white
papers and info
Online Book
Intranet
Organization web version
or Download as a single PDF file
(650KB)
A book on the significance and implementation of intranets from an
organizational perspective.
Papers
3 American
Myths
That Need Updating (February 2009)
Many people view stories and mythology as just
art or entertainment, but they play a much larger role in our lives
than that. In fact, the myths that are most powerful are so ingrained
in our thinking that we are not even aware they exist. They shape how
we view the world: what we focus on as important, what we believe
works, and what we rely on as real. They are so powerful in fact that
when confronted with data to the contrary, we often continue to base
our decisions on our mythical stories rather than the results that are
right in front of us.
Why the Current Economic Crisis Won't
Go Away (October 2008)
It didn’t take an economic genius to see this economic crisis coming.
In fact, if you are an economic genius you were more likely not to see
it coming because conventional economics was and is focused on the
wrong indicators of economic health. Stock prices, interest rates, and
even mean income do not give a good picture of our economic health.
Web Site
As Metaphor For Overall Business Strategy (September
2004)
Executives and senior managers are quick
to delegate any
discussion of web sites to specialists and implementers. In doing this,
they
are throwing away what is potentially the most powerful tool in their
management arsenal for understanding and modeling their business
strategy. Even
more significantly, they are ignoring a process that can help their
management
teams work through the traditional politics and reach consensus on
strategic
alignment of the business.
First Things First (August 2004)
When focusing on who comes to the web
site many of us skip several
important steps in our hurry to meet our objectives. It is easy to
forget that our web site often is not the first contact or the ultimate
step in the process with this visitor. For many visitors it provides
one or more intermediate steps important in moving the relationship
forward. Therefore, for every type of visitor we also need to determine
the context of the visit.
Passing the Buck On Web Sites (July
2004)
For most companies, web sites have
quietly evolved into
the
integrator of all their communication channels. After all the effort to
get customers to your web site, what do they find when they get there?
For too many companies the answer is a “collection of stuff” that
marginally meets the needs or expectations of the customer and does not
capitalize on the tremendous cross-channel business opportunity to
educate and move
the relationship forward. Why do companies let this happen?
Giving Web Site Visits Direction
(June 2004)
With
all the focus on the visitor, it is easy to overlook the fact that lack
of clear business objectives also causes poor visitor experience on web
sites. Company objectives set expectations and provide direction and
closure for the visitor. Without that direction, visitors wander around
the site aimlessly with no apparent outcome, finally leaving perhaps
better informed but without satisfactory closure.
Is Your Web
Site Damaging Your Company’s Brand? (May 2004)
Customers perceive interaction with your web site as a direct
interaction with your company. If your web site is frustrating your
customers and making them angry it is costing more than money; it is
tarnishing your overall brand image. Given the expense and risk of a
web site running on executive autopilot, should you just shut it down
and not have a web site?
Who Should Set Web Site Business Objectives?
(Apr. 2004)
The first question in setting explicit web site objectives is: who
should be involved? This newsletter provides a set of questions to help
identify who should
be involved in setting the business objectives for your web site.
Defining a Basic Unit of Web Site
Behavior (Mar. 2004)
Several
researchers have made the case for a proactive approach to web site
design as opposed to relying strictly on reactive testing approaches.
They have identified three
elements as important: a basic unit, a collection of design solutions,
and contextual inquiry. The least well described of these is the first,
the basic unit. This
newsletter offers a formal definition of that basic unit.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Heuristic
Reviews (Feb. 2004)
Heuristic reviews can be a valuable
design and implementation
tool. But don’t mistake them for a full practices checklist audit, or a
usability test.
Business Value: The
touchstone of web site improvement (Jan. 2004)
Many practices
that reduce web site effectiveness are a reflection of unresolved
internal business conflicts rather than a lack of understanding of good
web practices. The ambiguities that maintain organizational coexistence
must either be resolved or reflected in the web site. There is no way
to hide them.
Balancing
Multiple Visitor Objectives On Web Sites (Dec. 2003)
If your web site
only has ten destinations, then you can put a
descriptive link for each on the home page, without much thought to
organization, and your visitors are likely to find everything available
on the site. But, as the number of destinations grows, so does the
difficulty for the visitor finding the one she is after on this visit.
As the size and sophistication of the web site increases, the need to
address multiple visitor objectives begins to eclipse the importance of
any single destination.
How to Communicate With Your Web Design
Group (Nov. 2003)
An issue which has not been given
much attention is how web site
business owners communicate with their design group. Too often the
interchange is cursory consisting of
a high-level list of functions
supplemented by questions about the desired style or image. The result
is a web site that is heavy on traditional marketing design
containing a few expensive functional destinations but that overall
fails to meet the real business opportunities.
Seven
Steps to Better Web Site Value (CustomerSat.Com:
Resources, Oct. 2003))
The web sites of large and mid-sized
enterprises serve many constituents, and thus face special challenges
in achieving maximum business value and maintaining continuous
improvement. The following seven steps comprise a proven
set of methods and processes that will increase the value your web site
contributes to the enterprise.
Dollars and
Sense: Measuring the value of web sites (Oct. 2003)
Even a simple web site comes at
a cost, so it is important to make
certain that the business value is known and optimized. A web site can
be either a drain or boon
depending solely on its effectiveness at meeting the intended business
requirement. The difference requires an understanding of how
investments in the web site tie back to and improve business value,
then managing the factors that create barriers. This ultimately leads
to the need for appropriate metrics.
The Rise of Web Site Principles and
Practices (Sep. 2003)
Most web-site owners face increasing pressure to improve the
effectiveness of their web sites as a business tool. At the same time,
cost constraints limit the feasibility of adding or increasing
usability and effectiveness testing to the design process. While it has
not received much publicity, several respected sources of
usability and customer experience research are pointing toward an
alternative approach, the proactive use of web site principles and
practices for web site design and improvement.
How2
set
up
a successful company Intranet (ASKHOW2.COM,
Aug. 19, 2003)
Most
companies today have some form of Intranet. It may consist of loosely
joined Intranets that formed independently in different parts of the
organization, or it may have been a centralized effort from the start.
Regardless of origin, many companies now see the unrealized potential
of their Intranets, and want to narrow the gap between potential and
realized value.
The
Challenge of Networked Content (Aug..
2003)
What
has most often been overlooked is the adequacy of the vocabulary and
framework
for describing the principles and practices for maximizing the
possibility that each individual
can navigate through the
whole content network rather than any one content destination within
it. From a practical perspective
this creates problems for effective research and implementation.
Managing
Internet Domain Names (CIO.Com Analyst Corner,
Dec. 9,
2002)
If your organization does not have a written policy covering Internet
domain names, it should. When the time comes to renew the domain name,
and the person who is the administrative contact has left, your company
faces a difficult and time consuming process to transfer the name.
Building a Brand on
the Web (CIO.Com Analyst Corner, Dec. 14, 2001)
To create usable Web sites, the various subsite owners must agree on a
common organizational structure to provide basic elements and
navigational consistency. Viewing the solution as a branding issue
provides a useful perspective.
Electronic
Commerce: interaction does make a difference
There are two major schools of electronic commerce visionaries. The
first sees electronic commerce as an extension of brick and mortar
concepts into the virtual world, the second sees the potential for a
major shift in the very foundation of how buyers and sellers are
brought together.
Electronic
Commerce: clinging to the tip of the iceberg
Sellers and buyers on the Internet today have rarely ventured beyond
the boundaries of print/broadcast metaphors in the Internet medium.
While Internet uptake is dramatic, the business revolution has hardly
begun.
Intranets:
The
New
Knowledge
Base (in Oracle Magazine,
Sept./Oct. 1998,
p. 11-12)
With the advent of Internet technology, we are seeing cracks in our
traditional value systems and what constitutes wealth. It is not
information per sethat is the newly valued commodity - it's
vision and ideas. With the availability of cheap and plentiful
information, the process of learning and synthesizing is replacing the
process of manufacturing.
Intranets
as
Knowledge
Management Systems
The ways in which we learn can help us understand what kinds of roles,
skills, tools and processes we need to develop to help individuals in
the organization find the knowledge already available, move the
organization to act on their learning, and capture the experiences in
the organizational knowledge base with the minimum effort.
Using
I-net Agents
A plethora of software products are on the market today that
are acting as software agents, and yet there seems to be little
understanding by the software vendors or consumers of what an I-net
software agent is, or could be.
Intranet
Implementation (in Business Communications Review,
July
1997)
As intranets are used to support more business communications, the
requirements for integration with other resources -- both intranet and
legacy -- become critical.
Interview
in Intranets: what's the bottom line?
Putting together an intranet is really about how you make decisions in
an organization and how you view control. Neither of these are trivial
issues by any means.
The
Intranet Paradigm
An intranet causes changes in the organizational pattern that encourage
us to alter our perspective on how we manage organizations, how we view
and value our employees, and how we approach problems.
Do You
really Want an Intranet?
Many organizations fail to notice that intranets support and encourage
a definite management and cultural style, one that may not be
compatible with their incumbent managers.
Management
maneuvers (in NetworkWorld, September 9, 1996
Volume 13,
Number 37 Page 42-43)
An interview with NetworkWorld on intranet theory and management.
The Amdahl Papers
IntraNet
Methodology: concepts and rationale (the original Intranet white
paper - published on the Amdahl public web site January 1995) PDF Version
Intranets
and Adaptive Innovation: the move from control to coordination in
today's organizations (May 1996)
PDF
Version
The
IntraNet Infrastructure: managing information in the new
paradigm (June 1996) PDF
Version
Internet World Advisor
Columns
The June 21, 1999 column was
the last contributed by this author to the series.
June 21, 1999 Virus Attacks Point Up
Value of
Diverse
Operating Systems
June 14, 1999
Intranet
Applications Join the Move
Toward Outsourcing
May 17, 1999 Restrictive Usage Policies Are Usually
Wrong Way To Go
May 3, 1999 Some Content Gets Stale Quickly, While
Some Is Timeless
April 19, 1999 Still Evolving, LDAP Standard Opens Up
Collaborative Computing
April 5, 1999 From Server to Firewall: Multiple
Layers of Intranet Security
March 22, 1999 Chaotic Nature of Intranet Makes It a
Better Learning Tool
March 8, 1999 Discussing the Relevance--and
Future--of Intranet Portals
February 22, 1999 How To Identify the Best Services for
Your Intranet
February 8, 1999 Four Areas Vital to an Intranet's
Return on Investment
January 18, 1999 How Firms Manage and Meld Internet,
Intranet, and Extranet
January 4, 1999 How Far Automation Will Go With
Information Brokers
December 7, 1998 Clarifying the Role of the Corporate
Webmaster
November 16, 1998 What It Means To Have Virtual
Communities on an Intranet
November 2, 1998 Putting the Concept of Virtual
Community to Good Use
October 19, 1998 The Difference Between Internet,
Intranet, and Extranet
October 5, 1998 Making Sense of Content Management
September 7, 1998 Waiting for Lawsuit-Proof Electronic
Documents
August 10, 1998 Hiding Frame Pages Hurts Companies and
Site Visitors
July 13, 1998 To Ease Navigation, Know Your Users
and
Plan Carefully
June 15, 1998 Establishing a Formal Policy for
Corporate Security
June 1, 1998 When Should Companies Restrict
Employee
Net Access?
May 11, 1998 Organizing Administrative Teams for a
Corporate Intranet
April 27, 1998 Additional Ideas for Embedding
Documents in Intranet Pages
April 13, 1998 Exploring Ways To Embed Documents in
Intranet Pages
March 30, 1998 The Blurring of the Line Between Pages
and Applications
March 16, 1998 Accounting for Corporate Culture When
Developing a Net
March 2, 1998 Good Management Requires Spending Time
On Intranet Policies
February 16, 1998 Two Keys to Successful Launches:
Servers and Secretaries
February 2, 1998 Understanding Unique Challenges of
Intranet Newsletters
January 12, 1998 Judging Value of Intranet Requires
Weighing a Hodgepodge of Factors
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For a
different perspective on e-commerce: 