A lot has been made in the past couple of years about intranet best practices and what are some of the norms, universal standards and typical costs.

Of course, there is no easy answer. Every company is different and there are huge degrees in difference between varying industries, corporate cultures, differing technology, etc.

When recently asked to speak about the subject at a 2-part conference in New York and Chicago I developed the "5 Winning Ingredients for a Successful Intranet." Again its worth stating that it depends on the company -- what already is working at one company may not necessarily be working well at another and therefore an independent assessment is necessary to determine the "5 most important ingredients" or focus for an intranet or portal.

However, there are some universal truths that I've learned from working with and observing the work of many dozens of corporate intranets and portals.

Top 5 favorite ingredients:

5 - Simplify

Number one user complaint: “I can’t find anything!” So focus on the basics:

Content Information architecture
Effective search
Self-service tools

Avoid:

Animation
Too many colors
Flash
Non-HTML (or ASP, JSP)

4- Standardize

Standardize development (templates, footers, style guide)
Editorial policy (content formats, roles and responsibilities)
Taxonomy (categorizing and storing content)
Email (acceptable use, broadcast email limitations)
Default home page setting
Browser auto launch

3- Promote

Organization-wide understanding, acceptance, and use of the intranet is critical to success. Think:

Pre-promotion (e-mail alerts, survey, news stories, word of mouth)
Education (new hire orientation, online demo, webinar)
Marketing (print, PDF, e-newsletter, press conference, webcast, premiums, etc.)

2- Content

Content is still king. Firstly you need an editorial policy. But your content should be...

Timely and relevant: know what your employees want and get it published
Answer “what’s in it for me?”: Don’t just re-publish a press release – write for the employee
Succinct: text should be limited to 50 per cent of the words you would write in a print publication.
Promote scanning: by breaking up text using short paragraphs, sub-headings, bullets and call-outs – avoid long, continuous blocks of text

1- Plan

Intranet performance and success (and that of the site) is determined before construction with the identification of business requirements. Subsequent, mandatory planning constructs the blueprint for ongoing management. Failure to develop an integrated plan can ensure failure.

Nothwithstanding needs and requirements, Gartner estimates that one third of projects exceed budgets and schedules by almost 100% in small to mid-size companies. This is largely because of planning failures and an inability to properly document requirements.

Intranet Best Practices