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Articles by Rachel Alexander
A mature intranet model generally relies upon there being a network of authors publishing content and maintaining their content areas. When a new content area is created, there is much enthusiasm generated by the owners for keeping this content fresh and up-to-date and they are only happy to sign an agreement attesting to this commitment. Yet I have revisited sites a year or two after inception and found signs of stagnation: pages containing references to two-year-old statistics and benchmark data, links to marketing collateral that no longer exist, and months-old “What’s New” content. So why do these sites that are launched in a blaze of glory and sponsor’s commitment so quickly fall into disrepair?
"Welcome to our site, we hope you find the information useful. We aim to provide information to help you in your job. Please let us know if there is other information that you want to read. Click on the titles on the left to find out more information.” This may not be typical, but there are intranets with sub-sites that read like this. A?content-management system isn’t enough; intranet authors need training on what content is appropriate and how it should be written.
How can you tell when people are not satisfied with your search engine? If you run feedback activities, this will be highlighted by your user forum, annual staff survey, or even an intranet survey. Short of formal feedback activities, you may employ intranet tracking tools that indicate a high number of clicks before information is found, or show users returning to the home page after running a search rather than clicking onto a specific intranet page. Anecdotal evidence provided by staff may still be the clearest evidence that the search function is not delivering what they want.
When considering implementing a content management system (CMS) for an intranet, working with content publishers in your organization can be almost as difficult as the IT project itself. Whatever the pre-existing method for publishing content, a new CMS is likely to be somewhat more complex, requiring publishers to do some additional work like denote properties such as subject, keywords, and expiry date, or even hierarchical subject, location, and audience. If your publishers haven’t been adding these elements before, then there may be some resistance to adding them now. You need to have persuading strategies in place during training.
So, you’ve got to the point of running your intranet when the feedback from statistics and readers begins to show a reduction in usage. This is when intranet managers should begin to rethink things like navigation, content, and overall look and feel. Consider taking a look at the purpose: Is this intranet a tool to disseminate news from the communications team? Is it a mechanism to allow teams to share information between themselves rather than using the network? Is it a tool to enable front line staff to gather knowledge about competitors and products.
We often read about the benefits of metadata for intranet content management systems. We know that adding keywords and subject categories to each content page improves the findability of content and renders search results more useful. Creating a thesaurus from which to select keywords and using a taxonomy to categorize pages can also assist with the Information Architecture of the site. Well, all this is true, but what may not be obvious is that metadata has just as much value for the casual browser as it does for loftier CM objectives.
While reviewing intranets, I often come across instances where a team knows that they need to communicate information with the rest of the organization , but to do so, they publish all of their paper materials. This may fulfill the desire to put all communications online, but without an appreciation of what users want and how they use information, it will all go unread. Communication is, after all, a two-way process.
Does it really matter who runs your intranet? Users may not realize the implications of the question, but if they struggle to use their intranet effectively—can’t find the information they need, find duplicate versions of documents, need to learn new browsing techniques for each area, get annoyed with flashing graphics, wonder why their staff directory is out of date, or don’t understand how to use it—then they probably have a poorly run intranet.
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