Intranet Benchmarking Forum

The Intranet Benchmarking Forum (IBF) is a confidential, members-only intranet and portal benchmarking group of 70-plus leading organisations from around the world. Members include the BBC, BP, BT, Citi, Deloitte, the Department for Work and Pensions, Deutsche Telekom, ExxonMobil, Kellogg’s, Nokia, Pfizer and Unilever.
Founded in 2002 by Paul Miller, IBF is acknowledged to have established the industry standards for intranet and portal performance.
IBF services
Members of IBF benefit from:
* thorough, independent evaluation and benchmarking across all key areas of intranet performance
* opportunities for cross-member interaction and learning through all-day member meetings, visits to fellow members, webinars and special interest groups, as well as through IBF’s secure extranet
* a wide-ranging programme of research into best practice in intranet strategy and management.
Benchmarking methodology
IBF's team of experts evaluate each member’s intranet or portal against the IBF model of good practice, compare its performance with those of fellow members, and highlight critical areas for improvement.
The IBF benchmarking model covers four areas, or quadrants:
* Design & Usability: How well designed and usable is the intranet?
* Strategy & Governance: How well does the organisation lead and manage its intranet?
* Metrics & Performance: How well does the organisation measure intranet performance and value?
* Communication & Culture: How effective is the intranet as a communication channel and corporate culture builder?
For Design & Usability, IBF carries out an intensive on-site design evaluation, at least one day of usability testing with the organisation’s employees, and an optional user survey. For the other quadrants, a combination of interviews, document analysis and a review of key areas of the intranet is used.
The IBF team
IBF staff have extensive expertise in intranet strategy, organisational communication, knowledge management, usability, social media and user experience. Among its team of expert evaluators, analysts, researchers and facilitators are former intranet managers from the BBC, Boots, JPMorgan Chase, London Underground, T-Mobile and Unilever.
History
Paul Miller established IBF in 2002 to help companies who were trying to get intranets up and running. IBF began as a ‘club’ for intranet managers to meet their peers and share experiences. Soon, Miller had developed an intranet audit methodology that could be applied to each member’s site, and IBF became a community where intranet managers could gauge the effectiveness of their intranets and learn from best practice.
IBF 24 and Intranets Live
In 2008, IBF staged IBF 24 , the world’s first online meeting focused on intranet innovation. With 700-plus participants from 16 countries, it was the largest virtual corporate event ever.
Building on this success, later in the year IBF launched Intranets Live , the world’s first intranet media channel. This two-hour programme, delivered via Microsoft Live Meeting, brings together the world’s intranet community live online every month to take exclusive live tours of the best intranets, hear from leading industry figures and network with their peers worldwide.

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