If you are responsible for your organisations intranet project management and are new to intranets, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed by the task ahead of you or just confused about where to start. I thought it would be useful to outline some of the free resources available to help you and also walk you through our recommended way of approaching an intranet project.
More and more today, the role of redeveloping the intranet is found within marketing and not IT. Software companies can sometimes forget that their point of contact may not be PRINCE trained and may not have the level of technical understanding they think they have. No matter what technical ability you have, you will be able to learn and use our approach for developing a successful intranet.
Here at SORCE we have developed the 6 stage intranet journey to help identify the key stages that you have to work through to deliver an intranet that is right for your organisation. It outlines the key project management phases which enables you to then build your project around them. Within each stage I have highlighted where we have free resorces available to you. I hope you find the framework and resorces useful.
Our 6 key stages of intranet project management are:
1. Learn
This stage is really about educating yourself about the world of intranets. Find out what other companies intranets look like and how they function, ask for demonstrations from suppliers so you can see some of the opportunities available. At this stage you might also find it useful to attend some intranet related events. We run regular free intranet showcases to provide insight into other leading organisations intranets.
2. Plan
This is where you turn intranet detective and find out what your company needs from a new intranet. How your colleagues use it and what they would like the new intranet to do. It’s also at this stage that you need to review your current intranet’s content. Our free resources uncovering your intranet opportunities might help you here. We also have survey templates for you and a great free guide on how to implement your intranet.
3. Function
Once you fully understand your organisations requirements and have reviewed your content then you can start to look at the functionality you need and plan out your new intranet. This is a great time to ask for input from your suppliers.
4. Form
Once you know what it needs to do and you understand the functionality and have compiled your wire frames, you can also consider the branding, design and name of your intranet.
5. Deploy
This stage of intranet project management is all about building the actual intranet according to your specifications and training up your new team of intranet contributors, editors and end users.
6. Launch
Your intranet launch strategy is incredibly important. Organisations take on different approaches. It’s never too early to start thinking about your internal marketing campaign to launch your new intranet and also ongoing marketing campaigns to keep the intranet front of mind.
