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6023 results in Facet Publishing

Page 238 of 302

  • 3 - Making a business case

  • from Part 1 - Foundations
  • Martin White
  • Book:
    The Intranet Management Handbook
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 25-40

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Any internal investment made by an organization will always need to be justified by a business case, especially in the current economic situation. Many organizations have a pro forma approach to investment cases that can be very difficult to adapt to the delivery of what, in essence, is an information service. This was the case with a major hospital in the UK where most of the investment was targeted at meeting performance targets for clinical excellence set out by the government. The entire pro forma was based around patient numbers and treatments and it was totally unsuitable for an investment into new web content management software for the intranet. There was general agreement at all levels in the hospital that the intranet was a valuable support tool, but the intranet manager was placed in the situation of not being able to show an auditable link between the investment and clinical performance – the alternative being to persuade the hospital trust that the investment pro forma needed to be rewritten.

    In this chapter a number of different ways of making a business case for an intranet are presented, all of which will need to be adapted to the way in which investment decisions are made by the board. Indeed, the initial step has to be to establish any rules for investment decisions before starting to prepare the business case, especially where the investment is for computer hardware and software. There are often levels of investment that can be signed off by an individual senior manager without having to go to the finance director and the board. Sometimes it pays to be pragmatic and to pitch the investment at a level where it does not need full board approval, as almost always in the intranet business some investment is better than none at all.

    The focus of this chapter is on making a near-term business case, perhaps for the next 6 to 12 months. Preparing a longer-term, perhaps three- or even five-year, strategy is covered in Chapter 17.

    All or something?

    One decision to be made at the outset is whether the best approach is to write a business case for the entire intranet or to take some specific elements of the intranet and use those to make such a good business case that everything else can be wrapped into it.

  • 9 - Establishing the intranet team

  • from Part 3 - Operational planning
  • Martin White
  • Book:
    The Intranet Management Handbook
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 117-128

  • Summary

    Introduction

    There is now good evidence from both the report Global Intranet Trends1 and from the work of the Nielsen Norman Group that, ideally, there should be one full-time intranet manager for every 3000 users of the intranet. Most organizations would see this as an unattainable and unrealistic target at a time when they are making efforts to reduce employee numbers in an attempt to reduce costs. However, these organizations fail to recognize not only the role that the intranet manager plays in ensuring that the intranet is fit for purpose, but also that there is a distinct role of ‘intranet manager’. Indeed, in many organizations the ‘intranet manager’ may well have additional tasks and a job title that does not reflect the work they do in managing the intranet.

    It does not help that there is no professional organization to represent intranet managers, there is no structured training for intranet managers that would lead to some form of certification, and there is no obvious career path for an intranet manager. If the numbers of people with intranet management roles were small, this might be an acceptable situation, but the reality is different. In the UK, CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, has a membership of around 20,000. With at least 50,000 intranets in the UK it is quite possible that there are more intranet managers (either full time or part time) than there are information professionals. The situation is probably similar in many other countries. Even in the USA there is no association for intranet professionals.

    Hopefully, this situation will change. Certainly the advent of many informal groups of intranet managers is helping to establish good practice, and from their meetings intranet managers are able to gain ideas that they can use in their own organizations. From my attendance at these meetings, it is clear that many intranet managers tend to find themselves in their posts almost by accident. When a vacancy occurred they just happened to be able to take on the responsibility, and now enjoy the work that the position requires. However, many are now wondering how to develop their careers.

  • 17 - Developing an intranet strategy

  • from Part 4 - Governance and strategy
  • Martin White
  • Book:
    The Intranet Management Handbook
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 199-206

  • Summary

    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:

  • • staff are being made redundant and walking out of the door with invaluable knowledge about the organization

  • • staff who remain may well have to expand the scope of their work to accommodate the redundancies, and so have to access and trust information that they are not familiar with

  • • past business performance is no longer an indicator of the future, and new approaches will be needed so as to maintain and enhance customer relationships

  • • where new members of staff are hired, they will need to come up to speed and make a significant contribution to the organization as quickly as possible

  • • investment in IT applications will be under intense scrutiny.

    • 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.

  • 3 - Producing eBooks on Demand: a European library network

  • from Part 1 - The production and distribution of e-books
    • By Silvia Gstrein, Project manager for the eBooks on Demand (EOD) network within the Department for Digitization and Digital Preservation at Innsbruck University, Austria, Günter Mühlberger, Head of the Department for Digitization and Digital Preservation at the University of Innsbruck
  • Edited by Kate Price, Virginia Havergal
  • Book:
    E-books in Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 37-52

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Following the creation of the European Commission's digital strategy in recent years, European libraries have been meticulously digitizing parts of their cultural heritage. At the same time they have witnessed increasing demand from researchers and readers for access to digital resources, particularly historical books. This was the impetus behind the eBooks on Demand (EOD) network, which provides a trans-European digital document delivery service for readers all over the world. Currently the EOD network consists of almost 30 libraries from 12 European countries. Since 2007 between 4000 and 5000 e-books have been generated, delivered to users worldwide and subsequently made available to the public through the repositories of the participating libraries. User reactions have been very positive and more libraries are interested in offering the service. This chapter examines the service in general, the libraries involved, the experience from both user and library points of view, and future developments.

    Background

    In 2005, the European Commission launched i2010, a policy framework for the information society and media, which aimed to promote ‘the positive contribution that information and communication technologies (ICT) can make to the economy, society and personal quality of life’ (Europa, 2010). Recently the i2010 strategy has been superseded by a new initiative, the Digital Agenda for Europe 2010–2020, which aims to ‘maximize the benefit of the Digital Revolution for all’. In line with both of these initiatives, European libraries and other cultural institutions are gradually digitizing and making available their cultural heritage to a wider public. However, it will still take decades for the majority of books, journals and other library material to become available in digital form owing to the sheer volume of source material, despite the digitization efforts of Google Books.

    In an ideal world, all of the works in a collection would be considered for digitization. In practice, however, this is rarely feasible and difficult choices must be made. Lists of criteria have been developed for identifying the most appropriate titles. According to the MINERVA Good Practices Handbook (Minerva Working Group 6, 2004), material should be prioritized for digitization when:

  • ■ it would otherwise be unavailable/of limited availability

  • ■ it is very popular and could be more widely and easily accessed digitally

  • 5 - E-books for public libraries

  • from Part 2 - Planning and developing an e-book collection
    • By Martin Palmer, Principal Officer for Essex County Council's Libraries Department
  • Edited by Kate Price, Virginia Havergal
  • Book:
    E-books in Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 71-92

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The common perception of the modern public library service in the UK tends to involve cuts to book funds, long waiting lists for the latest titles and reductions in opening hours. Consequently, the view of some critics that whatever resources remain available to public library managers should be devoted to providing the best ‘traditional’ service possible, rather than fragmenting effort and funds in exploring ways of diversifying service provision, is one that strikes a chord with many members of the public.

    Yet, against this background, public library provision of e-books has begun to gather pace. A comparatively early survey commissioned by Resource (Dearnley et al., 2002) found that only one public library in the UK (Blackburn with Darwen) was actively providing an e-book service. Five years later, there were still only a couple more, but, by 2010, the number had risen to around 20, with more in the pipeline. Meanwhile, in the USA growth followed a similar pattern, beginning with the takeup of NetLibrary by a small number of public libraries in 1998 to a position in 2010 where OverDrive alone had over 9000 services as customers.

    So, at a time when most libraries in the sector struggle to balance budgetary constraints with demands to help fulfil a multiplicity of agendas, how is it possible to justify branching out into such a service, where levels of take-up are uncertain, when the technology is still unstable, and which threatens to dilute already diminished funds even further? This chapter aims to make a sound case for the introduction of e-books into the public library environment, as well as examining some of the practical issues involved in such a development.

    The strategic case for e-books

    Is the current push for e-books simply yet another example of public library managers ignoring what the public want and jumping on the latest bandwagon, driven by a fear of being seen to be behind the times?

    If so, it would clearly be difficult to defend such a position. However, in the light of their successful engagement with electronic reference material, it is perhaps surprising that more UK public libraries have not adopted e-books sooner.

  • Introduction

  • Edited by Kate Price, Virginia Havergal
  • Book:
    E-books in Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp xxi-xl

  • Summary

    Although Vannevar Bush (1945, 106), President Roosevelt's science advisor, wrote in the mid-1940s in his seminal Atlantic Monthly article of a device in which books could be stored, as well as other documents, it was nearly three decades before the first electronic books began to appear. In the late 1960s Alan Kay developed his Dynabook concept, seeing the notebook computer as an extension of the print medium: the technology was not in place but Bush's idea of a handheld reader was affirmed. Despite this early emphasis on portability, it was not until the 1980s that e-books moved far beyond the online reading of texts held on a remote server, and then it was simply a case of delivery on CD-ROMs and floppy disks; e-book readers came much later.

    The generally accepted birth of the e-book lies with the Gutenberg archive of electronic texts, which was started in 1971 by Michael Hart. It began with volunteers keying in the US Declaration of Independence, and then the Bill of Rights, quickly followed by the whole US Constitution; The Bible was added book by book, and then the works of William Shakespeare, one play at a time. Project Gutenberg continues today by scanning older works, with the same philosophy of encouraging the creation, easy distribution and use of e-books.

    Other text archives (or collections of free e-books) were developed later, for example, the Oxford Text Archive which opened in 1976, and the EText Center at the University of Virginia Library, set up in 1992.

    Although the term ‘e-book’ was not used to describe them at the time, many reference books found their way onto CD-ROM in the 1980s, either marketed as databases or simply as ‘[title] on CD-ROM’. Examples include the Oxford English Dictionary on CD-ROM, Microsoft's Bookshelf (including Roget's Thesaurus, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and the World Almanac and Book of Facts from the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]) and the Bible Library on CD-ROM.

    Also in the 1980s, university presses in the USA began to engage with the concept of electronic publishing, at least partly ‘as a result of fears about the future of the [print] scholarly monograph’ (Armstrong and Lonsdale, 1998, 18).

  • 7 - E-books for higher education

  • from Part 2 - Planning and developing an e-book collection
    • By Jim Dooley, Head of Collection Services at the University of California, Merced (UC Merced)
  • Edited by Kate Price, Virginia Havergal
  • Book:
    E-books in Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 117-138

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This chapter will describe the decisions made, and the methods used, by the University of California (UC), Merced Library, to acquire e-books. As used here, ‘e-books’ include monographs and reference works but not textbooks, since the Library does not collect textbooks in any format. The Library collection is intended to support the teaching and research activities of the University, in conjunction with the combined collections of the University of California as a whole. Up to this point, the Library has not acquired e-books specifically for use on portable e-book readers, nor does it make such readers available to users. It is working to optimize the delivery of all electronic content on mobile devices such as smartphones.

    Background

    The University of California, Merced, opened in September 2005 as the tenth campus in the UC system. Although the Office of the President provides many central administrative functions, each campus has its own administration and manages its own library. Strategic directions for the libraries as a whole are determined by the ten University Librarians acting as a group. The California Digital Library (CDL) licenses electronic resources on behalf of the UC Libraries while also providing technology services to the libraries.

    While the campus is projected to eventually grow to accommodate 25,000 students, it began with 850 students and one academic building on the outskirts of Merced, a city of approximately 80,000 residents. The Library began in a building on an abandoned air force base ten miles from the permanent campus site. Books, computers and staff were moved to the campus in the summer of 2005, barely in time for the September opening. Because the Library building was the only academic building ready for occupancy, all first semester classes were held there. The next two academic buildings opened in January 2006. The University graduated its first four-year class in spring 2009 and will enroll approximately 4200 students in the autumn of 2010.

    The growth of the Library has paralleled the growth of the campus. Because the Library is a UC library, it immediately had access to the 36 million print volumes in the University of California system, collectively the largest research library collection in the world.

  • Part 3 - Delivering e-books to library users

  • Edited by Kate Price, Virginia Havergal
  • Book:
    E-books in Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 139-140

  • Summary

    Overview

    Once decisions have been made regarding the procurement of e-books and a strategic plan is in place to establish them as an important part of the library's collection, the next major challenge is to ensure that library users are able to access them! In this section, the authors discuss some of the practical aspects of connecting readers with e-books in the library setting.

    Anna Grigson (Chapter 8) of Royal Holloway, University of London, provides a practical overview of the steps that need to be taken to establish the visibility of e-books within the library catalogue, as well as within other systems. Grigson considers cataloguing policy and workflows as well as the challenges of ongoing records management, and establishes clear guidelines for good practice.

    Karen Gravett (Chapter 9) of the University of Surrey provides an insight into the diverse ways that the institution has supported user interaction with e-books, from formal information skills training to informal one-to-one support, as well as by facilitating self-help through online guidance. Gravett also reflects on the ways that e-book provision could be further developed in order to improve the experience of readers.

    Finally, James Clay (Chapter 10) of Gloucestershire College considers some of the technical challenges that can face users in their interaction with e-books, from authentication and authorization to DRM. Clay also provides an examination of the exciting opportunities offered by e-books in a mobile learning environment.

  • 13 - Enhancing the user experience

  • from Part 3 - Operational planning
  • Martin White
  • Book:
    The Intranet Management Handbook
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 153-158

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Web usability has developed substantially over the last few years, thanks to the visionary work of Jakob Nielsen and Jared Spool in particular, but also as a result of the realization on the part of web managers that paying attention to web usability has a substantial benefit for the organization. The objective, as summed up so elegantly in the book of the same title by Steve Mulder, is ‘don't make me think’. In general, good website design has reached such a level that, as users, we can immediately recognize and avoid a website in which the concept of usability has clearly not been considered by the web team. The range of resources on web usability is very wide, including a US governmentsupported website on the subject.

    However, a search on www.usability.gov for ‘intranet’ reveals just seven references to intranets on the entire site, and several of these have little to do with usability testing. That is not to say that the principles of usable website design do not apply to intranets. Intranets present a very significant challenge because of the range of tasks that they typically support. Websites are highly focused on a relatively small number of tasks, most of which are likely to be the provision of information that will ensure that the visitor generates revenue for the website owner, either directly or indirectly.

    In theory, intranet managers are in an enviable position because they have a fixed number of users and know their names, roles, locations and much else, information that is not available to a web manager. This advantage will be offset by the need to optimize a substantially wider and probably ill-defined set of tasks, and often a total lack of support for user-centric design and usability testing on the part of the organization. Lack of investment in usability testing is usually justified on the basis that the organization has invested in a search engine, and so if staff cannot find what they are looking for, then they can use the search engine.

  • 8 - Making e-book collections visible to readers

  • from Part 3 - Delivering e-books to library users
    • By Anna Grigson, E-Resources Manager at Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Edited by Kate Price, Virginia Havergal
  • Book:
    E-books in Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 141-162

  • Summary

    Introduction

    It has always been a challenge to make virtual library collections visible. Options for physical signposts to e-books are limited – users cannot browse the shelves to see what is available, look at a new book display, or discover a book on the reshelving trolley – all of which puts more emphasis on the effectiveness of the library catalogue as a means to highlight the availability of library e-books. However, the cataloguing of e-books presents some significant challenges, and a recent report found that many libraries struggle to catalogue all of their e-book holdings (Research Information Network, 2009).

    Conversely, the visibility of e-books in the wider world has increased significantly in recent years. The increasing popularity of e-book readers and now the iPad has raised the profile of books in e-formats, and, with their facilities for full-text searching, sites such as Amazon and Google Book Search make e-books for consumers easy to find and purchase. For those trying to make library e-books visible, however, this creates another challenge. If libraries are to be effective in connecting users with their ebooks, they need to consider additional options that could offer more effective and efficient ways to increase the exposure of library e-books, alongside the traditional library catalogue.

    E-books on the web

    Studies show that a decreasing number of library users start their search with the library catalogue, and are instead beginning with Google and other search engines (CIBER, 2008). For users, these offer two major advantages over the library catalogue: they can search in more detail, and they can cover more content. As Anderson (2010) points out, a catalogue listing the contents of a local collection was an acceptable discovery tool in the past, where the average user only had access to whatever was available in the library. But in a world where search engines make it easy to both identify and gain access to full-text content outside the library collection, users wish to search beyond the limits of the local catalogue.

  • 1 - Managing intranets: opportunities and challenges

  • from Part 1 - Foundations
  • Martin White
  • Book:
    The Intranet Management Handbook
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 3-12

  • Summary

    Life in a workflow world

    Our working day is an array of processes, procedures and workflows. It might start as soon as we swipe a security card through the door to the office, continue with completing an application for a corporate training course and end up with submitting a form to claim travel expenses. Some of these processes are automated. Whenever we send an e-mail a disclaimer appears at the end without any need to write it out every time. Most of the procedures are in place because of a need to satisfy compliance and regulatory requirements, especially with regard to any financial or personnel decision. Even quite a small organization will have a number of information technology (IT) systems, all of which are based around workflows and databases. Business analysts and developers may well have interviewed us and spent many months working out every possible workflow variation so that these applications can be successfully designed and implemented.

    All these procedures and workflows capture data that somewhere along the line may be used to make a business decision. Often this decision is based on aggregated data, perhaps about employee costs or the number of calls to a Help Desk. In aggregating the data and placing it in context, information has been created. Hopefully, there are also processes in place to archive the information, completing an information life cycle that could be made up of many individual processes.

    No matter how many systems are in place, and how many procedures are developed, they will never cover every eventuality. Most systems in organizations are designed to collect information, not to distribute it around the organization. When working for an organization with operations in even one other country the systems complexity is substantially increased. We may find an Excel spreadsheet of revenues by customer but is it in euros or sterling? Are they US dollars or Canadian dollars? Is the spreadsheet the latest version? Who can we call to check on the data in one of the cells?

    The result is that there are a very large number of informal processes that are not supported by an IT system or even subject to compliance and regulatory oversight. An office may have moved its location, there is a new managing director at a subsidiary company, and the date of the office party has been changed.

  • Top tips from the contributors

  • from Part 6 - Useful information
  • Edited by Kate Price, Virginia Havergal
  • Book:
    E-books in Libraries
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 279-284

  • Summary

    When making collection development decisions regarding e-books, information professionals may wish to evaluate the following:

  • Business models

  • Licensing

  • Technical issues

  • Collection management considerations

  • The user interface.

    • Business models

    a) What is the business model for purchasing/subscribing to the material?

    b) How many simultaneous users are allowed, and what happens if this limit is reached?

    c) Does a one-off payment confer rights to perpetual access?

    d) By how much is a subscription cost likely to rise in the future, and on what basis (e.g. if more titles are added, is there an increased cost involved?)

    e) Is there a platform charge in addition to the cost of the material itself, and is this one-off or ongoing?

    f) Is the material available through a consortium deal?

    g) Are any discounts available for volume purchases?

    h) Is the supplier on the parent authority or institution's ‘approved’ list, or will it be necessary to undergo a formal procurement process?

    i) Is the material subject to VAT, and at what level?

    Licensing

    a) Does the licence allow the upload of parts of the text into a VLE, use of the text in printed course packs, and reproduction of parts of the text for the purposes of assignments and theses (if applicable)?

    b) Does the licence allow ‘walk-in’ use for visitors to the library building who are not members of the institution?

    c) Does the licence allow reproduction of parts of the text for the purposes of interlibrary loans?

    d) Does the licence allow access to readers based overseas (such as distance learners and students based at partner institutions)?

    e) Does the licence allow access to staff and students at associated institutions and/or alumni?

    f) Does the licence grant permission to archive titles locally for the purposes of continuing access should the supplier withdraw material or go bankrupt, or does the supplier deposit material in a dark archive such as CLOCKSS or Portico?

  • Foreword James Robertson

  • Martin White
  • Book:
    The Intranet Management Handbook
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp xiii-xiv

  • Summary

    As Martin highlights, there are perhaps a million intranets in the world, but very few books to guide the work of those responsible for managing all these sites. What the intranet community (and industry) needs are good intranet books; thankfully this is such a book.

    Intranets are not like websites. Hidden away within organizations, it is difficult for teams to learn from others, and to avoid reinventing the wheel. This has been the biggest contributor to the relatively slow pace of intranet evolution, leaving internal (enterprise) sites lagging far behind publicly visible websites.

    Organizations cannot survive without their intranets. Without these invaluable internal sites, there would be no place to house the thousands of forms, policies, instructions, tips, guidelines, processes and tools that make organizations tick.

    While no organization I know would seriously consider turning off their intranets, few sites are truly loved. They are often taken for granted, sometimes ignored, and very rarely given the resources to flourish.

    Part of the problem is that even the teams that run intranets struggle to succinctly articulate the value and importance of their sites. It can also be hard to uncover best practices that support much-needed business cases and resource requests.

    For all these reasons, I would argue that the starting point for delivering successful and valuable intranets is to better share expertise within the intranet community. One of the most effective ways of doing this is via books such as this one.

    I've known Martin for quite a few years now, and he started working on intranets long before that. There are few who can claim more than a decade's professional intranet experience, making Martin ideally placed to write this book.

    On behalf of the intranet community, I thank Martin for writing such a useful book, and look forward to the positive impact it will have on teams around the globe.

  • 16 - Creating the governance framework

  • from Part 4 - Governance and strategy
  • Martin White
  • Book:
    The Intranet Management Handbook
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    20 February 2011, pp 185-198

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Any decision we make, in business or in our life outside the office, will have a risk and a benefit. The better the quality of information we have available to us, the more likely that the trade-off between risk and benefit will be to our advantage. Governance, a very over-used buzz-word of the past decade, is about putting in place procedures to ensure that the people making decisions:

  • • have the authority to do so

  • • have all the relevant information before making the decision

  • • are aware of the impactof the decision on all who may be affected

  • • keep a clear record of the decision.

    • Governance is therefore concerned with:

  • • defining the decisions that need to be made in order to achieve an objective

  • • the roles and responsibilities of individuals who will make or influence those decisions

  • • the organizational structure of the business and how the individuals involved in making or influencing decisions can share their views

  • • establishing policies and procedures that support or constrain the process of decision making

  • • providing information that establishes the current state of affairs, so that the impact of any decision can be assessed.

    • Whenever two or three intranet managers gather together, the subject of the conversation soon turns to governance issues, and in particular the ‘governance structure’ of each other's intranet.1 When intranets fail to meet business and user requirements it is rarely due to a problem with the technology or to incompetence on the part of the intranet manager. They fail because decisions need to be made but no one seems to have either the authority to make them or the vision to understand the impact that either the optimum decision or no decision at all will have on the organization. When I undertake intranet consulting assignments one of my conditions of engagement is that I will have access to either the CEO (if the organization is reasonably small) or a member of the senior management team. My reason is not only to get a top-down view of what they see as the objectives for the intranet, but also to find out who they think is responsible for making decisions about how to achieve these objectives. I have regularly come across situations where senior managers are not sure who ‘owns’ the intranet.

Page 238 of 302