An Effective Intranet Website - A written exercise by Lucas Fabiano

1. An Effective Intranet Website
A written exercise by Lucas Fabiano
An effective Intranet website is one that creates a hub for collaboration and information sharing
for all employees. It is a space where documents can be easily accessed by different
departments and users can interact, communicate and share information with each other.
Allowing authorized staff to post content by themselves without having to rely on the IT technical
team (which sometimes can cause delays and frustration) accelerates the publication process
and improves the quality and relevance of the content. Enabling collaboration is essential to
ensure that all employees are on the same page, avoiding misinterpretation and communication
breakdowns. Centralizing events information, scheduling and notifications at many different levels
from team to department to firm wide has proven to be vital in transforming the way an
organization operates and communicates with its employees.
On a practical level the most important features of a good Intranet website are:
• Departments/Teams
• Address Book (Phone extensions and Contact lists)
• Message Board
• Search Facility Index
• Calendar Scheduler
• Task Manager
• Press Releases/Media Room
• Wiki Collaboration Sites
• Time zone Information
• Feedback/Comments Forms
To implement a new Intranet website solution I would start by assessing the web services
architecture and choose whatever fits within the organisation (i.e. technology resources and staff
technical skills). In order to achieve this objective I would ask the following questions:
• Content Management Governance: Who will ensure that content is fresh and relevant?
Who will do the publishing? Does the publishing have to be approved prior to going live?
• How geographically disbursed is the organization? Do you have to account for multiple
languages?
• What off-the-shelf solutions are available that can best be leveraged for the portal?
Content management systems - SharePoint, MCMS, etc.-
• How many "Areas" will be key contributors to the site and who is responsible for the
Homepage? Who decides the first thing that everyone sees when they launch their
browser?
• How many levels of controlled access will be needed? (HR documents, policies and
procedures, etc.)
I would support the constant improvement of the Intranet solution by tracking usage so I can learn
what is actually used and what is not.
In my opinion, a successful Intranet website is not built only upon what management thinks it
should be. By talking to all levels of staff and building the solution with them in mind you will
definitely integrate a plethora of new ideas that will improve the quality and relevance of the
content. This will better satisfy the everyday demand of the users. All in all it is the users who
are ultimately your customers. If the website effectively communicates the company’s policies,
accommodates functionalities adapted to your business, includes your staff needs and
expectations and is easy to use then you have succeeded in creating an effective Intranet
website.
http://lucasfabiano.googlepages.com/aneffectiveintranetwebsite