Pandora's Portal

Is the portal a task-oriented platform for applications, e-services and cross-functional business process integration or a tool for enterprise-wide knowledge management? Is it a bottom-up enabler of communication and collaboration or a top-down channel for broadcasting official corporate propaganda? Inevitable consensus answer? It's all of these things and more, and the IT folks better be ready to support this exciting new paradigm!

Morville, Peter. Semantic Studios (2001). Articles>Knowledge Management>Intranets>Web Design

How to Scope an Intranet Release

When developing intranet releases, intranet teams often find themselves very constrained by both time and resources. The challenge then becomes delivering sufficient content and capabilities to meet business and user expectations, within the project constraints. This briefing introduces a simple approach to scoping a release that takes all of these factors into account.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2004). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Project Management

Intranet Managers Must Be Managers

While intranets often have someone appointed as the intranet ‘manager’, do they spend their time actually managing the site, or publishing pages? Observing many organisations and intranets, one of the critical success factors is to have an intranet manager who is free to focus solely on the management of the site. The intranet manager should not be writing HTML or publishing pages.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2006). Articles>Management>Intranets>Web Design

Intranets and Knowledge Sharing

This article challenges the vision of the corporate intranet as a publishing tool, or a static repository for web pages or documents. Instead, it looks at a number of ways in which the intranet can become a dynamic and living environment for knowledge-based activities.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2004). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Knowledge Management

Intranets Look Vainly to Knowledge Management

I have been watching the knowledge management boom for 15 years. I would love to belive that knowledge management was a valuable field. But to the extent that it's about capturing "knowledge" in documents, it goes against everything I know about successful organisations. Like artificial intelligence, it seems based on a mistaken idea about what knowledge is, and about how knowledge-based economies function.

Shorewalker (2004). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Knowledge Management

Leadership Tips for Intranet Teams

Intranets require strong leaders if they are to be more than just publishing platforms for occasionally-used information. The intranet team must take on this leadership role, and drive the evolution and enhancement of the site. This is not an easy role for some intranet teams to play, but ultimately it is one that is satisfying for the team, and greatly beneficial for the site itself. This article outlines a range of practical tips that can be applied to help intranet teams operate more effectively in this leadership role. These are all small (but important) steps that can be taken immediately by any intranet team.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2006). Articles>Web Design>Management>Intranets

Not All Content Needs to Be of Equal Quality

One of the greatest challenges confronting intranets is ensuring that content is up-to-date, accurate and useful. In many organisations, much thought and effort is put into maintaining (and enhancing) the quality of published content. What must be realised, however, is that not all content on an intranet needs to be of equal quality. Only once this is recognised can successful strategies be put in place to support content authoring and publishing.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2005). Articles>Content Management>Web Design>Intranets

Selling Old-School Management on an Intranet

How do you get old-school management to support and finance an intranet when they themselves are not likely to use it?

Chin, Paul. Intranet Journal (2004). Articles>Management>Web Design>Intranets

Sixteen Steps to a Renewed Corporate Intranet

The growing status of content management systems (CMSs) is now providing many organisations with an impetus to revisit and renew their intranets. Unfortunately, while the technical aspects of implementing a CMS are well understood, many organisations are struggling to identify the issues with the content, structure and management of their intranets. The good news is that by following a disciplined approach, it is possible to re-invigorate an intranet, making it deliver real business benefits, and supporting strategic goals. This article outlines a sixteen step process which guides you through to a refreshed and dynamic new intranet.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2002). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Content Management

Taking Information Into Your Own Hands: Critical Issues in the Design and Implementation of Employee Self-Service

How can an organization empower its employees, reduce costs and improve data quality? Implementing employee self-service tools is one direction that a number of leading companies are turning to as they look to build win-win propositions with their most important assets: their people.

Di Ferdinando, Bridgette, Eric Lesser and Tomer Amit. IBM (2004). Articles>Web Design>Knowledge Management>Intranets

Putting Someone in Charge

Finally, organizations are getting serious about how they manage their intranets. The intranet is now moving out of an evolutionary, experimental phase into a more systematic, managed phase. It is being seen as an asset, a driver of productivity. However, return on investment measurement for the intranet still requires a lot of work.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2003). Articles>Web Design>Management>Intranets

Making Knowledge Sharing Work

The intranet is beginning to restructure the organization in more ways than one. Content is now an asset, and the people who manage it need to treat it as such. Managing editors, and their team, understand how technology can facilitate effective publishing, collaboration and self-service focused application development.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2003). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Content Management

Publish What You Can Manage

There is a view in some organizations that an intranet is only for staff, so you can publish what you want. Quality content matters as much on an intranet as on a public website. Get your content right to begin with. Keep it right by removing out-of-date content.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2003). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Content Management

Three Approaches to Intranet Strategy

Every intranet is different, and every section of a company’s Intranet can be used differently. There are a number of different methods to how an Intranet can be used to benefit a company. However, the three most popular and most valuable are knowledge management, collaboration and communication, and task management.

Lash, Jeff. Digital Web Magazine (2003). Articles>Web Design>Management>Intranets

Who Should Own the Intranet?

One of the first challenges when establishing an intranet is to determine who should have overall ownership of the site, and where the intranet team should be located. While the responsibility for driving the intranet must be given to a single business area, this group must be located within the right area of the organisation if the intranet is to succeed. This briefing explores a number of common intranet owners, and discusses the pros and cons of each group. It then presents some general guidelines and approaches for selecting where to place the intranet team.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2004). Articles>Web Design>Management>Intranets