The Executive's Basic Guide to Intranets

7. What are the Key Management Issues Related to Having an Intranet?

The purpose of an intranet is to unify the different IT systems that exist across the enterprise in a common, easy to use framework th at can be flexible, secure, and easily scaled or modified to meet the constantly changing needs and requirements of an organization. This may sound simpler than it really is.

A well planned and thought out intranet can revolutionize the way your company does business. It will certainly change the way your employees interact and impact all your business processes. Naturally, this will raise management issues related to access and control. How you address these issues will depend a great deal on what your corporate culture is like.

You will have to address issues like who sets policy regarding what information can or can't be published on the internal Web, when it can be published, and what the process or processes are for getting information on there in a timely manner. In other words, will the process of content creation and publishing be managed or coordinated by one division, department, or group? Or will each department be responsible for maintaining it's own area on the Web? If one group will be responsible, which is the most responsive and best-equipped to handle it? Or will you need to create a new department to handle the responsibility? If each department is responsible for their own area, how can you ensure consistency in the way information is presented? Will the company standardize things like which browsers or development tools should be used enterprise-wide?

Other issues to consider are will everyone in the company have access to the intranet or only certain departments or even certain individuals within departments? Who will have access to what information and at what level? Which databases will be universally accessible and which will be restricted? What happens when there is a breach in security? What will the company policy be regarding access to the Internet? Will monitoring or site-blocking be necessary to prevent the abuse of priveleges and if so, how much is required? How will employees be trained and supported in using the intranet?

From a management standpoint, there is no one right or wrong approach. The open and flexible nature of an intranet dictates an open and flexible approach to setting standards and policies. In smaller organizations, a centralized management approach may be more effective, whereas in a large corporation a decentralized approach may work better.

From a technical standpoint, your IT or MIS department needs to do a thorough audit and evaluation of existing legacy systems and how well they are currently meeting the organization's needs in order to determine which will remain intact and which will eventually migrate over to a new or different system. Avoid the temptation to buy into all the hype and invest in the latest, greatest version of everything. Make sure that whatever new technologies you invest in meet the standards you have agreed on and will provide results that are consistent with your business objectives.

Just remember that this is an investment in the future of your company. With that in mind, it is in the company's best interest to have a very coherent and comprehensive plan in place for implementing an intranet so that the people who will be relying on it the most get the level of support and access they need to make it work for them. Needless to say, the process of architecting your organization's intranet should be tightly coordinated with any business process re-engineering or quality management initiatives already in place. If your organization is large and complex then you may need to implement the intranet in stages, but the end result should be clear from the start to everyone who is involved in its design and implementation. Be sure to involve key members of each department in the planning process and get their input and feedback throughout and beyond the initial stages of implementation.

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