The one thing I appreciate about the current difficult economic climate, is that it is OK to challenge conventional wisdom. Everybody is forced to be much more critical and when it comes to intranets many are looking at the fat smoker they have created during the boom years and thinking; what happened there? Let’s just cut the intranet budget!
Let us take a step back: If you ask intranet experts, consultants or analysts about how you should react, it will only lead to confusion. Some strongly argue you need to put a strategy in place, while others try to persuade you to only look 6 months ahead and just get things done. Very few will be able to refer to actual intranet usage data and tell you what really works based on facts. Even worse, if you talk to vendors, they’ll sell you an enterprise portal, a web content management system, a wiki, a blog, something in the cloud…! And if you have any money left, you will be sold something that does collaboration.
Here’s a simple, big impact idea: Get your intranet team together and document why you really need your intranet. This may seem like a basic idea, but I can assure you that the process will be rewarding – as will the outcome. Being able to justify and clearly communicate why the intranet is needed will make a significant difference, in particular when it comes to management discussions. It may be obvious to you why your intranet is needed, but it will probably not be obvious to the entire team nor to the rest of your organisation.
I know many organisations where the intranet team enjoys management support and has no problem securing funding. Often this is a result of doing what management likes; good planning, continuous coverage of success stories and a general lack of surprises. In these organisations, management has realized that the intranet is indeed essential. Needless to say: This is far from the case in all organisations.
Do you know why your intranet is needed?
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.
J. Boye » Blog Archive » Intranet mantra: Connect, Communicate, Collaborate February 22nd, 2009 22:01
[...] questions such as “Why do you need an intranet” stops you cold, maybe you should find a good mantra that simply describes the purpose of the tool [...]
J. Boye » Blog Archive » If you deleted your intranet would it have any impact? March 26th, 2009 22:01
[...] I spend any money on it, at least not until some thought had been put into why the organisation needs an intranet. Also, I would suggest some criteria be defined for making the new intranet [...]