Johannesburg, 23 Jul 2014
Intranets can provide quick, easy access to the information and tasks needed by the people in your business, but only if they're successfully implemented, says Simon Hepburn, director of bSOLVe. What enables this success?
* Intranets should provide useful and usable business applications that empower people. If these applications help users get their jobs done more efficiently, they'll be more eager to return to them.
* It's not just about the technology, it's also about what you do with it. Your results will be poor if your implementation is poor, whether you're using a good technology (like SharePoint) or not. Implementations should focus on addressing business needs and delivering sustainable business value first and foremost.
* An effective Intranet should provide access to people across devices, locations and enterprise applications. A mobile Intranet experience which enables users to perform enterprise functions on the go is not optional anymore.
* The Intranet needs to be the central communication and knowledge platform that keeps people informed and encourages them to share valuable information among their peers. Personalised social interaction is a key factor here - information needs to be relevant, not just present.
* An Intranet should be strategically at the centre of driving your digital business initiatives forward internally. Executive backing and communication via the platform ensures users see the Intranet as the "go-to" location when digital initiatives are mentioned.
* User feedback is important and should ideally lead to regular updates. Delivering enhancements in quarterly or even bi-monthly iterations shows your users that you place them at the centre of the system. The best insight can be gained not only by listening to your users, but by studying their behaviour using analytics.
* Governance should enable people to do things the right way rather than trying to preventing them from doing things the wrong way.
It's important to note that in most cases it will take a few years for an Intranet to take shape and mature. Many organisations don't yet understand its role and importance fully and therefore under-invest in their efforts to develop it. This often leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy with less-than-impressive results, but enlisting professional help to properly plan and execute can help maximise any investment. This external involvement can be reduced over time, but like you would continue to use an electrician at home for electrical work, so you should keep an Intranet professional engaged to help steer the Intranet.
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