At one of the international events I’ve been at over the last three weeks, I was talking about enterprise mobility. After I was finished, someone in the audience asked me the question:

“Should intranet teams stop working on the intranet, and instead focus on enterprise mobility?”

To which my answer was: possibly yes!

Too often, intranet teams are stuck, unable to get sufficient support from senior management, or enough resources to deliver solutions. In the meantime, the intranet continues to languish. While this is a problem that can be solved, it’s often not easy.

In contrast, enterprise mobility offers several benefits:

• There is a abundance of enthusiasm for mobile solutions of every type, including enterprise mobility.
• Early solutions are often quick and easy to develop, particularly when teams focus on the 6-8 things that staff most need.
• Intranet teams are ideally placed to deliver mobile solutions, with their mix of UX, content and web skills.
• Mobile solutions have a high profile, and can be launched with a bang.
• Delivering solutions builds credibility and political capital for the team.
• Working on mobile can show off the versatility and capabilities of the intranet team.
• Delivering simplicity on a mobile can demonstrate the value of design, for the benefit of all platforms.
• The intranet will still be there to return to, after some early mobile wins.

As they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same things repeatedly, and expecting different outcomes. So if you’re stuck when it comes to the intranet, maybe mobility is a good direction to head, at least for a while.