Intranet Experience Blog » interoperability

Top 10 Must Haves For Every Good Intranet

Sean R. Nicholson — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:25:29 +0000

Sean R. Nicholson

Okay Intranet fans, here it is…the 2009 completely unofficial list of must have functionality for every Intranet.

**Please note that we reserve the right to update this list and expand it beyond 10 based on the great feedback and comments we will undoubtedly receive.

{drumroll please….}

# 10) Application Interoperability – There’s nothing like a good Intranet mashup. Being able to search for a user and see not only who they are (from the HR application), what they are working on (from the Project Management application), and where they are located (From HR + Google Maps) is pretty cool, not to mention that it brings relevant information to the user on a single page. Look for creative ways to mash up your applications and streamline information gathering. Remember that good mashup also leverage a “simpler sign-on” schema so that users don’t have to login over and over to see data in different applications.

#9) A Clean Design – Lot of functionality is good, but be sure to spend time up front determining what should be on the front page and what can be moved to secondary pages. Your users should be able to find content quickly and easily. Spend some time watching how your users physically navigate the Intranet and strive toward reducing the number of clicks they have to make to locate the information they are looking for. Need help creating a design? Bring in a consultant from the outside to provide an objective point of view.

#8) A Good Name – I always love hearing people refer to the Intranet by it’s given name, rather than “the Intranet”. Creative names allow folks to create an identity for the Intranet that gives it a life of its own. If you don’t have a name for your Intranet, try holding a company-wide contest to come up with names and then have your company vote on it. Your even more likely to get strong buy in if the name is chosen by your organization as opposed to being assigned by a developer with a Star Wars fetish.

#7) A Strong Navigation Taxonomy – Yes….it’s a Google kinda world, so folks like to find content through search, but when they find that content, they also like to see where they are in the navigation, using a folder taxonomy or breadcrumbs, so they can find other content that is similar in nature AND know how to get back to the content in the future.

#6) Personalization – Users need to be able to customize pieces of the Intranet. Whether it’s their weather, stock quote, news headlines, horoscope or other content, allow them to make the Intranet more useful to them as an information source. Also, by allowing users to relocate portlets or widgets, they can create a design that meets the way they work. Need a good source for personalized information? Look to subscription information providers such as YellowBrix.

#5) A Good Rich Text Editor – Nothing helps an Intranet grow more than content, so making the creation of content easy is important. A good WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) editor is important. Don’t forget to make sure your editor has a spell check. I speak from experience on this one (ahem…Plumtree/BEA/Oracle WebCenter)

#4) Governance – No need to go into full-blown lockdown mode, but governance is a good thing for any organization. It keeps your Intranet from becoming the wild, wild west and ensures that the content created has meaning and is relevant. Some areas of the Intranet (WIKIs, forums, etc… ) can be looser than others, but your governance strategy should be flexible enough to accommodate for these different needs.

#3) A Strong Collaboration Toolset – User created content will drive your Intranet page views through the roof. A good, spirited conversation about the latest product or marketing campaign can help spread the word about what your organization is doing and can drive new innovations. Try adding an “Idea Center” to your Intranet and challenge your employees to come up with new ways to do business. Products like user-driven blogs, forums, and WIKIS can turn your readers into contributors growing your content exponentially. Daily polls can also be used for gathering user sentiment on a corporate topic, or just for a little fun.

#2) A Federated Search Engine – Again, it’s a Google kinda world, so make sure your search works and it can talk to other applications. No one likes to have to search 10 different places for information, so leverage tools like Google appliances or federated search engines like FAST or Autonomy to bring all of your content together into one search. If you haven’t ever seen a demo of one of these “meaning” based search engines, give them a call and ask for one. You’ll be amazed at what modern search engines can do.

#1) Meaningful Content – The best design, the coolest name, even a great governance strategy…they’re nothing without meaningful content. If your users don’t find value in your Intranet, they won’t adopt its use. In addition (and I can’t stress this enough), the content MUST be timely and accurate.

The only thing worse than no information is bad information…Your employees will act using bad information because they don’t know it’s inaccurate. There’s nothing worse than a sales rep sharing an outdated rate sheet or a customer service rep providing an inaccurate solution to a problem. To avoid this, be sure your Intranet content is up-to-date and reviewed frequently.

There you have it, Intranet fans! 10 must haves for any good Intranet.

Additions:

Accessibility – Everyone needs to be able to use your Intranet. Ensuring that your pages comply with the accessibility guidelines will ensure that folks with disabilities can read or hear the content. Thanks to Russell @theparallaxview for the suggestion

Have input? We’d love to hear any additions, suggestions, or constructive criticism in your comments!

The Difference Between Mashups And Messes…How Integrated Are Your Portal Applications?

Sean R. Nicholson — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:35:23 +0000

Sean R. Nicholson

One of the strengths of a good Intranet portal is the ability to integrate the disparate applications that exist within an enterprise. Just because links to the applications are presented in the portal or, in some cases, even natively surfaced in the portal doesn’t make them effectively integrated. Take a look at the following tips and see if they indicate that your portal has mashups or messes.

1) Integrated “simpler” sign-on – Do your users have to login over and over to the various applications in your portal? Nothing irritates users more than having to login repeatedly. Whether it’s hourly logins to your portal or repeated logins to poorly integrated applications, your user adoption will take a nosedive if you make your users re-authenticate. Look to “simpler sign-on” applications like CA/Netegrity SiteMinder or BMC’s Identity Management suite to carry your users’ identity across your Intranet portal and into your business applications.

User adoption will be low if your end-users have to login over and over again!

Some portal vendors are already integrating Identity Management functionality into their portal applications, but don’t be tricked into thinking these solutions are a magic bullet. Legacy applications often use hidden authentication fields or tricky redirects to ensure that they aren’t being “spoofed”. In one recent situation, my Development team spent a couple of weeks attempting to use BEAs Aqualogic User Interaction portal to federate authentication to applications like Peoplesoft and Concur Expense Management. Each of these applications use a specific redirect functionality to ensure the security integrity of their application. As with this situation some application IdM may not be able to be addressed by a portal or IdM suite. The goal, however, is to minimize the number of times your users have to login by federating wherever possible.

2) Federated Search Functionality – I have been known to repeat the phrase “It’s a Google kinda world” to more than one client when discussing federated search. The concept is simple…with the simple Google interface, we expect to type our term or phrase into a search field, click a Submit button, and receive the information we’re seeking. No additional dropdown lists or checkboxes, just one search field and one search button. The reality, however, is that every company doesn’t have the money or resources to devote to search that Google has. In addition, they often face a variety of disparate applications developed on different platforms, all using different search functionality. As a result, each organization must do the best they can to identify the most simple search interface that returns the most valuable information to their users. Through the use of APIs, passing parameters, and third party applications or appliances, it’s amazing how close to a “Google experience” some organizations are able to come.

3) Application Interoperability - When your users click on a link in one portlet (also known as a “widget”), are they taken to an entirely different browser or page or is the information on the screen automatically updated? Allowing one section of a page to update the information displayed is often referred to as interoperability, which allows end-users to find information faster. The sign of a good mashup occurs when the user is able to interact with several different applications without knowing it.

As an example, imagine a customer calling into a customer care center and asking to review their most recent bill. The care agent enters the customers phone number into a single search form. This mashup then changes to display the customer account data (information stored in the CRM application), their most recent billing activity (which is stored in the billing application), and the list of outages in their area (information stored in the network service status application). The information presented on a single screen is considered to be a “mashup” of information from disparate systems.

A Customer Service Mashup

The benefit of this type of mashup is that the care agent has all of the information they may need within a single click. This speeds the resolution time, making the customer happy and positively impacting employee satisfaction since they were able to easily access information without having to hunt for it.

4) Appropriate Application Security – As has been previously mentioned, Identity Management is a key component to a good mashup. But security isn’t limited to the number of logins a user has to complete. The most important aspect of application integration is ensuring that user only sees information that they would be authorized to see if they were accessing the information directly within the business application where the data is housed. Usually, a business application has its own integrated security for a good reason. Maybe it’s to restrict access to content, govern functionality, or ensure auditing, but whatever the reason the native security of the application must be followed. More and more, application vendors are providing toolkits for application developers to use Application Programming Interfaces (API)s that allow other applications to extract or insert data in a way that respects the application security. These toolkits can be invaluable to Developers in the creation of proper mashups.

5) Usability – Nothing screams “MESS!” more than a hodgepodge or information hastily slapped together on a page. Care should be taken to understand how your users expect to use the mashup before placing the content onto the page. Your end-users can often describe the flow of information they use, which will guide you in arranging the mashup appropriately. For instance, in the case of our customer service agent, do they often ask how the weather is in the customers location? If so, having the weather information prominently displayed may assist establishing a relationship with the customer. During a heaving outage period, however, it might be better to relocate the outage information to the top of the page and allow the weather to be secondary.

Creating a good mashup isn’t just about bringing together commonly-linked information. To avoid a mashup mess, take the above tips into account and you’re sure to produce something worthwhile to your end-users.