4 tips to have the most successful Corporate Intranet

Are you planning to implement a Corporate Intranet or a Knowledge Management Portal but skeptical that it won’t work? Well, you are right! 

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Social Collaboration has a great impact everywhere. Even in the way professionals work. The Corporate Intranet has made the ‘workplace’ possible from anywhere and anytime. With a fully integrated Document Management System (DMS), the Intranet is becoming the ‘new’ Corporate Social Sharing Platform.

• Is user adoption easy?
• Is the Intranet successful from the day it is implemented (or even after a few months of implementation)?
• Does the Intranet become the single true source of all the exhaustive corporate information/ documents?

No.

There are critical parameters that are decisive to the success of the Corporate Intranet. For example, given today’s needs it is important that the Intranet is responsive, and has all the tools that users need on a day-to-day basis.

The Corporate Intranet is not just about putting a technology solution together. Content, Design, Governance and Training are all important factors that contribute to the success of the Corporate Intranet.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the 5 tips to have a Corporate Intranet that is successful.

1.     Content

Users will only use the Intranet if they find value in it. For example, if they are able to find the right content quickly, they are likely to come back to use it. Therefore, it is absolutely critical to plan the content to be migrated. To help plan better, a content audit is required.

The first step is to create a content inventory, which means to figure out what content you have. It also implies that you must figure out the following:

• Where is the content stored?
• What is the format?
• Who owns it?
• When was the content last updated?

The content audit will help you get rid of unwanted legacy content. The content owners need to identify the content that is current and relevant.

2.     Design

Users need the flexibility to work from anywhere, anytime. This is why a responsive design is critical in the current times. If the design is responsive, the screen of the Intranet will get adjusted according to the device it is being accessed from. It also provides a seamless experience whether being accessed from a mobile device or a smartphone.

The other important feature of the Intranet should be ease of use (even the desktop version), which means intuitive access to information and content. It should provide quick access to all the tools employees need on a day-to-day working.

3.     Governance

While Governance is a topic that no one likes, it helps to fix responsibility for different areas. It is also the reason for the Intranet to have updated, relevant and usable content, at all times. If there is no Governance in place, chances are that the project will lose focus. Each function/team should have an Intranet champion who ensures that content is updated regularly.

Governance is fixing responsibility for content owners, establishing a workflow for timely feedback, identifying Intranet custodians, future changes and vision. The Governance Board should have periodic meetings to decide if the Intranet is progressing well.

4.     Training

The user adoption of the Corporate Intranet largely depends on how well the training is planned. The training should be planned in a way that each user group is trained as per their role.

Promotions, roadshows and contests are also an effective way to promote the Intranet. Training videos and user guides are some other ways to ensure that user engagement is high and professionals in the organization use it as a collaboration tool rather than using it as just another IT tool.

The above is not a finite list but if an organization can get the above 4 things in place, it can largely ensure the success and adoption of the Intranet to a large extent.