Looking through the portal: Philippe Borremans, IBM's PR manager for Belgium and Luxembourg and new media lead for Europe, reveals how the company's intranet has enhanced employee communication worldwide.

Internal communication and intranets are not what they used to be. As new media tools create new ways of communicating in the world at large, they are redefining the boundaries that used to separate internal from external communication.

Recently, Philip Weiss, managing director of ZN, a European e-marketing agency, spoke with Philippe Borremans, IBM's PR manager for Belgium and Luxembourg and new media lead for Europe, about how that company has been responding to the challenge of what might be described as "Internal Communication 2.0."

Philip Weiss: How would you describe the impact of an intranet on internal communication at a company like IBM?

Philippe Borremans: It has really helped IBM become what it is today--a global, integrated company. We've superseded the concept of the multinational-meaning replicas of the headquarters across the globe--to become a single worldwide organization. The function of internal communication has changed from simply writing the newsletter to being a strategic player in managing change through the Web. At IBM, all official communication is done on the Web through the W3 intranet portal. It features global messaging, local information, employee-specific information and self-servicing options such as digital pay slips and other HR-related functions. More and more it will become our one-stop shop for all work and HR-related activities. Already the information employees receive on their portal page is tailored to each individual's function, location, team and relation to IBM. The next step is the integration of e-mail, calendar and collaboration tools with the employee blogs, wilds, podcasts and videocasts that have already been integrated into W3.

PW: How would you define an intranet, and is it still a relevant concept?

PB: I would define an intranet as an online presence secured behind the company's firewall. It is still relevant, but not as the one-way, top-down communication tool it used to be. Today an intranet can be a place to collaborate, engage in two-way communication and manage change. It is also a much broader concept than just a web page with text and pictures. Internal communication should take into account the new media mentioned above, plus other tools like enterprise chat, interactive screensavers and VOIP [voice over Internet protocol] telephony.

PW: How easy is it to differentiate between internal and external audiences with intranet systems?

PB: It is perfectly possible today to have an online presence that allows both internal and external audiences to collaborate on the Web. Developments in sign-in procedures and authentication make it possible for the system to know if you have access to this or that information, know if you are an external person or an employee, and automatically determine what information you can access depending on your profile.

PW: How should communicators approach intranets and online internal communication in a Web 2.0 environment?

PB: All these so-called new media have two things in common: They are simple to use, and they ask for participation from the user. For communicators this can be both a challenge and an opportunity. It can be a challenge because today most professional communicators on a senior level are still from what I call the "command-and-control" school. They still believe that well-designed key messages shouted from the top of the organization will do the thing. Well, employees may hear the shouts, but if they do they will definitely comment on them on their external blog if those messages are totally unbelievable and nontransparent.

That is exactly where the opportunity is for communicators who understand that internal communication today works both ways. IBM's blogging guidelines were not written by the top of the organization in close cooperation with the legal department. They were first edited by internal bloggers, commented on by employees and only then reviewed by the powers that be. Result: Our internal blogging guidelines are in sync with the blogosphere and with IBM's legal requirements. They are respected by our employees because our employees wrote them.

PW: Can you distinguish between static knowledge-sharing/administrative intranets and soft internal communities?

PB: Self-service intranets combined with a good number of knowledge management tools are at the core of many companies with a globally distributed workforce. Benefits from self-service can be quantified in cost reductions, while benefits from better knowledge management can be looked at from a time-saving and productivity angle. Both have been quantified at IBM, and in the case of our W3 intranet portal, we saw a productivity gain of one to two hours per month--multiplied by 320,000 employees--plus a US$280 million annual savings in education costs and a US$8 million annual savings in travel and meeting costs.

PW: Is a company a network or a community?

PB: IBM strongly believes in the "networked organization," and due to our flattened company structure, we tend to work in "communities," or fields of expertise, not in defined functions. The global new media team, for instance, is made up of internal communication experts, media relations experts, bloggers, podcasters and a programmer.

PW: What tools does IBM use for internal communication?

PB: We make a distinction between official internal communication, which happens through the W3 portal to all employees worldwide via targeted e-mail, executive podcasts and videocasts, and employee-generated communication, which is based on blogs and wikis. Next to that you also have typical collaboration tools such as enterprise-wide chat, Lotus Notes, e-mail and closed-database "team rooms." It is not so much a question of what tool is the best; it is more a question of the objective of each team. Wikis are great for sharing and collaboratively editing content but do not get an executive message across. Podcasts and videocasts, on the other hand, are tools we see increasing in importance when it comes to executive communication. In the case of IBM, I think we'll keep on offering many tools that can be used for every possible form of communication. I can see all these tools being integrated into a single portal--W4, so to say.

PW: How effective are Web 2.0 tools--blogs, wikis, podcasts and so forth--for internal communication?

PB: Blogs are great for individuals and small teams to communicate their thoughts, plans and ideas to a larger audience, while wikis have a bigger focus on collaboration. With wikis, we see that e-mail traffic among the team goes down by 20 to 30 percent. In the case of podcasts, we hear that employees love the fact that they can control when and where they can listen to them. But again, the use of new media is not about the tools. The company culture has to be ready for this kind of interaction, and employees need to be made aware of these new concepts. It is definitely not "if we build it they will come."

PW: What have you learned about internal communication from your nine years of PR and new media experience at IBM-especially in your current position? What would your advice be for communicators in other corporations?

PB: I've learned that even at IBM you need to take employees by the hand when it comes to online tools. We spend a lot of time giving information sessions across the organization where we explain why we think blogs and wikis are important. These change projects work best when you involve employees from the start.

Try to understand that we're living in a copy-and-paste world, where the boundaries between internal and external communication are blurring. Accept the fact that employees have the same power today as business communicators through the use of free blogs that can attract a lot of attention. Never forget it is about company culture and not about tools.

Philip Weiss is managing director of ZN, a leading European e-marketing company based in Brussels, Belgium.