Archives for Articles

Intranets: losing the language of enforcement

By: James Robertson Posted: July 3, 2005

All too often, centralised intranet teams find themselves battling with decentralised authors to enforce consistency and quality standards.

Five intranet reviews, five different results

By: James Robertson Posted: July 1, 2005

This case study presents the findings from five intranet reviews across a range of organisations, each with very different results.

Make intranets the first source of news

By: James Robertson Posted: June 2, 2005

Intranets must be more than just a dumping ground for ‘second-hand documents’ if they are to be successful. Instead, a radically different policy needs to be put in place.

Paradox of delivering to isolated staff

By: James Robertson Posted: May 2, 2005

Staff in geographically isolated locations are most reliant on information sources such as intranets, and yet in practical terms they are the hardest to reach.

What is information architecture?

By: Iain Barker Posted: May 2, 2005

This article introduces information architecture and provides guidelines for how to create an effective information architecture.

Two types of in-bound call centres

By: James Robertson Posted: May 1, 2005

In-bound call centres deal with either queries or transactions (or both), and this has a big impact on the knowledge and information required.

Any intranets structured around the organisational chart are difficult to use. Before attempting a restructure, consider why this structure has been used.

Is workflow the wrong metaphor?

By: James Robertson Posted: February 1, 2005

The unspoken truth is that workflow often doesn’t work well in practice, leading to the question: is workflow the wrong metaphor?

How staff look for documents

By: James Robertson Posted: February 1, 2005

You need to understand how staff look for documents in a business setting, in order to design suitable systems and classification schemes.

Who should own the intranet?

By: James Robertson Posted: December 1, 2004

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.