The evolution of many Intranets is the antithesis of strategic. Intranet servers have a way of popping up that is strikingly similar to the growth of the World Wide Web-uncontrolled, unplanned, and unrestricted. Many of the intranets already in existence got under way as grassroots efforts, before either the systems or communications departments knew what was going on. While many intranets do evolve this way, it's not the optimum method.
Intranets are a business asset, and like any other of the organization's assets, they need to stand up to business scrutiny. Is the intranet providing a return on the investment? What kind of return? How is it measured? Remember too that the organization is going to continue to have a technology budget, so it is not accurate to calculate an intranet budget as though it is an either/or scenario.
Investments that cannot be linked directly to the organization's bottom line are quickly earmarked for extinction. Beyond the bottom line, you should recognize that an intranet will have a significant impact on the culture of your organization.
You may find that your existing systems are providing some of the functionality intranets achieve. Lotus Notes, for example, or any of the second-tier groupware products, such as Collabra, actually are intranets in the purest sense; that is, they are internal information-sharing and communication systems that run over a local network. These systems incorporate many of the same capabilities of the type of intranet addressed in this book, including e-mail, information publishing, and the ability to conduct dialogues among many employees in different locations.
Lotus Notes can do things that a Web-centered intranet cannot
do-at least, not yet. Paramount among these is database replication,
a process by which any changes one person makes to data that resides
on a Notes server are automatically replicated on matching databases
across the Notes system. Yet, it could be far easier to integrate
a system like Notes with an intranet than it would be to integrate
other systems with Notes; Notes and an intranet are not mutually
exclusive.
| NOTE |
A major advantage of an intranet is the common user interface because it reduces the need for specialized training. |
Another existing system that may have been built to meet the needs that can now be met by an intranet is a combination of robust e-mail, bulletin board capability, and LAN access to company documents. However, this combination of functions is not integrated using a common interface. A major advantage of an intranet is the common user interface because it reduces the need for specialized training. Users already familiar with the Internet may not need any additional help adapting to the internal version.
As noted in previous chapters, an intranet is far more than an interconnected system of workstations, servers, software, and cables. So powerful is an intranet-in its ability to provide access to information, the ability to publish, and the development of community-that it can change a company's paradigm completely.
Paradigm-one of the most hackneyed terms in business history- simply refers to the way we perceive things. Currently, in most organizations, we see the organization through the filter of traditional business structures and processes, based on a model of business that flourished in the industrial economy. At the heart of such businesses is the traditional top-down organization chart. Based on a military model of command-and-control, this chart is designed to ensure that workers at various levels of the organization have only enough information to do the job they have been assigned to do. It's a classic "need-to-know" model, in which information closely held and stingily distributed equates with power. For decades, middle management has retained its share of power by withholding from subordinates information it receives from above, and by withholding from the executive ranks information it gets from below. The gatekeeper role has served middle management well and, in many organizations, has been the specific function of middle managers.
This industrial-economy model worked well in organizations that produced manufactured goods, and for which the principal factors in production were land, labor, and capital. In the information economy, however, land, labor, and capital have been replaced as the primary factors in production by information.
The characteristics of industrial-economy companies and information-economy
companies are strikingly opposite:
| Industrial-Economy Characteristics | Information-Economy Characteristics |
| Mechanical | Organic |
| Authoritarian | Cooperative |
| Batch processing | Customization |
| Top-down | Participatory |
| Quantity | Quality |
| Producer driven | Customer driven |
Even organizations that produce manufactured goods are embracing the characteristics of the information economy. This doesn't mean the organizations no longer make things. It does mean, however, that information becomes the most important thing they use in the process. Levi Strauss, for example, now allows customers to be custom fitted at stores. The salespeople enter data into computers that transmit the information to manufacturing plants, where a custom-made pair of Levi's jeans is produced and shipped to the customer. The service, which epitomizes the notion of information-driven business, is an example of many of the information-economy characteristics noted in the preceding table. Rather than batch-producing a quantity of producer-determined pant sizes, Levi Strauss is custom-producing a single, high-quality pair of jeans based on customer requirements.
Imagine a company like Levi Strauss, which is basing its operations
on information, not sharing all of the information that might
be of value to every employee involved in the process. It seems
a lot like an industrial-economy company refusing to share the
steel its employees must use to produce its widgets!
| NOTE |
Power emerges from the effective sharing of information, rather than the withholding of it. |
An intranet is a tool for an information-economy company. Through an intranet and its various components (newsgroups, Web pages, e-mail, and so on), information moves freely. No one layer of management can contain it. Power emerges from the effective sharing of information, rather than the withholding of it.
Companies can establish policies, rules, guidelines, and regulations to their hearts' content. The open nature of an intranet and its TCP/IP underpinnings make it possible-even easy-for people to produce and publish the information they think is important. And they will. The response of a company that is not prepared to shift from industrial- to information-economy thinking is generally to seek recrimination against violators of the rules. In such an environment, employees who perceive that the company has provided them with the means of open, candid, timely, relevant communication and information sharing will take advantage of it and speak their minds or publish Web pages they think are of value. But if management disagrees, the employee is punished. Soon, the intranet falls into disuse as employees return to the old channels of processing such information: in conversations around the water cooler, in carpools, and hallways. The intranet's credibility suffers, and it becomes another unused system in which the company has invested considerable resources.
It is also a waste of time and money for the organization to assign
to designated employees the role of intranet cop. An employee
whose job is to prowl the intranet looking for transgressions,
then alert appropriate management, is an employee who is not
contributing time, effort, and talent to the core activities of
the business. Every resource that is allocated away from core
activities is a drain on the company's ability to conduct its
business.
| NOTE |
Organizations that want to retain top-down, hierarchical structures and the need-to-know philosophy of information management should probably reject the idea of an intranet. |
Intranets, then, are appropriate for organizations that have already adopted information-economy characteristics and for those that are ready to make the move. Organizations that want to retain top-down, hierarchical structures and the need-to-know philosophy of information management should probably reject the idea of an intranet. Like it or not, an intranet will eat through a top-down, hierarchical organization chart like acid.
Here are two events that occurred in real companies on their intranets:
For information-economy companies, these types of communication on an intranet do not pose a threat or a problem; in fact, they could well be viewed as positive:
Another aspect of the intranet viewed by some as a problem is the proliferation of unauthorized home pages written by employees on everything from work interests to hobbies to digitized pictures of the family's last vacation. But employees' home pages can provide tremendous advantages to organizations.
Let's take the example of an employee who needs to assemble a
team of individuals from across company boundaries. (This happens
constantly in organizations, such as in the development of quality
councils or customer satisfaction improvement teams.) This particular
company provides services to nonprofit organizations, and this
particular team is being formed to improve the company's overall
relations with customers whose operations succeed or fail based
on their ability to recruit and retain dedicated volunteers (organizations
such as the Boy Scouts and United Way). The manager wants employees
for this task force who understand the volunteer community, and
in particular, the team would be strongest if it were made up
of employees who themselves worked as volunteers. The manager
enters the keyword volunteer into the search engine, targets
the employee home pages on the intranet, and immediately identifies
several ideal candidates for the task force-candidates who never
would have been evident if the employees themselves did not provide
that personal information.
| NOTE |
In a company striving to compete, there is no such thing as "too much" information. |
The interesting thing about information in general is that we don't know what we need until we need it! In a company striving to compete, there is no such thing as "too much" information. Employee home pages-while creating an environment of real, tangible human beings; affecting morale; and adding a sense of community to the organization-can also produce real, business-oriented advantages like the example just described. I discuss additional potential for employee home pages in other chapters of this book.
The team that will guide the development and implementation of the intranet should be a cross-departmental group comprising key people with a stake in the system. While the composition of the team may vary from organization to organization, you can safely assume that the team will consist of at least the following players:
Other team members can represent staff and/or functional areas
of the organization that ultimately will provide content, the
strategic planning department (if one exists), training and development,
other key content providers, representatives of graphics or design
functions, and the legal department.
| NOTE |
Initial participants and future users of the intranet need to be aware of intranet development. |
The departments that will provide the initial content should not be the only ones who are aware that the intranet is coming. Even if the intranet initially is designed to serve a limited audience with limited information, it will grow. The team needs to prepare a preliminary document that simply and quickly explains the intranet and advises the highest-ranking officer in each department of the information needs that may be required of that department in the future. Department heads should be encouraged to communicate these future requirements to their key employees.
After the planning phase is complete, the resulting planning document should be shared with the same department heads. It should not come as a surprise to any department that they now need to begin providing content, and they should be given the opportunity to participate in the planning process. (Conversely, departments that express no interest in the intranet during the planning phase will most definitely want in on the action once the system is up and running!)
There is no set rule for which of these individuals-if any-should
serve as the team leader. Keep in mind that the role of team leader
is not the equivalent of decision maker or ruler. The team leader
is a facilitator. The job is one of keeping the team moving smoothly
down the path, keeping them on track, preventing them from getting
sidetracked by extraneous issues. The team leader manages the
timetable, making sure that the other members of the team meet
their obligations and deadlines. But all decisions are team decisions,
arrived at by a process of informed consensus.
| NOTE |
All decisions are team decisions, arrived at by a process of informed consensus. |
The selection of a team leader, then, should be based on the skills of the individuals rather than the positions they hold in the company or the departments they represent. The skills that will make for an effective team leader include
The understanding of TCP/IP networks is probably the one component that is most easily learned. Thus, select the individual with a combination of skills rather than network knowledge. Such a leader can work with the systems representative to obtain that skill.
The idea here is not to create a position of power based on who owns the networks or who owns the content; rather, it is to select a leader who is best equipped to guide the consensus-driven team toward their ultimate objectives.
Now the real work begins. You-and the team-need to plan how and
why your intranet will be built. This could be a haphazard process,
but I have simplified things for you by building the following
outline of nine phases of development. You might like to use it
as the foundation of your organization's intranet planning guide.
| NOTE |
Some of the items listed in the outline will be covered in more detail in subsequent chapters. Details on how to conduct the beta test, for example, appear in Four, "Preparing the intranet Blueprint," and training issues are covered in Five, "Issues and Controls." This strategic planning guide is designed to help you identify your needs; refer to other parts of this book for insight on the issues associated with each phase. |
Answer all of the questions as thoroughly as you can. It is important that you seek information from other departments or experts if you don't have the answers yourself. Don't leave any sections of the planning guide incomplete!
Assemble information about the organization that you intend to use on the intranet. Include annual reports, vision statements, mission statements, strategic intent statements, institutional brochures, product brochures, and so on. With these materials available, answer the following questions:
Now it is time to assess the intranet as a tool designed to achieve business objectives.
| Intranet Uses | Short-Term | Mid-Term | Long-Term |
| Company performance data | |||
| Cost savings | |||
| Cross-functional information sharing | |||
| Employee communications | |||
| Employee processes (forms, enrollments, etc.) | |||
| Human resources communications | |||
| Information access | |||
| Morale/image enhancement | |||
| Productivity enhancement | |||
| Sales support | |||
| Teamwork facilitation | |||
| Top-down management communication | |||
| Training and development |
For each use, establish a measurable objective. A measurable objective is a tangible target, such as:
There are a variety of ways to measure accomplishments, but measure you must. A wise person once said, "You can't fix what you can't measure." Thus, you need to be able to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of your intranet effort in order to introduce revisions and corrections to the system, resulting in a more effective intranet that contributes measurably to the bottom line. The results of this comprehensive assessment will also provide fodder for justifying the continued investment in the intranet.
First, decide which quantifiable measures you will use. These are measures that can be expressed as numbers and percentages, such as "a 12 percent increase" or "a $20,000 cost savings." Use the following list to determine what you will measure.
Quantifiable Measurements
Activities (e.g., number of training course enrollments received from online enrollment forms)
Measurement of hits on Web pages
Cost savings
Results of Web-based employee surveys
Results of traditional employee surveys on paper
Productivity enhancement
Other
Next, select the nonquantifiable measures you will use. These
are equally important, because numbers alone will not tell you
what you need to know; you also need to understand why
the numbers say what they do. Use the following list to list the
evaluation tools (or nonquantifiable measurements) you will use.
| NOTE |
Numbers alone will not tell you what you need to know; you also need to understand why the numbers say what they do. |
Nonquantifiable ("Qualified") Measurements
Focus groups
Unsolicited feedback from employees (e.g., e-mail)
Solicited feedback (e.g., comment box, suggestion area)
Other
Anecdotal
Based on the results of this exercise, you should be able to produce measurements that tell you what is happening and why. You can use that information both to justify the intranet and to make corrections to it.
In developing the actual measurement tools, be sure that the elements of the intranet you measure and evaluate are tied directly to the objectives you set. Too often, measurements and objectives are not linked. An objective for a training department may be stated this way, for example: "Increase the number of employees who pass the certification test on the first try by 20 percent." Yet an evaluation of the training department will say, "Comments from participants in the class indicate that these were the most interesting and well-taught classes they've ever attended." These are not linked-interest in the classes is not a measure of how many passed on the first try. Be sure that your objectives are reflected directly in the measurement and evaluation tools you create.
Identify the audiences for whom the intranet is intended. Assign
a short-term, mid-term, and long-term label to each appropriate
audience, as in Table 3.2. (Remember, an intranet can begin as
a tool for management only and expand later to include all employees,
or it can begin as a tool for administrative staff and expand
later to include manufacturing employees, and so on.) Several
of the categories listed cross over into others, so not all categories
will be appropriate. Use only those that meet the characteristics
of your specific organization.
| Department | Short-Term | Mid-Term | Long-Term |
| All employees | |||
| Clerical employees | |||
| Managers | |||
| Manufacturing employees | |||
| Marketing employees (corporate) | |||
| Marketing employees (field) | |||
| Operational employees (manufacturing, marketing, research and development, etc.) | |||
| Sales employees (corporate) | |||
| Sales employees (field) | |||
| Specialists (doctors, research scientists, etc.) | |||
| Employees in specific departments (Human Resources, Legal, Finance, etc.) | |||
| Supervisors | |||
| Union employees |
For each category, indicate the number of employees. Then determine
how many of those employees have direct access to a computer workstation.
Using Table 3.3, determine how many of those workstations are
already networked and how many are already configured to access
the Internet.
| Department | Number of Employees | Number of Employees on Network | Number of Employees with Internet Access |
| All employees | |||
| Clerical employees | |||
| Managers | |||
| Manufacturing employees | |||
| Marketing employees (corporate) | |||
| Marketing employees (field) | |||
| Operational employees (manufacturing, marketing, research and development, etc.) | |||
| Sales employees (corporate) | |||
| Sales employees (field) | |||
| Specialists (doctors, research scientists, etc.) | |||
| Employees in specific departments (Human Resources, Legal, Finance, etc.) | |||
| Supervisors | |||
| Union employees |
In this phase, you identify the products, services, communications, and transactions that employees will be able to engage in and use on the intranet. These are the actual tactical elements of the intranet that will need to be built in order for it to be functional and serve specific needs.
Existing materials that can be defined as a unit or item that
will be transferred part-and-parcel to the intranet are the products
you should identify. Products can also be tools that employees
can use to do their jobs, which are distinct from other parts
of the intranet. Use the following table to check off the products
you plan to incorporate.
| Products | Yes | No |
| Employee handbooks and manuals | ||
| Utilities for work-flow management | ||
| Other |
Certain components of the intranet will provide a direct service
to the individual employee using it. Employees would go to these
sections in order to avail themselves of the service. Use the
following table to check off the services you plan to incorporate.
| Services | Yes | No |
| Employee directory | ||
| Internal job postings | ||
| New-hire orientation | ||
| Training and development (e.g., self-paced tutorials) | ||
| Other |
Identify the information that is published for other employees
to access as needed, as well as two-way communication that engages
more than one employee in a discussion or conversation. Use the
following table to check off the communications you plan to incorporate.
| Communications | Yes | No |
| Departmental publication of material | ||
| Company events calendar | ||
| Cross-functional, many-to-many communication (e.g., newsgroups) | ||
| Competitor/marketplace information | ||
| Designated areas where specialists can communicate with each other (e.g., engineering discussion group) | ||
| Employee benefits information | ||
| Other |
Finally, identify the parts of the intranet in which data is actually
sent from the client to the server in order to complete some type
of transaction. For example, use the following table:
| Client Server Transactions | Yes | No |
| Benefits enrollment | ||
| Performance evaluations | ||
| Budgeting | ||
| Training (e.g., signing up for training classes) | ||
| Financial reporting | ||
| Other |
The intranet will require support from a number of different sources. Your organization may have most of the resources in-house, but some-such as graphic design-may have to be acquired from outside vendors. Even if you have the expertise within the company, the individuals who do that work may not have time for a new assignment.
The first step toward addressing issues of resources is to identify
the kind of support that will be required for the intranet. The
following table lists some ideas.
| Support Requirements | Yes | No |
| Ongoing Support and Maintenance | ||
| Script coding for special interactive functions | ||
| Graphics development | ||
| Server backups and maintenance | ||
| Content Development | ||
| Content system management | ||
| Regular updating of manuals and other text | ||
| Consultation on departmental site development | ||
| Training | ||
| Initial training | ||
| New-hire training | ||
| Telephone support for employees with questions or problems |
The publication of material-particularly when it is available to anybody-along with the transmission of information, is subject to legal issues of a dizzying variety. You should include your general counsel-or somebody from the top lawyer's staff-on the task force to address these issues. Each company's attorneys will identify different issues that are important to that organization. However, key issues cover everything from privacy to libel.
The task force must identify the legal issues that need to be addressed in rolling out the intranet, including the following:
One of the hottest issues companies face in the quest to develop
any kind of networked computer environment is security. There
are a finite number of solutions to a host of issues. First, identify
the issues that face your organization and determine whether these
are high- medium- or low-level security matters, using this table:
| Security Issue | High | Medium | Low |
| Access to the intranet from unwanted outside visitors | |||
| Confidential data | |||
| Protection from viruses | |||
| Desire to ensure that internal information stays inside | |||
| Competitors' access to data | |||
| Internal hackers | |||
| Other |
Next, use the following table to determine which security precautions
and/or systems will be required for your intranet in order to
address these issues.
| Security Precautions Required | Yes | No |
| Data encryption | ||
| Fire walls | ||
| Multiple server locations (mirrors) | ||
| Password authentication | ||
| Explicit policies with clear consequences for violations | ||
| Other |
The final phase of the strategic plan is establishing a timetable. Based on your assessment of the eight categories of information listed in phases one through eight, plan a rollout using the flowchart shown in Figure 3.1.
The information you develop by completing the strategic plan will help you assign costs and benefits for a financial plan. The financial plan itself has two components: expenses and benefits.
Regardless of the potential for cost savings or productivity enhancement,
the expenses associated with the intranet are real dollars the
organization will need to invest as part of a formal budget in
order to fund development. Based on the results of the strategic
plan, associate a cost with each of the following components of
the intranet. (For example, the hardware you require will be contingent
upon-among other things-the security issues you have identified;
that is, your hardware costs will increase if you need to add
a fire wall.) Be sure to incorporate all cost-related elements
identified up to this point in the expense column, using the following
table:
| Requirement | |
| Hardware (servers, TCP/IP conversion, etc.) | |
| Software (servers, browser clients, etc.) | |
| Programming for interactivity | |
| Technical and content development | |
| Training | |
| Rollout communications | |
| Back-office support (databases, security, updates, transaction processing, backups, etc.) | |
| Outside consulting costs | |
| Graphic design | |
| First-year content management and updating | |
| Planned first-year expansion of features and functions | |
| Other | |
| TOTAL |
The plus side of a cost-benefit analysis is, of course, the benefits. An intranet, unlike the Internet, cannot be used as a pure profit generator. You cannot directly sell products or services, since your audience consists of employees instead of customers. To balance the expense of the intranet, therefore, you need to offer evidence that the intranet can, in fact, provide a measurable return on the investment.
Earlier in this chapter, in phase three, you developed an extensive system for measuring and evaluating how effective the intranet would be at meeting specific, measurable objectives. Now is the time to put those measurements to work-to provide the "benefit" portion of the cost-benefit analysis. You have just totaled the cost. Now, based on the measurement and evaluation, you can balance the cost with the benefits that will be accrued-benefits you are prepared to show meet bottom-line objectives for the organization.
The actual dollars to invest do not seem like a drain on the organization if they are used to help the organization meet its strategic goals. For example, if your measurement can quantify an increase in the effectiveness of cross-geographic teams, increase the speed of product introductions, make telecommuting more effective, or allow sales personnel to share information that results in increased revenues, the cost for the system that makes these things possible becomes an investment rather than an expense.
Detail all of the ways you have identified that the intranet will
save money. This is generally based on analyzing the current cost
of printing various materials, subtracting the cost of producing
the same document in an online version, and showing the difference
as the amount saved. For example, your cost-savings portion of
the financial plan might include notations such as this one:
| Description | Intranet | |
| Cost to print | ||
| HTML conversion | $5,000 | |
| Total first-year cost | $5,000 | |
| Annual update | N/A (HR maintains update as routine task) | |
| Total annual cost | $ 0 |
When generating this portion of the financial plan, be sure to include all of the costs associated with printing documents in the total current cost column. Printing often is accounted for in different ways, so be sure all of the various categories of expenses have been accounted for, including:
Other cost savings can be accrued by replacing procedures that
have costs associated with them, such as performance evaluations
and salary reviews. The notation for this cost savings might resemble
Table 3.4 and Table 3.5:
| Description | ||
| Guideline booklet for supervisors | ||
| Individual assessment forms | ||
| Department summary forms | ||
| Data processing | ||
| Programming for database interactivity | ||
| Supervisor training | ||
| First-year total |
| Description | ||
| Duplicate print program | ||
| Update total system to reflect plan changes | ||
| Database management | ||
| Subsequent year total | ||
| Net Savings |
At the end of the cost-savings section of the financial plan, add up three separate columns of savings-the first column will reflect first-year savings. These may be small, or even nonexistent, based on the high cost of implementation. The columns listing the savings for each subsequent year, however, should be significant, since most of the programming accomplished for the launch of the intranet will continue to work, even with various changes to policies and plan designs. Be sure to include the cost of the activities without the intranet for comparison.
The bottom line of the cost-savings section should look something
like Table 3.6.
| Years of saving | |
| Current (non-intranet) expense | |
| First-year savings | |
| Second-year savings | |
| Third-year savings | |
| Fourth-year savings | |
| Fifth-year savings | |
| TOTAL FIVE-YEAR SAVINGS |
The summary makes it clear that the intranet, in this particular
fictitious case, will cost the company $491,911 less than using
the current processes of printing, distributing via company mail,
completing forms by hand, and rekeying data.
| NOTE |
What company wouldn't want to save nearly half a million dollars? |
The cost of meetings makes up a final category of actual cost savings you can quantify. How many meetings can be eliminated now that team members will use the intranet to conduct much of the activity that formerly required the meetings?
The features you embrace in the intranet can substitute for meetings of different kinds. Chat rooms and newsgroups can facilitate some discussions. Internet phone capabilities (such as the new Microsoft NetMeeting) can take the place of other meetings. Video conferencing using Internet technology, such as the CU-See Me system, allows for face-to-face meetings. Even the effective use of e-mail and e-mail mailing lists can replace the need for some meetings.
Even if some face-to-face interaction is still required, the total number of team meetings can be reduced, generating savings in plane tickets, hotel costs, rental car fees, and other associated expenses.
Cost savings are easy to quantify. Assigning a dollar value to productivity enhancements can be much, much dicier; you are better off addressing the earnings potential in a nonquantitative way, rather than preparing arbitrary figures you will be called upon later to validate.
You can make a compelling case in the financial plan for such
productivity-enhancing attributes of the intranet by listing each
category of enhancement against a current weakness the organization
suffers; this information was developed in phase one of the strategic
plan. A simple two-column format such as the following will make
clear the advantages an intranet can bring to the organization.
| Current Issue | Intranet Solution |
| Staff in human resources spends 30% of their time answering employees' questions that are answered in the employee handbook. | Putting the employee handbook on the intranet makes it easier to look up answers than to call. |
| Manufacturing often uses outdated procedures from engineering, requiring expensive rework. | Archiving documents from engineering on the intranet for retrieval by manufacturing employees will reduce the need for rework. |
In addition to the qualitative assessment of productivity enhancements, you also can benchmark the actual savings generated by other intranets to offer proof that such enhancements pay off. To conduct a benchmark, call organizations in the same business and ask for an estimate of the financial implications of the productivity-enhancing elements of their intranets.
You also can research intranet literature for insights into the actual dollars organizations believe they have generated. Business Week, Fortune, and dozens of other magazines have published articles about intranets that are in place at companies across the United States. The most efficient way to search this literature is through an online information retrieval service such as Lexis-Nexis. Using Lexis-Nexis, you can enter keywords to narrow your search so that it returns only documents that discuss dollars generated through the intranet's ability to help people work more efficiently. On Lexis-Nexis, for example, a search might begin with a query for intranet! and saving or cost. Based on the results, you can narrow the search, looking within the set of articles that is retrieved for all those that match the keyword cost-benefit.
The final financial planning document will clearly show the hard-dollar cost savings and the potential for helping employees produce more thorough, efficient work faster and with less effort.
If you already have a mandate to produce the intranet, you can
skip this section and go directly to the next one, "Preparing
to Manage Content." If, however, your planning so far has
been part of an effort to convince senior management to invest
in an intranet, one step remains. You need to show them what you're
talking about.
| NOTE |
An intranet is a powerful system because at its core it is a visual tool. |
All the narrative descriptions in the world, penned by the best communicators, will fail to generate the kind of excitement and understanding that five minutes pointing and clicking through an intranet can create. You don't want to invest an inordinate amount of time or money on a demo, but you do want it to convey the power and potential of the intranet to an audience that is trained to be hard to convince.
The intranet demo should include a simple interface with primary, home-page links to four or five key content areas. One trick is to select content areas that appeal to the individuals to whom you will present the demo. For example, if one of the key decision makers is a CEO with a passion for "Total Quality Management," be sure to build a rich TQM site as a direct link from the demo's home page.
You don't need to build every page and link that might exist on the finished product. Instead, build two or three for each area; the rest can be unlinked examples. After showing two or three simulated links in your demonstration, you can say, "If this were the real thing, this link would take you to a form where you could see the schedule of TQM classes and enroll online for the one you want to take."
You have two options for building your demo. One is to take advantage of existing server space and company networks to make a real online system. The other is to build a demo that runs on a notebook computer. Either way, you want to demonstrate the system one-on-one to the various decision makers so you can appeal to each individual's issues and concerns, rather than try to sell it in a group environment. One-on-one, you can allow decision makers to do the pointing and clicking themselves, making it a more personal, intimate, and realistic experience.
For interactivity, you don't need to do any actual programming. When I worked for one of the world's biggest toy companies, I found that toy buyers were introduced to new products with "looks-like" and "works-like" models. Looks-like models had the exact look of a finished product, but didn't actually do anything-they didn't walk, talk, cry, or wet. Works-like models didn't look anything like the finished product, but they made all the moves and sounds the finished product would make. Toy buyers made their purchasing decisions based on these models.
For your intranet demo, you can get by with a looks-like model. Take an interactive phone directory, for example. You can make the search page look just like a real search page. Clicking on the Search button, though, won't actually activate a script that searches a database. It will return the HTML-coded page that you have written in advance to mimic the result of a directory search. By the way, if you create a search result page that shows all of the employees named Smith, make sure you enter smith in the search field when conducting your demo.
Ultimately, the demo is designed to convince the key decision makers of the value of the intranet. Based on the level of enthusiasm the demo generates, it could also serve as the initial storyboard for your intranet, which we will discuss in Four, "Preparing an intranet Blueprint."
With both a strategic plan and a financial plan under your belt, the road map exists to develop your intranet. The only thing missing is the content. While you have identified broad categories for content, the actual documents that will occupy those categories need to be developed. For you and your core intranet development team to undertake all content development alone would lead all of you to a rubber room in very short order.
An intranet-like its big cousin, the Internet-is a community effort.
The content that attracts readers is developed by those who have
access to the material that might be of interest to various members
of the intranet audience. Thus, you will rely on the various elements
of the organization to produce content to fit into the categories
you have defined in the strategic plan.
| NOTE |
The intranet can grow and expand as those who use it identify new opportunities that can be exploited, based on the intranet's capabilities. |
After the intranet has been in place for a while, members of the organizational community will identify new categories of content outside the boundaries defined by the strategic plan, and that's okay. The intranet can grow and expand as those who use it identify new opportunities that can be exploited, based on the intranet's capabilities. But stick to the strategic plan initially in order to produce a coherent, cohesive intranet that is well organized and easy to use when it is launched.
When you are ready to produce the substance for the launch of the intranet, convene a meeting of representatives from each department that will be supplying content. The goal of the meeting is to ensure that content providers understand all aspects of the intranet, and to generate ideas for what content will be of the greatest value for the most employees.
The meeting I'm suggesting will not be a small, intimate gathering. For one hospital network in the Pacific Northwest, this meeting involved over 90 employees from dozens of departments and functions. To facilitate a meeting of that size and complexity, it is advisable to have a meeting facilitator run the event.
Based on the strategic plan, you may determine that content will
be provided by the employee communications, human resources, legal,
finance, sales, marketing, public relations, research and development,
marketing research, facilities, manufacturing, and distribution
departments. In addition to at least one representative from each
of these departments, you should invite several systems and communications
professionals. The agenda for the meeting could follow the plan
shown here:
Intranet Content Providers Preliminary Meeting Agenda Welcome Intranet Briefing Systems Overview Demo Team Breakouts Team Reports Summary Questions and Answers Next Steps
Let's review each of the components of the meeting one at a time.
After greeting participants and outlining the agenda for the day, you (or an appropriate presenter) should spend some time explaining the intranet: what it is, what it can do for the organization, why the decision has been made to adopt it, and how it works. Then introduce the intranet development team. The presentation should summarize the strategic plan, notably the measurable objectives that have been established for the intranet. If all participants have the same understanding about the intranet, they should all develop ideas for content consistent with the goals and objectives established for the system. The briefing also should cover the components of the intranet that already have been established by the intranet development team. For example, if the team has determined that the employee handbook, the benefits-plan descriptions, and the employee directory will be components of the intranet, that should be explained so other content providers do not duplicate decisions that have already been made.
Show the team the demo that you built, since nothing clarifies the intranet as well as a visual tour. If you are able to log into a real intranet, such as another company's that is allowing you temporary external access, you can show that as well. However, your demo is a critical element since it was built based on your organization's structure and addresses the organization's communication and information needs.
A representative from the systems department provides a brief, layman's description of the systems required to make the intranet work. This is particularly valuable if the infrastructure already exists; departments vying for limited budget dollars will know that the intranet, to which they are being asked to contribute time and energy, is not directly siphoning resources away from their departments. If infrastructure does need to be built, the meeting participants will understand why it will take a certain amount of time before the system is running.
I can't emphasize enough that the intranet is visual. You can spend hours explaining it, but you won't gain the same level of understanding you will from a five-minute demonstration. If you have built a demo, you can show it to the assemblage; project it from a laptop onto a screen using LCD projection technology. If you have not built a demo, you can use one that already exists online. Apple Computer has unveiled a demo intranet for the fictitious Acme Fruit and Nut Company at http://www.acmefruit.com. The human resources consulting firm of Alexander & Alexander Consulting Group offers a demonstration of the human resources component of an intranet at http://hr-online.radford.com/hr-online.
Working with the meeting facilitator and based on the number and types of participants who will attend the meeting, work out a way to break the participants into teams. The meeting facilitator introduces the exercise. Teams of three to five employees work well, with one systems and one communications person assigned to each team. Each team should select a recorder/spokesperson.
The assignment for each team: Identify problems in communications,
information access, teamwork, and other issues that keep the individual
participants, their peers, and colleagues from doing their jobs
as efficiently and effectively as possible. Working with the communications
and systems professionals, identify the nature of content for
the intranet that would offer a solution to each problem. The
recorder/spokesperson will note each problem and the identified
solution on a flipchart, along with the content category under
which it fits. For example:
| Problem | Solution | Category |
| Organization charts are never current | Maintain up-to-date org charts on the intranet | Human resources |
The meeting facilitator walks the room during the team breakouts, offering assistance and answering questions as they arise.
After the teams have concluded their work, each recorder/spokesperson reports the team's conclusions to the rest of the group. The meeting facilitator collects the flipchart sheets for collating after the meeting.
When the reports are finished, the intranet implementation team leader or the meeting facilitator should spend a few minutes reviewing the key messages that emerged from the team reports. This is an opportunity to identify any consistent themes that emerged from multiple teams, as well as areas of disagreement that need to be resolved.
At the conclusion of the summary, it should be clear to all participants that a range of content has been identified that can help the company achieve the goals prescribed for the intranet in the strategic plan.
With the team tasks behind them, the participants can raise questions about the process, the development of the intranet, and anything else that's on their minds. Members of the intranet development team should provide the answers.
Fundamentally a call to action, the next step is to seek commitment from the various participants to provide content for the intranet that relates directly to their own departmental activities, and to take responsibility for maintaining the currency and accuracy of that content. Advise the participants that they will receive support from appropriate systems and communications professionals for design, layout, navigation, and other technical, tactical aspects of content development.
Specific next steps for the participants will focus on assembling appropriate information for eventual conversion to HTML and brainstorming within their departments about how to offer the information in the most useful, valuable manner. A follow-up meeting should be announced as well. This meeting, designed to administer to the details of preparing and placing content, is discussed in Chapter Four, "Preparing an intranet Blueprint." After the meeting, the solutions identified by each team can be collected under category headings that will ultimately lead to the storyboard or flowchart that will be discussed in Four.
If you think it sounds like a lot of work to complete the steps outlined in this chapter, you're right. But don't ignore it. Have you heard the expression, "There's never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over?" Unfortunately, where significant corporate investment is concerned, there may not, in fact, be an opportunity to do it over. You may find the project scrapped as soon as it fails to measure up to the billing.
In this chapter, I have provided guidelines and outlines to help justify the intranet, assemble the right team to shepherd the intranet through its infancy, assess its potential for your organization's unique situations and environment, prepare the cost-benefit argument in support of the intranet, and produce agreement on the nature and categories of content for the launch of the system. With these details behind us, we can look at the preparations that lead up to the launch of the actual system.