While news on the intranet home page is widespread, the question needs to be asked: how effective is it?

The intranet needs to have a strong brand, a sense of identity that, at a basic level, distinguishes it from the public website and other information sources within the organisation.

Much is expected of intranet authors, in terms of the quality, accuracy and timliness of published material. Yet, many organisations treat intranet authoring as a hobby.

Intranet teams must take on a strong leadership role, and drive forward the evolution and enhancement of the site.

The intranet manager should be free to focus solely on managing the site, and not publishing content or doing admin work.

Intranet content and tools should be aggregated, to help staff find required information, and to complete key tasks.

Users are not all the same, and do not have the same needs. A key principle is therefore: you can’t usefully deliver information to users you haven’t personally met.

Determining what an intranet is actually for involves gaining an in-depth understanding of staff (and organisational) needs and issues.

Efforts should be targeted at improving the quality of key information, while applying lower standards to the majority of intranet content.

It is widely recognised that an intranet must be trusted, if it is to be regularly used by staff across an organisation.