Governance  Hierarchy:  How  roles  can  help  to  

govern  your  intranet

Owner,  Champion,  and  Steering  Group

Intranet  Manager

Intranet  Team

Content  Owners  and  Editors

Intranet  Users

4 intranet publishing

models for good governance

Mark Morrell Intranet Pioneer and author of…

Publishing  models  for  different  requirements

•Flexible  approach  on  who  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating  and  managing  the  content

•Third  parties  will  normally  publish  and  manage  content  on  a  day-­‐to-­‐day  basis

•Content  owner  or  editor  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content

•Central  team  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content  

Centralised Decentralised

HybridOutsourced

Publishing  model  factors• Type  of  organisation  your  intranet  will  be  supporting:

o Smallo Dynamico Largeo Complex

• Culture  will  help  you  choose  a  model  to  meet  strategic  aims• How  you  manage  all  your  intranet  content  and  applications• How  your  governance  framework  needs  to  operate• How  you  will  improve  your  publishing  and  user  experiences

Publishing  models  for  different  requirements

•Flexible  approach  on  who  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating  and  managing  the  content

•Third  parties  will  normally  publish  and  manage  content  on  a  day-­‐to-­‐day  basis

•Content  owner  or  editor  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content

•Central  team  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content  

Centralised Decentralised

HybridOutsourced

Centralised:  strengths• You  can  set  right  direction  and  monitor  progress.    Strategy  

coordination  is  strong.• You  can  make  changes  to  your  governance  quickly.• Your  training  costs  are  minimal  with  small  team  to  publish.  

You  train  people  quickly  so  they  become  productive.  • Knowledge  shared  easily  across  a  small  team.• Shared  understanding  of  how  governance  supports  publishing  

and  user  experiences.  

Centralised:  weaknesses• May  quickly  outgrow  this  model  if  organisation  expands  from  

a  small  number  of  tightly  knit  people  in  one  location  to  many.  • Increasingly  difficult  to  know  everyone risking  delays.  • Frustration  between  content  owners  and  central  team.  • New  people  mean  new  ideas  on  how  the  strategy  and  

governance  could  be  improved  which  central  team  may  resist.  • Growing  risk  of  being  isolated  and  detached  from  changing  

needs  of  business  areas/functions  as  organisation  expands.  

Publishing  models  for  different  requirements

•Flexible  approach  on  who  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating  and  managing  the  content

•Third  parties  will  normally  publish  and  manage  content  on  a  day-­‐to-­‐day  basis

•Content  owner  or  editor  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content

•Central  team  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content  

Centralised Decentralised

HybridOutsourced

Decentralised:  strengths• Helps  you  separate  day-­‐to-­‐day  publishing  needs  from  strategic  

and  governance  responsibilities.  • You  are  able  to  manage  the  look  and  feel  of  your  intranet  

design  using  publishing  templates  and  governance  features.  • No  need  for  content  owners  to  spend  time  designing  or  have  

high  technical  skills  to  use  templates.• Content  owner  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating  and  

managing  the  content.  • Compliance  with  publishing  standards  will  be  your  core  team’s  

responsibility  to  check  and  inform  content  owners.  

Decentralised:  weaknesses• You,  your  core  team,  and  business  area/  function  representatives  

may  not  agree  on  strategy  and  governance  priorities.  • Delays,  wasted  effort,  and  conflicting  approaches  pursued,  cause  

confusion  and  poor  user  experience.  • Your  organisation  may  not  see  the  intranet  contributing  to  its  key  

priorities  or  adding  any  value.  • It  may  want  to  review  intranet’s  purpose,  strategy,  governance  

framework,  publishing  model,  and  roles  and  responsibilities.• Risk  your  team  communicates  and  coordinates  in  a  confused  or  

fragmented  way.  Aims  of  core  team  and  publishers  may  conflict.

Publishing  models  for  different  requirements

•Flexible  approach  on  who  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating  and  managing  the  content

•Third  parties  will  normally  publish  and  manage  content  on  a  day-­‐to-­‐day  basis

•Content  owner  or  editor  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content

•Central  team  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content  

Centralised Decentralised

HybridOutsourced

Outsourced:  strengths• There  can  be  significant  cost  savings  made  by  outsourcing  the  

publishing  and  managing  of  your  intranet’s  content.  • Possible  to  improve  speed  of  publishing  with  rigorous  service  

level  agreement  covering  publishing  speed  & content  quality.• Dedicated  team  of  outsourced  people  helps,  developing  an  

understanding  about  how  your  organisation’s  custom  and  practices  and  language  used  (acronyms,  etc.).

Outsourced:  weaknesses• Expected  savings  may  not  always  be  achievable  with  extra  

costs,  previously  hidden,  included  in  contract.    • It  may  take  longer  to  do  the  same  activity,  removing  savings.  • There  may  be  more  errors,  adding  hidden  costs,  with  delays  in

the  publishing  or  lowering  of  the  content’s  quality.  • Goodwill  between  people  within  organisation  may  disappear  

with  service  level  agreement.• You  may  outsource  more  than  is  needed.  If  contract  stopped  

prematurely  it  may  cause  extra  costs  not  budgeted  for.

Publishing  models  for  different  requirements

•Flexible  approach  on  who  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating  and  managing  the  content

•Third  parties  will  normally  publish  and  manage  content  on  a  day-­‐to-­‐day  basis

•Content  owner  or  editor  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content

•Central  team  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content  

Centralised Decentralised

HybridOutsourced

Hybrid:  strengths• Gives  opportunity  to  test  out  and  combine  approaches  before  

adopting  publishing  model  that  works  best.• Helps  prevent  the  unnecessary  extra  costs  that  would  come  if  

you  took  an  approach  that  has  major  problems.  • Working  with  your  core  team,  business  representatives,  and  

content  owners  and  editors  help  to  adopt  right  approach.  • With  goodwill  from  everyone,  it  helps  to  ensure  the  overall  

publishing  and  user  experience  is  consistent  and  strong.  

Hybrid:  weaknesses• Risk  of  testing  different  approaches  is  that  the  overall  

strategic  direction  for  your  intranet  may  be  overlooked.  • Pragmatic  approach  risks  delays  to  critical  areas  needing  

urgent  attention  and  action.  • Your  approach  may  need  consensus.  Some  things  will  never  

be  agreeable  to  everyone.  Organisations  are  not  democratic.  • May  open  up  divisions  that  have  an  impact  on  other  ways  you  

manage  your  intranet  or  the  direction  it  is  moving  in.  • May  create  a  fragmented  experience  as  you  adopt  each  phase  

Which  publishing  model  is  best  for  you?

•Flexible  approach  on  who  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating  and  managing  the  content

•Third  parties  will  normally  publish  and  manage  content  on  a  day-­‐to-­‐day  basis

•Content  owner  or  editor  is  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content

•Central  team  responsible  for  publishing,  updating,  and  managing  the  content  

Centralised Decentralised

HybridOutsourced

Centralised  is  best  forA  smaller  organisation  that  is  stable  in  size  and  culture  or  an  organisation  using  an  intranet  for  the  first  time.  

Decentralised  is  best  forAn  organisation  based  in  many  locations.  It  is  large  enough  to  support  a  core  team  with  business  area  and  business  function  representatives  to  manage  the  intranet.  You  should  consider  a  decentralised  publishing  model  for  a  digital  workspace,  benefiting  from  its  extended  reach  and  added  complexity.  

Outsourcing  is  best  forAn  organisation  that  has  budget  challenges  and  a  mature  intranet  is  more  suited  to  outsourcing  its  activities.  The  outsourcing  will  normally  cover  the  publishing  and  managing  of  content  on  a  day-­‐to-­‐day  basis.  It  rarely  covers  the  strategy  or  purpose  of  the  governance  framework.  

Hybrid  is  best  forAn  organisation  that  has  a  culture  where  the  direction  is  set  from  its  centre  and  accepted  after  consultation  is  more  suited  to  a  hybrid  version  of  a  publishing  model  that  is  adapted  to  meet  your  requirements

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