Before replacing an intranet, first check whether the original definition still holds true. Digital workspaces continue to evolve…
When assisting an organisation planning to upgrade or introduce social systems like intranets, the first question I ask is ‘What do you mean by intranet?’ Define the system. It sounds obvious but I so often see project teams stumble over the definition. If you can’t define the system, how can you know what to build? This issue is critical to ensure the right investment and resources are made available to deliver what’s needed.
Intranets are particularly susceptible to this problem because, like their cousin – the Internet – capabilities continue to evolve. We’ve come a long way from publishing a web site with some text and images and the innovations are showing no signs of slowing down just yet. Yet sometimes, ‘something like our public-facing web site’ is what I hear. That’s not an intranet. That’s just a web site sitting on the internal network.
To help, I’ve put together a short five minute web cast. Opening with what may sound like an unimportant question – should your intranet have a name?
Enjoy!
The slides can also be viewed and downloaded from Slideshare
Related posts
- Creating successful intranets – Apr 2013
- Do you need a portal? – Aug 2012
- Imagining the future intranet – Feb 2012
And, well I’ve been talking about this topic before
- Defining intranets – Oct 2010
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