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11.12.07
Intranets Are In Trouble
 By Shel Holtz
Intranets are in trouble. These internal versions of the World Wide Web have held huge promise.
After all, if people can simplify their lives using the Web, why shouldn't the same technology simplify work? But typical corporate activities have conspired the make the intranet just one more mismanaghed resource in many organizations. Lack of funding, restrictions on who can post content, clutter, poor navigation, the absence of useful content, bad search engines, outdated material, inaccurate information-all if it leads employees to find alternative sources for the information and tools they need.
The situation was driven home by the results of a study from the Irish Computer Society. The 2007 Intranet research report found that significant percentages of employees find their companies' intranets inneffective and not useful for their regular work efforts. The study's results may be limited to Irish workers, but based on my experience with intranets in a number of companies, I'm certain the results would be mirrored elsewhere if the same questions were asked.
The study-which questioned 180 participants from Irish companies with intranets-produced the following results, according to a report from PublicTechnology.net:
• Nearly half say they don't use the intranet to support their everyday work
• Nearly one in three say the intranet does not help with daily work
• Half find their intranets' search engines to be ineffective and 80% think both navigation and search need to be improved
• 35% of respondents cannot access the information they need on their company intranet
The study also finds that accessing staff and personal contact deteails like phone diretories is the most common and useful activity on intranets. However (again, based on my own experience), these directories are often woefully out of date. I worked with one company where an underground paper version of the directory could be had by those who sought it, since it was more accurate than the online directory.
Intranets can still transform the way work gets done in an organization, but only with appropriate care and feeding. Most, sadly, are neglected.
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