An intranet can be a vital resource for organisations that want to maintain a high level of employee engagement, a common sense of purpose, and consistently high employee satisfaction. But creating and maintaining a vibrant intranet solution isn’t easy.

Here are five common mistakes we’ve observed in organisations either refreshing or building new intranets.

1) Fire, Ready, Aim

The first and probably most obvious mistake people make is starting to deploy their intranet solution before they’ve undertaken sufficient planning — getting ready.

To avoid setting up for failure, think about the following:

• What’s the primary purpose of your intranet?
• Who…

I agree with you Matthias; SAFe is definitely nothing to do with the original purpose of Agile, which was all about removing complexity and delivering outcomes users wanted and needed. 3wks was a company that practiced an extreme form of Agile. We successfully delivered over 280 projects to organisations big and small. We never held a stand-up, we had no scrum masters and we actively avoided working with businesses who adopted SAFe as a means of scaling Agile, because it rarely if ever worked. Andrew Walker and I wrote a book about our experience called Beyond Agile. I urge anyone who believes there needs to be a better way to scale Agile than SAFe to read it. Like you, I encourage any critical examination of our approach.

It’s early days in the life of Microsoft’s new comms platform — Viva. It was announced on 4th February. Pre-release announcements from software vendors are a bit like royal succession: Prince George will one day be King, he’s born into the right family, a natural successor to his dad Prince William, but he’s only seven. It could be a while before he’s actually a King.

Software announcements are often rushed out in response to a competitive threat or perceived gap in a product portfolio. Some say the reason why these announcements happen is to prevent customers from looking elsewhere for…

This is my present to you. A compilation of 10 articles I wrote this year, inspired by news events, topics, books and people. Something for everyone here I hope. Wishing you and all those dear to you a peaceful and joyful holiday season.

Simply click on the title of each article.

1. The Business Case For Climate Change. A look at the influence Larry Fink is having on the investment community as he prioritises saving the planet.

2. Offshore Call Centres Catch The COVID-19 Fever. How the pandemic began to reshare the call centre industry.

I Googled ‘Agile’ and discovered my worst fears. Confusion and mis-information about Agile software development, how it works and how to make it effective as a method of digital solution delivery.

Following on from the short, rather poorly animated video, let me share a slightly more concise and coherent insight on how Agile should work and how it’s possible to make it a means of delivering exceptional outcomes. Spoiler alert: it’s probably not what you expect or want to hear, but please know I’m here to support you if you feel in the slightest bit unsure about what to do next.

The methods used to build solutions with software haven’t changed significantly for 30 years. And even though we’ve lived in the The Age of Agile for almost 20 of those years, the time it takes to deliver solutions, not to mention quality and efficacy, are still falling short of expectations.

Beyond Agile, examined why software development failed to meet the lofty aspirations of the Agile Manifesto founders. The book also explained how to avoid some of the classic mistakes of Agile software development.

A talk given by one of the creators of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, Dave Thomas…

It’s almost two years since the Hayne Royal Commission’s report into the banking sector’s misdemeanours was published. The 70+ recommendations provided plenty of opportunities for Neobanks to tempt the customer to make a move to a new provider. But how much has changed since then? Has COVID hindered or helped? History suggests it might take more than a massive slap on the wrist and a pandemic for the traditional banks to be worried.

In the UK in the late 80’s the then Midland Bank (now part of HSBC) launched a telephone bank — First Direct. Backed by a colossal advertising budget, striking monochrome branding and innovative approach to customer service, founders Peter Simpson and Mike Harris took the market by storm, reaching 500,000 customers in less than 20 months and 30 years on service 1.3m customers via a web app and phone. Many have tried to emulate the First Direct formula, few have got close. First Direct has consistently topped the table for customer service in the industry and it is their world-class…

Payment Platforms are often referred to as the rails on which commerce transacts. It’s an interesting analogy, given the gauge of rails used today on most of the world’s train tracks were established by the Romans over 2,000 years ago, and has not changed significantly since in most parts of the world. Payments Platforms haven’t been around for the equivalent of seconds, but we have multiple incarnations, and none entirely seems to meet customer needs.

Technology can be tricky bedfellow. Take payment platforms for example. Before ‘digital’ was even a twinkle in John Vincent Atanasoff’s eye, banks were using multiple…

by Paul Scott, Director and Board Advisor at Digital Village

The fall out from COVID-19 has yet to be fully understood, but one thing’s for sure; enterprises will be seeking fast, efficient and flexible ways to solve their problems with digital solutions. Projects have been backing up during the lockdown and now’s the time to begin clearing the backlog. It’s likely to lead to an uptick in demand for skilled resources, but will they be able to deliver fast enough and to quality?

The announcement this week of the budget blow out at the Australian Digital Transformation Agency’s son-of-Mygov project…