Like
any business, an intranet without a strategy is an intranet looking
to die. Although an over-arching business strategy should be highly
complex that takes into account many external factors and variables
(e.g. competitive assessment), an intranet strategy is not as complex
nor time-consuming.
An intranet Vision
Mission
Target
audience definition / segmentation
Governance
Goals
Objectives
Action
plans
KPIs (or CSIs)
Methodology
When looking at
strategy at it relates to the process of developing or redesigning an
intranet, strategy encompasses the first two phases of Prescient
Digital Media's Intranet
Project Methodology
© 2009, Assessment & Planning.
1- Assessment –
understanding the needs and requirements for the intranet
2- Planning –
strategy development including the governance model and design
3- Technology –
where execution begins with the selection of the technology
4 – Implementation
– “the rubber hits-the-road” execution of the strategy
5- Marketing –
communications, change management, and promotion
Execution
“A
very general definition of the term “implementation” is execution
of an idea, plan, design, model, standard, algorithm, or policy,”
writes Prescient Digital Media's Cathy Mcknight in Implementing
your intranet plan and other dastardly deeds.
“In the realm of information technology, an implementation is the
realization of a technical specification as some type of computer
related system or applications. The key words being; plan,
specification and realization.”
In
short, if your plans are sound, then execution is relatively
straight-forward: everyone knows their job, the schedule, and the
budget. This of course is easier said than done and requires strong
project management to ensure that all plans are executed as directed.
Of course, even the best plans and projects have hiccups; all
technology projects hit barriers and are challenged by problems
(technology is imperfect, almost as imperfect as the people
implementing the technology). To overcome these problems and
challenges requires the aforementioned detailed plans, and a strong
project manager or three that has experience steering intranet
projects.
The
intranet is not just a piece of technology; not merely an IT project,
nor is it a communications vehicle or channel; the intranet is a
business system that should represent and support all areas of the
business. In fact, the intranet is one part technology, and many
parts people and process, that requires a detailed strategy (plans)
to ensure all work in tandem. No complex system such as an intranet
can adequately support a company and a workforce without a thorough
strategy.
Read
more on intranet strategy: Intranet
strategy – planning a successful intranet
Read
more on implementation: Implementing
your intranet plan and other dastardly deeds
—
Toby
Ward,
a former journalist, prominent writer, speaker on intranets and
intranet planning, is the President of Prescient Digital Media. To
learn how to undertake effective intranet strategy please see our
intranet service offering The
Intranet Strategy ,
or download the free Good-To-Great
Intranet Matrix.
For more information, contact
Prescient
directly.
Toby, it is true that introducing some discipline in managing changes in a a company is a way to go. As an hold professor of mine said “Hope is not a plan”. In this context it will be interresting to define what is your definition of “intranet” and what make it different from other investments.
Fibol
INTRANET – A private network, similar to the Internet and using the same protocols and technology, that is contained within an enterprise. It may consist of many inter-linked local area networks (LANs), desktop computers, websites and portals, and email system(s). However, in common vernacular, the intranet is the internal website home page that is for employees only — and the other internal websites that link to it. However, any intranet plan should encompass all internal facing websites, and apply standards across the network, including all social media, email and related systems.
Of course execution is more important, without execution you will perform something loosely related to strategy, whereas with a good execution you can succed even with a mediocre strategy…
Check Ram Charan’s, the execution guru conference, on the matter:
http://managersmagazine.com/index.php/2009/07/ram-charan-ocho-habilidades-fundamentales-para-alcanzar-el-exito/
you have post these points in a very good manner. This post is really great.
If you want your network safe and of course if you want it to run smoothly, well, you will surely need 1,2 or 3 dedicated servers depending on the number of computers that access the network.