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.

This article introduces two critical success factors for intranet discussion forums: a clear purpose, and a common community.

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.

There are several key categories of documents that should be targeted as part of information management projects, while other documents can be ignored.

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.

Effective information management is not easy. This article outlines 10 critical success factors that address organisational, cultural and strategic issues.