IM is the abbreviation for Information Management. Any information which is relevant for the client organization is collected (or referenced to), administered, maintained and made accessible to the authorized persons.

Many companies fail in information management. Information is often missing when urgently needed. The iPortal in combination with the support of information managers will guarantee successful information management. Information management replaces single-purpose documents with a holistic and integrated approach, where a unique source of information is accessed through different views.

Watch the video "Why IM?":

Listen to the audio "Why IM?":

Information Management is a method, the iPortal is a tool. The iPortal is a component of IM and is an innovative technical platform for managing content and displaying it in a portal. For more information see: What is Information Management (IM), and what is it good for?

The main goal of IM Projects is to document all relevant information within scope. Traditional documentation processes are replaced with a more powerful information management process for the ongoing maintenance of the captured information.

Watch the video “What is the Business Case for IT Information Management?":

An iPortal is a platform for managing information. This iPortal in particular has two purposes. On the one hand, it is an example for clients. In meetings, the clients can see what their iPortal could look like. On the other hand, it is the production platform for our information managers. They test designs, technologies, compatibilities, and content. Anybody visiting the platform (clients, colleagues, freelancers, technical writers, and anybody else who is interested in the topic) can contribute, improve, discuss, give feedback and comment on the content and features to help iPortal Innovators grow!

The iPortal is neither a corporate facebook, nor a corporate Google or Wikipedia. It is not like Google, because the information is created, located and maintained within the iPortal. Search engines like Google only find information and do not own it.

It is a social network because the users can communicate with each other. The iPortal is most similar to Wikipedia, with two major differences: First, there is only approved information in the iPortal. Second, the information is broken down into information units. That means, information is divided into small groups, which are meaningfully coherent and cannot be sensefully divided any further without becoming incomprehensible. Such a group of information is called an Information Unit and can be reused within the iPortal. There will be no redundancy in the iPortal.

My name is Lii, I Love Intelligent Information and I am here to provide help and hints on how to use the iPortal, and I give summaries of long texts and examples for complex subjects. Moreover, I point out additional content which you may also be interested in. Whenever you see the owl symbol 🦉 hover or click me, and I will give you some additional information.

Here, in the demo iPortal Innovators, the scope is determined by the IM team ‒ and its capabilities and limitations. Our vision is to fill the whole iPortal Innovators with examples and recommendations, so that the client's effort to build an iPortal is really, really small. But as the group of information managers as well is small, it will take some time to get there.

Any specialist can contribute, though! 😊 We also ask people who have never seen the iPortal before to give feedback on the pages. Moreover, we provide logins to potential clients, allowing them to contribute via comments. Thus, they can help to shape the iPortal. Interested experts contributing content help to fill the iPortal step by step, and the comments help us to improve continuously.

In client projects the scope is determined together with the involved stakeholders. See also: Procedure Models.

Contact us. If you want to become the Reviwer, Responsible or Accountable for a unit or page, we will assign it to you. The role of the Information Manager is held exclusively by members of the IM team in this iPortal, since it requires a comprehensive understanding of the iPortals infrastructure and can be time intense.

Accountables ensure that their Responsibles are doing their job correctly. If something is wrong with the unit (false information, poor intelligibility, messy layout, overdue reviews) they are the ones held accountable. So their job is to check and approve the Responsible's work.

Accountables choose Responsibles and Reviewers and set the exact scope for what will be documented. They can recommend and manage comments and are shown at the Maturity Dashboards.

The Accountable should have basic knowledge about the subjects their units are dealing with, a rough overview of the iPortals structure, a more detailed overview of thea area their accountability lays in and should know what the Stakeholders goals are and how they affect the units they are managing. And finally, they should know their Responsibles.

Responsibles create content. They collect information, write the texts for the Information Unit, update units and answer comments dealing with these units. Since this requires sound specialist knowledge, this role is usually taken over by an SME.

Responsibles can recommend and manage comments and collect points for reviews. Being a page's responsible will make you known as an expert in certain fields, since your name is displayed at the page.

A comprehensive understanding of the subject is the most important qualification for a Responsible. They also should be aware of the requirements for content and the definition of an Information Unit, since this is what they are creating. Some basic knowledge of the Style Guide is helpful, but not required.

Reviewers double-check the work of the Responsible. They approve new or changed Information Unit before they are published. In addition, they support the Responsible by reading their unit at least once per review cycle and telling the Responsible what must be changed. This covers layout, structure, content and language. They also support the Responsible with reacting to comments.

They can collect points for doing reviews. Their name is shown on the pages they review, naming them as an expert for the subject the page deals with.

Reviewers needed good understanding for the unit's subject and an open eye for spotting mistakes.

The job of an Information Manager is to make sure that everything is in its place. IMs ensure that formats, filenames and content quality correspond to the guidelines. They are responsible for establishing the versioning system, administering metadata and making the content available. They also help with creating contents other than text, e.g. audios and slideshows, and they manage the whole information management process. That includes deviding the scope into areas and pages, defining and outlining information units together with the responsibles and publishing content.

Besides being able to use the CMS, Information Managers must know about the IM Versioning Scheme, the Classification Scheme, the rules of the Style Guide and the linguistic and content requirements that are placed on Information Units.

Here, in iPortal Innovators, you will find no client information, of course. The information you will find here...

• ...is about Information Management and how a client project could look like.
• ...are placeholders which demonstrate what client information would be there.
• ...are suggestions what information we would recommend in a certain area.
• ...can be drafts and templates which are almost ready to be used by the client.
• ...can also be anonymous client information.

The search field in the upper right corner is a good starting point. In addition, the structure of the iPortal can help. Click through the menue at the left. On the first page of every area, you will find an overview about the topic the area is about. You will quickly figure out what is where. Have a look at the IT Structuring Scheme for an explanation of the structure. If you still cannot find what you are looking for, please contact your Information Manager or IM Program Manager (e.g. by contacting us).

When you click on an area, you will find an short overview of this area on the first page displayed.

Applications

Describing the connections between the IT and its processes on the one hand and business processes and business applications on the other hand

Technical Documentation

Documentation for tools, applications, databases, technical infrastructure and so on

Work Instructions, How-To´s

Collection of all instructions and how-to's

Business Continuity, DR

Risk analysis, plans and tests for business continuity and disaster recovery in case of an emergency

Security

Policies, risk management, data protection and everything else regarding the security

Processes

Overview and description of all processes in the IT including flow diagrams, in- and outputs and responsibilities

Services

Describing different kinds of services as well as the different lifecycle phases of a service according to ITIL; service level definitions and the service catalog are found here

Projects

Overview of all projects in the organization, templates and guidelines on how to run a project and project management documentation are stored here

Organization

Organizational structure, objectives, organizational units, roles and functions

General Information

All kinds of guidelines, policies and standards, supplier contracts and other information relevant for every project and process

Glossary, Definitions

Table of technical terms and abbreviations with definitions and synonyms

Information Unit are small groups of information. They create completely new possibilities. These include, beside maintainability of content, higher quality, easy access management, handling of metadata and more precise analytics.

Listen to the audio for more details:

Ratings and comments can be found on every single page within the right column, showing its quality. Summaries on the maturity of information areas or sections can be found at the Maturity Dashboards.

The avato Classification Scheme is a taxonomy for structuring information. We use it to organize Information Unit. Structuring the information in such a way is of great advantage:

• The volume of documentation drops considerably (by up to 90%), redundancies can be avoided.
• Information becomes clear and reliable.
• Information is maintainable.
• Information can be found quickly.

1. Open your iPortal homepage. For example iPortal Innovators: https://iportal-innovators.avato.net/
2. Click Log In in the right column.
3. Fill in your username or email address and your password.
4. Activate the option Remember me to set a browser cookie. You directly log into your iPortal landing page as long as the credentials are saved in the browser.
5. Click on Log In.

There is a Login Help page in case you face any issues.

1. Open your iPortal homepage. For example iPortal Innovators: https://iportal-innovators.avato.net/
2. Click Register in the right column.
3. Fill in the required information 🦉.
4. Click on Register.
5. Wait for approval by the IM team. Your account will ususally be activated within two days.

1. On the login screen, click Forgot Password?.
2. Enter the mail address you used for creating your account.
3. Click Submit. You will get an email whith a link to a page where you can set a new password.

1. On the login screen, click Forgot Password?.
2. Enter the mail address you used for creating your account.
3. Click Submit. You will get an email whith a link to a page where you can set a new password.

The only settings you can change is whether you want to be included on the lists of recommended Reviewers and Responsibles. This list includes your name and current score. Only Information Managers and Page Accountables can view it. To change the settings, click on the profile icon at the top and select Edit Profil.

If you want to change any other profile information, contact us.

Click the profile icon in the blue top menu. Go to Edit profile. The button for deleting your profile is at the bottom of the page. We will delete your profile within one working day. (But we will be very sad. 🥺)

Gamification is a method to employ elements from gaming to improve user engagement and organizational productivity. In the iPortal we use gamification in form of a user profile award system. You can collect points to reach higher states, which enables additional functions.

There are many ways to collect points in the iPortal:

1. You start as a Consumer. In this state you can read content, rate pages and write and like comments.
2. If you have written a few comments which got liked, you become a Contributor. This allows you to flag comments if they contain wrong information.
3. If the Responsible or Accountable of a page marks some of your comments as high quality, you become a Nominated Reviewer. You are now included on the list of expert users who are known to be skilled enough to become Reviewers. You can refuse to apear on that list and can change your mind about this at any time.
4. Active Reviewers with high rated pages become a Nominated Responsible. You are now included on the list of expert users who are known to be skilled enough to become Responsibles. You can refuse to apear on that list and can change your mind about this at any time.

The icon of your current status is displayed above every comment you write, together with your name. That means every user can see how much valuable input you provided to the iPortal so far.

The easiest way to contribute is leaving comments with questions or suggestions at the pages you visit. If you want to do more and write own information units, contact your IM team or just send a draft to avim@avato.net. A simple MS-Word file (or similar) will do it. Use the style template if you want to make it perfect. (But we are really thankful for all content, no matter what kind of format and layout it is in.)

At the bottom of every page you can find the comment section. Here you can enter comments.

At the moment, only Information Managers can edit or delete comments. Responsibles and Accountables can highlight comments. This function will graphically highlight the comment with a star at the top to underline its relevance to the topic.

At the bottom of every page you can find a comment section where you can ask your questions or leave other feedback. The Responsible will get an email notification if you leave a comment. Otherwise you can contact the Responsible directly. You find their name in the right column of the page (with few exceptions).

You can also rate the content by giving stars. This feature is located at the bottom of the box in the right column of the most pages.

Rating information adds points to your score. In addition, the more users rate information, the better the quality of a page can be estimated. The rating can show you if it is worth reading a page before you start or at least help you to decide. In client environment it is also possible to display the best rated pages on the landing page.

Only Information Managers can create or change pages. You can contribute via comments or via the IM process (see Create for more information).

Only Information Managers can restructure the iPortal areas. You can make suggestions and inform your Information Manager by writing comments or contacting us.

If you find an error you can check at Known Errors if it is already known. If it is not listed there, please leave a comment with a description of the issue at the bottom of the page.

Click the newspaper symbol in the menu bar to view a list of things we are currently working on or have just finished.

In the upper right corner of every page, there is a bookmark-icon. Click it to (un-) subscribe to the page (and its subpages, if you want to). You can choose which kind of changes you will be informed about. The system will send you email notifications.

The latest changes for every page are also listet in its release notes in the right column. The latest major changes are also shown in the news section. Click the newspaper symbol in the menu bar to view them.

In the content section, at the top of the page's metadata column, click the control Download PDF. A PDF export of the page is created and saved in the default download path of your browser. Depending on your browser, the behaviour can be different.

No, only pages can be downloaded.

In the menu bar an the left, there is a button for Downloads under the menu button.