1. Name it

This may sound like style over substance but there is strong evidence that giving your intranet an actual name rather than just leaving it as “the intranet” makes a significant positive impact towards its success. So call it “The Hub” or christen it “Boris”. Believe me both of these are real examples, but don't keep it generic. Something appropriate to your firm's culture will do the trick. Can't think of anything? Well some organisations have held competitions and picked the best suggestion. A name serves as a glue, provides social cohesion and a virtual buddy who will help.

Jackie Fishleigh

2. Brand it

Now you've got a name, you've got a brand! Yes really. This is great as it should inspire trust and loyalty. We all have our favourite brands. Here are a few of mine: Amazon, Pret a Manger, Waitrose, Marks and Spencer, Robert Dyas. So you want your users to learn to love “The Hub” or “Boris” and come back to it as their first port of call time and time again. Give them what they want and they will! For a kick-off, make sure common forms and tasks are available centrally online.

3. Killer Applications

Don't worry, I'm not talking about some dodgy video game. I mean applications that draw people to your intranet because they are just so damn useful or better still, essential… Now this is probably beginning to sound expensive and all singing/dancing. Far from it! What constitutes a killer application will vary from one organisation to another. A well put together staff directory will often do it. We are about to add photos to ours and I have high hopes. Not of my mugshot obviously, but of it becoming the “go to” destination for staff information. Apparently those stranded by the Volcanic Ashcloud in 2010 really missed accessing this via the intranet. Other winners are Key Performance Indicators, holiday booking systems or expenses claim forms. If key applications are migrated to the intranet then staff can be forced to access the intranet. Did I say forced? Forced in a “isn't this fantastic, where has the intranet been all my life” – good way.

4. Keeping it Fresh

We've all glanced at a notice board in a public place and seen a poster on display for a long-gone event. That sort of experience gives me a sad, sinking feeling that nobody cares or is in control. You need to make sure people don't ever feel that way about your intranet! Take care to constantly update all your content. This can be time consuming but is essential to building a loyal and trusting following. Sheep? No lawyers…

5. Your Home Page – The Jewel in the Crown

First impressions often stick so make sure the first glimpse of “The Hub” or “Boris” instils trust and confidence. Does it look Businesslike, Clean, Integrated, Organised and Professional? The front page is your shop window so you must show your wares and communicate your message effectively.

6. Make sure the intranet is the first page users see when they log on

Every browser in the organisation should have its homepage set to the intranet. IT can make sure this happens and “whoa…” this could suddenly provide you with a whole new audience! Make sure everyone can access the intranet. Do not assume that all users have automatic access to the intranet. Make it your job to change any settings as needed to ensure they do! Make sure senior management support you in this.

7. Every Little Helps

A slightly cheaper bunch of bananas at Tesco or a friendly staff member escorting you to the right shelf may seem trivial, but if repeated hundred of thousands of times it really does make a difference throughout the supermarket chain. Following the same logic, if you invest time in constantly improving the functionality of your intranet this will benefit everyone by just a small amount, but the cumulative effect of that across the entire organisation, will be considerable. This way, you are increasing productivity, improving internal communication and collaboration, employee morale and motivation which will improve the Return on Investment (ROI) made on the intranet. Keep this going and your intranet will become a valuable and effective business tool, if it isn't already.

8. Enthusiasm

Seize every opportunity you can to enthuse about “Boris.” No, not Boris Johnson…your intranet! Keep talking about it as often as you can to as many people as possible. If appropriate, celebrate milestones in the life of your intranet with promotional activities; balloons, T-shirts, cake. There's a card for everything these days – I even saw a thank you for dog-sitting card. Next stop the intranet launch anniversary card!

9. Make it User Centric

Always keep the end user in mind. Find out what people want via usage statistics and feedback. Show them what they are looking for with speed and accuracy. Keep pulling people in by adding new applications and features every few months. You may have a small group of users with specialised requirements. It is still important to cater for them as they can end up as advocates and champions for your intranet. You just have to listen to their requirements and do your utmost to fulfil them. It is essential that an intranet manager maintains strong working relationship with groups and departments throughout the organisation and is open to their ideas. Virtually every employee is an information creator of some sort and they may provide some of your future content.

10. Integration

Where possible promote links between all aspects of the contents. Alert people to content changes and additions via e-mail links into the intranet. This gives them a “push” into your upgraded content. Some people do need a little shove now and then, but not literally. Once you've got your staff directory up and running don't just leave it at that. Set up some networking capabilities. That way staff can make contact with other co-workers and join bulletin boards and discussion groups. This will help promote a knowledge sharing culture. Oh and make sure you maintain a register of expertise along with the staff directory. This will be a great time-saver and will help build up communities of practice. The latter consist of groups of workers who share a concern or a passion for something they do. As they interact regularly and pool their knowledge they learn to do it better.

11. Training

Make sure the intranet takes centre stage at any staff induction. A recommended method of doing this is to put your organisation's induction materials on the intranet. That way from Day One new joiners will be regular users and hopefully soon hooked on the intranet! Make sure that anyone else who needs training also receives it in the most timely and professional manner. Training and guidance can turn a useful intranet into an absolutely invaluable tool for your business. Intranets have an important role to play in providing short cuts to corporate policies and procedure. Social media can add significantly to the value of the intranet's induction area.

12. Interface

This should be appealing and easy to use.

13. Search

These days, users expect Google style performance. If a search application fails to find information that is known to exist, you will soon be in the dog house with them. The thing is this; like it or not, if your search function doesn't cut the mustard some users will just give up and go and ask or phone another member of staff or use an alternative information source. People are like that. It's an online version of someone ignoring you in the corridor. You will have lost an audience member and trust in the intranet may be lost for some time or worse still permanently.

Here are the facts from the Global Intranet Trend survey 2010:

Only 14% of respondents were very satisfied with their search applications. 47% were moderately satisfied.

Organisations have only recently realised the importance of an effective search on the intranet; it is a core application. Getting the best search facility really requires a dedicated support team with IT, business and taxonomy skills. Search logs are a great way of finding out what users can find but more importantly what they were looking for but failed to get from your intranet. Changes can then be made to the information architecture or to your metadata schema. This may take some time. Well I never said it would be easy. Maintaining an intranet can be labour intensive. Your intranet is worth it!

If you haven't the time and money to plough into a fancy search engine then bear in mind that there are 5 ways users may discover information:

Lists and structured navigation

Hyperlinks (contribution of knowledge to a web page)

Search

Alerts

Site map (I am an advocate of site maps and update ours regularly using Visio software.)

There is more than one way to skin a cat. But let's just stick with the intranet…

14. Extra, extra read all about it

A news feature is likely to be popular whether it's the latest list of new recruits to your organisation, details of the day's sumptuous fare on offer in the canteen or the trials and tribulations of your organisation's football or netball teams. You could also put national or international news material on your intranet via a web based clipping service (copyright permitting). Or you could even put up news stories about your organisation, the more glowing the better I guess! What about photos? – yes today's main news story is about two giant pandas arriving from China at Edinburgh Zoo. How cute that would look on your intranet homepage. Or there are the talks between Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy to try and save the euro. Not sure about that one as a photo opportunity. Let's stay with the pandas… But it really depends on your organisation. If you are global, how about weather reports for the cities where you have offices? Or maybe business news, share prices, the football or lottery draw results. Or the bingo numbers (well maybe not the bingo). You could probably get away with who has been kicked out of Strictly. It is good practice to get some “fun” on everyone's desktop every day.

15. Content, content, content

Without content, the intranet would be nothing, or at best an empty shell. Developing a content strategy and making sure you stick to it (easier said than done!) is a great way to enhance the value of an intranet. Most intranets carry 20–25% unnecessary content. True fact. Go find it and root it out, or at the very least archive it. Yes you can read the rest of this article first. The highest priority content is the type that results directly in revenue generation. Other important categories are content needed for compliance and regulation, that defines corporate values, procedures and principles; also the sort that supports career development. The same goes for information that helps employees manage risks to business performance. The more the intranet provides people with information that empowers them, the more it will be respected, supported and used. A lot more than just pandas then… Someone should be responsible if a content creator leaves. Whoever maintains a document needs to know how much it is used and by whom. Content protocols are important in ensuring personal commitment to content quality. Where compliance issues are concerned, managers may still need to check content.

In an ideal world, good quality metadata should be used with a long shelf life, each page should have a unique set of headers and footer information giving its origins. Also version-record boxes, informative titles and an executive summary. Each document should be reviewed 12 months after being added and then 6 months later.

16. Creating a culture of collaboration

The intranet can provide the ideal forum for solving problems through working together. If examples of good practice are highly visible and senior managers act as role models, then a culture of collaboration can be fostered by the organisation. The intranet can play a major part in helping people make connections which means that the right people are put together in the first place, getting any projects off to a flying start. Intranets make it easier to move information within an organisation. Departments that once rarely interacted can now start collaborating on big projects. The value to the organisation of increasing information flow can be significant. Mind you, not all users will take to collaboration like a duck to water. Even contributing to a blog takes knowledge, insight and confidence. Well ok, business blogs! I don't mean those weird speciality or hobby type blogs – not that you read those, obviously! Some people have too much time on their hands. But not the busy legal information professional. To assist and support new users of collaboration technologies, pages can be published on the intranet which explain basic concepts. This means that when new adopters need to know how to perform a particular task or use a particular function they can visit the help pages and read the clear step by step instructions provided.

Returning briefly to the topic of social media, it seems likely that most organisations will provide organisational access to Stalkerbook (sorry, I mean Facebook), LinkedIn and You Tube. It seems that the benefits of having employees connect to a global network will outweigh concerns about time wasting or security breaches. And no doubt since the intranet is the launch pad for applications, intranet managers will allow access – possibly through gritted teeth though. Gosh that sounds painful.

17. Strategy

It is important that the strategy for the development of the intranet aligns with your organisation's plans and goals. You will also need a marketing strategy to keep users expectations at a realistic level. You will need to enlighten users as to the value and impact of the intranet and get staff using the intranet in a way that will benefit them and the organisation.

And finally….

you may be wondering if our humble Payne Hicks Beach intranet incorporates all the above nuggets of wisdom. In the words of John McEnroe: “You cannot be serious!”

Nor have I ever seen any intranet incorporating all these features. But if you, dear reader should ever encounter one that does, please let me know. I'll be right over…

Bibliography

There is very little published material on intranets in the legal sector. This article has drawn heavily on the following invaluable sources:

White, Martin. (2011) The Intranet Management Handbook. Facet Publishing. Apparently it took Facet, 5 years to persuade the author to write this book! There is very little “out there” on this subject so I almost started cheering when I found this book at the Umbrella conference in July. Buy it!

Interact Intranet. (2011) Planning and Deploying A Successful Intranet. Everything you need to know about planning, developing and deploying a successful, user centric intranet. Some good stuff in this. I got it free after attending one of their seminars.

I have also benefited from visits to see three law firm intranets over the past couple of years with a group called ILLi. I won't name them in case they wish to keep their intranets to themselves but thank you all.