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Features
While researching for this article, I got to revisit a lot of old articles and studies from the early days of intranet development, in part because that is when most of the articles that dealt with culture and intranets were written. I also interviewed a number of people working in various positions in the intranet world, and Intranets.com surveyed its customer base to help me understand the corporate culture challenges facing intranets today.
Considering the range of inputs, there was a remarkable unanimity around the most important difficulties in getting acceptance of intranets within organizations. There was also agreement about the most successful strategies in solving those difficulties. However, the early articles revealed a very interesting dimension to the intranets and culture interaction that continues to be a real problem.
Taming intranet chaos state involves more than just implementing corporate design guidelines; it requires a fundamental change in organizational behaviors and expectations. By integrating the intranet into one functioning whole, a firm signals its seriousness and commitment to a unified brand effort. It makes these seemingly abstract ideas real and meaningful.
Columns
Running an intranet isn’t easy. There are so many different issues and tasks to manage, it can sometimes feel like you are juggling—keeping a dozen balls in the air, making sure that none of them get dropped. It was also once suggested to me that running an intranet is like running a small business. As a small business owner, you have the responsibility to handle everything, including promotion, sales, payroll, budgets, inventory, and a hundred other things. There’s no one else who can do these things, and if you fail to keep up with some of the key activities, you go bust.
Regardless of the metaphor, there are many different aspects to consider when managing an intranet. If you are lucky, you have an intranet team to support you. Even then, there is a lot to accomplish with a small team.
Federal government intranets and portals have devolved into a patchwork of roll-your-own platforms. At one U.S. agency, the CIO’s office has initiated a portal program in an attempt to straighten things out. What is unique about this agency’s approach is that business units—rather than the IT department—are being given the opportunity to set the portal standards.
Read_Me_File
Reviewed this issue: The Hidden Power of Social Networks, Creativity in Virtual Teams, and www.findability.org
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