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| Home » Archives » Corporate Intranets - Part 3 of 3 | Friday, July 30, 2010 |
 
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Corporate Intranets - Part 3 of 3
- by Al Doran (This article is one in a series of articles on how to set up an HR Corporate Home Page. This article concentrates on managing an Internet project). Picking up where we had left off on the topic of corporate internets/intranets and quotes from Edward Yourdon, a leading expert in the filed of information technology who had been in town talking about "Implementing Intranet/Internet Across the Enterprise". Edward Yourdon's Home Page: http://www.yourdon.com We had talked about the compelling arguments for having corporate internets/intranets and the obvious links to work done on re-engineering the business; selling the concept to management; the development life cycle; and best practices. Today we will talk about: As with the introduction of any new technology to the workplace, adequate training must be provided to the project team. Many of the tools associated with web development are new therefore the training may be needed for everyone. Web publishing training. Even training on basic HTML (hype text markup language) will be useful to anyone working in this area. How to set up a Web Intranet. How to administer this application once its in production. Training on the tools that will be used, and this could involve more than one of Java, Visual Basic 5, Python, ActiveX, as well as advanced HTML. Many organizations are using a variety of these tools as each offers certain advantages. This is an area where the functional team members, such as those from Human Resources can play a key role. In many corporate intranet projects, not enough time has been spent on this key activity, resulting in downstream difficulties in managing the corporate information being collected on the new intranet application. It has been found that most organizations do not have formalized policies on many key areas that could affect the creation and management of intranet applications. Some areas to consider: who is responsible for the look and feel of the home page? who is responsible for the integrity of data? who is allowed to access the data? Planning. As with any IT-type project, good planning is necessary to help achieve the goals of the project team. The work to be done, and who will do it, must be clearly defined. Who will do the work? Right now there is a skill shortage for many of the key roles in an intranet project. Just like a few years ago when client/server became the hot item, there are not enough resources trained on the new tools to go around, so it is essential that the work expected from those limited resources be clearly defined. There is some good news however: Many of the basic "systems engineering" issues will appear familiar to IT veterans. Systems Administration Security New programming languages such as Java, ActiveX, etc. As with any new tool or methodology, there is a danger that senior management may have an illusion that "instant profits" can somehow be generated from the new intranet application. Some thought should be given to what the actual cost benefits will be from this project, in the planning process, so that there is not a major disappointment post implementation. Yourdon has found that most projects underestimate the planning and administration effort required to deliver a corporate intranet, and to keep it going once it has been implemented. Compared to many other types of new technology, the internet/intranet is easier to learn and use but its still not simply installing and turning on some new tool. Summary and some conclusions. As with other technological innovations, the internet has the capacity to be abused, ignored, misused, or over-sold. Much of the related technology is still at a very early stage, ad will be under development for years to come, just like the PCs of the early 1980's. Many internet application decisions will be based on traditional cost-benefit analysis and we should be able to justify at least some internet applications for our organization already. Remember that an ambitious involvement in the Internet will require ongoing commitment of time, energy and money to keep up with developments. BEST WAYS TO FIND PEOPLE/COMPANIES CANADA 411 FOUR11 FIND IT FAST INTERNET ADDRESS FINDER WHO/WHERE -Al Doran is President of Phenix Management Int'l, a Richmond Hill, Ont. management consulting firm specializing in HRMS issues. He is co-author of a new book published by Nelson Canada, Human Resource Management Systems. He may be reached at: aldoran(at)pmiHRM.com and his home page is http://www.pmihrm.com/
COPYRIGHT - Al Doran - June 15, 1997 Phenix Management Int'l
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