Intranet development has to be business critical, or you simply shouldn’t bother.
Shoe string intranet managers with killer ideas
Many intranet managers I talk to have recently had a break through with their management who have finally acknowledged that the intranet makes a difference to the business. On the other hand, everyone is cutting costs. So although you are no longer a” hobby intranet manager”, you might well find it difficult to start adding actual value. Here a few ideas I have gathered through my talks and I which I want to share:
Tool Pools
A creative intranet team I recently talked to wants to web enable and stream line the means for collaboration in an organisation by providing single sign on to the primary business applications through the intranet. The first concept also included integrating them with the intranet which is going to be too costly. But instead of doing nothing the team has come up with a first step that will provide great value for less money. They are going to make a “Tool Pool”, which in its simplest form is just a list of links to all the applications available to different employees of her organisation. I think many will plunge into it with gusto.
Don’t get taken hostage by a technological strategy
The challenge of providing easy content contribution whilst keeping control of the content is a hard one to crack and requires a lot of work from a governance perspective. However, from a technical perspective the challenge is less severe. Implementing the new version of SharePoint is sometimes not the easiest way to achieve better content management. Investing the money in making it easy for casual intranet editors to contribute content through your own home made publishing tool can be a good solution, although maybe not as clean cut as the industry would have it. Now could also be the time when you can focus on governance around an improved tool.
Measure impact
Very importantly, do remember that when an intranet manager can show that the use of the intranet has increased from year to year they have an easier time securing their budgets. Fighting for good analytics tool and proper means to measure the use of you intranet is crucial, and still it is an area where many intranet managers have problems.
A mix of user surveys and qualitative analysis supplemented by more blunt measurements such as traffic analysis should be conducted on a regular basis. As an intranet manager you should learn to trust and use the results of the surveys and not be ashamed of showing them. Credible or not, some numbers are often better that none. In times such as these, they are essential.
Prioritising the right projects
If you have the budgets and the momentum to move forward with your intranet the next problem is prioritising. With intranets there are many different stakeholders and everyone will rarely benefit from all your work. To really make a difference to teams you need to allow your projects to focus on specific needs as well as general ones. Choosing the right sequence of projects and planning for your roadmap requires political as well as practical insights.
If you recognise some of these challenges or have others to share, drop a comment.
Join our full day seminar, the International Intranet Day, on March 24 in Copenhagen, to learn from case studies from several organisations and network with other intranet professionals.
