Intranet Saves Time - But for Whom?

The internet, which serves as an infrastructure for organizational information, is designed to significantly increase employee productivity within the company. Unfortunately, reality is not like that. The reality is that the intranet is often in disarray, and employees waste excessive time trying to find solutions to their problems. The list of problems is even longer, but let's focus on the positive.

Below are several recommended dos and don'ts to enable the intranet to achieve the purpose for which it was intended - increasing employee productivity:

Do:

• Invest in content characterization. Bring it to a quality level that will increase productivity.

• Set strong and cross-organizational standards for designing internet pages and sub-sites. Structural uniformity among different departments within the company is a prerequisite for both efficient construction and effective use.

• Site organization (or sub-site) is important, sometimes no less than the content. Minimum clicks to target.

• Plan with the customer in mind. Too many sites are built from the perspective of what the builders have to offer, rather than what the employees want to receive.

• Invest in a search engine that facilitates navigation and makes it easier to find the required knowledge.

• Work in depth, not breadth. Work with defined groups. For each such group, find their Killer Application.

Don't:

• Don't allow departments to go wild with different and cumbersome designs.

• Don't put advertisements on the intranet - what will add to revenue will be overshadowed by the loss of productivity.

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Want to learn more about portals and channels?

Here are some articles you might find interesting:

• The Enterprise Portal - Between Success and Failure

• Creating an Innovative Intranet as a Step Toward a Portal

• Architecture of Technological Solutions for Knowledge Management