10 Hot Points for Intranet Success
from Pictorius Incorporated
Intranets have become an essential corporate
information distribution and database tool. Until
recently, only large corporations had been able to take
advantage of available technologies to develop and
maintain Intranets. The introduction of new, easy to
use Intranet tools makes this powerful technology
accessible to any size organization.
Jesse Boudreau, the President and CEO of Pictorius
Incorporated, completed 30 Intranet projects in his
previous role as Director of Information Systems at
technology giant, Northern Telecom. His advice to
those seeking to develop an Intranet is to make sure
you understand the needs and goals of your
end-users and clearly communicate how they will
benefit from your Intranet.
"It’s more of a community effort than just an IS
project," says Boudreau, "if the Intranet isn’t used or
updated frequently, it really defeats the purpose. You
can spend a lot of time and money building an Intranet
but if it doesn’t provide the perceived benefits to your
customer, you haven’t done your homework. You end
up with a big headache and most likely, redesigning
the whole project."
Boudreau reveals 10 hot points that corporate intranet
teams should address before pulling up their sleeves
and building a site. "If you cover 10 before you begin,
your Intranet will have a better chance of success,"
advises Boudreau.
1. Start by gathering representatives from each
department who want to publish information.
Each department will have different information
to publish and access, but make sure the
overall site is cohesive and logical.
2. Design a roadmap of the site with your intranet
team. Gather together all of the content
providers, web techies and IS people that will
contribute to building the site and brainstorm on
what the end product will do and should look
like.
3. Ensure that you give administrative ownership
of the site or sections of the site to a specific
individual. By assigning responsibility up front,
everyone knows who to turn to for managing
and maintaining overall site integrity.
4. Don’t assume all end users have the latest and
greatest hardware and software. Everyone
accessing your site may not have a 21" monitor
or the latest browser.
5. Don’t invest in content tools that require
extensive training. The content providers should
be equipped with the tools to update content
themselves. If they can’t figure it out in 20
minutes or less, it’s not worth it.
6. Make sure you gather statistics (online surveys,
log file analysis, lots of e-mail links) and review
the information regularly. You can then adapt
your site to reflect the best interests of your
7. If you have a large content team, typically 6 or
more individuals, create pre-production staging
areas and a review process to coordinate
content and activities.
8. Schedule regular backups of your site and
design a contingency plan in case the site goes
down. It doesn’t take long for an an Intranet to
become a mission-critical application. Practice
"disaster recovery" at least twice a year.
9. Don’t wait for the perfect development tool to be
released. The technology changes too fast.
Look for the vendor’s ability to change their tools
to fit today’s environment and their ability to
support the latest, useful technologies.
10. Build for functionality, not for flash. Intranets are
largely used to disseminate corporate
information and for database access. Don’t
make the information difficult to find or database
queries too complex. Speed and simplicity are
much better than cool but slow graphics.
Building a successful Intranet requires good design,
careful planning and the right tools. Compare and
evaluate products before making the final buying
decision. Make sure that the product you choose has
the flexibility to build the site you want and the tools for
maintaining it quickly and easily.
Too many false starts can quickly deflate the
excitement surrounding the launch of a company
Intranet. Content is king. Keep it fresh and your
Intranet will quickly become your competitive edge.
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