Window to the world
B,
Communications
Visited http://meetingpoint.rabobank.com lately? If not, you're missing
out on a major breakthrough in the way we're working our lines of
communication and information. RI's very own Intranet, Meeting Point,
has been making major waves with its online communication since the
site's launch on 1 March. Offering management news, new appoint-
ments, upcoming events, F&A review, FAR
Industry Notes, Rabo-related press clippings and
interesting deals/transactions, Meeting Point is
changing the way we interface with the organi-
zation around us.
Signal response
Integrated solutions
For the people
Into digital
What sNewS Issue 2 'March 2001 J
y now, you've probably seen informa-
mon communicated in all shapes and
forms - via Public Folders, e-mail, What's
NewS, NewS Flashes. And while one
might tbink launching a web-based news
site is simply a matter of 'keeping up with
the times', Meeting Point in fact serves a
deeper purpose. It's satisfying what
Mirjam Diepenbrock, marketing manager,
and Michel I lotman, manager of Internet
technologies within IT infrastructure, have
perceived as a distinct 'cry trom the organ-
ization'.
'The release of Meet
ing Point is simply a
response to what we
saw happening in the
network,' explains
Diepenbrock. 'The
way information was
being distrihuted was
too dispersed and
chaotic. With no cen
tral point to go, com
munication wasn't as
consistent or accessi-
ble as it should be.
People didn't know
where to find info,
they didn't know
how to communicate
their own news. So they started estahlish
ing their own means of communication.'
Individual solutions began to spring up
Keeping the network up-to-date: Marketing's
Marjolijn Benneker (left) and Mirjam Diepenbrock
Network expert: Michel Hofman
around the net
work, ulti-
mately creating
a kind of 'in
formation dis
order'. News was duplicated, sometimes
inconsistent, and, worst of all, not effec-
tively shared across the network. This
gave birth to the Meeting Point concept.
Working with Meeting
Point is very much like surf
ing the Internet. The only
difference is, rather than
surfing the worldwide web,
you're surfing an internal
web, a so-called Intranet.
'Meeting Point is part of an
evolution that began with e-
rnail and Public Folders,'
says Michel Hofman. For
three years, he has worked
on numerous projects to fa-
cilitate knowledge-sharing
across RI. 'With the number
of Intranet sites growing, a
labyrinth of information
sources and differing tech-
nical platforms was created.
People were getting lost in
the maze, unsure of where
to go for what. Not to rnen-
tion the time and costs involved in updat
ing the contents and managing the tech-
nology. What our goal has been with
Meeting Point is to provide an umbrella
for the various Intranet sites - both from
an information and a technical perspective
- allowing what's already out there to be
leveraged. Creating this integrated plat
form of knowledge-sharing and exploiting
its contents and enahling technologies is
key to the site's stability and success.'
And to achieve this
integration, Hofman
and Diepenbrock
stress the impor-
tance of cooperation
from within the or-
ganization. In order
to help Meeting
Point carry out its
role - as the central
news source for RI -
input and feedback
are needed from
everyone in the net
work. 'To really un-
derstand our organization, we need to see
information coming from every office,'
says Diepenbrock. 'Everyone should feel
responsible for communicating news to
their colleagues around the world. By sim
ply sending a mail to the "global webmas-
ter" - the person who manages the input -
they can let their message he known. If it's
of global interest, they can be sure it will
he shared ar the Meeting Point. What this
is really ahout is creating a news site for
RI's people - and that has to corne from
the bottom up.' The flip side of this coin is
that it's up to you to check the site to stay
informed and updated. But that has its ad-
vantages too - after all, you choose when,
and what you want to know, rather than
filtering through a load of e-mails. And
with Meeting Point's attractive 'look and
feel', the experience is sure to he a pleas-
ant one.
Meeting Point is just the first step in what
is likely to be an extended journey into the
electronic universe. What is today a news
source will hopefully become the entry
point to a vast set of RI resources. In fu
ture phases, all business, support and FIR
resources will be linked to the site, as will
sites like the local Intranets.
