not all offer options for employees to sign up or manage their plans.
"For right now, it's not that big of a hassle" to use paper forms, said Pokoj of Evatone.
News and information: From bloodmobile visits to goings-on in the corporate boardrooms, intranets give a daily snapshot to employees.
"One thing we found is crucial," Walter's Parks said. "How do you keep it fresh? How do you get people to look at it day after day?"
A popular feature at Walter is highlighting "best practices," successful techniques that staffers share to do their jobs better.
Many companies provide links to news sites, as well as industry-related sites.
It doesn't all have to be serious. One of the favorite features on TDnet, the intranet at Tech Data Corp. in Clearwater, is employee of the quarter, in which a photo and short story appear. The miniprofiles include outside interests and activities of the featured employee.
"Everyone loves to see their friends on the intranet site and read what they're up to," said Lynette Bohanan, manager of corporate communications.
Training, research and collaboration: Government can be messy, with a lot of paperwork, meetings and policies. But the County Online Information Network, or COIN, for Hillsborough County has a couple of neat features.
Employees can watch County Commission meetings online through streaming video. Or, if they miss a meeting but need to know what was discussed on a particular issue, it's easy to find.
The closed-captioning for the broadcasts is digitized. Staff can do a keyword search, click on the various hits and watch video of that part of a meeting.
"It's a great tool," said Roger Dean, director of Hillsborough County's information and technology services. "It helps us to be more responsive to the board when they have a particular issue to deal with."
Hillsborough's COIN also includes computer-assisted training on topics ranging from how to use software to how to deal with difficult employees. From their desks, staff can take a test before the training, start the training, save it and pick up from where they left off. Afterward, they can take another test to determine how well they learned.
The intranet at Catalina Marketing in St. Petersburg lets teams of workers share information, no matter where they are, and keeps track of message threads and notes on projects. Previously, such teams relied on e-mail, the phone or shared directories on a computer network.
"Our collaboration tool allows us to bring those three things together much more efficiently," said Bill Geffert, Catalina's vice president of information technology.
Perks: The water cooler and bulletin boards always will play a big role in business life. But intranets can reflect the off-duty lives of employees as well.
Need a babysitter? Getting rid of a pet? Selling a car? Many companies allow employees to post personal classified ads for free.
Some offer discounts for theme park tickets, fitness centers, hotels and other services, "additional benefits that are not part of a written company plan," said Pokoj of Evatone.
But IBM's Stanford doesn't think some of these practices are a good idea. If people want to sell personal items, they can easily go to eBay. If a company has arrangements for a particular service, such as a travel agency, information about that is fine because it's work-related.
"The workplace is serious business," she said. "It's not an advertisement for promoting things."
Some allow employees to post comments on bulletin boards, but those are monitored to make sure the topics and comments are appropriate. "It's not the place to complain about specific problems you have," Walter's Parks said. "If you have a problem with your supervisor, there are other ways to handle it other than posting."
Access for all: Hillsborough County has about 5,000 employees but only 3,500 computers. Even at a company such as Tech Data, not all employees use a computer or have access.
The answer to that problem varies. Some print out intranet information and pin the paper to a bulletin board. Some provide computer kiosks so everyone has electronic access. Some duplicate information, offering it electronically and in a printed newsletter.
It's also a challenge to get people to learn about the intranet and how to use it. At Tech Data, a Quick Poll often has topics that are intranet-related so employees can discover what's available.
A recent question asked which method Tech Data employees used to get answers about company benefits. The choices: Visit human resources, send an e-mail to human resources, check the intranet or ask a supervisor. About 71 percent chose the intranet.
"It's a pretty complex site," Bohanan said. "We're constantly trying to educate employees. Does everybody know all this? I doubt it. I learn things every day."
- Information from Times wires was used in this report. Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or 727 771-4328.
