Intervate develops change management methodology

Intervate, a software developer and solution provider that focuses on the delivery of intranet, portal and business process automation solutions for the enterprise market, has developed a change management methodology for customers undertaking intranet and portal implementations.

"In the past, intranets were touted as the next best thing for enhancing organisational efficiencies and driving staff collaboration. Years later, many organisations are left with expensive `white elephants` that deliver no true value or return on investment (ROI)," says Shaun Dicker, senior manager at Intervate.

"Often the failing of intranet portals has centred around two key aspects: lack of content, which means people often revert back to the hallway type conversations to gain information, and secondly, internal sales team overselling the value of the solution touting it as the silver bullet to internal communication challenges."

Organisational intranets and portals can provide the glue for an organisation`s efficient functioning by providing an efficient manner in which to interface with information from different systems and place them in one, easily accessible interface.

"As the system can access and collate information on users` behalf, delivering data in underlying systems in a simple manner, this communication tool can certainly drive productivity if managed correctly," adds Dicker.

"We have found that often the challenge with these implementations is not the solutions, but the internal organisational change that needs to occur to utilise these solutions correctly. All too often software development houses believe that their customer responsibility ends once the solution is delivered; however, we have found the customers often need support and guidance around the solution implementation for months afterwards. As a result, we have developed an effective change management methodology for the implementation of an intranet that helps manage expectations of the solution as well as gain company buy-in from an executive level to then be filtered down appropriately throughout the company," says Dicker.

Essentially the change management programme developed by Intervate examines five aspects, namely executive sponsorship, culture, the effect of the implementation of each staff member, skill levels of the users and identification of effective training needed. According to Dicker, Intervate undertakes a full gap analysis to ensure where the organisation is and where it needs to be, and then systematically works with customers on the five criteria to drive more effective use of IT solutions.

"Certainly the implementation of an IT project should have a change management element to it, considering the pervasive nature of technology on our day-to-day living."

Using this methodology, an organisation can build the intranet as one project, but launch it in stages. "Our approach to this allows users to focus on the benefits that the intranet brings to them personally and the increased productivity that it brings to their job function. The processes stimulated by the implementation of the intranet then become the default within the organisation," concludes Dicker.