Never build or redesign an intranet without understanding best practices. Understanding what your competition does is even better. If you're building a case for a redesign, then your senior management will demand to know why (see Leading an intranet redesign).
A good source of case studies and best practices is the Web itself from sites like this. Conferences can also be good; so too are intranet consultants (but they’re a little more expensive). An even better place for leading and in-depth case studies is the Intranet Insider’s World Tour webinar series.
Previous webinars on the Insider’s look at leading intranets include IBM, Sodexho and most recently General Motors. Next webinar is HP.
HP’s intranet portal, hpNOW, was launched in 1997, serving primarily as an archive for Employee Communication's electronic newsletter and for selected articles from the company's print publication. Over time, online communications became more and more critical to communications at HP, eventually reducing the electronic newsletter to a push reminder to visit the site and serving as the replacement of the worldwide employee print publication, when it was discontinued in 2001.
Read more about the Communitelligence.com Intranet Insider’s World Tour featuring HP.