A company intranet will work only when it works for you, but to achieve a successfully functioning company intranet, you need to put some work into it as well. It is common for company intranet systems to have a limited life span. It is not that the system itself fails, but the users of the system subtly, gradually and unintentionally pulls the plug on it.

When considering a new intranet system or an intranet revamp, a new look and feel will have employees excited for a while, but design is far from the only important factor. Chances are that participation perished because it stopped assisting employees, it probably stopped (or never started) adding functional value to their daily work routines.

The Recipe for the Failing Intranet

Here is what not to do…

• Clutter it with useless content.
• Upload documents in random folders so that no one could ever allocate them again.
• Keep folders, documents, article etc. that are outdated and no longer relevant to anyone or anything, so that they can pile up and make the searching process a nightmare.
• Have a group of employees who never checks their intranet so that you have to send them things twice, on the intranet and via email, just in case.
• Have things that do not work, like the events calendar that is by default set on the year 2000.
• Finally, make sure that the login link is small in the bottom left corner of the page so that most users will give up before even attempting to begin.

And this brings me to these conclusions:

• Too much clutter ends up restricting movement.
• If everybody doesn’t use it, nobody can use it.
• Things that do not work once will never work again, simply because they won’t be given a second chance by the stressed out user.

Create Content Flow Maps

In the initial setup, research and implement proper usability design initiatives. Find out from staff members what information they need most to do their jobs, where they get it from and where it is supposed to be sent. With this information, you are equipped with constructing a content flow map. For example, in a company of knowledge workers, you are constantly generating content. Your content needs to travel to another person in order for that person to do his or her job, and in order for you to have done the job initially, you needed content from another person in order to complete it.

Such maps need to form the core of the system, and the ideal is for intranet users to be able to travel these mapped routes in minimum time and with the greatest of ease and convenience.

Events, to-do lists, meetings, contacts information, departmental information, client feedback, news feeds, progress updates, notifications. These are all the things that can be managed on your intranet, things that in turn makes your work environment smoothly manageable.

So start by planning it properly. You need an Intranet governance plan.

• How will content be structured?
• Who will have the authority to add and delete content?
• Who will be responsible for managing and maintaining which sections?

The responsibility of the intranet should be shared amongst those that use it. In that way they are accountable to themselves and others for maintaining the machine that makes internal work flow possible.

In With the Intranet, Out With the Old

What happens is that in a company of knowledge workers, content is constantly flying all over the place. Everyone needs to keep track of the latest version of a report, the most recently edited logo, and the latest communications with a client. There is so much space for things to go wrong without a well-planned intranet. If the content flow is not managed, you end up receiving emails with subject lines reading “2^nd New Edited 5^th_Draft of Proposal (final copy) (revised yesterday): Please edit and forward”. This is where a properly functional intranet system is crucial.

If you want to start and maintain good habits, start with eradicating the bad ones that are substitute to it. Emails, like the one described above, sticky notes that end up on the bottom of your shoe, desk calendars distorted under coffee stains…. an intranet is an incredible technology that renders these horrible office rituals redundant.

In Closing

Staff members should not have to be motivated, urged or even threatened to use the intranet. The intranet system, how it has been set up and how it is managed, should put it on a level where it becomes a motivation in itself.

Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency. For more information contact 012 664 4227 or email to info@soundidea.co.za

Carla van Straten is a writer for Sound Idea Digital | Carla@soundidea.co.za |@SoundIdeaLMS | Sound Idea Digital l www.soundidea.co.za

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