Planning Your Intranet

Working together with your project team or other individuals who will be moving the intranet forward, we suggest answering the following questions to help guide your build:

• How do you want the intranet to look and feel (e.g. fun, reflect corporate values, colorful, energetic, etc.)?
• Is the intranet intended to assist with day-to-day tasks (e.g. communicate/collaborate with team members, complete forms, etc.) or is it intended to be more of a reflection of departmental structure? Learn more about intranet navigation and task-based versus topic-based.
• If there's an existing intranet, what content or structure will you retain for the new intranet? Have you done an inventory of content?
• Will all content need to be accessible to all staff? Or will some content be locked down depending on the department/team/project? Learn more in our 'Security Overview' article.
• Are documents currently stored on a shared drive that need to be added to the intranet for easier access?
• How will intranet content be maintained after launch (e.g. by an intranet team, delegated responsibility for different areas, etc.)? Learn more about intranet Governance.

IC's onboarding process is broken-down in 4 phases (Assess, Plan, Build, Launch) and designed to be completed in 12 weeks. 

Actual length of required time will depend on the extent and quality of existing intranet content, as well as the capacity of project team members (i.e. are they dedicated resources or doing this in addition to their usual job duties).

Regardless of the individual specifics, each intranet project will usually involve the following steps, provided with approximate timelines - note that steps may happen concurrently.

1. Project Foundation (1-8 weeks)

These foundational steps are essential to start any intranet project:

• Identify project team members - ideally a team will work on the intranet to get cross-organizational input and share the workload. Best practice is to include at least one representative from Communications, Human Resources, and IT, as well as from each key stakeholder group (as applicable, based on your intranet content). However, we've had plenty of one-person 'project teams', and it can be done!
• Set up server and install software - a member of our Tech Support Team will work with you to coordinate installation and get the software on-site within your organization.
• Admin training - depending on project team members' availability and learning style, learning the software may take a week or a few months. To get you started, we've laid out an overview of key functions and how they connect to each other within the intranet. 

2. Assess and Inventory Current Content (1-8 weeks)

If your organization has never had an intranet, this step could involve paper-based information such as forms. If the content is currently in place, it's a matter of assessing what's there and is working well, what's there and needs updating, and what can be eliminated. The length of time involved for assessing content will depend on the volume of current intranet content.

3. Create Navigational Structure (2-3 weeks)

Navigation is the heart of an effective and successful intranet, and it's worth taking the time to do right, Ideally, you'll want to get users involved in creating the navigation to increase the likelihood of finding information. Learn more in the 'Create Navigation' article.

4. Create Content (4-12 weeks)

 Content is, of course, an essential part of your intranet. As you create the site, you'll need to:

• Configure Sites, Apps, and Pages and add information as desired, based on your key business objectives.
• Develop security for folders and Apps - learn more in the 'Security Overview' article.
• Create an engaging and informative intranet Home Page that speaks to your users, with at-a-glance updates including widgets which automatically pull in intranet or external content.

Also, it's important to realize that ALL content doesn't have to be in place for the site to launch - just the key content that will start users getting comfortable using the site and will help them most frequently with their work. With this phased approach we've found that nearly all intranets launch with the following functions in place:

• Employee Directory - the main reason many staff access the intranet, looking for contact information, titles, or photos; we strongly recommend having employee photos in the directory prior to launch, as it's a quick way to begin building staff engagement.
• Documents and policies - typically either document, policies, or both are in place at launch, often with features such as read and confirm, or document versioning.
• Forms - forms are a reality for virtually every organization, and including them on the intranet is a great way to boost staff engagement; start by either adding existing PDF or Word forms, or by recreating them as online forms for easier tracking and workflows.

The next function added is often team or departmental sites (e.g. Human Resources), so that either one type of content can be grouped in one intranet area, one staff group can manage content for one area, and/or a group can access content that the rest of the staff cannot. After these areas, organizations become very diverse as to the functions they include; our App Overview article may give your project team a better idea of the Apps that are right for your intranet.

5. Develop Intranet Branding (3-4 weeks)

Intranets generally have some personality, since they're practically a member of your staff. Spend some time on the branding to increase staff engagement, using our tips to Give the Intranet an Identity later in this article.

6. Key User Training and Testing (2-3 weeks)

Getting select staff involved prior to launching an intranet can give valuable feedback for small improvements which may have a big impact on your project success. Learn about Getting Users Involved Before Launch in our 'Launch Your Intranet' article.

7. Plan for Launch and Post-Launch Engagement (2-4 weeks)

After putting so much effort into a new intranet, it's important to launch with some fanfare so staff know all about their new work and communication tool. Start the initial planning for your launch and rollout well ahead of this point, and then kick it off just ahead of launch. Learn more in our 'Launch Your Intranet' article.

An organization's intranet is the equivalent of a staff hang-out, where ideas and information are shared - often with some humor. That's easier to accomplish when the intranet has a personality, vibrancy, and an identity. There are various ways to accomplish this.

To give your intranet an identity, try some of the following tactics:

• Visuals - Best practice is to choose a color palette tied to your corporate branding so there's a sense of connection between the various properties. In addition, we suggest that your project team decides on an intranet font and visual style, then document it in a governance guide so it's maintained consistently.
• Header - organizations often like to have some fun with the intranet header. Changing the header is done using the Advanced Theme Editor and a graphics editing program. Include the intranet name, and perhaps a tag line and graphics as well. You can always use the same image in the header or:
  • use the same graphic but alter it for the season (e.g. add snow or fallen leaves to part of your logo)
  • have some fun and hide your mascot or another 'easter egg' in various ways in the logo
  • change out the header with various photos of staff in action, branch locations, etc.
  • use interesting photos such as macro nature images

Sites and Apps are included with basic demo content to show you how they function and to help you learn how to use them.

When you're ready to build your site, we recommend the following steps:

1. Hide Sites - remove all Sites from user view other than the Home Site
2. Create a hidden Site - create a limited-access Site and move all demo Apps to that Site so you can access as needed but users can't
3. Repurpose Forms App - Forms is only found on the Home Site and can't be moved, so hide folders so you can access as needed but users can't
4. Home Page - create a new Home Page specific to your intranet
5. Demo Users - the final step is to remove the demo users who were there to show functionality

The steps involved for each of these items are outlined below.