WIC future of technology presentation: Is your intranet dead?

Intranets are strange things. The term was coined by Stephen Lawton in 1995 who observed that people were making small websites internally to facilitate the sharing of information.

In a few short years we had such high hopes for our intranets:

1. Better communications	90%
2. Improved processes	80%
3. Knowledge sharing best-practice	72%
4. Improve efficiency	65%
5. Reduction in paperwork	65%
6. Avoid duplication of effort	62%
7. Real-time information sharing	55%
8. Cost savings	55%

Source: Melcrum Intranet Survey (2001)

But within three years we’d spend over $10 USD billion for what amounted to little more than an electronic filing cabinet. In essence, we had killed intranets because we had forgotten that these are all people issues, not technology problems.

Today, though, with Web 2.0 technology and the tools we call social media, people can now interact in online environments pretty much in the same way they in the real world.

This presents an amazing opportunity for organisations — returning to sharing knowledge and information being about people talking to people, rather than it being about sticking it away in a document repository.

The key to success of future intranets, therefore, is to adopt a more social approach to collaboration through supporting sharing and personal identity, having simple processes for creation and updating information, responsive, personal and relevant conversations.

M