Communicating corporate, branding and news messages should be straightforward given the plethora of PC’s and network media cluttering the modern office. Yet it's the very multiplicity of communication methods that often drowns out important internal communications messages. Adding more communications technology, therefore, might seem perverse and even muddleheaded, yet the reverse is true. Multimedia messaging technology, used in the correct way, is significantly enhancing corporate communications and business performance as many companies are now finding.

Communication is all a question of perception. If a method of communication is associated with being a hindrance to work then it's hardly surprising that using it as a means to motivate, educate and inform employees may not be as successful as you'd hope. Of course there are alternatives to e-mail; posters and team briefings can be effective. However posters need managing – how often have you seen posters left on noticeboards well past their 'sell-buy' date? Team briefings need to be held regularly to be effective – weekly ideally but even here there are limitations. Staff who are absent will miss the briefing and may not have an opportunity to catch up on what was said. Information distributed at the briefing may need reinforcement through other means such as documents or e-mails, and may require employees locating and downloading information from designated intranet and web sites. In all cases there is lots of scope for information and vital messages to be lost or not found.

The attraction of multimedia messaging lies in the way it offers companies an effective means of cutting through the 'noise' of everyday office communications. It uses plasma or LCD screens to deliver messages in a range of digital formats: text, movie, graphic images, for example, that are designed to educate, inform and motivate.

If you're thinking that the idea of using large plasma / LCD screens to communicate with employees isn't new - you'd be right. Many companies have used screens as an aid to improving employee communications but often without thinking it through. What seemed like a great idea at the time can often fail due to a lack of commitment beyond the initial enthusiasm. Screen content rapidly goes out of date, fails to interest staff and may even be seen as a source of irritation completely undermining the intention of deploying the screens. A sure sign of project failure is when the screens are turned off in the evening and left off.

It doesn't have to be this way, of course. The first question to ask is – do we need multimedia communications? A good starting point is to ask what are you trying to achieve. Perhaps it's appropriate at this point to look at the multimedia technology now available to companies. Gone are the days when all you could do is show the same presentation on all screens or simply play a news channel. Today's multimedia messaging systems allow screen content to be customised to meet the needs of different business teams in various locations such as reception desks, for example each floor of a building may have different content running simultaneously and within the same floor different content for specific business teams. It allows the capture of real-time information that doesn't need to be pre-formatted before distribution. Scheduling is used to enable information to be distributed at specific times. In some cases you might have a 'global message' you want everyone to see – this too can be included in the schedule.

As must be clear by now, multimedia messaging creates a far more dynamic internal communications than other means of communication. Therefore it lends itself to a far wider range of situations that was possible just two years ago, as the following examples show.

Ernst and Young – national communications

At Ernst & Young, one of the world’s leading professional services firms, has used Connectvision multimedia messaging to deliver its 'OnScreen' national multimedia messaging network to include its London offices, and Birmingham and Reading offices, reaching over 6,000 employees across the country.

'OnScreen uses a mix of video and flash multimedia distributed to around 100 plasma screens throughout the company's offices. The software allows schedules to be developed delivering everything from simple text messages such as timesheet reminders on Thursdays, printed and broadcast media successes, people focused initiatives and sponsorship activities. Schedules and content can also be created by communications professionals within each business unit for delivering messages to specific audiences both locally and nationally. Information can be zoned enabling the content to be customised to a single screen, cluster of screens and all screens across the business if required.

“We set out with the intention of using 'OnScreen' to give employees a sense of being part of the new London headquarters but also preserving their business identity – this has worked well. An unforeseen benefit however has been the way in which timesheets have been completed more promptly allowing us to invoice earlier,” said the Internal Communications Manager, Ernst & Young.

Each office shows local content and information distributed nationally. 'OnScreen' is zoned to simultaneously show a combination of national and local messages on the plasma screens. “Connectvision has enhanced our internal communications and provides us with a valuable channel to help integrate our communications. The ease with which we can tailor and distribute content to different audiences helps us to keep a wider group of our people up to date with the latest Ernst & Young news in an innovative and timely way,” he noted.

BT Exact – news ways of working

BT’s research technology and IT operations business is using real-time multimedia, messaging for employee communications and news channels services at 13 main BT Exact sites across the UK. The company relies increasingly on web-based services, intranet and blogs to share information across its business teams. Connectvision allows BT Exact to use a mix of pre-formatted media as well as real-time information sources to replicate the flexibility of their Web 2.0 based desktop communications on plasma screens.

BT was using a fairly static messaging system for plasma screens running Flash and Powerpoint but this wasn’t up to the job of presenting multiple information sources through a single multimedia delivery channel. “We wanted to develop media channels that give people real-time access to news and information they didn't have before and reflects the way they work. Connectvision gives us this flexibility,” commented the internal communications manager, BT Exact.

Direct Line – focussing on the key points

A highly motivated and knowledgeable call centre workforce is essential to achieving high levels of customer satisfaction and maintaining business growth. Multimedia messaging is being used by Direct Line, the UK's leading insurance company, to highlight and reinforce the key points raised in team briefings, e-mails and paper reports. This includes regulatory information, business related product changes, company and local news. The Connectvision software enables Direct Line to route and schedule different messages to different floors and departments within the call centre via strategically located LCD screens positioned such that they can be easily read by the building's 1,000 employees from their desks.

Each department is able to author messages within branded templates. Designed specifically for the busy call centre environment, Connectvision messages can be distributed in a wide range of formats including Flash, PowerPoint, movie MPEG and Live TV.

“Connectvision has an important role in making our employee communications as effective as possible. With Saturn’s assistance we’ve produced templates that present information in a manner that is both interesting and readily assimilated. It allows staff to get the information they need immediately without the disruption of unscheduled meetings,” says the programme manager, Customer Contact Projects Dept, Direct Line.

Getting employees involved

What are the lessons we can draw from these examples of multimedia messaging?

The best multimedia messaging deployments have clear objectives that can be readily assessed in staff surveys. Companies who take a segmented approach targeting specific business teams get better results. Involving employees is important. At the very least you need feedback from employees on the screen content and any ideas they might have to make the content more relevant. Relevance is important. Employees want to be enabled to do their job better.

By integrating Connectvision within the communications of business groups the content becomes highly relevant and easier to be customised. In practice the content will be a mix of corporate / local office and business team specific. Capitalising on the power of multimedia messaging to enable employees to be more productive relies on a balance of content consistency that's geared to reinforcing key messages and running educational campaigns such as Ernst & Young's 10 Commandments of Risk Management, and topical content. Experience shows that establishing a team of correspondents can help in generating business and human-interest content, especially where multiple sites are involved. each contribute to the messaging.

So what are the steps you need to go through to make multimedia messaging part of your internal communications?

- Know what you are trying to achieve – in Direct Line's case keep employee knowledge up-to-date

- Know the measures you are using to judge the effectiveness of the communication – for example, improved customer service

- Manage the communications – use scheduling facility to plan screen content and campaigns

- Get people involved – set up correspondents within business teams

- Shared ownership – use contributions from correspondents

- Be creative – one idea is to encourage employees to take photos of important business events

- Regularly audit – build multimedia messaging within a regular employee communications