Great intranets are rarely done
solely in-house. There’s too much at stake and the intranet is far too political
to not take advantage of a non-partisan intranet consultant with relevant
expertise.
There are advantages to doing it
yourself:
- Costs less cash out of
pocket
- Internal stakeholders are forced
to learn the ropes
- Internal jobs are
reinforced
The disadvantages of doing it
yourself are obvious:
- Lack of skill and
experience
- Lack of people to execute
- Internal politics on what and how
to do it
- Time away from day-to-day
work
Politics
The greatest barrier to an
intranet’s potential is politics. Technology and budget are secondary barriers.
The intranet is a political football.
Why? Most intranets don’t grab the
attention of executives. The intranet is left to middle managers in
communications and IT with limited budget and power. Conflict ensues and the
intranet stalls – often for years.
Resolving conflict and breaking
the subsequent limbo requires senior management support and participation. Where
politics runs thick, a collaborative governance model is strongly
urged.
Tearing down the political barrier
often requires a third-party consultant with lots of expertise and no political
axe to grind, but an arsenal full of best practices. If communications tries to
lead the process, the other stakeholders will be suspicious. Ditto for IT and
HR. If budget allows, everyone respects an experienced and capable
mediator.
People
Building or redesigning an
intranet requires a lot of work. It can take months or years. If you decide to
build or rebuild the intranet, who will be minding the store?
An intranet requires:
- Employee input (research)
- Best practices intelligence
(benchmarking)
- Business requirements analysis and
documentation
- Strategic planning (mission,
objective, goals, CSIs)
- Functional planning (structure,
content, etc.)
- Governance model
- Policies and guidelines
- Business case and ROI
- Content management &
migration
- Information architecture
- Layout
- Design
- Tools
- Staffing
- Technology implementation
- Network and database
administration
- Integration
- Writing
- Etc.
Hiring an intranet consultant will
free-up the necessary time to stay on top of the day-to-day job you were hired
for – the daily news, benefits enrollment, new application rollouts,
etc.
Finally, does your team have the
skills? Have they ever developed a governance model, an editorial policy. or an
LDAP integration plan?
How to hire an intranet
consultant
If you have a budget and a work
culture that recognizes the value of an outside intranet expert then proceed
with caution.
Caution: an Internet consultant is not an
intranet consultant. A web design firm has deep creative skills, but rarely has
any business acumen and intranet expertise. A big-five consulting firm has very
smart people but is very expensive.
|
What
to look for in an intranet expert:
·
Intranet client case studies
·
Detailed biographies with
demonstrated project experience
·
Experienced individuals that will
be assigned to your project
·
Client
references with names and numbers (not just unnamed anonymous
testimonials)
·
Detailed pricing
·
Corporate strength and documented
financial viability
·
Proven
and detailed project methodologies |
Be
cautious if a consultant only has:
·
Screenshots and
mock-ups
·
One or
two paragraph bios that focus on favorite movies and hobbies with a cute or
too-cool-for-school photo
·
People
on a list in some far flung office that won’t actually be working on your
project
·
Unnamed
and anonymous testimonials
·
Vague
pricing ‘guess-timates’
·
Tiny
shops with no documented financials (P&L)
·
Assurance that “they’re happy to
work according to your project plan” |
Identifying the right intranet
consultant
Prepare a thorough and detailed
RFP (request for proposal). Invite companies that have proven experience and
case studies. If you don’t know one (though you should know several if you read
this news blog) then look for a recommendation:
- Ask a leading company or
partner
- Sniff around your local trade
associations like IABC or PRS
- Phone your IT analyst at Garner or
Forrester
- Google the phrase “intranet
consultant” or “intranet consulting” with or without geographic locations (if
that’s important to you)
- Post a comment here and I or
another reader will help steer you
The RFP responses from any
intranet consulting firm should contain the following:
- Line by line details of every
process and deliverable
- Intranet consulting history and
overview
- Detailed client case
studies
- Solution functional
specifications
- Consulting, licensing (if
applicable) AND implementation costs
- Project team resumes, skills
overview & experience
- Client references and contact
information
- Detailed timeline and
schedules
- Ongoing service & support
commitment
- Solution technical specifications
(if applicable)
- Product demonstration (if
applicable)
A
final word: Google before you hire a particular intranet
consultant or intranet consulting firm. I’m a little bias because I write a lot,
have the top blog dedicated to intranets and speak at a lot of conferences, but
I like to see for myself the ‘thought leadership’ credentials of the consultant.
A great intranet consultant is not only experienced, but a leader with published
credentials to support it.
Top
intranet consulting firms:
Note: obviously there are far
more consultants than this… but actually surprisingly few that focus namely on
just intranets. So yes I’ve left a few out, but this is not intended to be a
consultant directory but an article (also note that the author hasn’t used his
own name).
For more intranet news visit www.IntranetReport.com
© 2006 Toby
Ward - Prescient Digital
Media
