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In addition to the broader reach of the workforce, the need to hedge for both crisis and environmental factors is greater. In this post 9/11 and Katrina world, anything is possible in terms of unexpected interruption to business operations, and continuity is a factor. Remote access coupled with sound disaster recovery principles are a must in this day of the mission critical intranet.

Lovely User Experience and Full Accessibility

Users are no longer content to hunt and peck with their mouse amid poorly designed sites. No one has the patience for bush league designs that are difficult to impossible to use. With the increase of personalization and functionality within large intranets, there is a movement to user centric design and navigation. Customizable and ease are the name of the game.

Accommodating a wide range of disabilities is also now crucial to overall design. As more business critical tasks move to the intranet you can no longer ignore a significant portion of the population. Accessibility best practices now heavily influence design.

Culture and Brand Experience

In many large organizations, the intranet is the glue that holds the organization together. It is the front line on which an organization must build its internal culture. Employees look to the intranet for information on internal operations, organizational strategy and tone, as well as customer-facing products and messaging.

Collaboration and Community

Web 2.0 makes its way inside the firewall to become Enterprise 2.0. With user expectations set in the real world internet, users are no longer content to see anemic and outdated content authored by a few. Employees want rich content and the ability to engage in peer to peer communication, connection, and collaboration. Peer to peer content creation and maintenance is becoming a reality. Using blogs, wikis, and other collaboration/document management solutions, the subject matter experts are now able to amp up the information that is shared throughout the organization.

When I asked Mr. Miller what makes IBF different from other benchmarking organizations, he explained, "We specialize in intranets and online services behind the firewall only."

To learn more about intranet trends and membership in this unique forum for the large enterprise visit this site.

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