Despite the concept of Digital Workplace being around for well over 10 years, the challenge it poses is far from solved for most organizations. If anything, companies have even more tools, more information chaos and more unclarity about channels, than they ever used to have before. And, maybe most importantly, employees are still not put at the center, where they belong. Internal Communications are so focused on key messages and channels that they tend to forget who they are actually doing this all for. IT is so busy with infrastructure projects and moving to the cloud that they can’t even be bothered with thinking about creating a Digital Employee Experience. In this situation many Internal Communications departments are even devolving in their approach to digital instruments, going back to first generation Intranets. Is this really what people need and want in the third decade of the 21st century? When I’m talking to employees at the companies I work with, a very different picture comes to the fore. While most people have never heard of concepts such as the Digital Workplace, Digital Experience Platforms or Digital Employee Experience, what they describe, when asked for the problems they are dealing with in their daily work, is exactly what these concepts stand for. Interestingly, the “Top 3” problems and potentials that people have been naming for a very long time have not changed at all. These key problems are still: • “I can’t find the information I need to do my job!” • “It’s hard to collaborate and exchange with other people outside my own area!” • “There are way too many systems I have to use to get my job done!” In this situation, Internal Communications needs to look at their own role and decide what part they want to play in the future of Digital Work. While there are many aspects to this decision, it basically boils down to this: Do you want to be in the driver’s seat for creating and managing tomorrow’s Digital Employee Experience or are you happy with just providing news to an instrument that will be run by someone else in the organization, who has assumed that role in your stead?

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Intranet Italia Day 2023
The changing role of
Internal Communications
when moving from Intranet
to Digital Workplace
Milano (IT)
18.05.2023
Stephan Schillerwein
stephan@schillerwein.net
www.schillerwein.net
Digital Transformation of Work

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Free Communications from
its self-imposed limitations
&
become enablers of
real-life Communication
Picture credits: unknown

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What we will be talking about today
 The elusive concept of a Digital Workplace
 Must-solve Problems
 Call to Action
 Q & A

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About me: My 1st Intranet
The Year: 1998
The Client: A global industrial
company with 25k employees based
in Switzerland
The Tool: Hand-coded HTML
Pages at Launch: ca. 10 How Intranets looked like in 1998 (for illustration only)
Picture source: unknown

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About me: Passion for Digital Work
25+ years of experience in Digital Media and Information
Management, specializing in Digital Transformation of Work
through New Ways of Working enabled by Intranets, Social
Collaboration and Digital Workplaces etc.
Business computer scientist – speaks language of “both sides”
Stephan Schillerwein
Schillerwein Net Consulting
150+
Projects
85+
Clients
1
Global
Network
200+
Publicat-
ions &
Events
Awards of my customers
Selected previous key career milestones:
eBusiness Manager
@
Intel
Intranet Manager
@
Swisscom
Director Europe
@
Intranet
Benchmarking Forum

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THE ELUSIVE CONCEPT OF A
DIGITAL WORKPLACE

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At least we all have the same idea when it comes to an Intranet …
«An Intranet is top-down
News & Content»
Picture credits: Jeff, "Really?“, https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffbalke/1518639442/ (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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At least we all have the same idea when it comes to an Intranet …
«An intranet is a computer
network for sharing information,
easier communication,
collaboration tools, operational
systems, and other computing
services within an organization,
usually to the exclusion of access
by outsiders.»
Wikipedia (EN)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet (10.05.2023) Picture credits: Peter Grifoni, "Stranger #236 - Alum„, https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtpete/14914362352/ (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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At least we all have the same idea when it comes to an Intranet …
“An intranet is a computer network
that, […] is not publicly accessible and
offers different, additional or
restricted functions. Companies and
public authorities in particular
implement an intranet in their
information technology to enable
faster access to data. It is structured
like the Internet, from which its name
is borrowed.“
Wikipedia (DE)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet (10.05.2023) Picture credits: Lovro67, "OMG!!!“, https://www.flickr.com/photos/30978323@N02/6306561065/ (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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At least we all have the same idea when it comes to an Intranet …
“Sometimes the term [Intranet] refers
logically only to the most visible service
network, the system of sites that form an
internal web space (e.g., to a company or
organization). In other meanings, the
term can be understood as the system
of information and services of general
utility accessible from the internal
network.
… in recent years the concept has taken a
different form, going beyond
technological aspects to strongly impact
the organization of the enterprise.“
Wikipedia (IT)
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet (10.05.2023) Picture credits: Stratman2, "WHADDAYA WANT?“, https://www.flickr.com/photos/stratman2/36940487924/ (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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When the term and concept «Digital Workplace» became
popular, it started to get even worse …
Digital Workplace
= Intranetplus

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When the term and concept «Digital Workplace» became
popular, it started to get even worse …
Intranet
is part of
the Digital Workplace

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Why make it more complicated than it really is?
My Work
System
A
System
B
System
C
The old, information-centric Intranet
The new, work-centric
Intranet / Digital
Workplace

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Are both really the same? Yes and No …
Digital Workplace = Intranet
Intranet = Digital Workplace
Intranet definition by Thoughtfarmer, http://www.thoughtfarmer.com (ca. 2010-15)
DWP definition by Digital Workplace Group, https://digitalworkplacegroup.com/2013/11/05/so-what-is-the-digital-workplace-anyway/#sthash.241wcvV7.dpuf
“The DWP is the collection of all of the digital tools
provided by an organization to allow its employees
to do their jobs.”

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The old concept of the Intranet is fundamentally different from the
Digital Workplace
SCOPE
Narrow / closed
One-way («top down»)
Communication and Information
Provisioning
Broad / open
Omni-directional («connected»)
Any Functionality
PERSPECTIVE
Sender-Focus
Employee-Focus
Intranet
Digital Workplace

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How I define a Digital Workplace (or «New Intranet»)
The Digital Experience
in which everything
comes together that
belongs together
from my perspective

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MUST-SOLVE PROBLEMS

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In order to provide value for your Employees, you need to
understand what they really struggle with
«I can’t find
anything!»
«There are way too
many tools that I need
to use to do my job!»
«(Informally) Working
together is really hard,
especially across
boundaries!»

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Why the problem of Findability has not been solved
Picture credits:
• Left: „Yoghurt“ by Calvin, https://www.flickr.com/photos/calshutter/8731336387/ (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
• Right: http://www.welovefood-derfilm.de/2013/02/das-problem-mit-dem-mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum/

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Why the problem of „Too many Tools“ has not been solved
Picture credits: Workgrid Software (https://www.workgrid.com/) – in this example the problem has been solved!

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Why the problem of „Working together“ has not been solved
= what the most
widely used Tool
focusses on
= where the biggest
need is
Benchmarking data
from 16 companies
Mapping of Problems
to Solutions

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It‘s a „culture thing“ and it starts by defining Core Behaviours
Open by
default
(Bosch)
Enabling of Community
Management
Dynamic Profiles
Enabling of Connected
Work Styles
Idea Market Places
…

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CALL TO ACTION

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1 – Understand who they are and what they really need
Picture credits:
• Left: Pacific Disaster Center, "AIW_3718-Edit“, https://www.flickr.com/photos/pdcglobal/42764269231/ (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
• Right: Vase AMANITO, “workers”, https://www.flickr.com/photos/amanito/719229070/ (CC BY-NC 2.0)

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2 – Adapt a Digital Mindset
Pseudo Digital
(derived from analogue models)
Really Digital
(designed for the Digital World)
Picture credits:
• Left: unknown
• Right: Visible SA „KOH — The AI-powered 360° telepresence device for engaging meetings”, https://www.visible.video/ (copyright, used with permission)

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3 – Time to say „Good bye“
Move out of
COMMUNICATON STREET
and get into
Markets are
Conversations
(Cluetrain Manifesto)
Companies are
Conversations
The Digital Workplace
enables these
Conversations
Picture credits: Giulian Frisoni, „Mexican Market“, https://www.flickr.com/photos/giulianfrisoni/22965401429/ (CC BY 2.0)

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Questions ?
Digital Transformation of Work