Intranets

Traditionally, intranets have been used as repositories of business policy and processes, general news and the staff directory. They tend to be very content heavy and poorly structured, making it hard for people to find anything, let alone comply with policy and procedure.

Over time, intranets grow in an ad hoc manner as a by-product of the backgrounds of the staff responsible for site development. Often, these people are skilled in web design and communications, without possessing a solid knowledge of the broader business and staff needs. As a result, very few intranets have placed a strong emphasis on assisting staff with core business activities and have consequently operated at a suboptimal level, by focussing on policies and procedures that are separated from actual work.

In general, the intranet should support core business functions and self service, but it’s not enough to just have hundreds of pages of policy and procedure — no one will read it any way. If the intranet can’t be used to support work, then people use other methods of managing and completing their work such as Excel spreadsheets and Access databases. The intranet needs to provide people with a workbench which directly supports work activities.

However, intranets are not just about work — they should also provide support to reinforce the social and cultural aspects of the organisation. The intranet can be a communication tool between management and staff and between staff.

How do I know I need a new intranet?

Most organisations have an intranet that grows organically over time. If you see any of the following in your organisation, then you can benefit from a new performance driven intranet:

There are many different intranets across your business, all with a different look and feel, content, and behaviour
Your intranet budget is excessive, and it’s hard to quantify its return on investment
Content and processes are always out of date
Staff can’t find anything, or they only use the staff phone book
Staff performance shows significant variation in compliance with policy and procedure
Your back office functions are overworked with transactions that could be easily managed through self service

The benefits of a performance driven intranet

Taking your current intranet from where it is to one that directly drives performance and compliance will give you the following benefits:

Quickly and easily capture and distribute tacit knowledge to share successful working strategies
Reduce load on back-office functions through easy to use self service transactions
Improved performance and compliance with policy and procedure
Centralised access to applications, providing a single point of entry for all enterprise applications
Reduced training as the intranet will provide ‘just in time training’ while staff are performing their activities
A scalable, flexible structure that allows change to be made without requiring wholesale redesign

For more information on how PTG Global can design and deliver a high performance, easy to use intranet that drives productivity and compliance, email us at info@ptg-global.com or call 1300 660 973.