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Planning what are your objectives for setting up an intranet?
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| Sana | 01.04.2017 | | Hajmi | 87.89 Kb. | | #2740 |
This document will help ensure that we understand your needs and goals for developing an intranet. Please complete this survey thoroughly, honestly, and objectively.
PLANNING
What are your objectives for setting up an intranet? Like any major project, implementing an intranet requires a well-conceived plan. We need to know what you expect to accomplish, quantify the benefits and weigh the costs as part of your research. If we know the specific benefits for each department this will help to introduce the system to your employees and motivate them to use it effectively.
Have you defined all of the elements involved in the intranet project? It is very easy to overlook how large of an undertaking setting up an intranet can be. It is important to examine issues like complexity, time to implement and estimated upkeep requirements for your intranet.
Have you defined a budget and priced the various components needed for the intranet? After determining just how much money you can afford to invest in an intranet, its vital to price the components and be sure that the numbers add up. These components include, but are not limited to, dedicated server(s), software licenses, design and development costs, if required, connectivity requirements, and more.
IT ENVIRONMENT
How do you plan on maintaining the intranet? Consider whether you have enough staff and expertise in house to take on the project. Would you rather have the company creating the intranet handle most of the maintenance? If so, how will they interact with the internal staff, and who will oversee this process?
What skill sets do your in-house IT staff have? When it comes to intranet maintenance, it’s advisable to have an IT professional on staff who can handle any server problems or other hardware malfunctions that might come up once the intranet is up and running.
Do you want to host the intranet in-house? There are basically two broad hosting options to choose from:
In-House Intranet: Keeping the intranet within your own office is an option if you have the physical resources and expertise to support it.
Hosted Intranet: Outsourcing your intranet to 3rd party solution may be the best option if your company’s IT staff is either already overtaxed or nonexistent. Hosting with a 3rd party service lets you concentrate on collaboration, and leave the data and backups to the pros. Outsourcing will also let you avoid taxing your network with the additional load of an intranet.
Will you be granting access just from the company LAN or via VPN or are you going to have a web portal that allows employees to log in? Best practices dictate that you plan your security for the "worst case", meaning anyone on the Internet could attempt to gain access. If you don't put security in place each step of the way, it will be a huge (and difficult task) later on.
FEATURES
What existing applications (HR, financial, CRM, etc.) does your intranet need to integrate with? Take a look around your organization and assess what types of computers, networks and servers are already in place. We need to understand your existing infrastructure to understand which of these applications can be extended to the intranet. Rather than installing an entirely new system, it may be more cost-efficient to use technology that’s already in place, provided it’s compatible with your new set-up.
What applications/features do you wish to provide via an intranet? Features can include, but are not limited to, company news, a wiki, an email portal, department forums, HR access, etc. Please be as thorough as possible.
COMMUNICATIONS
Who will be responsible for designing the communication strategy for your intranet? An intranet like any other communications tool needs to be actively used in order to be effective and to ensure employee adoption; a communication strategy outlining its usage is vital.
Who are the different audiences that communications needs to reach within your organization? How are they different? What are their information and attention constraints?
Will your employees be able to use the intranet? If you have a large number of employees who are not web-savvy, moving into an intranet may be a much larger project. You’ll want to distribute important info (benefits information, for example) to all employees, so you must be confident that all employees will be able to use the intranet effectively.
How much information can your employees realistically handle? To avoid overloading your employees with information, you way want to post content gradually to the intranet. This will let users become comfortable with the new system without being overwhelmed.
What other organizational polices, procedures, and standards do you need to take into account for your intranet? Privacy? Security? IT? Brand/identity standards? Legal?
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