Effective intranets – tools of innovation

Intranets are being used to aid today’s knowledge worker instead of just being a place to download the company letterheads. “We are seeing changes in companies,” says Kate Elphick, director of Digital Bridges. “Companies are managing and nurturing innovation and projects through the clever use of their intranets.”

One of the major technological changes which we are seeing is the use of interactivity over the internet. This means the websites are not just a brochure anymore, they are used for collaboration and have become based around communities. This trend has followed through to company intranets. “Intranets are now being used as an engagement tool for staff,” says Elphick. “You can use your intranet to track the various projects in the company.” This way, teams of people can collaborate on the same project without sitting together.

This is done by creating an intranet with a blogging system and project management software, allowing the teams busy with the task to blog about their progress or note problems. This way there is a written record of each step of the process, the problems encountered and the solutions they found. The project management software also allows them to keep track of and record progress on each task. “This is a great way to have a real time record of the dialogue on each project.”

The first step to creating an intranet is to look at your budget. According to Elphick there are six major expenses which you should budget for:

1 Thinking time = 25% of your budget

This process is the most important process when it comes to making a successful intranet. It is during this phase that the planning and strategizing will be done for the intranet.

Your planning can either be done by consultants, yourself or a staff member. But whoever does the job should spend time working through the company, researching the processes and needs of every department and formulating a plan for the intranet. It is also a good idea to use someone with enough technical knowledge of intranets to know what is possible and how something can be done.

Your outcomes here must include: User requirements specs, functional specs and an intranet strategy which is linked to your business strategy. These deliverables will then be used phase 2

2 Technical development = 40% of your budget

This process needs to be done by professionals. “It doesn’t matter what technology you use as long as you can get the specs that you want from your intranet.”

3 Create an Avatar = 20% of your budget

Creating an Avatar for your intranet will give the intranet a personality. It will become the voice of the intranet. “The trick here is to give your Avatar a personality which matches the company,” says Elphick. “For example, we built an intranet for an accounting firm. Because accountants are somber, we create one with a no nonsense approach. For a marketing firm we created a fun, frenzied, multi tasking avatar that fitted in with their way of working.”

4 Dedicated management process = ongoing expense

You will need a person or a few people to be in charge of populating and monitoring the intranet. “Ideally this should be a collaboration between HR, who understands the functional needs of the company, and marketing who understand how to present information to an audience.”

5 Nonstop development = 50% of the initial development costs per anum

This will be used for new developments. As technology grows and changes you will need to adapt the intranet to keep up.

6 Communication to employees = 15% of your budget

Despite the fact that intranets are extremely useful tools one of the biggest challenges facing companies is how to get employees to use adopt the new technology. “There are four steps to the process of technology adoption,” says Elphick. These are:

Step 1: Ease of use

Before you start creating the intranet you need to look at the organizational processes. How are people doing what they are doing?

Once you have this information you use it as a backbone for how the intranet will work. This way you are using the same processes which people are used to. Doing this will make the adoption a lot easier than if they had to learn a new way of working.

Step 2: Make it useful

You also need to plan the intranet around the KPI’s of individuals within the organization. If people find the intranet to be a useful tool which can help them then they are much more likely to adopt the new technology.

Step 3: Make the user look good

Create a system that allows each user to have a profile. These could include photos, awards, skills, interests and other areas that will make the user look good. “Creating profiles is a great way to get personal investment in the intranet,” says Elphick. “It also allows people to connect with other like minded people within the company.”

The profiles also allow you to search for skill sets and interests on a company wide level, this makes finding people for new teams or projects a lot easier.

Another benefit is that you can get to know the people on your team in a different light. And it allows for the formation of interest groups outside of work.

The most important part of an intranet is to plan it well from the beginning. A well planned, well executed intranet will be an invaluable tool for any business.

If you would like to know more about digital bridges then you can visit their site at www.digitalbridges.co.za

This article was published in Succeed magazine