Intranets need team players
Published in New Media Age
Author: Steve Lodewyke, managing director, Think Lateral
If nothing else, England's brief flowering in the World Cup showed the importance of a team pooling their skills for the good of the side, rather than seeking individual glories. Football isn't a one-man game and the same goes for implementing an intranet.
When intranets first came into play, many could see the business sense in having one, but were unsure of where to start. It was customary to give the task to IT, because the intranet was seen as a technology solution. Although this strategy has delivered a lot of intranets, their quality is now under review. Information technologists don't have a monopoly on intranet common sense and companies are aware that their intranet isn't the open communication tool that their people need.
Intranets are about communication. Obviously the better the technology, the better it will perform. But a great technical solution won't make an intranet work if information is hard to find or out of date. Similarly, any intranet that's dominated by a single department is likely to suffer if communication isn't balanced. I've seen examples where a team such as Human Resources has woken up to the benefits of the intranet and hijacked the medium to communicate its messages.
Business-minded information professionals are needed, people who can open dialogues between departments to create improved products, services and systems. It will be these 'communication altruists' who will draw together IT, corporate librarians and HR in order to make the corporate intranet flourish.
It's crucial that employees trust the content on their intranet, as well as the team responsible for its implementation. Currently, many companies recognise that their intranet is becoming a bank of information that no one has any faith in, with no discernible knowledge management in place. It's time to give the task to the communicators, to cut through the chaos. Together with the Webmaster they will be able to create inter-departmental links to pull the side together. A game plan can then be devised to focus on business imperatives such as corporate culture, rather than technology. More importantly, they can identify where return on investment will be delivered. This quantifiable index of intranet success is what's needed to win the support of the directors.
Automotive glass repair firm Belron International conducted a health check when the intranet it had built previously was no longer being used by most of its staff. With operations in more than 16 countries, Belron wanted to bring together its global operations and enable its staff to have access to valuable information and each other. The task went to its strategy team. Being in the centre of the company, the team set up consultation events with key departments and business unit managers. They called us in to help them plan the rehabilitation of the intranet and to develop an implementation strategy for the redesigned system. They built trust and evangelised benefits and the reasons why they needed everyone's support. The intranet is now delivering on its promises.
So think of the intranet as a game of two halves. The second half is kicking off, with everything to play for if you remember to pass it to your midfield dynamos.
