Editor's letter

It’s hard to believe that the internet and associated technologies are only about ten years old. Indeed, a decade ago browser pioneer Netscape was still basking in the stratospheric success of its public share offering.
What a difference a decade makes. Netscape may be a dim and distant memory, but organisations are still struggling to come to terms with the after-effects of that time when the internet switched from being a mere plaything of academics to a business critical tool for industry.
Virtually every computer technology that an organisation implements today has an internet component so that they can be rolled out and used by all staff, anywhere in the world, at a minimum cost.
The pace of change has been breathless. Who would have thought just five years ago that portals and corporate intranets would now be so central to the efficient running of business today?
That is the central message of a series of articles in this month’s EI, none more relevant than our cover feature, Intranet strategy: Harnessing the elements. Consultant Bill Raschen relates the case of an organisation in which a senior director laments that the corporate intranet is becoming “a meaningless piece of expensive bureaucracy”.
Raschen highlights the great importance of closely managing this enterprise-information resource and making sure that it remains relevant to its end-users by developing a strategy that puts them at the heart of the intranet’s ongoing development.
How is this done? At banking giant HSBC, the essence of its intranet strategy is summed up in its three-point mission statement. That ought to keep everyone working on the intranet – and, hopefully, contributors of content – focused on their main role and the intranet’s core purpose.
It also means avoiding the temptation to focus on technology, when they should be focusing on people, warns Forrester Research’s Kyle McNabb.
On top of that, an ill-considered but absolutely essential element of any intranet strategy is security. This month therefore sees the second part of Paul Chin’s in-depth examination of intranet security. Just because an intranet is an in-house tool, does not mean that it is not vulnerable.
Indeed, the dark underside of the internet-led information revolution is the vulnerability of all systems – unless appropriate measures are taken and rigorously enforced.

Kate Clifton
Deputy editor

Features

Workshop: Communication and change management Free
Change is not always communicated effectively. Despite the proclaimed benefits of consultation and involvement, organisations still appear to be selective about who receives information or, even worse, simply impose change for change’s sake. A UK report conducted by business-psychology consultancy OPP Ltd in May 2004 found that more than 40 per cent of employees thought that change was either not communicated at all or only communicated once it was complete.

Workshop: Portal implementation Free
One of the key tasks in portal implementation is making information easy to find. This is especially important if you are deploying portal technology for knowledge management, where the emphasis is on unstructured documents, web content, digital media and collaboration.

Workshop: Intranet security Free
What good is a state-of-the-art home security system if the homeowner forgets to turn it on, leaves the front door wide open or accidentally burns the house to cinders with a carelessly discarded cigarette? Security can’t be solved by technology alone. Simple human negligence can be a detriment to any solution that is put into place.

Case study: ChevronTexaco Free
Like many organisations, ChevronTexaco has had informal communities in place for a number of years. Taking the drive for improved health and safety as a starting point, Jeff Stemke explains the company’s decision to develop a more formal approach to community development, in turn outlining some of the success stories that have helped to justify the central role networks now play.

Case study: Gist Free
Gist is a leading supply-chain specialist with an annual turnover of £293.2m. It works with customers including Marks & Spencers and British Airways – offering end-to-end supply chain solutions across the globe – and moves £10bn of merchandise every year. Communication is therefore an essential business tool in ensuring that the company meets its promise to its customers, of getting the right things to the right place at the right time.

Cover story: Intranet strategy Free
The memo on my desk made for grim reading. Sent by a senior director, it lamented that the organisation’s intranet was drifting into a “meaningless piece of expensive bureaucracy that people pay lip service to.” No individual had taken ownership of the resource, and although staff had ideas of what they wanted the intranet to do, no one had collated these ideas in order to transform them into a working system. In short, the intranet presented a classic case of ‘the tail wagging the dog’, with no clear strategy. And as a result, it was failing.

Regulars

The last word: Sticking up for ‘squidgy’ technology Free
I have a list of favourite words that includes liminal, enthalpy, animadversions and shopping. Actually, that last one occurs more than once – at least three times in fact – more than Merlot, which occurs twice in the list. One word that has sadly fallen out of my list is enrichment, which I used to think was a lovely word. I’m sure all languages have lovely words – although maybe our German readers don’t think that glockenspiel is as lovely as our English readers do. Anyway, enrichment, in English, is a word of beauty that has become tainted.

Trend tracker: Faceted navigation Free
Current media darling Google has already indexed more than eight-billion web pages but many more are believed to be hidden in corporate intranets and databases. It is thought that if all of these were indexed, the world-wide web would be 500 times larger than it is today.

Reach out, touch somebody Free
I’m not a big fan of buzzwords but I’ve come across a good one. First, let me set the scene: I have been working on an intranet for a large media company that has an unfortunate challenge – nearly half of its employees are unable to access the intranet.