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What drives my passion for intranets

Written by , published March 3rd, 2010

Categorised under: Intranets

I’m very passionate about intranets, and the opportunities they provide. Where does this passion come from?

I’ve spent a lot of time in organisations with staff who do the actual work, particularly in front-line and operational areas. I’ve interviewed countless staff, including nurses, accountants, call centre operators, consultants, engineers, sales people, researchers, council planners and many more.

This type of needs analysis allows you to deeply understand how staff work, their needs and points of pain, their successes and failures. It builds an incredibly rich view of how organisations actually work, and the way that services are delivered.

It generates a real sense of who the “users” really are, and shows the impact that we can have when we do great intranet work. It puts a face to the projects that we do, beyond the abstract, conceptual and strategic.

Most importantly, it highlights the huge gap that exists between the needs of staff, and what corporate solutions deliver. Time and time again I’ve seen staff struggle to do their jobs because they don’t have the tools or information they need. They can’t find what they want, and are baffled and confused by the IT systems.

We have to close this gap.

Organisations can’t function efficiently if staff are struggling in this way. We also have an obligation to help staff do their jobs.

This doesn’t need to be hard. There are often simple changes that can be made to dramatically assist operational staff. By designing and delivering usable solutions, much of the pain can be removed.

So I see our role as an advocate for staff, bridging the divide and helping intranet teams deliver solutions that delight and amaze.

This is the source of my passion for intranets, and what I return to when looking for answers to intranet challenges. This passion underpins everything that we do at Step Two, and is why we continue to spend more time with staff than any other activity.

What drives your passion for intranets?

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One Comment:

  1. Jane McConnell commented on March 4th, 2010

    Totally agree, James. As we discussed a few minutes ago here in Copenhagen, the gap is huge.

    I saw this firsthand recently when I visited a local office, far from HQ office and listened to them tell me how they simply did not need the intranet to do their work. Ironically, the person I talked to primarily was the intranet “representative” for this local business unit.

    What drives my passion is very similar but slightly different. It’s that moment in a workshop in a large organization planning how to move to an enterprise portal when the different intranet managers suddenly realize they all have something in common: they are there to serve the end-user. Then, the rest is “simply” a question of figuring out how they can best to this. The first step to bridging the gap has been taken.