Practical Intranet Development

An intranet can be a powerful tool. A well-designed intranet becomes the key resource and communications platform for your organization, used by members of staff as their first destination for information. In contrast, a poorly designed intranet will sit unused, accumulating useless information, and eating up IT budgets. So, how do you avoid this situation, and make sure you design the most useful, and usable, intranet? This book takes you through the steps you need to take to make an invaluable intranet, from identifying your users' needs and building an indispensable tool, to marketing the results. It guides you through the problems that may occur, passing on invaluable advice from people who have been through the process before. We start by setting the scene, giving an overview of what intranets are and how to justify it to your organization. We then give you a rundown of the main areas you'll need to think about when developing an intranet, covering browsers, development techniques, usability, content management, security, and internal marketing. Finally, we'll take a look at what to do when the Intranet moves beyond its original function, looking at remote access, extranets, and what to do when the Intranet gets too big. You'd think that designing an intranet would be a web professional's heaven. You know exactly what browsers and operating systems your audience are using. You can easily identify users for testing. What could be easier than that? But then, few people ever get to see other companiesí intranets. How can you learn from your peers? Everyone and his dog needs to publish content on an intranet - how do you ensure that content stays current and relevant? How do you ensure that the temp who is uploading situations vacant ads doesnít break it all? Is your intranet accessible? Or do you really need an extranet, for clients and suppliers? How about security? AARGGH! This book helps you frame the questions that you need to ask, sharing best practices from people whoíve lived through the nightmare, and survived to tell you the tale. From the Publisher A well-designed intranet becomes the key resource and communications platform for your organization, used by members of staff as their first destination for information. This book guides you through the steps you need to take to make a useful and usable intranet, from identifying your users' needs and building an indispensable tool, to marketing the results. It guides you through the problems that may occur, passing on invaluable advice from people who have been through the process before Front Matter....Pages N2-xii Introduction....Pages 1-3 Introduction to Intranets....Pages 4-15 Intranet Justification....Pages 16-31 Where Do I Start?....Pages 32-52 Knowing the Browser Base....Pages 53-68 Development Techniques....Pages 70-103 Designing Your Intranet to Be Useful — Usability and Information Architecture....Pages 104-137 Controlling Content....Pages 138-160 Content Management Systems....Pages 162-181 The Intranet As Communications Platform....Pages 182-201 Security and Personalization....Pages 202-222 Intranet Marketing....Pages 224-242 When the Intranet Gets Too Big....Pages 244-283 Where to Go from Here — Remote Users....Pages 284-307 Extranets....Pages 308-320 Back Matter....Pages 323-349