Intranet Journal
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An Alternative for Search and Knowledge Management
Dan Ryan
9/26/2005
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Due to the tremendous amount of content and knowledge nearly every company generates, employees often depend on meta data and various search functionality, such as full-text search and retrieval, to find desired information across a variety of content repositories. This common process for locating relevant content throughout enterprise-wide systems relies on some key assumptions that may not hold true when users perform information searches.
These assumptions include:
An alternative to traditional search and knowledge management capabilities is emerging that eliminates the reliance on these assumptions, making the process of locating internal information more productive and successful. This alternative is "Intranet Views."
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Defining the Concept of Intranet Views
The Intranet Views model applies a multi-site Web content management paradigm to document management repositories, giving employees relevant and useful "views" of all knowledge within a company intranet. Essentially, each View is a micro-site based on a topic — such as products, processes or business functions — within a larger intranet that groups information together, so it is contextually relevant for consumers.
For example, an organization may have a human resources (HR) Intranet View that offers benefits information, an employee handbook, expense forms, and other HR-related content through one micro-site. A branding and trademarks Intranet View could provide convenient, one-stop access to all brand guidelines and assets for a company. Similarly, an investor relations Intranet View would include content, such as earnings releases, SEC filings, investor road show schedules, etc., in a single, Web-based location. A management tools Intranet View could serve as an online destination for information pertinent to the role of a manager, such as tips for conducting an employee performance review and suggestions for delegating work.
These various micro-sites — developed by individual departments, business units, and geographic locations within organizations — give users context around their desired information, making it more useful and meaningful. For example, descriptions on Intranet View, or micro-site, home pages explain what type of information can be found within a particular site, and graphics on a micro-site can underscore content. In addition, micro-sites can point visitors to additional information they may find interesting in other areas of the comprehensive corporate intranet.
When built on a unified content management platform, intranets can leverage the services of other key content management functionality — such as document management and imaging, Web content management, digital asset management, and collaboration — resulting in a more comprehensive view into all types of content stored in a single repository.
Key Components of a Successful Intranet Views Implementation
There are a number of key technology features and capabilities that are critical to successfully implementing an Intranet Views model within an organization. These elements include:
Driving User Adoption of the Intranet Views Model
While the above list of key technology components are crucial pieces of the Intranet Views puzzle, these implementations can only be truly successful if an organization's users embrace and adopt the Intranet Views model.
Companies can quickly generate user adoption of Intranet Views by beginning with a few key projects. These initial Intranet Views should contain:
It's a good idea to start with an Intranet View where there is no previous solution (such as a pre-existing HR portal, etc.).
After determining the first Intranet View, select a technology solution that quickly generates site-owner user adoption by giving business unit and departmental content authors direct control over their site's structure. By designating business units as site owners, companies ensure knowledge and audience experts are in control of Web site communication. In this way, subject matter experts control navigation and content placement for Intranet Views — without having to go through a central IT department. This process facilitates more relevant, easy-to-find and accurate content.
An additional step to ensuring a successful Intranet Views implementation is to increase contributor user adoption by giving business unit and departmental content authors the ability to contribute and edit Intranet View content in-context. This capability allows knowledge experts to check business and Web site content into a repository by browsing a topical Web site, instead of going to an overwhelming metadata check-in page. Remember that intranet content tends to be in a variety of formats (such as documents, spreadsheets, Visio diagrams, images, etc.), so it is important to enable contributors to continue authoring in their familiar desktop application environment.
Successful contributor user adoption also depends on content re-use. Make sure contributors are able to re-use and re-purpose their content in many places within one or multiple Intranet Views, so when content needs to be modified, changes are reflected in all Intranet Views. When knowledge experts have complete control of their content and can continue to leverage familiar desktop applications, Intranet Views contain more useful, timely and accurate content.
Finally, organizations will raise user adoption of Intranet Views if the knowledge on these micro-sites is timely, relevant, easy-to-find, accurate, presented in context, and can be viewed in the format most useful to the viewer (HTML, PDF, wireless format, etc.).
The goal is to begin with a visible project that has a high probability of success. Because Intranet Views make valuable content easy-to-find and user adoption is generally high, demand for new Intranet Views quickly increases
Case in Point
Premera Blue Cross, a nonprofit, independent regional health plan with operations in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and Arizona, manages 70 departmental Intranet Views supporting more than 200 content contributors using content management technology from Stellent. By utilizing the same technology to deploy various internal and external Web sites, Premera can easily leverage the same content and branding across multiple sites, as well as existing knowledge and training for site administrators and contributors.
The company's Intranet Views implementation enables Premera to enforce site design standards and guidelines, re-use content for numerous audiences across multiple micro-sites, and initiate workflow for review and approval processes. The organization also uses the same technology to support records retention requirements related to compliance — a key component of managing internal business content.
Beyond Intranet Views
As the amount of information within organizations continues to grow, it will be critical for companies to arm their employees with sophisticated, highly efficient search and knowledge management tools in order to help generate optimum productivity. Intranet Views are quickly becoming a preferred method for sharing internal information as it enables employees to easily and logically search and retrieve information that addresses their specific needs.
The Intranet Views model also can be applied to many other types of Web sites, such as partner and customer extranets, public micro-sites, and multi-lingual Web sites. In these instances, companies can provide customers, partners, and other target audiences with access to micro-sites that offer highly relevant information within a context that ultimately increases the value of content, reduces costs and potentially solidifies important business relationships.
Dan Ryan is executive vice president of marketing and business development for Stellent.
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