Case study: BDO Stoy Hayward LLP

Rebuilding a knowledge community

Mark Tilbury provides insight into the 12-stage rebuild of BDO Stoy Hayward’s intranet, highlighting the importance of sponsorship and engagement throughout the project.

BDO Stoy Hayward LLP is the award-winning UK member firm of BDO International, the world’s fifth largest accountancy network, with more than 1,000 offices in over 100 countries. Its intranet – Insite – is used to unite communities, give users access to expertise, prevent ‘reinventing the wheel’, share technical developments, enable compliance and improve client service.

About Insite
Insite is built around knowledge-sharing communities, enabling members to engage in forums, document sharing, events and blogs. Like many other intranets it is also used as a hub for applications and structured content, client and commercial areas, people, process, procedures and communications.
The intranet attracts 20,000 visits per week, with over 100,000 pages viewed, and has 60 content/knowledge managers and 300 publishers. It prides itself on being task-driven and user centric. In 2007, it was joint winner of the Intranet Benchmarking Forums Usability Award.

Rebuilding a community
The largest of the BDO Stoy Hayward’s service communities – comprised of more than 900 professional staff – was in need of a revamp. The site did little more than enable visitors to pick up technical documents from a library area. It was heavily used but unloved. There was little engagement from the community and little appetite for the work involved in turning the focus of the site from a library to a knowledge community.
One of the plus points was that the community had a core technical publishing team, a clear structure and clear reporting lines throughout the community. A major benefit was that the community executive had influence within the firm. Buy-in from the community executive would mean that resources and commitment from other areas of the firm could be achieved.

The approach
The Insite team mapped out an approach that was dependant on acquiring appropriate levels of sponsorship to achieve buy-in from the firm, plus constant engagement from the community to promote ownership within the community. In terms of sponsorship, we had three levels to reach. First, we had to obtain commitment from the community publishing team to appoint a project manager. Next, they would assist in selecting a potential partner to become a project partner for the revamp. And finally, the project partner would lobby for (and gain) approval from the community executive to sponsor the project. Such sponsorship would provide a sufficiently strong mandate to secure the resources required.
In terms of engagement, the case for development and the ongoing building of the site, we would seek constant feedback and approval from various elements of the community, using the strength of the structure that was already in place.

Step one: Finding a project manager
The Insite team set up conversations with the established key users of the site. Snapshots of these conversations were then presented to the publishing team in the form of soundbytes and slogans. This was a timely approach as there was an increased awareness throughout the community, along with an understanding of the need to grow communications and unite the community members through more than just the tasks they were required to perform.
The requirement for a redesign was supported and one of the publishing team was appointed to lead the project, which opened doors to an increased number of community members. The pitch to senior sponsors would be that the revamped intranet site would support users who needed to retrieve information to achieve their online aims, saving both user time and resource – key aspects that the community had been trying to achieve.
It was agreed that the publishing team would make contact with the various sponsors within the community to gain approval for the work. It was important that this request came from within the community to ensure maximum support.

Step two: Finding a project partner
The next step was to gain support at partner level. This would enable access to the community executive. It was determined that further evidence was required so some additional gathering of information began. By assessing key users from the publishing team’s inner circle, further conversations enabled the creation of personas and stories from the community. A total of four personas were created to represent the spread of community members (see Box 1).
A number of stories were built around the needs of the personas and how the current site failed to meet any of these. The next step was to find an appropriate partner with sufficient influence, and who sat on the community executive. Three key elements were used to determine a selection: personal brand, trust and expertise. Using factors such as contributions to the community, user engagement, connections and track record, an appropriate partner was earmarked to receive the presentation. This presentation to the project partner involved a walk-through of the personas and how the site failed to meet their needs, plus a slogan wall appealing to factors that mattered to the partner.

Step three: Approval from community executive
Having a project partner onboard gave us access to their business unit. Further interviews were conducted with a wider audience to paint a picture of issues within the community. This research was pulled together to create a business case for the project partner to present to the community executive. Again, this was a timely approach as the community had been discussing the need to enhance communications and knowledge sharing. Sponsorship of the project was agreed and a partner-level sponsor, who reported directly to the community executive, was appointed. This would increase the visibility of the project and ensure contributions from within the community.

Step four: Creating a core team
Approval from the community executive provided the mandate to form a core team involving the community operations manager, the publishing group and the intranet team. IT would join the core team for the build stage of the project in August, and the community knowledge manager joined the core team in September.

Step five: Kick-off session
An initial ‘kick-off’ session was organised to examine the scope and drivers of the project, plus the reporting lines. This ensured the project had a clear focus on what was to be included, what the goals were and how progress was to be communicated. Outcomes of the kick-off session included:

Key drivers
To enable the site to be focused around:

Community building;
Commercial content;
Engagement/people-centric;
Knowledge sharing;
Internal communications; and,
Better support users retrieving their information needs.

Scope
The project should cover the following areas:

Ease of use;
Indexing;
Navigation;
Prioritisation; and,
Search.

The Insite team would have direct reporting lines to the publishing team and operations manager, and the timescales of the projects were also agreed.

Step six: Stakeholder workshop
Through consultation with key stakeholders, a high level of collaborative research provided the foundation for a design brief.
The Insite team facilitated a stakeholder workshop session, which consisted of the following activities.

Review the current site and other sites – the current homepage and a sample content page were presented on screen and critiqued as an example for this activity. The stakeholder participants were tasked with listing positive points and those areas requiring improvement on the current site, along with aspects that they liked and disliked on other Insite or website areas;
Design and communication brief, keywords and images – exploring potential ideas for design and communication goals;
User identification and goals – we had a clear idea of what the participants wanted to see on the site from the previous activities. Now the focus was on what current and potential users of the website wanted to achieve. There was a group activity that required input from each of the participants relating to their general understanding of the audit and their particular areas of interest. This identified highly targeted knowledge.The Insite team presented a list of user groups and participants were able to include others and work towards a prioritised list as with the other activities. Working from the top-user group down, the user’s goals were suggested, prioritised and listed;
Homepage content – the final task was to focus on what content and goals should be promoted to the homepage in a ‘list of lists’. For this, the previously generated lists were brought back into discussion with the aim of identifying the top-10 items for the homepage, followed by a second 10, and others as long as time permitted;
The Insite team compiled a report on the workshop and presented it for sign-off.

Step seven: Survey the community
User surveys
Through consultation with the site audience, further material was garnered for input into a design brief. Three types of surveys were conducted – one-to-one interviews, telephone interviews and an online questionnaire. In total over 300 members of the stream ‘had a voice’ over the requirements for the site.
The publishing team and operations manager compiled a list of potential interviewees, while the Insite team created a list of questions that would encourage maximum benefit (in terms of adding to the material for the design brief).
The informal interview sessions lasted no longer than 10 minutes and interviewees were asked about their usage of the site (likes, dislikes, and so on), their information/knowledge needs in terms of performing tasks, and their career requirements within BDO and beyond.
The Insite team also created a list of questions for an online survey, which were modified where appropriate by the sponsors. The Insite team created the survey using Surveymonkey. It was agreed that the e-mail containing the survey would be sent to the stream via the sponsor, ensuring maximum impact and priority.

Step eight: Design brief
The results of these surveys were presented to the sponsors in a ‘design brief’, which outlined a governance model, recommended information architecture and provided narrative ‘mock ups’ of suggested pages through wireframes. These described page layouts and illustrated how the navigation would work at different levels of the site. The wireframes documented the proposed layout and navigation for key pages. A selection of key user journeys (scenarios) were used to show paths through the site to key services and content.
Once modifications had been made, and the ‘design brief’ agreed, the build began.
The user feedback was presented at the community partner conference together with mock-ups of the site. Input from the conference was added to the brief and signed off. There was now a document that had input and agreement from community stakeholders, the community itself and all the community partners – this was a powerful mandate for the build to begin without hesitation.
The marketing department provided a list of recommended fonts, colours and illustrations to be signed-off by the sponsors. A strap line was also decided that would feature throughout the site.

Step nine: Build
Once the design brief had been finalised the building work began. This work continued over a 10-week period and included the appointment of a community knowledge manager to drive the development of the site once launched. It was important that this position was well-known and accepted throughout the community. Advice was sought from other communities that had already put a knowledge strategy in place. Areas of focus included:

Agreement of content providers that would maintain their areas of the site;
Content workshops with content providers to ensure the approach, structure and strategy for their areas were consistent with the overall launch strategy;
Sign-off and publishing of content prior to launch; and,
Development of the taxonomies and tagging structure for technical content.

To meet launch timescales the content was uploaded by the Insite team, and training was conducted following the launch.

Step ten: User testing
Once a test site was ready, a selected group of users carried out testing on the site, to ensure that the requirements of the community had been met. It was decided that many of the original interviewees would be asked to provide additional feedback on the new site, too. An e-mail from the sponsor with a link to the site gave testers a week of feedback opportunities. Issues over labelling of technical documents were discussed among the core team, however, overall feedback was positive.

Step eleven: Sign off and launch
The feedback was presented to the sponsors for consideration. Once it had been discussed and any risks mitigated against, the site was signed-off by the sponsor. It was then presented to the community executive, who also signed-off.
At this stage, the communications to be circulated about the launch were organised. These included:

A launch e-mail from the head of community;
Newsletters from the publishing team; and,
A community newsletter after initial launch

Step twelve: Adoption
Since launch, the following processes have been established:

One month and one-year content plans put in place for each area of the site;
A roadshow to introduce the site to all offices;
Training being provided for all the content providers;
Weekly meetings between the community knowledge manager and content providers;
Quarterly site meetings involving the sponsor, knowledge manager, content providers and Insite team;
A feedback survey was run four weeks after the site launched, garnering feedback on time saved and knowledge gained by the stream; and,
Regular meetings with other community knowledge managers are being held.

Box 1: Community member personas

Persona 1: ‘Chester’, partner

Enjoys family, sports/gym, travel, music;
Doesn’t need to use site for communication – these needs are well served by meetings, minutes and reports;
Will search people profiles;
Uses the site mainly as a point of reference to search for technical updates;
Sees site as a pure repository of information that is there for other people;
Lack of understanding or technical prowess (technology shy) about what site is and how to use it, though willingness is there;
Needs to continue to develop knowledge skills; and,
Needs to be up-to-date/informed/have an edge/learn.

Persona 2: ‘Denton’, manager

Enjoys family time, travel, reading;
Most likely to use track record, people profiles and technical areas;
Involved in internal research;
Check staff gainfully employed;
Carry out recruitment interviews, appraisals (electronically), approve absences and expenses;
Portfolio/staff management;
Develop profitable client relationships;
Wants to be respected as a professional and find more time to spend with family; and,
Potential to become a partner.

Persona 3: ‘Baylor’, qualified

Enjoys sports/gym, socialising;
Generally look at RBS boards and practical information, such as the menu or training and HR;
Most likely to browse the site in greater detail and use it as an information-gathering tool;
Uses the training and development area; and,
Seeks tools to progress upwards in firm.

Persona 4: ‘Celina’, secretary

Enjoys cooking, drinking, family and travel;
Uses site to update news and information;
Some room booking;
Also most likely to use core systems, such as RMS, FMS and Performance Centre on behalf of partners;
Uses site for the same tools everyday – expenses, facilities booking, track records, people profiles, health and safety, flexcel; and,
Seeking flexibility and work/life balance.

Key steps

There were four key features that helped push through this development while avoiding any roadblocks:

Working with a community with a defined structure;
Achieving sponsorship at all levels of the community;
Selecting the right people; and,
Clear reporting lines.

Mark Tilbury is online manager at BDO Stoy Hayward. He can be contacted at mark.tilbury@bdo.co.uk