Intranet strategy and management (optional)

The intranet goals should be published on the intranet itself, and aligned with overall organisational strategies and directions.

0: There are no defined intranet goals.

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5: Intranet goals are defined, reviewed on a regular basis and used to inform intranet strategy. The intranet goals are business-focused, are aligned with organisational strategies, and there are metrics or measures defined for each goal.

The roadmap should cover both content and IT related improvements to the site, as well as indicating resources required from other teams (such as corporate communications, HR, and IT).

0: No defined plans have been created for future intranet improvements, and changes are made on an ad-hoc or reactive basis.

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5: There is a clearly defined roadmap for intranet development, covering a 6-12 month period. This includes specific enhancements, required resources, and expected benefits.

The intranet owner should have responsibility for key aspects of the intranet (such as the home page and staff directory), as well as ‘driving’ the overall evolution of the intranet.

There should also be a recognised executive ‘sponsor’ for the intranet, providing overall resources, support and guidance. This sponsor also helps to resolve differences or disputes between intranet stakeholders.

0: There is no clear intranet owner or sponsor. Alternatively, there may be multiple areas of the business competing for control of the intranet.

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5: The intranet has a single owner that is empowered to resolve all intranet issues and drive intranet strategy. There is also a clear executive sponsor for the site.

0: There is no single point of contact for the intranet, or no clear mechanism for contacting the centralised intranet team.

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5: There is a clear single point of contact for the intranet as a whole. A forms-based feedback mechanism has been established on the intranet to allow changes or errors to be easily notified.

The intranet team must be able to address not just day-to-day administration of the site, but to also be able to develop strategies for the intranet, and to enhance the site over time.

(See the commentary for a discussion on the necessary skills and size for intranet teams.)

0: The intranet team is under-sized and under-resourced, and is not able to keep up with day-to-day administration of the site.

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5: The intranet team has the skills and resources to strategically manage the site, including enhancing the site with new content and tools. The intranet team is proactive, and is professional in their management of the site.

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  Writing standards and other publishing guidelines
  
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  Appropriate (and inappropriate) intranet content and tools
  
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  Guidelines for inclusion on the intranet home page
  
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  Overall intranet governance and management
  

0: There are no documented intranet policies and procedures.

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5: A comprehensive list of intranet policies and procedures is documented and available via the intranet.

At the simplest level, this should include the tracking of intranet usage, such as total usage, most popular pages, etc. This capability is provided by a wide range of free and commercial ‘web statistics’ packages.

In addition to site statistics, search engine usage reports should also be put in place. Two specific reports should be implemented as a minimum:

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  Most popular searches. Shows the most popular terms entered into the search engine, on a month-by-month basis.
  
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  Failed searches. Lists the searches that returned 0 hits.
  

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5: Comprehensive usage statistics have been put in place for the intranet as a whole, as well as allowing individual reports to be generated for specific site sections. The two search engine reports outlined above have also been implemented. Processes have been put in place to regularly review the reports, and to act on the results.

These metrics may allow a dollar value to be calculated for the benefits delivered by the intranet (enabling return on investment to be determined). In other cases, it may be more appropriate to demonstrate value in non quantitative ways.

(For example, measures could include the reduction in calls to the help desk, or the improvement in staff productivity.)

0: No business metrics have been determined (or measured) for the intranet.

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5: A range of business-focused metrics are used to report on the tangible benefits delivered by the site. Processes have been put in place to regularly collect the metrics, and to act on the results.

An overall communications and marketing plan should be put in place to ensure that these activities are coordinated and effective.

0: There are few (if any) communications to the wider organisation about the use or benefits of the intranet.

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5: A coordinated communications and marketing plan has been established, as is used to ensure that regular messages are sent to staff outlining the use, benefits and successes of the intranet.

Experience across many organisations has shown that this type of group is critical to the success of the intranet, and it can do much to resolve the challenges relating to writing and managing content in a decentralised environment.

(See the commentary for more on the role of the authoring community of practice.)

0: Communication is poor between the central intranet team and decentralised authors, with conflict between these two groups on a regular basis.

5: An intranet community of practice has been established and meets regularly. This groups works cohesively to manage and improve the intranet.