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

Taming the Data Tangle

Intranets are complex because they have complex objectives, whereas Internet sites cast a wide net and filter audiences into a few focused paths that eventually lead to a single call to action (such as a purchase transaction). Intranets provide all of the information available on a topic and let readers cull the data they need to complete the task at hand. Intranets cast a wide net, but the filtering is much more difficult. This is a major problem when more and more content gets jammed into an intranet by various corporate divisions. The result is often a resource that's too cumbersome to use.

Rosenheim, Mimi. WebTechniques (2001). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

The "All Together" Rule for Intranets

The primary purpose of intranets is to support staff in doing their jobs, to help them complete common business tasks. In practice, however, this can be very frustrating on many intranets. Policies are located in one section, procedures in another section, and forms in a third. Information then needs to be hunted out in order to complete even simple activities. The effectiveness of intranets can be greatly enhanced by bringing together all of the information and tools relating to a task or a subject, and presenting them in a single location.

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

The Difference Between Intranet and Internet Design

Your intranet and your public website on the open Internet are two different information spaces and should have two different user interface designs. It is tempting to try to save design resources by reusing a single design, but it is a bad idea to do so because the two types of site differ along several dimensions.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1997). Articles>Web Design>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

To Be, or Not To Be: Intranet Justification

Intranets are more than mere applications. An intranet is a community--made up of technology and personnel--that represents and supports an organization's collective knowledge and culture. And as such, the benefits of an intranet are not always apparent. Perhaps they're taken for granted as normal part of day-to-day operation; only in its absence will we truly discover the worth of an intranet.

Chin, Paul. Intranet Journal (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Top Ten Ways to Lose Your Intranet Users

Intranet developers and content owners are able to grab the attention of their users through momentum. Interest--caused by curiosity, marketing, word-of-mouth, or hype--is raised during initial rollout. And there will always be a surge in your web server's usage logs during this period. But once the novelty has worn off, will your intranet have enough true substance to transform that initial momentum into regular usage?

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

Us vs. Them - Vocabulary Makes a Difference

Vocabulary used when talking about intranets reveals a lot about an organisation's model and approach to becoming more international, or global. Which raises the question: what's the difference between global and international? I've included a snapshot of a slide on this point which I use in workshops.

NetStrategy-JMC (2006). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>International

What to Include in Intranet Search Results

Intranet search often fails to meet the needs or expectations of users, with confusing and complex results provided for even the simplest searches.

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

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

Why an Intranet Must Constantly be Updated

The single most important thing to realize about an intranet is that it is a growing entity. If you wipe your brow in relief after rolling out your intranet and think that that was all there was to it, you are going to be in for a surprise. You should not leave your intranet locked away in some room and hope that it will run itself.

Chin, Paul. Intranet Journal (2001). Articles>Web Design>Intranets

Ten Best Intranets of 2009

Intranets are getting more strategic, with increased collaboration support. Team size is growing by 12% per year, and platforms are becoming integrated. Improving usability increased use by 106% on average.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Usability

Content Chart for an Intranet

Most intranets are not all that different from each other - the same content subjects tend to apply to most companies and organizations. Content-Strategy has developed a universal intranet content chart that you can use directly - or modify - for free.

Content Strategy (2009). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Intranets

Social Networking on Intranets

Community features are spreading from "Web 2.0" to "Enterprise 2.0." Research across 14 companies found that many are making productive use of social intranet features.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Social Networking