Just completed an intranet review? - Congratulations! You will have reviewed your intranet content, conducted stakeholder interviews and surveys and reviewed site statistics. Now what? This blog sets out the next steps and considerations. For guidance on the whole intranet project process, download our free guides.
Your intranet review may have generated a range of software, content and usability issues and it is important that you take time to evaluate this information and revisit your intranet mission and objectives. Have the organisational expectations of the intranet changed? Do your intranet objectives need updating? Has the way in which your organisation uses the intranet changed?
Considerations:
When it comes to compiling your recommendations, you need to consider how much time, money and effort it will take to get to where you want to be. You also need to consider the wider corporate objectives and consider the longevity of your intranet platform.
Intranet Options:
If your intranet mission and objectives are still valid after your intranet review you have several options open to you:
- Do nothing - keep your intranet as it is
- Refresh your existing intranet
- Renew/replace your existing intranet
Option 1: Do nothing
If colleagues have engaged with you and taken time to provide feedback, you have a responsibility to take this feedback onboard and act upon it. If you go with this option, time, effort and money outputs are low, but your engagement rates may start to decline and your content editors could slowly become despondent. More importantly, if your colleagues can’t get the intranet to do what they need it to do, they may go elsewhere for alternatives, outside of the corporate intranet.
Option 2: Refresh your existing intranet platform
If you are considering refreshing your intranet, you need to be aware of your intranet software capabilities and the impact of any changes in terms of development time, costs and time to implement. It may be that all you require is an additional application to plug into your current solution that solves an issue. It may be that some bespoke development is required. Will refreshing your intranet enhance your platform’s longevity or are you just delaying the inevitable larger project? Sometimes the initial cost to refresh is small and therefore a big financial advantage, but sometimes the hidden development costs soon add up.
Option 3: Renew/replace your intranet platform
Your intranet review may well have identified some fundamental issues with your current intranet platform. It may be that you are going to recommend compiling a business case to replace your intranet as your next step. It may be that, after further investigation, you don’t need to replace your entire intranet, just part of it. Before you submit your intranet review findings, you might want to download our business case template to start thinking about your next step.
To find out more about a new intranet project, join us at one of upcoming events or get in touch directly.
