So the Boss Decided the Department Needs an Intranet Part II

by J.D. Shipengrover

In my previous column, I talked about how to use NetObjects Autosites to put a new departmental intranet up in a hurry. Now, let's talk about putting up a new intranet for the entire company. (In a moderate hurry.)

• Department vs. Company: The department is the tree and the company is the forest.
• A different voice: Company sites speak to employees, not the world.
• Update your template: Add links to various departments and don't forget human resources.
• How to get department information: There are two scenarios—existing department sites or starting from scratch.
• The linchpin: Human resources holds the key to almost all employee questions and concerns.

First, I understand that you have a short timeline, don't have time to design from scratch, and the departmental intranet autosite just doesn't cover enough for you to use it as a template. OK. What you can do, simply and easily, is use the Company Internet Autosite found in NetObjects Fusion and customize from there.

What is the difference between a department and a company intranet?

In my experience, a department intranet focuses on a single department, while the company intranet attempts to create a single entry, home, or portal (to use an industry buzzword) into alldepartment-level sites as well as providing overall company information.

What is the difference between company intranet and internet sites?

Not much, in my opinion. I am sure there are others out there who would disagree with me, but in my opinion and experience, an intranet is just like an internet company site, with a few exceptions/additions:

1. It has a different voice. By this I mean it speaks to employees, not outsiders.
2. It has more details, and company specific information that outsiders normally wouldn't be allowed to have.
3. It includes internal information. For example, human resources information such as all of the details regarding company benefits. (What they are, how to sign up for them, how to change, how to use them, etc.)

But, employees want to know the same things about a company that outsiders want to know, too.

• How is the company performing?
• Who is who and what is their background; what projects are in the works; and who is working on them?
• What is the strategy for next quarter? Next year? And so on.

All you really need to do is take the information your PR group and financial department already have, change the voice so it speaks to an internal person, and put it up. (I highly recommend taking the time to change the voice; it is more personal.)

Customize the autosite to make it a company intranet site

Next, you have to take the template one step further. You need to customize it. In a sense, you have already customized the template, by adding all of your company information to the predefined pages. However, for this internet template to evolve into a true intranet you need to add information or links to the different departments and the projects they are working on, as well as human resources information (benefits and open positions).

For departmental information, there are two possible scenarios:

1. The company's many departments have, on their own, developed individual departmental intranets. (They are all different; there is no cohesion; some are good, and some are awful. Some are up-to-date and some haven't been touched in a year, but you have something to build on.)
2. This is a first for the company to make any type of intranet and there is nothing out there to build on. (You don't have anything to build on. Although you are at ground zero, you can ensure that all development from here on adheres to a set list of guidelines and styles.)

Pulling them all together

What to do if you are in situation number one. Well, you have information--that is good. You have a mess--that is bad. Don't get discouraged. I have seen this situation more times than I can count.

First, get what is out there up to date. That is the most important thing. For the first round, I wouldn't worry too much about creating a common look and feel, just make sure what is going to be published is current. An added bonus to doing this--you find out who in each department is responsible for the department's site. (This is a major bonus in the long run, you'll see :)

Once all of the separate sites are updated, link them to your site. How you do this is up to you. The easiest way is to add a section to your site called departments (keeping it in the theme of your autosite) and then just list the departments that have a page done. Now, if you are going to go live without all of the departments represented, make sure you have information on how the missing departments can get a hold of you to get their information on-line.

Once you have that done and your phase one company intranet is complete, I would make a template (perhaps NetObjects' company intranet autosite) for all departmental pages and then have the department redesign its site with your template. If you want, sometimes it is best to let each department create its own look and maintain a personality. However, I do think it is good to have the department folks create their own pages. They know the most about what they do. Your role would be to simply make sure the site stays up to date.

Starting from scratch

The second scenario is a little more difficult. You can go live with just the information outlined in the company internet autosite. However, to complete the site, you do need to make sure all of the departments are represented. Now, I would suggest you have a contact inside each department who is responsible for building a Web page for that department or for giving you all of the information you need to build a page for that department. There is more work for you to do here, but whatcha ya gonna do?

The linchpin: human resources

Finally, get human resources on-line. Technically, they are a department and would fall into the information outlined above, but for an intranet, human resources information is a linchpin. HR holds the key to almost all employee questions and concerns. You could cut the amount of time HR spends on the phone in half or more if you can build a good intranet and promote it properly. Going into detail here would take another entire column and perhaps I will cover that in the near future. But for now, let me just say, you HAVE, HAVE, HAVE to have an HR presence on the site. Be it a list of contacts, policies, or downloadable forms. Get it up and continue to improve it.

About the author

JD Shipengrover has been in the Intranet developing business for over four years, including building a worldwide Intranet for CompuServe Inc.'s Customer Services department, (A project on such a large scale it took 2 years to complete!) Currently, she consults at BMW Financial Services, designing several Intranets for their dealer networks. She also teaches Web Site Design at a Columbus State Community College and has a BA in Journalism.

Illustration: Metropolis by Rob Porazinski from www.artville.com