Reviews and feedback
The intranet Innovations 2009 is much more than a collection of intranet case studies. It is a collection of intranet case studies where each one has something truly exceptional. The winners were selected from a large number of submissions, and each one has something unique that brought value to their organization. The report gives in-depth information and screenshots that make you feel you have actually seen the intranet up close.
The case studies themselves are built from the detailed information provided in the submission forms, more followup conversations, and especially the analysis by the Step Two Designs intranet experts. A lot of time and energy has been devoted to building this report. I personally am very grateful to the contributions made by all the organizations who submit applications each year, to the winners themselves for their sharing and to the Step Two Designs team for their analysis, writing and production of this high impact report.
This is the only collection of high value intranet case studies that I am aware of. It is produced annually, and has great ideas every time that make business sense and people sense. I highly recommend it to managers in organizations, those who run intranets and those who are integrating intranets into their business and employee processes.
Jane McConnell, NetStrategy/JMC (France)
On 5 November Intranet Innovations 2009 was published, which describes the winners of the 2009 Intranet Innovation Awards. The Awards structure has been revised this year, and there are now a Platinum Award and then Gold awards for Core Functionality, Communication and Collaboration, Front Line Delivery and Business Solutions, together with a group of commended entries. This year there is less of a global spread, with many of the winners coming from the USA, but the innovations are certainly not geographically specific.
All ten award winners are described in detail, with good screen shots and a very useful summary of the lessons learned. As with all Step Two reports the presentation is highly professional, and makes you want to read the report at a single sitting. As is so often the case nowadays this nearly 200 page report comes without an index, so anyone looking for ideas on (say) staff directories has to browse through the entire report.
Intranet Innovations 2009 is a treasure trove of great ideas that work, and could well work just as well for any intranet. It is all about having the right balance of vision, objectivity, passion and commitment in the service of well-defined user requirements. Resources don’t come in to it as a significant majority of the award winners had to work in zero-budget situation. The applications described in the report are also timeless, so buy the report today and you will still be referring to it in three years time. It takes a lot of work to manage the awards process, and the intranet community is very much in the debt of the team of Step Two Designs for the work that they put in to making this report one of the highlights of the intranet year.
Martin White, Intranet Focus (UK)
