Ideally, an intranet is a company’s internal, secured computernetwork that provides information to its employees in an easilyaccessible fashion. Intranets are now common, but many companieshave found they have not lived up to their expectations. Issueswith first–generation intranet design include:
- Poor usability, information is hard to find.
- Low stickiness, users do not view the intranet as a resource, and user retention suffers.
- Information silos, information is organized by department with little thought given to company–wide collaboration.
An intranet portal is the evolution of thetraditional intranet design. It is an integrated collection of applications, data stores and contentand document management systems. Portal technologies provide a single and secure interface to the business content users need, and also connect other applications in the enterpriseto form an integrated solution, which allows forbetter alignment with the company’s business model.
Business Advantages
Portals now include integration with evolvingand dynamic technologies, such as business intelligence and analytics, document and content management and interactive collaboration tools. For example, a portal’s business intelligence dashboard enables a company to monitorand respond to its line of business applications inreal time. Document and content management features allow users to self–service and deliver content themselves, providing a single point of entry for its employees and eliminating the “siloing” of information by business units. Interactive collaboration tools, such as wikis, blogs and instant messaging, improve communications throughout the organization.
Processes and Workflow
You can save time and money by designing the portal aroundyour business model. For example, vacation request forms, proceduresand FAQs can be stored on the portal. Employees can accessthis centralized information instead of searching the office for theright person to talk to.
Intelligent forms can be designed to automate business processes,and its workflows can include automatic routing, notificationor escalation. This reduces the required processing manpowerand improves accuracy, reliability and responsiveness.
Eco Friendly
Conscientious use of the portal reduces printing, distribution and paper costs. For example, converting frequently updated information,such as an employee directory, to an online database delivered through the portal eliminates the cost of printing and distributing a new directory each time it is updated. Training manuals and videos, HR forms and reports can be printed orviewed on demand when needed. Users in different locations cancollaborate online, reducing the amount of travel.
Infrastructure and Support
By building a portal on a popular Information Technology platform, such as Microsoft’s .net framework or Java, companies can streamline infrastructure, deployment and maintenance costs. An additional benefit of choosing a well–known platform is the reduced costs of developing new functionality if needed. Comprehensive online help can reduce support and helpdesk requirements.
Building a Business Case
A Delphi Group study found that only 2 percent of portal installations failed to return any return on investment. A portal’s ROI is generated primarily through its use to reduce costs and increase revenues. Some measurable examples include:
- Increased employee productivity – self–service applications delivered through the portal increase employee efficiency and save time, while also reducing staff requirements.
- Lowered computing costs – a centralized document management system lowers enterprise storage requirements by reducing redundant copies of files and consolidating server hardware.
Portal solutions can be used to optimize business operations with the goal of reducing costsand improving the bottom line, and it is important to identify metrics that can be used to validate the success of the portal project.
Overall, an integrated portal helps users find actionable information. Information that was previously scattered across e–mail inboxes, network shares or spread across ad–hoc departmental web sites, is more manageable and accessible. A well–designed portal allows companies to achieve centralized access, better management and control of resources, information consistency and reduced costs of ownership and maintenance.
While business executives need to weigh the specific benefits of integrating various tools and applications into an intranet portal, it is undeniable that such a tool decreases the cycle time needed for routine knowledge transfer from the organization to its employees.
