Comments on: Are intranet teams feeling the pinch?

By: J. Boye » Blog Archive » How to cut your intranet budget?

J. Boye » Blog Archive » How to cut your intranet budget? — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:15:26 +0000

[...] Intranet Benchmarking Forum (IBF) has already commented on the recession-proof intranet, while James Robertson in Australia recently asked whether intranet teams are feeling the pinch? [...]

By: James Robertson

James Robertson — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:20:00 +0000

Hi Roger, great story, exactly what we want to hear! This our consistent message: if we can demonstrate business value then the business will support us…

By: Tolana

Tolana — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:15:54 +0000

I DID feel the pinch. I was the main Intranet person in the Communications dept. for a North American-wide company. The problem was not that the team needed downsizing (it was still very lean considering the size of the organization), but the IT folks decided that the new continental intranet we wanted to build was not mission critical and so tabled the project for the coming year to reduce capex. Since that was about 45% of my job, when headquarters wanted to reduce headcount, I was the obvious choice in our group. The Communications people knew the importance of the intranet, and we were lucky to have a boss (Marketing Veep) who knew it as well. IT, however, exists in their own world, and generally act outside of concerns from the rest of the group (unless there’s a CEO name attached).

P.S. One month later, I’m still have no day job.

By: Roger Strouse

Roger Strouse — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:59:10 +0000

Your pick list omits the (unthinkable?) possibility that some intranet teams are, in fact, not getting pinched. I’m working with two large enterprise intranet/portal teams that are growing despite budget cuts going on in their larger organizations. Why? They’ve gained the faith of management at a high level. It’s all about having an influential advocate and delivering a solution whose value is patently apparent. I’m not oblivious enough to suggest this is the general trend; I just want to inject some positive energy into this discussion — some teams are, in fact, bucking economics.

By: David Hamill

David Hamill — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:36:40 +0000

Intranet teams who are part of larger communications teams might feel the pinch. But I think this might come as job losses rather than the withdrawal of budget (they often have little of budget anyway).

Communications teams in large organisations tend to grow if not checked and need to be trimmed every so often. I think a few will be getting trimmed soon.

By: Giacomo Mason

Giacomo Mason — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:44:34 +0000

In my own experience, the third answer is the most coorect (sigh!)