A very simple but very effective improvement to the intranet is to ensure that all staff login to the site in order to use it. This allows a number of immediate benefits to be offered, as well as providing a foundation for future enhancements. That this is worth mentioning is an indication that many intranets are run on a shoestring, or have grown incrementally over time. These 'ad-hoc' intranets are often supported by a minimal (or non-existent) IT platform with no one positioned to implement these types of core features. This article explores the benefits of implementing staff logins, and

There is no doubt that fuelled by a compelling business need, a portal solution can provide real business advantage. However provisioning a portal when it is a content-managed site that is required, will result in the most expensive website or intranet that an organisation can build. What then should those organisations keen on entering the portal space consider? Using two case studies this article explores portals and seeks to answer this question by taking a look at: the difference between 'portal as a concept' and 'portal as a technology' the types of business initiatives that are well-suited to a portal

It is not enough to focus an intranet redesign on just the home page, global navigation and page layout.

Most intranets have some form of policies and procedures, typically focusing on authoring guidelines and standards. The question is: are these the right policies to have? In many cases, intranet teams have established policies that they find difficult to enforce, while missing the opportunity to develop policies that will be much more beneficial for both the intranet team and the site itself. This briefing takes a different look at the role of intranet policies, and outlines five policies that all intranet teams should develop. The role of intranet policies Policies and procedures are all too often written as administrative or

Improving the effectiveness of internal communications is often one of the key goals underpinning corporate intranets. In practice, this is often reflected in 'latest news' section on the home page of most intranets. While news on the home page is certainly widespread, the question needs to be asked: how effective is it? This article explores the role of the intranet as a news channel, revisiting some of the assumptions about how best to deliver online news within an organisation. News on the home page News is often the central element of intranet home pages, filling up the central area of

There is very real cost of the reliance on email: the duplication of information management activities, which has a significant impact on productivity, consistency and…

While news on the intranet home page is widespread, the question needs to be asked: how effective is it?

This briefing takes a different look at the role of intranet policies, and outlines five policies that all intranet teams should develop.

The intranet needs to have a strong brand, a sense of identity that, at a basic level, distinguishes it from the public website and other information sources within the organisation. Beyond this, the intranet brand should be designed to build staff trust, and to convey a clear sense of what the intranet can offer and when it should be used. This briefing explores the role of the intranet's brand identity, as well as outlining how to put it into practice. Lack of identity Too many intranets consist of nothing more than a collection of many different intranet sub-sites, published by

Staff should be able to confidently, quickly and accurately step from the home page of the intranet towards the information they require. If staff can't achieve this without resorting to search, the home page needs to be redesigned. As discussed in Full site redesign? Start by addressing the home page, many home pages fail because they are exclusively devoted to exposing new and useful content. Both of these have a place on a home page, but they should be kept in proportion with its role as a gateway to all site content. This article explains a quick and effective technique