The earlier article Three fundamental purposes of an intranet identified that there are three main aspects that must be addressed for an intranet to be successful:

• content
• communication
• activity

Content refers to the traditional role of the intranet as a repository of corporate information, while the intranet can also be an effective communications channel, and a mechanism to provide task-oriented tools and systems.

The challenge for organisations is ensuring that all three purposes are addressed, for any one in isolation is not enough to build a sustainable and effective intranet. This briefing builds on the earlier article, to explore what this means for intranet teams on a strategic and day-to-day basis.

Many possible owners

Intranet teams may be located within a number of possible areas of the organisation, including:

• IT
• communications or marketing
• KM or IM
• business area (such as HR)

As discussed in the earlier article Who should own the intranet?, it doesn’t matter where the intranet team sits as long as they have the right skills and focus. The challenge is that the intranet team will naturally be influenced by the area of the business that they sit within.

[CM Briefing 2007-05, read the full article]