Turn Post-Its into Profits: Rediscovering a Portal's Value

The most expensive post-it note on record went for $925 in 2000, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Can you guess what it contained?

Think about the valuable content floating loosely around your own organization. Could it be that great ideas, important contacts, and employee know-how are strewn about your office? Are golden nuggets of information lying in e-mails and locally saved files? Chances are, absolutely. If you were to stop to audit the unstructured content at your own organization, you could probably give that $925 post-it note a run for the record books. In the Information Age, firms that remain competitive will be those that wisely find a way to manage this unstructured content.

For many firms, a portal is the solution. While offering the ease and accessibility of a post-it, a portal can capture, digitize, and catalog information. It quickly stores vital information and makes it reappear when needed. Furthermore, beyond storing information and making it accessible, a portal organizes and secures information. (If it doesn't, it should.)

Portals also offer a solution to retaining knowledge. Where high turnover rates exist, a firm's information and knowledge can seep through the cracks as employees leave. As millions of baby boomers begin to retire, those cracks become craters. In 2006, the Census Bureau projects that 330 Americans will turn 60 every hour. When retirees clear off their desks, years of invaluable experience and knowledge are wiped off the slate. To address this loss, a well-planned portal becomes a repository of intellectual assets that will remain after the employees are gone.

At a firm where employees come and go and large amounts of content exist, a portal can offer a much needed solution that neatly and securely stores a firm's intellectual assets. Gathering those assets leads to a valuable resource for training new hires. So, why isn't everyone using a portal?

Despite good intentions, a portal can carry a bad reputation. Similar to many other projects, some portals were meant to be one thing and end up as another. A portal can have its problems, too. Poor organization, lack of a scalable design, and unsearchable content are a few of the problems we hear at i-Squared. Overall, these various problems add up to the biggest problem of all: a portal that is not usable.

"When I talk with people about their portal, I hear the same problem again and again. Employees don't realize its value and rarely use it," said Melanie Bard, Director of Information Strategies at i-Squared.

After months of planning, development, and investment, a portal sometimes receives more jeers than cheers. Companies, who first held high hopes when investing in the technology, begin to wonder why they aren't seeing a return on their investment.

But, while some portals do not turn out as hoped, the concept of a portal is not hopeless. Industry news suggests that the use of portals and intranets will increase in 2006. Gartner lists support for collaboration, data management, and enterprise content management--all portal-related issues--among its predicted business and technology trends for 2006. It's not time to give up on the portal. It's time to do it right. If a firm is not seeing a return on its investment, things can be done to resuscitate the portal to make it an integral tool at the workplace.

Where a portal is unused, an audit may help identify the problems that, in turn, can be resolved. An audit analyzes a company's intellectual assets and the processes in place to capture and use them. Getting feedback from those who will use the portal and support from top executives are other key factors to breathing life back into the project.

If your organization is contemplating a portal or portal redesign, consider performing an audit that includes the following three steps:

• Determine portal goals. Where will your organization benefit from a portal? How can you leverage company information and technology to meet those goals and generate ROI?
• Look at your content. Ask an information architect or content developer to analyze your organization's content for relevancy, accuracy, completeness and organization. Determine the appropriate taxonomy and assign someone to maintain the integrity of the information.
• Think about your corporate culture. Who will use the portal and why? What incentive do they have to participate? Ignoring the culture factor creates a tool that's left unused.

Despite the problems of an ill-planned portal, the need for a reliable portal solution is on the rise. As Baby Boomers edge closer to retirement, firms are increasingly realizing the importance of knowledge capture. Intellectual assets don't store and categorize themselves. In this day and age, digital files carrying vital company information travel willy-nilly through e-mail and land haphazardly on cluttered desktops. Now more than ever, a company needs to secure its intellectual assets in a usable, manageable portal.

By the way, were you still wondering what that record-breaking post-it contained? A charcoal and pastel drawing by artist R.B. Kitaj made history when it sold at auction for nearly one grand. What value do the post-its and other unstructured content at your organization contain? Perhaps it's time to find out.