Insider's View

Driving the Intranet Evolution. One Employee at a Time.
By Senthil Kumar P B, Sr Sales and Marketing Executive

The continuing evolution of any technology, especially one that is designed to aid humans in collaboration and knowledge gathering, as enterprise intranets are, is solely dependent on the users and their evolving needs and preferences. And hence it is imperative that enterprises, while endeavoring to give their users a better intranet, bridge the usability gap that prevents their users from making the maximum utilization of the same.

But what tells the enterprise that the company intranet needs a makeover, and what it needs by way of new additions and improvements? Consider these points below:

• Workforce usage of the intranet is low and is seeing lowered interactivity with each passing day.
• Most of the content is out-of-date, incomplete or inaccurate, and lacks recent updations.
• Inconsistent appearance, particularly across sections managed by different work groups and departments, with most sections used solely to publicise business groups within the organisation.
• Few interactive features, providing minimal opportunities ‘to do things together’.
• Content reviews and other editorial processes are limited, or non-existent, with few, if any, controls over what can be published.
• Email usage is unmanageable and faces inconsistencies.
• Lack of clearly-defined list of business goals for the intranet.
• The intranet is not seen as a strategic resource by the senior management.
• Resource allocation for the intranet, in terms of money and manpower is inadequate.

If these apply to your intranet, we think it’s high time your enterprise network got a makeover of its own.

As an initial step, what you need to do is gather data. Data that gives you an in-depth idea of what the user needs, thinks and thinks he might need for his evolving work profiles. The primary reasons why your users use the intranet are- content, communication, collaboration and activity, and knowing what your users want in terms of these will enable you to drive the evolution of your enterprise.

This therefore, is how you can gather data on the change your users would like to see, and how you can make your intranet, and by relation, your enterprise, work better for your business requirements.

Review user logs
More often than not, the user logs are capable of providing all the information you might ever need. Knowing what employees are looking for on the intranet and where, can help you make life so much easier for them. Here’s how:

• Search logs : Examining user logs and analyzing user preferences in search, predominant key words, queries and results, including data locations, would help you understand how to make the search function better for the workforce.
• Audit trails/analytics : Efficient audit trails that help understand user behavior on the site would help in streamlining and evolving a more employee friendly design by sorting out any inherent issues with site design, irrelevant functionalities, information mapping, sitemap, navigation issues and such.
• User Feedback/Help Desk queries : Analyzing user help requests and feedback details will help you recognize trouble spots and problem areas within the intranet framework, which would be marked for overhauling in the course of the upgrade.
• Forums : Discussion forums and chat rooms carry a lot of information on employee grouses, complaints as well as suggestions on improvements on specific areas of service and facilities. Use the information from here to know where to affect the changes.

Employee surveys as one of the more effective methods for gauging and ascertaining user needs and preferences, involve a relook at the intranet business case and/or submitting the users to a series of relevant questions. In fact, questions like:

• What do you expect the intranet to do for you?
• How is it helping you in your day to day activities?
• Are you finding difficulties while searching for something?
• What is missing that would help you to do your tasks more easily?
• Is there a mechanism of sharing feedback?

And such, customized to group wise business needs, help understand the changes that are needed.

You now have the data, and accordingly you embark on the step by step process of making your enterprise network better for you. In parallel, here’s something you can do to make sure it’s going the right way.

Keep everyone in the loop. Let your users know that the organization is working towards making their lives better. Simultaneously publishing the results of each step have the added advantage of making it clear that steps are being taken and how. This results in an increased user affinity and greater user interaction in terms of feedbacks and suggestions for the proposed revamp.

Once you have what you need, put up a process timetable that details each step of the process with timelines for each. Communicate to the users the achievement of each and every milestone. Let them know what is being done and what has been accomplished.

At every point in the process of redesigning/upgrading/revamping your enterprise network, it is essential that you have adequate metrics and instruments to keep track and analyze the changes, with their measurable impact in the day to day business practices. This helps you to understand if you are on the right track, and if not, what you should be doing to ensure achievement of the set parameters and objectives.

An intranet is essentially a necessary prerequisite for a wider enterprise knowledge management strategy, by virtue of it being a key component of strategic enterprise initiatives. Before the larger process of altering the face of the organizational intranet can be affected, a strong foundation must exist to support the capture, dissemination and utilization of data to implement the same. After all, it is the employees that drive the intranet.

About the author

Senthil, with an experience of more than five years in marketing software solutions, possesses a sound understanding of the values and benefits of business automation, social media and the enterprise solution space.
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