Intranets News & Articles

If we are finally realizing the true potential of our intranets, then it's also time to take a close look at what the role of the Intranet Manager should also evolve to become, if it is to continue at all.

U.K company Odyssey has cranked up development on its update to the company's Interact Intranet (news, site) suite to cram in features that make an instant communications hub for your intranet.

Here's a theme that's been causing a lot of debate amongst my peers of late -- is a social intranet the same thing as a social workplace and the same as social collaboration? Can one product or set of features meet the needs of all of these requirements?

A CMSWire post summed up collaboration adoption in one neat sentence recently: if it were that easy, we’d all be doing it—well.

It isn’t. We aren’t. How come? 

Enterprise intranets are usually created to act as the main conduits for internal collaboration, including content creation / acquisition. But, to-date, most are failing to engage their internal customers: the employees of corporations.

In our last poll, we asked if your Intranet includes enterprise collaboration tools and you responded. But exactly how important is your intranet to your daily work routine? Does it have the information you need? Or is it still a broadcast tool for corp communications? 

While you are at it, let us know in the comments below how you think your Intranet needs to evolve.

This poll will run until August 20th -- so there's no time like the present to weigh-in.

Last month we ran a poll asking you if your intranet included collaboration tools and features. Over 1000 of you responded (thank you!). Now normally we take the results of our polls and send out questions to a group of experts for their thoughts and insights. 

Well we could do that, but we aren't.

Collaboration applications never seem to need a business case, other than a senior manager deciding that there is poor collaboration in the organisation and that the problem can be solved with bringing in some new technology.

However there is usually never any analysis of whether or not there is a systemic problem with collaborative working. Achieving effective collaboration requires a series of precursor actions to have been accomplished, in all of which the intranet plays a critical role in their execution. 

Enterprise collaboration tools are becoming all the rage these days. But before you head off to the store to buy the latest and greatest, here are a few things to consider depending on if you are a large, enterprise organization, or a small-mid sized business.

Two heads are better than one. That's the given wisdom -- and what most of us believe. But if as individuals we understand the importance of collaboration, then why do organizations have such a difficult time fostering it within their own employees?

This spring saw the unveiling of an intranet portal specifically designed for small and mid-sized businesses. Precurio combines enterprise 2.0 with everything we love about the social Web (and it's free!)

Employee engagement can't be forced and in most cases, the experts say, it just can't be expected. Here are a few lessons learned by the intranet managers of British Telecom, KPN and MARS. Each company is seeking to raise engagement levels of between 40,000 and 140,000 employees -- it's no simple task.

A few weeks ago Gerry McGovern wrote that the key to creating a successful company intranet was saving employees time, otherwise, what’s the point? Intranet Connections must have been paying attention. 
 

Going back to January this year, research by CMS Watch showed that despite improvements in SharePoint search, Microsoft–focused organizations were still looking for specialist search solutions. Reccommind (news, site) seems to understand this and with its upgraded enterprise search solution Mindserver 7.0, users will be able to search SharePoint 2010.

When Second Life first appeared on the web in 2003 I never got into it in a big way because it appeared to me to be more distraction than useful. My work with the disabled soon made me aware of the potential of virtual reality as a means by which those with immobility impairment could walk or even fly using this technology.

But it was a remark by Dr. Cheryl Shavers, former Undersecretary of Technology and senior advisor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration, at a speech she gave in Toronto last week that got me thinking about avatars, virtual reality and enterprise once again.