What system to use?

At the time Leigh Day was considering introducing an intranet we had no experience of using SharePoint which is now being used widely in law firms to share information amongst colleagues. We chose instead to buy a content management system from a web developer which has proved robust and good value for money. Intranet sites using blog and wiki functions are now being used much more widely in law firms than five years ago. Points to consider when choosing how to introduce an intranet:-

• • Culture of the organisation – is information freely shared amongst your colleagues? If it is then setting up a wiki where everyone can contribute might work.

• • Do your colleagues look at new IT developments with suspicion or do they welcome the idea of twitter and blogging? If layers of control of an intranet are important then a CMS system might be better for you. If you set up a blog will it need to be moderated, and by whom?

• • How big is your IT team? If you only have limited IT support then introducing an intranet with lots of features such as blogs might be too time-consuming and challenging. You may prefer to rely on a web development company to support you through the process.

• • Who is going to run the intranet? One person, or will everyone chip in? An enthusiastic editor with the right technical skills will influence what system is chosen.

• • Look and feel. Is design very important to your organisation? You may need to involve a web designer if it is.

• • Will you host in-house? Your IT team may be able to support the intranet internally and have a spare server to host it on. Otherwise most web developers also offer hosting services at a low monthly cost, combined with support services. If you do not have a big IT team this may be a better option.

• • Transferring copy. If you have an office manual and much of the copy will be put on the intranet consider the time this will take, especially if the person doing it is also doing other jobs. It might be better to use a web developer to copy material across.

• • Training. How much time will it take, who should be trained?

What information to include?

It is best to consult widely in your organisation before you decide what type of information should be included in an intranet. There will be disagreements about what to have but a good starting point will include the following information:-

• • A staff directory including a photo of the member of staff and contact details

• • An organisational chart showing who is in what department, or works in what team

• • An area for library and information services, this would be used for library bulletins, lists of resources, links to the firm's online catalogue, password help and useful links;

• • Areas for support functions such as marketing and IT for posting “how to” material

• • A notice-board (where staff could advertise such things as items for sale and holiday lets) with the additional attraction that “all staff” emails might be reduced

• • A strong home page with a welcome/farewell section to staff as well as links to the most heavily used documents such as the up-to-date telephone list;

• • A training area including a calendar and note of current CPD points earned per fee-earner;

• • A social area for pictures of staff, sponsored events, new babies, weddings etc.

The introduction of an intranet also provides a great opportunity to get rid of paper copies of office manuals. Since developing the Leigh Day intranet with headings based largely on the old office manual the firm has been exploring the possibility of applying for the Lexcel standard. This has led to the redevelopment of the intranet whose headings now largely reflect those used by Lexcel in the office procedures section.

We chose Sygnet Interactive (http://www.sygnet.co.uk) to develop an intranet for Leigh Day and the system has proved easy to use with minimal training being needed. Sygnet also host the intranet externally.

Relationship with external agents

If you decide to use an outside agency to provide a system for you, think about the following:

• • Budget: there is no reason why a basic CMS system should not fall in the range of £6,000 - £12,000 from a website development company, although it could be more. It is worth comparing this with the associated costs of Sharepoint (licences, server software costs, and hardware and infrastructure costs). Even using the free version of SharePoint can take up a considerable amount of training and management time. Bringing a website design company into the equation can increase costs considerably.

• • Support and hosting: external hosting and support costs should be in the range of £50 - £100 per month. Most website development companies make an annual support charge based on the costs of the original contract. Hosting externally might suit you if you do not have extensive in-house IT support. Do not forget the cost of a new server if you decide to host internally.

• • Uptime: make sure whoever hosts your intranet guarantees at least industry standard uptime in your hosting agreement. Most internet service providers guarantee 99.4% uptime which sounds good, but still means potential downtime of 50 hours in a year – not great if that is the week of your Lexcel inspection. The percentage of uptime guaranteed will affect the cost of hosting.

• • Project specification: be clear about what you want from the system (ease of use, easy to search etc), and what information you want included (staff directory, company policies etc) and how long the project will take.

Who contributes?

At Leigh Day training was provided to the intranet editor and staff in the marketing and HR teams. The IT team has expanded since the launch of the intranet and one person in IT also knows how to update and edit the intranet. Partners in an organisation such as a small law firm tend to prefer to delegate administrative tasks, but may still want to have some control over who contributes to an intranet. Points to consider:

• • Who will take ownership of the project? The successful introduction of an intranet needs partner support as well as someone to project manage the whole exercise. If you are the person doing this, a large amount of time will be eaten up with implementing, training and running the system.

• • Editor. Having one overall editor allows some control over content and consistency in style

• • Listen to all your colleagues once the intranet has launched to find out what features work well and what can be discarded. Having initially designed departmental areas where teams could publish their own documents and comments we found they were not being used and have been removed

• • Outside contractors. If you are using an outside systems developer make sure the hosting and support costs are factored into your original budget. Make sure to specify that your supplier responds quickly to problems (you set the time limit) in your original contact. If an outside contractor is hosting ensure any system downtime is limited to the contractually agreed hours per year.