Concordia to launch first phase of private site for faculty and staff

Concordia’s faculty and staff will soon have access to a private site that will house important information that is exclusively for their use.

“For many years, faculty and staff members have had to access internal information and documentation from across hundreds of Concordia.ca public websites whose primary audiences are really not faculty and staff,” says Lucy Niro, director of Web Communications.

“After consulting with the community, we confirmed the need to build an intranet, a single shared space that not only makes it conducive to finding information and people quickly but that actually helps us do our jobs better,” says Niro. “This information includes processes, forms, policies, templates, reports, guidelines and other types of documentation.”

On August 5, the launch of the intranet will coincide with the go-live of the new Concordia.ca public website. Both websites are the result of the Web Content Management System (WCMS) project that kicked off in 2012. The project is aimed at enhancing Concordia’s entire digital communications presence by consolidating hundreds of academic and administrative websites onto a WCMS called Adobe CQ.

Lucian Turcescu, chair and professor in the Department of Theological Studies, says he’s looking forward to moving to a WCMS that’s easy to learn and use.
 
“The current system is not really serving my needs. I’m using software that is a few years old, that might be appreciated by an expert but it is not user-friendly. For a minor change like a typo, I am spending as much as half an hour,” says Turcescu. “I would like to see it implemented as quickly as possible,” he says of the WCMS.

When the project wraps up in May 2014, content that currently resides on all Concordia.ca public sites will be distributed across the revamped Concordia.ca public site and the intranet.

“An intranet is the lifeblood of any organization because it contains valuable information for employees, as well as opportunities to connect, exchange knowledge with colleagues and engage with communities of practice and interest,” explains Niro.

The first iteration of the intranet will be live this summer and will include information about human resources, budget, expenses and finance, and other services.

It will also include news, events (especially a learning and development calendar), resources for researchers, links to discounts and special offers, and a directory search for people and departments.

“While the first iteration will not contain content from all academic and administrative areas because it will take some time to move to migrate all this information to Adobe CQ, I feel we’ve established the building blocks toward a one-stop shop for internal communications,” says Niro.

Features and functionality that are planned for subsequent phases include:

• Faculty and staff role-based pages: Information, services, resources and documentation tailored to these specific audiences.
• Communities: Units, as well as groups of interest, thought or practice, can join online communities to discuss topics that are relevant to them.

Sarah Cundiff, marketing and business development advisor for the Institute for Co-operative Education, describes the intranet as a “primary tool for collaborating with colleagues and keeping pace with everything that’s going on.”

“It’s great that we’re moving towards an intranet at Concordia, especially since the university encompasses two campuses and four faculties,” says Cundiff. “Co-op works closely with all four faculties on both campuses, and we need to be able to learn more about what faculty members are doing. I’m looking forward to having a web-based tool where faculty and staff can work together and get to know each other.”

How to vote for the name of the intranet
In keeping with the spirit of collaboration, the internal community is being called upon to vote on the name of the intranet, says Chief Communications Officer Philippe Beauregard.

“I’m really excited about the direction we’re going in,” says Beauregard. “So it’s really up to the community that helped us build the intranet to choose a name for it. That’s why I urge faculty and staff members to vote in the poll.”

For more information to vote for the name of the intranet, visit WCMS project website within the MyConcordia portal — using Internet Explorer or Firefox — and log in with your netname and password.

Related link:
•    WCMS project