Intranets don’t solve problems. However, if used effectively by capable people working from a thorough plan and supported by management and well-documented processes, an intranet or portal can help transform a business.
World-class intranets: proven practices for success (en Francais Intranet d'entreprise : Évolution et tendances), the Prescient Digital Media two-day seminar tour of Montreal and Quebec, highlighted a number of key trends driving the evolution of the market:
- Rapid growth
- 58% of Canadian companies have an Intranet, Business in the Information Age – International Benchmarking Study.
- Increased focus from CMS vendors
- Low-cost solutions ($25K to $40K) proliferating
- More growth opportunity than Web
- Dissatisfaction with performance
- $1 trillion dollar problem (Jakob Nielsen)
- # people using daily x # minutes they waste
Usability and speed of information access and retrieval are huge contributors and drivers for intranet redesign and evolution into high performance portals. (Note that I’ve given credit to Jakob Nielsen for estimating the dollar value of intranet usability. While the actual figure is ludicrous and has no scientific value or basis it does underscore the depth of the problem with intranet performance and usability that Dr. Nielsen was the first to trumpet.)
A couple of other key trends worth noting that I highlighted at the outset of the year:
- Social media (RSS, blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc.) remains hot and will be adopted at a great pace (but the impact to the enterprise will be negligible in the short-term)
- The best intranets and portals have solid business cases with measured performance and metrics including, most importantly, ROI
Led by VP Carmine Porco and our Quebec-based senior consultant Claude Malaisonthe World-class intranets seminar (comment les entreprises et organisations des secteurs privé et public peuvent maximiser leur investissement dans un intranet super performant) also highlighted a number of challenges for intranet managers. Among the biggest problems is intranet sprawl and “taming the monster”…
Signs your intranet resembles Frankenstein’s monster:
- Its parts are bolted together from various sources, some of which aren’t quite official
- Some of its parts are missing and some expired a long time ago
- It lacks a brain and has taken on a life of its own
- Your audience runs screaming when told to interact with it
- It frightens its creator.
Damn - that picture is downright scary!!! I won’t be showing my five-year-old this presentation at bedtime (though she might actually fall asleep four slides in…).
How do you fight off the monster and tame intranet sprawl? Well, garlic and silver bullets help. But the key to success is planning. Specifically…
1- Secure executive support
2- Develop a through plan
3- Secure necessary resources
4- Create and enforce detailed policies for content and development
5- Deliver a centralized publishing platform with decentralized access and content control
6- Demonstrate and measure value
7- Motivate employees through marketing and education
For more on the optimal model for success, see Nexus of Intranet Success.
Cited as leaders and world-class examples of delivering high-octane intranet value were case study examples including:
This free seminar series will be held later this spring in Toronto (TBA). In September, watch for seminar dates (TBA) in
If you’d like to partner with Prescient to bring this free seminar series to your city in the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, France, and Canada, please contact us directly or post a comment below.
© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media