Global Intranet Trends 2010 Report
by Bill Ives
Jane McConnell is an intranet strategy consultant based in France who has worked with intranets since 1998. She recently published her fourth annual Intranet trends survey and report. Data was collected from nearly 300 organizations worldwide between June and September 2009. Organizations range from under 5,000 to over 100,000 employees. The five major trends for the future of intranets covered in the 2010 report are summarized below.
The intranet is starting to become the entry point into the “workplace web” – the collection of resources and information needed by staff. This includes applications, intranet sites, specialized portals, team spaces, collaboration spaces and so on. This was the original vision for many intranets but rarely realized. The current evolution is from a fragmented workplace web to a hybrid one and finally to the end goal, a unified workplace web. In the “unified” workplace web, the intranet or enterprise portal is the front door to the organization’s information, business and collaborative resources and places. There is a ways to go as today only 15 percent of the survey participants have achieved a “unified workplace web”.
Team-orientation is rising as firms are starting to bring collaboration spaces inside the intranet. Today, the vast majority of organizations already have team places but they are usually not considered part of the intranet. These places sometimes become mini silos. Now as the way of working becomes more collaborative and enterprise 2.0 concepts spread, this is beginning to change.
A more people-focused approach is being adopted. In the past the intranet has traditionally been a place where organizations provides content for employees to read and use. Communication was primarily top-down. This is changing with the introduction of social media. I have found that advanced organizations are recognizing the need to be more people oriented. That was the case with the Booz Allen work where profiles are the foundation for their collaborative system.
Intranets are also becoming more real-time through chat, micro-blogging, and other tools. In addition, intranets are also becoming place independent as anytime, anywhere access grows through mobile devices and home access.
These are only some of the highlights. I certainly agree with these trends. You can see the complete report at Jane’s Net Strategy site.
