Comments on: The Intranet Identity Crisis http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/blog/2009/11/10/intranet-identity-crisis/ Social Intranet Software: ThoughtFarmer is Turnkey, Microsoft Certified Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:31:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: EphraimJF http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/blog/2009/11/10/intranet-identity-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-461 EphraimJF Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:55:10 +0000 http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/?p=1356#comment-461 The theme of this article is an important one for many folks thinking strategically and holistically about intranet development. Catherine Grenfell at Step Two Designs wrote a great artilce titled "What do successful intranet managers have in common?" which articulates the broad set of skills need to implement a modern intranet: http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_successcommon/index.html. The theme of this article is an important one for many folks thinking strategically and holistically about intranet development.

Catherine Grenfell at Step Two Designs wrote a great artilce titled “What do successful intranet managers have in common?” which articulates the broad set of skills need to implement a modern intranet: http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_successcommon/index.html.

]]> By: Georg (isnochys) 's status on Wednesday, 11-Nov-09 20:42:14 UTC - Identi.ca http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/blog/2009/11/10/intranet-identity-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-453 Georg (isnochys) 's status on Wednesday, 11-Nov-09 20:42:14 UTC - Identi.ca Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:42:20 +0000 http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/?p=1356#comment-453 [...] http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/blog/2009/11/10/intranet-identity-crisis/ a few seconds ago from IdentiFox [...] [...] http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/blog/2009/11/10/intranet-identity-crisis/ a few seconds ago from IdentiFox [...]

]]> By: Andrew Wright http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/blog/2009/11/10/intranet-identity-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-451 Andrew Wright Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:46:04 +0000 http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/?p=1356#comment-451 Interesting blog. I come across this problem often when consulting with organisations about their intranets. When I ask the question. 'Why do you have an intranet and what business issue is it addressing?' - the answers are invariably motherhood type statements such as 'we want to improve communication or manage our knowedge'. As a result of a poorly defined purpose, intranets can sometimes evolve into an amorphous mass of useless content that doesn't really help anyone and in fact hides the content that is valuable.. Gerry McGovern sums it up nicely in his blog where he says giving control of a website to a communicator can be like giving a pub to an alcoholic. He makes the point that news created on organizational websites and intranets needs to be brutally action-oriented and to-the-point It needs to help people do things. See the full artiicle here: http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2008/nt-2008-07-28-news.htm I think that at the core of every intranet should be the single goal of helping staff work more effciently and effectively. All decisions around intranet design, content & application development should be prefaced with the question 'How is this going to help our staff work better?' In my experience, by asking that one simple quesion, at least 50% (if not more) of your intranet content be removed. Around this single goal are 8 possible intranet business drivers: Business Processes, Knowledge Management,Collaboration, Change Management, Continuous Improvement, Portal to data & applications, Employee Engagement and the Environment. There are good business reasons for each of these drivers - you can read more about it here: http://cibasolutions.typepad.com/wic/2009/06/7-tips-for-writing-a-business-case-for-an-intranet-update.html Interesting blog. I come across this problem often when consulting with organisations about their intranets. When I ask the question. ‘Why do you have an intranet and what business issue is it addressing?’ – the answers are invariably motherhood type statements such as ‘we want to improve communication or manage our knowedge’. As a result of a poorly defined purpose, intranets can sometimes evolve into an amorphous mass of useless content that doesn’t really help anyone and in fact hides the content that is valuable..

Gerry McGovern sums it up nicely in his blog where he says giving control of a website to a communicator can be like giving a pub to an alcoholic. He makes the point that news created on organizational websites and intranets needs to be brutally action-oriented and to-the-point It needs to help people do things. See the full artiicle here:
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2008/nt-2008-07-28-news.htm

I think that at the core of every intranet should be the single goal of helping staff work more effciently and effectively. All decisions around intranet design, content & application development should be prefaced with the question ‘How is this going to help our staff work better?’ In my experience, by asking that one simple quesion, at least 50% (if not more) of your intranet content be removed.

Around this single goal are 8 possible intranet business drivers: Business Processes, Knowledge Management,Collaboration, Change Management, Continuous Improvement, Portal to data & applications, Employee Engagement and the Environment. There are good business reasons for each of these drivers – you can read more about it here:
http://cibasolutions.typepad.com/wic/2009/06/7-tips-for-writing-a-business-case-for-an-intranet-update.html

]]> By: Jon Husband http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/blog/2009/11/10/intranet-identity-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-450 Jon Husband Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:02:03 +0000 http://www.thoughtfarmer.com/?p=1356#comment-450 <i>What other corporate asset has the responsibility of improving service delivery, retaining organizational knowledge, reducing travel, encouraging culture and employee engagement all at once?</i> Nicely put, Gordon. What other corporate asset has the responsibility of improving service delivery, retaining organizational knowledge, reducing travel, encouraging culture and employee engagement all at once?

Nicely put, Gordon.

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