Intranet - Planning and Creation

Planning and Creation

Most organizations devote considerable resources into the planning and implementation of their intranet as it is of strategic importance to the organization's success. Some of the planning would include topics such as:

• The purpose and goals of the intranet
• Persons or departments responsible for implementation and management
• Functional plans, information architecture, page layouts, design
• Implementation schedules and phase-out of existing systems
• Defining and implementing security of the intranet
• How to ensure it is within legal boundaries and other constraints
• Level of interactivity (e.g. wikis, on-line forms) desired.
• Is the input of new data and updating of existing data to be centrally controlled or devolved

These are in addition to the hardware and software decisions (like content management systems), participation issues (like good taste, harassment, confidentiality), and features to be supported.

Intranets are often static sites. Essentially they are a shared drive, serving up centrally stored documents alongside internal articles or communications (often one-way communication). However organisations are now starting to think of how their intranets can become a 'communication hub' for their team by using companies specialising in 'socialising' intranets. The actual implementation would include steps such as:

• Securing senior management support and funding.
• Business requirements analysis.
• Identify users' information needs.
• Installation of web server and user access network.
• Installing required user applications on computers.
• Creation of document framework for the content to be hosted.
• User involvement in testing and promoting use of intranet.
• Ongoing measurement and evaluation, including through benchmarking against other intranets.

Another useful component in an intranet structure might be key personnel committed to maintaining the Intranet and keeping content current. For feedback on the intranet, social networking can be done through a forum for users to indicate what they want and what they do not like.