 There is a growing need for organizations to effectively and efficiently manage the promotion of products and services, information, business transactions, and other communications. Business changes occur daily if not hourly at many organizations. Managing the deployment of all of this content cannot be the responsibility of just one or two people.
Instead, several people control content in an organization and the process to do so must be secure, controlled, and easy to use.
Asking the Right Questions
The questions that come up in any business managers mind are: why would I want to change the way I am currently communicating with my customers, employees and partners? Why and how would I use an Intranet or an Extranet? How would I determine the ROI? Where would you even start? What would be involved from a planning perspective? First, let's start by clarifying what Intranets and Extranets are, and understanding their business applications.
Why would you use an Intranet?
An Intranet is a web site that can be only physically accessed within your organization. It offers content and services to employees and it may provide links to other information sources on the Internet.
There are many unique uses for Intranets, but some of the most common include:
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to share human resource policies and procedures;
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as a corporate information repository - provide employees access to the company strategy and key business objectives;
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for knowledge exchange or facilitation - an area where employees can post questions about Microsoft Word or the phone system to be answered by an appropriate employee with that expertise in an efficient manner.
Once a question has been answered in detail, everyone in the organization has access to that information.
Why would you use an Extranet?
An Extranet is an access-controlled Web site that is usually part of your corporate Web site, but is only available to specific groups of people. They can be customers, partners or remote employees.
Extranets are often used to provide customers and partners with better access to information pertaining to doing business with your organization and to facilitate and track communication flow between organizations and the outside world. Metrics can be gathered on what type of support clients need most often, etc. To enable faster response times on issues and facilitate project management since all parties are actively participating. Then management can get an accurate picture of project status, and if necessary take measures to ensure success.
How do you determine the Return on Investment (ROI)?
Most Intranets and Extranets conserve time and money. The best systems provide exceptional experiences and thus foster innovation, sharing and offer constant feedback. There are many factors that need to be considered. Here are some of the most important questions you need to ask your team:
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How quickly can legacy data be accessed and utilized?
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How many and how often do customers and/or partners use the Intranet or Extranet?
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How many phone calls have been eliminated by their introduction, and what is that value?
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How many and how often do employees use the system?
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How quickly has the knowledge area grown?
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How much information has been exchanged between users?
Where do you start?
Intranets start by looking at the informational needs of a typical employee in a specific department. You will begin to document similar requirements and unique requirements per department. The trick is to provide information and tools to match the tasks that these employees need to do at any given time. The Intranet should focus on personal rather than organizational needs. Plan your business goals and objectives and how you will measure success. Decide how your Intranet / Extranet will be maintained and who will be in charge. Also determine which employees will have the ability to control (add, edit, delete) content, and to what degree?
What is involved in the planning?
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Establishing an understanding of which business process or communication process you wish to build - internally or externally.
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Developing an understanding of which systems you have in place that can be re-used or incorporated into the new Intranet or Extranet.
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Interviewing key employees, and a diverse sample of your clients and/or business partners to define the informational requirements of those audiences.
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Developing an understanding of the data you wish to share, track and store.
If adequate time is spent on this phase of development, the return on your investment will be significantly greater.
Top Trends in Intranet & Extranet Development
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A common look and feel for the entire site is very important as consistency will set the stage for the usability and overall experience your users will have.
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Delivering information to employees based on their daily tasks. Centralizing communications to ensure that tasks are completed.
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Next is a trend we've seen at the planning stage. The concept of "less is more" and planning for the next three years has proven to be critical to see a quick ROI. By rolling out the most critical pieces - those tools that will show the largest benefit to the organization - costs are minimized and value is maximized. This will also help with the change management and also the adoption rate by the employees as it won't be as overwhelming as implementing many tools at the same time.
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Integration with existing business process applications or legacy databases to ensure that previous investments in technology are not wasted.
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Establish the site as a utility - not necessarily a site. It is a tool to be used to improve efficiency and communication.
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Web content management - gone are the days of having a dedicated employee updating content - assign responsibility directly with each department, or within an Extranet, the project managers or business development team.
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Unified system - incorporating your Intranet, Extranet and Internet Web site so that users can update information once and have it replicated to all sites, as required. For example: that press release you just sent out to the newswire; it should also be communicated to your employees and business partners. This will add efficiency to your operations much more than you might think.
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Use open technology, such as ColdFusion, as it can help bridge your legacy database systems and incorporate all the latest technology from XML, Flash, COM, .NET, and JAVA.
Implementing an Intranet or Extranet will enhance your communication reach to your organizational stakeholders (partners, customers and employees). Intranets and Extranets will provide a knowledge repository for projects, resources, support issues, human resource policies, etc. The focus should be on ROI and easy adoption of new systems and processes. Build small at first, but design big. Planning for the future is critical to achieve long-term success. Roll out tools and functionality at your organization's own comfortable pace. Plan according to the business process the organization will likely want to incorporate eventually, and select technology to fit your unique needs.
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