The number one employee complaint about the intranet is “I can’t find anything.” Or it’s the related cousin complaint, “The search engine sucks.”

Both problems relate to ineffective information architecture. An ineffective information architecture leads to confusion and frustration and an over-reliance on the search engine to magically solve all problems. Over course, if content is not well-stored (e.g. properly tagged, labeled, categorized, etc.) then the search engine will also fail. But most users would prefer to navigate a site’s content categories and home page links. Search is more of a crutch.

“Information architecture (IA) is essential to a successful site,” says Cathy McKnight, a consultant with Toronto-based Prescient Digital Media.

“An IA provides the blueprint to follow before you dive in and pull your site together. It is the science of figuring out what you want your site to do, what information you want it to provide and how people are going navigate to that information. It is so important, that IA gurus join The Information Architecture Association to share in each other’s guru-ness.”

Cathy offers some great insight and suggestions in Information Architecture - the science of site layout Content in the Web 2.0 World

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.

An intranet redesign is like a political campaign – you might win, you might lose. And like a political campaign, an intranet redesign requires the support and vote of those that count – particularly senior management.

It is possible to do a redesign without the support of senior management and eek out a minority victory, but your power and potential success will be severely limited without the support of those key taxpayers – the people that pony up the cash.

If your intranet isn’t owned by a senior executive then you need a champion. However, unlike a political campaign working for a democratic purpose, a corporation is not a democracy. Senior executives are all powerful. They have the political clout and they control the purse strings.

Enlisting an executive champion

In organizations with successful intranets, the intranet champion is a c-level executive. In other words, a senior executive that reports directly to the CEO. This could be the CIO, the CFO, the COO or perhaps the SVP for communications or human resources.

Determining which executive makes the best champion in your organization depends on the executive and their power and influence within the ranks. Firstly, your executive champion should understand the value of the intranet and the potential it can deliver. Secondly, your executive champion needs to be involved. Not on a day-to-day basis, but when a decision needs to be made or funding is required. As far as a time commitment, your champion need only attend an occasional meeting (perhaps twice per year).

Usually, in most cases, executives don’t know much about intranets. In fact, most think of the intranet as a cost center. You need to educate them.

Education comes in the form of:

• Best practices and case studies (see Know the leaders and the competition)
• Employee research
• Business case with ROI

Developing a complete business case with all of the above will convince just about any executive of the need for a high value intranet.

Continued with Intranet redesign: rolling content inventory and Intranet redesign: building a business case.

For more intranet news visit www.IntranetReport.com

Intranet Blueprint © 2008

The Intranet Portal Blueprint © 2008

Intranet Evaluation

Value and Return on Investment

CMS Blueprint © 2008

© 2006-2009 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media

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How about bringing the cult of Six Sigma to the intranet? I think a transformative standard such as Six Sigma would be a good turn in the evolution of intranets – a revolutionary turn.

Bianca Wong is a convert. “Given the fervour of its apostles, you have probably heard of the term “Six Sigma” and its incredible power to literally transform organizations. Six Sigma conferences more closely resemble evangelical events than business meetings and to hear people talk about the ROI on Six Sigma you would think that they were talking about a new religion.

The disciples of Six Sigma speak about it with passion and faith that would be envied even amongst religious circles. Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of GE is one of its most fervent believers.

So being a leading edge kind of thinker and involved in the world of intranets/Internets you’re probably wondering, do I need to know about this cult and how can I find time to learn this stuff if I do? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret. I have been privileged enough to train as a Black Belt in the super secret methods of Six Sigma and I can share a few of its powerful secrets with you.”

Read Bianca Wong’s Hallelujah! The gospel of Six Sigma reaches the intranet world!

For more intranet news visit www.IntranetReport.com

© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media

Here’s a chance to participate in a great research project that will deliver you some valuable benchmarking and research intelligence… Jane McConnell is conducting a global intranet study calle "Intranet Strategies Today & Tomorrow -  in Large, Complex (and often Global) Organisations"

The survey covers broad strategic issues (decision making, budgeting, measurement & evaluation, governance) and specific strategic issues (language & translation policies, home page strategies, collaboration strategies, management & resources, processes & applications) and future trends for intranets.

All participants in the study are offered:

• A Full Report: "Intranet Strategies Today & Tomorrow -  in Large, Complex (and often Global) Organisations" (analysis, charts and details from the consolidated information).
• An Executive Summary which  may be useful for communicating with  Senior Management and intranet colleagues.
• The rights to publish the report on their intranet and print as many copies as they wish for internal use.
• The means to benchmark their intranet(s) by comparing their answers (in the Word questionnaire document) with the consolidated answers in the full report.

If you’d like to be a participant, please email Jane directly at jane@netjmc.com.

The survey is detailed and requires a minimum of 30 minutes to respond. Jane notes however that…  “I realize 30 minutes is long, but I believe the depth and breadth of the results will be worth it."

More than 50 global companies/organisations are confirmed to participate.

For more intranet news visit www.IntranetReport.com

The User Experience Design Group at Ultimate Software in For Lauderdale is looking for UI Designer.  Ultimate has been using agile methods (Scrum) for over one year.

If you already live in the Fort Lauderdale / Miami area, details on the position are available on the company website (www.ultimatesoftware.com).