Building a Successful Intranet

Launching a Successful Intranet

• Key #1: Balance Competing Needs

• Key #2: Focus Your Efforts

• Key #3: Keep it Simple

• Key #4: Commit to the Cause

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Key #1Balancing Competing Needs

User Experience: Don’t forget the humans!•Who are your users? What are their needs? •What features or functionality sets assist the most or the most important segments?

Content is King•Who will own the creation, management and maintenance of content? •What content gaps exist now? How does your content support KPIs and goals?

Technology: Take the Long View•As you build the platform for the Intranet, will it accommodate future iterations or needs? How will technology prevent one-off websites or solutions? •How can we strike a balance between automating processes without overcomplicating them?

Key #1 Balance Competing Needs

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Key #2Focus Your Efforts

Productivity

Community

Self-Service

Maintenance

• Find and leverage resources that support employee task completion• Provide access to enterprise applications• Assist in cross-departmental knowledge sharing and management

• Help new employees navigate the organization and how it works• Communicate across departments and business units• Share knowledge and leverage the expertise of colleagues

• Help employees identify and obtain relevant training• Learn and follow official processes and procedures• Manage their relationship with the organization

• Keep abreast of current initiatives• Find out about events, promote one’s own events• Access company news, alerts, deadlines and announcements

• Update and evolve the site• Maintain consistency in look, feel and language• Better accommodate new functionality without creating “one off” systems

Internal Communications

Key #2 Focus your Efforts

Personalization or Customization

• Use Active Directory or other mechanism to detect users. Differ content based on role, geography, hierarchy, department

• Allow users to explicitly personalize their experience

Key #2 Focus your Efforts – Productivity Examples

Bundling Data/Content Across Platforms

• With many “home grown” content management systems in place or ad hoc sites and platforms, bundle content logically and display it in one place

Key #2 Focus your Efforts – Productivity Examples

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Key #3Keep it Simple

Key #3 Keep it Simple

Search & Guided Navigation• #1 issue with intranets

• Mega Menus

• Faceted Search

• Renewed emphasis on taxonomy and filter search

Clean Layout• Avoid overwhelming users with

content.

• Don’t worry about being “above the fold”

• Personalization/customization can help prioritize content by user group

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Key #4Commit to the Cause

Intranet teams are growing. Still only 1.4% of an organization’s entire employee pool, it’s double from last year

Key #4 Commit to the Cause

Key #4 Commit to the Cause

Communicate• Intranet teams should not be “behind the curtain”

• Communicate with internal divisions and departments about upcoming enhancements, features

• Ask users for feedback regularly

Govern• Create rules for where content “lives” and ownership

• Regularly review analytics and search metrics

• Review taxonomy for enhancements

• Create content style guide to set tone and educate users on best practices

• Set expiration alerts on content to ensure it is accurate, relevant for users

In Conclusion

• Key #1: Focus Your Efforts

• Key #2: Weigh the Impact

• Key #3: Keep it Simple

• Key #4: Commit to the Cause

Contact Information:

Meghan Glasgow7901 Jones Branch Drive, Suite 400McLean, VA 22102703-289-52000mglasgow@navigationarts.com

www.navigationarts.com

Enhanced Search Functionality

• Federated search• Introduce or enhance

faceted search capability

• Improve employee profile or skills expertise search capability

• List most commonly searched terms

Key #1 Focus your Efforts – Productivity Examples

Faceted Search Personalization Aggregation