Column Two

There are often situations where there is a difference of opinion between the central intranet team, and the decentralised authors, owners or stakeholders. Depending on the team, there may be situations where they aren't confident of tackling the issues, or winning over the decentralised groups. To help build team confidence, and to ...

The earlier article Three fundamental purposes of an intranet identified that there are three main aspects that must be addressed for an intranet to be successful: content communication activity Content refers to the traditional role of the intranet as a repository of corporate information, while the intranet can also be an effective communications channel, ...

The concept of innovation, and the advantages it can deliver, have come to the forefront in many organisations. With organisations as recognising that market opportunities can be generated through business innovation, it is natural to ask whether the intranets that serve these organisations can themselves be innovative. In many ways, it ...

Every organisation has a unique mix of culture, business processes, history, technology and strategic directions (to name but a few factors). When it comes to intranets, it can then be said that they hold up a mirror to the organisation. To put it another way: the most successful intranets ...

Many intranet teams see themselves as battling resistance to change when attempting to grow the intranet or deliver new functionality. The challenge is perceived as overcoming these barriers to a successful intranet. In practice, though, the real enemy of intranets is apathy. While at some level the organisation (and staff) recognise ...

Intranet teams need to be clear on where they are heading, and what they will deliver. Typically, this involves writing either a bullet-point list of goals or a 20-page intranet strategy. In practice, the list of goals is too short (and too abstract), while the intranet strategy documents are often wordy ...

A very simple but very effective improvement to the intranet is to ensure that all staff login to the site in order to use it. This allows a number of immediate benefits to be offered, as well as providing a foundation for future enhancements. That this is worth mentioning is an ...

Improving the effectiveness of internal communications is often one of the key goals underpinning corporate intranets. In practice, this is often reflected in 'latest news' section on the home page of most intranets. While news on the home page is certainly widespread, the question needs to be asked: how effective ...

Intranet discussion forums are an often used mechanism within organisations. While they are implemented using a variety of tools and technologies, they all serve the same basic purpose of supporting communication and discussion. In practice, however, many discussion forums fail to prosper, with few (if any) posts being made ...

Innovative Trusted Productive Useful Pervasive Usable Essential Collaborative Coherent Strategic [CM Briefing 2006-08, read the full article]

While intranets often have someone appointed as the intranet 'manager', do they spend their time actually managing the site, or publishing pages? Observing many organisations and intranets, one of the critical success factors is to have an intranet manager who is free to focus solely on the management of the site. ...

Intranets serve a diverse range of users in organisations, from staff in head office to those in regional offices, or on the front line. These users are not all the same, and do not have the same needs, issues or environment. A key principle for intranet teams is therefore: ...

The second CM Briefing for March looks at how to create an upwards spiral for your intranet. To quote: Many intranets are trapped in a 'downwards spiral': process and resources issues lead to poor-quality content, which reduces trust, which leads to more problems, and so on. If intranets (and intranet teams) ...

My KM Column article for March explores online staff directories, presenting the results of a survey conducted last year, along with the key findings from additional research. The list of key findings: Include more than just phone numbers Provide an effective quick search Deliver a dynamic organisational chart Provide self-service capability Usability test the ...

My CM Briefing for this month discusses who should own the intranet. To quote: One of the first challenges when establishing an intranet is to determine who should have overall ownership of the site, and where the intranet team should be located. While the responsibility for driving the intranet must ...

The first of the two CM Briefings this month is on choosing your information delivery channels. To quote: While the intranet is rightly positioned as the key delivery channel for information within most organisations, it must also be recognised that not all staff will be reached using solely the intranet. In ...

My second CM Briefing for August is on establishing an intranet community of practice. To quote: Many intranet teams have struggled with the role of 'gatekeeper', setting standards and attempting to enforce them on the intranet authors and publishers. An alternative approach involves establishing a 'community of practice' that involves ...

The first of my two CM Briefings answers the question: have we seen the perfect intranet? To quote: We have been lucky enough to see quite a few intranets across a diverse range of intranets, in both the public and private sectors. Knowing this, we are often asked the question: so ...