As the Internet evolves, users become more and more savvy about what they want from the experience. Web sites are updated daily when they used to change monthly, and social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace are checked more often than e-mail. Users know what they want and where to get it.
These users are the employees who determine whether corporate intranets succeed or fail. With employees that surf across the ever-changing tides of theInternet with ease, intranets need to find ways to keep up. But many are not staying abreast of new development, and corporate intranets are becoming secondary or even tertiary sources of information and collaboration, rather than being the first place employees go.
Why intranets fail
(and why they don't have to)
Andrew Brown, Marketing Communications Manager
W h i t e P a p e rW h i t e P a p e r
Why intranets fail (and why they don't have to)
As the Internet evolves, users become more and more savvy about what they Spend as want from the experience. Web sites are updated daily when they used to change much time monthly, and social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace are checked more often than e-mail. Users know what they want and where to get it.developing
your corporate These users are the employees who determine whether corporate intranets succeed or fail. With employees that surf across the ever-changing tides of the intranet as Internet with ease, intranets need to ? nd ways to keep up. But many are not staying on the public abreast of new development, and corporate intranets are becoming secondary or even tertiary sources of information and collaboration, rather than being the ? rst facing place employees go.
Web site. To ensure success, it is necessary to spend as much time developing the corporate intranet as on developing a public facing Web site.
The single most important thing to realize about an intranet is that it is a growing entity, just as much as a public facing site is. An intranet must constantly be updated with new and relevant information so that it does not turn into a pile of 1yesterday's newspapers.
Site traf? c equals user adoption, and without fresh content, there is no reason for users to keep going back to the intranet. Content that people care about will drive users to the site again and again, and by planning carefully where to place elements and features (such as a photo of the day that is next to the CEO's blog that links to a PowerPoint presentation on the intranet), employees will be encouraged to delve deeper into the site and discover how powerful a tool the intranet can be for them.
Ease of use is the key to opening the door for the intranet to become the employees' "go-to" spot for information and communication. People check into their favorite Web sites every day, and those sites ? ourish. Making the intranet an integral part of the employees' work day will ensure that the intranet does not fail as business tool.
Top down support
Managerial support lends credibility to all corporate projects, the intranet included.
1 P.Chin. "Bringing out your dead!!! Resurrecting your intranet". Intranet Journal, 2001
2W h i t e P a p e r
If management is not behind the intranet, the trickle down effect is that employees view it in a similar fashion: whether it is looked at as a toy, a burden, or one of those things that all businesses have, it is not viewed as the critical business tool that it should be. Developers who have management supporting the development of a site are rewarded with not only the resources needed to do the job right, but also with the essential evangelists to get people using this communications tool.
Managers who are supporters of their intranet's potential are the ones who blog about company news, who are active on forums, and who use the intranet to ? nd information and reference this to other employees. It can separate an of? cially sanctioned corporate system from what may be perceived as the pet project of the IT or HR department. With the support of management, it becomes more probable that new people can be recruited to participate in this living, breathing project.
Intranets vs. the employee
According to a 2007 report by the Irish Computer Society, one in three users ? nd it dif? cult to access the right information, and half of all users ? nd the search function 2on their company intranet to be ineffective. When the most basic navigation tool on the intranet is perceived to be inef? cient, employees quickly give up on the intranet as a valuable business tool.
But by using "taxonomy" or categorization to auto-generate navigation, employees will keep coming back to the intranet because they can ? nd the information they need. This categorization method uses one-to-many relationships that let employees ? nd information in the different ways that different users think.
For example, Ronald Reagan can be thought of as either an actor or a president. Taxonomy will create a one-to-many relationship with this content and auto-generate navigation that will suppor... [download for more]
