There are always risks in any major software project, such as your company’s intranet. Some of us may have heard or read a couple of intranet horror stories that lead us into questioning the efficiency of an intranet system. One of the reasons why intranet fails is because of the users themselves. It’s either no one uses it or your employees fall flat in adopting the new system. Having said that, there are also cases where the intranet is the one to blame for your frustrations while doing your work. If there is intranet failure, what should you do about it?
Intranet Failure: How We Rebuilt From Disaster In Weeks
The first step in rebuilding from an intranet failure and disaster is to acknowledge the fact that your intranet sucks. From there on, find a solution, our solution, that will patch up the shortcomings on how you use your intranet. Here are some stories of intranet failure of some businesses and how they moved up from the disaster.
Using the intranet without considering the other members of the team
In 2011, Direct TV used an intranet system in an effort to establish a connected enterprise. The company’s goal is truly amazing, but they failed to key in the needs of the other members of their team. Initially, the intranet was launched only to the corporate business divisions and certain resource groups. What Direct TV fell flat in doing is to include 30,000 plus of their other workforce. The result? An inefficient collaboration that looked like a waste of resources.
DIrect TV picked up from this disastrous path by first admitting that things are not doing so well. Then they came up with a thorough and in-depth training plan so that the whole team will be connected. Those who first adopted the intranet became ambassadors that helped during the transition period. The bottom line here is that Direct TV succeeded through collective desire and eagerness to embrace and accept the changes brought by the intranet.
Using the intranet without considering permissions and security
On a typical work morning, the employees of a company received a suspicious e-mail from an unknown sender. The manager read the e-mail and his face turned red when he saw that the sender was divulging the company’s business secrets. The IT head immediately looked for the culprit through the digital paper trail, and found out that the chain came from their intranet. Through the intranet’s content management system, the IT head discovered the person responsible for the e-mail blast and removed his/her access to the CMS. The bottom line of the story is to always consider the security when giving permissions to access the intranet.