How to Plan for the Most Productive Corporate Intranet?

How to Plan for the Most Productive Corporate Intranet?

Before we start, here’s a question for you – what do you understand by an intranet strategy? Does your organization implement it properly? If you don’t have the answers to the questions discussed here, you are seriously an old school entrepreneur in today’s modern corporate world.

What’s An Intranet Strategy?

An effective strategy is termed as the one, which is shared by all stakeholders, documented properly and has different metrics or KPIs, i.e. Key Performance Indicators. It basically directs the executable actions in a corporate world. Hence, it holds a huge importance for today’s modern entrepreneurs.

It has the Following Elements:

  1. Vision
  2. Mission
  3. Objectives
  4. Target audience
  5. Action plans
  6. Goals
  7. Audience/market segmentation
  8. Governance
  9. KPIs

Every entrepreneur must know that the strategy must precede the technology’s architecture, selection and the final implementation. This is because the strategy is independent on technology and, without a well-defined strategy; any intranet (actually most of them) will turn towards the failure. Choosing any work to be done on/ through technology, before actually developing the strategy is just like placing the cart before the most expensive horse. So, do keep this thing in your mind that no matter how complex or successful your intranet platform is, the probability to the risk of failure will be close to 100% (in absence of a perfect intranet strategy).

How to Plan for It?

Now comes the most important part, i.e. how to plan for a successful intranet (MyHub). The planning phase is divided into two parts and actually relates to the redesigning of an intranet. Both the phases are mentioned as under –

I. Assessment

This is the first phase of the planning and during this phase, the requirements of the intranet are identified and its present state is also documented. It is known for its two major functions, including:

  • Documenting the needs and requirements of stakeholders and business
  • Documenting the needs and requirements of audiences, i.e. user population

Further, there are several activities involved in this phase. Some of them are mentioned as below –

  • Gap analysis
  • Focus groups
  • Analysis of technical infrastructure
  • User reviews
  • Benchmarking
  • User survey
  • Stakeholder interviews
  • Analysis of business requirements
  • And other best practices

II. Planning

This is the second phase, which addresses all of the needs and requirements documented at the time of assessment. It incorporates both the functional plan and the strategic vision, and is used to map out different tactical steps and plans, such as –

  • Page wireframes
  • Governance
  • Portal information architecture
  • Goals and objectives
  • Design concepts
  • High-level vision and mission
  • ROI and business case
  • Critical success indicators
  • Usability testing
  • Content management policies as well as plan
  • Functional plan

Following these phases, one can easily design a successful and output-oriented intranet. Remember, that an intranet strategy may differ from one organization to another. So, you need to make sure that you only design a model that actually works and delivers results for your business.. In order to accomplish this, you need to focus over the most significant determinant of intranet’s victory; and that is none other than ‘people’. Support and participation of the end users along with the senior management are pivotal when it comes to fulfilling the purpose of the intranet.

However, getting both the parties involved in the strategy is a critical task. But, make sure that you do your best and come with a productive intranet strategy that not only supports you, but also represents the entire areas of the business. The success mantra of the intranet includes one part of technology and many parts of process & people (intranet strategy).

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