Introduction

In Chapter 3 some of the considerations that need to be taken into account in writing a business plan for an intranet were set out, but the focus was on a tactical plan to be supported from the organization over perhaps the next financial year. Chapter 7, on selecting intranet CMS and search software, highlighted the potential need for a two-year perspective on funding the deployment of new software. This chapter takes an even longer-term view and looks at the benefits and challenges of preparing a two- or three-year strategy for an intranet.

Even quite large intranets may not be operating within a strategic plan, and yet employees rely every working day on information accessed from the intranet. Even if an individual employee has not accessed the intranet, their work for the day may well have been defined by a manager or a colleague who has done so. In most organizations, in terms of both the quantity and essential nature of the information, the intranet will have grown invisibly over its life, which may well stretch over many years. Now, the intranet and the organization have reached a tipping point.

The current economic situation means that:

All these factors play on the strengths of an intranet, which, compared with most IT applications, requires little investment in hardware, software or development. Intranet managers will be faced with some challenging decisions in determining how best to prioritize development plans.

One of the complications that besets intranet investment decisions is that the intranet is owned by a department – usually internal communications, IT or HR – on behalf of the organization, but that department has to maintain the intranet within its own departmental budget.