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Features
The reality today is that most multinational company intranets are actually multiple sites, which overlap and compete for the user’s attention. When thousands of PCs are turned on everyday around the globe, up comes the home page of the intranet…but which home page is it? It could be one of dozens of different home pages, depending on where you work in the company or what you do. In my work with international companies, I have repeatedly come across two truisms: The farther you are from the center, the more the intranet becomes your lifeline to the rest of the company; and, the farther you are from the center, the less the intranet meets your needs.
In assessment of training needs should be a key component of any intranet project that introduces new functionality or other improvements to employees. While usability professionals have pointed to a reduced need for training as one benefit of proper user testing, training should not viewed as simply a Band-Aid for poor interface design. Even if proper testing eliminates interface problems, there are several reasons for viewing training as an important part of any intranet change.
Columns
One of the most baffling aspects of intranets seems to be their low levels of usage. But how do you go about determining demand for the intranet? Demand-driven intranet development should not be a new concept. Here are some methods to identify demand and begin to regain the trust and respect of the end-user community.
Most intranets grow organically, starting with a single person creating a site made up of a handful of pages. Once the awareness of this initial intranet grew, so did the number of pages. With each new section added ad-hoc, without any overall plan or vision, the intranet quickly grew into a sprawling mass of content.
Read_Me_File
Reviewed this issue: Proven Portals, IntranetInsider, and Intranet Journal
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