Intranets are often invisible tools within organisations. While staff rely on the intranet to help them complete common tasks, the site itself is taken for granted. The intranet team is similarly low in visibility, with little senior management recognition of the team or its role.

The net effect is that intranet teams work hard from month to month, but struggle to gain the support and resources required to deliver a truly great site. While this is perhaps a natural by-product of the role of intranets within organisations, intranet teams can do much to increase their level of recognition (and therefore their budget and resources).

To achieve this, intranet teams should be guided by two words when planning intranet activities: tangible and visible.

Tangible means that the intranet team can demonstrate the value that the activity delivers to the organisation. Visible means that the benefits can be clearly seen, or communicated throughout the organisation.

At any given point, intranet teams should be conducting enough activities that are both tangible and visible to ensure that they sustain enthusiasm and support for the site.
While there are behind-the-scenes improvements to be made to intranets, these should be paired with activities that are tangible and visible.

This article explores this concept, providing practical examples of activities that range across the whole spectrum.

[March KM Column, read the full article]