Intranet References and Resources

Return to Intranets

From Giulio Quaggiotto, UNU-IAS, quaggiotto at ias.unu.edu 9/9/2004

INTRANET ONLINE RESOURCES

1. GETTING STARTED - PLANNING

• Creating an Effective Intranet (M. White) A very comprehensive introduction to intranet projects. A good starting point. http://www.intranetfocus.com/information/effectiveintranets.pdf

• Calculating the ROI on your intranet investment (L. Sulgit) In order to pitch for your project internally, you might need to demonstrate the eventual benefits to the organisation. This article provides a way to calculate money saved and money earned through the intranet Donwloadable at http://www.sulgit.com/journal/ (free sample)

• Requirements gathering: Lose your ego and ask away (P.G. Daly) Getting the user requirement phase right is crucial. This article gives some practical suggestions on how to go about it. http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200406/ij_06_14_04a.html

• Using narrative in a CMS tender (J. Robertson) A different way of articulating users requirements http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_narrativetender/index.html

2. BUILDING BLOCKS

2.1 USABILITY

• Intranet Usability: The Trillion-Dollar Question (J. Nielsen) An article from usability guru Jakob Nielsen on the advantages of improving the user-friendliness of corporate intranets http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20021111.html

• Intranet Applications Face a Design Challenge (E. Billings) Fairly basic, but useful reminder of the specific challenges of intranet design http://www.cluebox.com/articles/020314.htm

• Improving the usability of a corporate intranet (D. Coumo and L. Borghesani) A very practical and detailed case study of how a company went about redesigning their intranet http://www.mitre.org/work/tech_papers/tech_papers_97/intranet/mii_redesign.pdf

2.2 ARCHITECTURE

• 3 articles with a common theme: the intranet’s architecture needs to support key business processes. With some useful tips. Intranet architecture http://www.intrack.com/intranet/iarchi.cfm

Building intranets that matter (S. Singh) http://www.digital-web.com/articles/building_intranets_that_matter/

Does your intranet support core business? (D. Maurer) http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_corebusiness/index.html

• Intranet organisation is in the cards (T.Tullis) A step-by-step illustrated guide to card sorting as a technique to determine an intranet’s architecture Donwloadable at http://www.sulgit.com/journal/ (free sample)

• IBM web design guidelines Written for external websites managers, but provide lots of useful advice also for intranet design and architecture http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/publish/572

3. KEEPING IT GOING – INTRANET MANAGEMENT

• A Process-Oriented Framework for Efficient Intranet Management A bit old, tekky and business-oriented, but still valid http://www.isoc.org/inet99/proceedings/1d/1d_4.htm

• The intranet gets serious (G. McGovern) Content guru Gerry McGovern gives a 4-part introduction to the “new era” in intranet management. Lots of common sense, but also the occasional pearl of wisdom. http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2003/nt_2003_11_17_intranet_1.htm

• Improving your intranet, task by task (T. Calabria) If redesign is not an option, this article gives a few tips on how to incrementally improve an intranet portal http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_taskbytask/index.html

• Intranet Standards and Publishing Guidelines (M. Gallagher) Back to basics. Some fundamental principles about intranet management. http://www.gallagher.com/intranet/standards.html

• Data protection issues for intranet managers Increasingly, managing an intranet means also keeping abreast with the latest legislation on data protection. This article is mostly relevant for UK/EU intranet managers, but includes best practices for everyone http://www.intranetfocus.com/intranets/dataprotection.html

4. GETTING COLLEAGUES ON BOARD - INTERNAL MARKETING

• The ABC of Intranet Learning (P. Chin) Practical tips on how best to introduce a new intranet in an organisation http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200408/ij_08_12_04a.html

• Keeping your content owners…content (P. Chin) How to make sure that there is a constant flow of quality content to your intranet http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200407/ij_07_19_04a.html

• 2 very good articles about “soft issues” in web design, and intranet design in particular

The human touch (E. Billings) http://www.cluebox.com/articles/020115.htm

The art of being human (N. Usborne) http://www.nickusborne.com/articles_art3.htm