The powerful tentacles of Google continue to extend deeper and deeper into your computer.

Google has unveiled a computer and search tool using “self-updating navigation” and “personal information software” that extends beyond pure search to access and manage your e-mail, instant messages, news, etc.

This new tool called the Google Sidebar is the company’s most direct challenge to Microsoft’s dominance of your desktop. The Sidebar encourages you to completely bypass your Windows desktop and that little green  menu option in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.

The Sidebar Quickfind feature allows you to directly return to recently used applications or sites without extra clicks.

Google also plan to unveil this week a "communications tool" that is thought to be a new instant messaging service. Further demonstrating the company’s drive to break Microsoft’s dominance of the computer user’s desktop.

Of course, this long reach for you desktop also extends to the intranet. As I blogged last week, many organizations are starting to use the Google search engine on their own websites AND on their corporate intranets...

Big Brother Google

This week one of our client deliverables included an intranet business case for a major electrical utility. The bottom line: the intranet needs to prove its value before more money is spent. However, a business case is more than just dollars, cents and return on investment (ROI).

Building a business case involves taking stock of the current state, defining an ultimate business goal, and putting in place mechanisms to measure the success and benefit of achieving the organization’s goals.

To measure dollar value and ROI, initial baseline measurements are taken for defined criteria, which then allows for comparisons and gauging success at a future point (6-12 months out is standard).

Prescient has in fact identified more than 140 specific line item benefits for measuring intranet ROI (more on intranet ROI). Some of these benefits include:

• Software distribution – self-service downloads that save the IT department time and cost
• Newsletters & print materials – online publishing reducing costly print & distribution
• Contact information & directories – online publishing replacing print & spreadsheet distribution
• HR forms – online self-service replacing very costly, traditional administration
• Time tracking – online time card submission replacing traditional methods
• Email usage – migration of traditional email communications to the intranet saving server space, management and maintenance
• Content management – database-driven intranet publishing reducing the complexity and time required (and reliance on IT or Communications) for online publishing

And while companies like Cisco, IBM and Oracle triumphantly state many millions of dollars saved (and in some cases, dollars earned) as a result of their intranet, you don’t have to be a big fish to garner measurable ROI. We recently worked with an investment firm of only 750 employees and found more than an estimated $1.5 million in annual value derived from the intranet (both hard and soft benefits).

Despite the potential reward, more of our clients are asking about ROI, but a Prescient Digital Media studyshowed that fewer than 6% of more than 240 companies surveyed actually measure specific dollar and cent benefits derived from the intranet.

Have you built the business case for your intranet?