Knowledge Management and Intranets: Putting People First by Andrew Sarnoff & Thomas Wimmer
In recent years, corporate intranets and other internal knowledge-sharing systems have moved from "nice to have" to "must have" status in virtually all industries. In many cases, they have evolved into information-sharing platforms that companies rely on to survive in a knowledge-driven global economy.
Intranets exist in all sizes, shapes, and forms. They range from comprehensive, all-encompassing sites that attempt to collate and store the collective knowledge of global companies to the relatively low-cost, lean intranets built for small professional service firms or individual departments within larger organizations. While some intranets require large, full-time content and IT support teams, others are just one of many items on a human resources or communications manager's job description. Some rely on a high level of central control and others are built on a philosophy of decentralization.
The quality that unites intranets is their overall purpose: to drive organizational efficiency and productivity, support the sharing of best practices, lead to more-informed decisions, and in some cases, serve as the primary channel for internal communications.
Management skepticism about intranets and other knowledge-sharing efforts has often been based on their alleged lack of providing a return-on-investment (ROI). Admittedly, most benefits are intangible and cannot easily be measured using conventional ROI criteria. However, industry research increasingly demonstrates that intranets have a direct impact on bottom-line results. For example, several Fortune 500 companies report ROIs of up to $20 million.
Research has also demonstrated that intranets have a significant effect on workforce efficiency and productivity, and that there is a significant correlation between intranet satisfaction and job satisfaction.
So far, so good. But despite these optimistic findings, the intranet outlook for many organizations remains grim. Low usage, aborted intranet projects and complaints of inefficient allocation of resources are widespread. Too often, knowledge sharing is seen as an unwelcome, separate activity, detached from employees' "real" work. How can this outlook be improved?
Steps to Success — A Few Guidelines
Let's start with a truism: An intranet is not a toy. Rather, it is a strategic investment made by an organization to capture and disseminate intellectual capital and, in the process, remain competitive. Too often, this goal seems to have been forgotten. Elaborate knowledge-sharing platforms that were built and launched proved to have little connection to employees' real needs and the organization's business goals.
Intranet Features
* Focuses on user needs — not technology promises
* Directly supports the organization's goals and processes
* Enables collaboration and communities
* Inspires learning, innovation and new thinking through
sharing best practices
* Promotes and delivers bottom-line results
Experience shows that employees use an intranet primarily because it is of substantial benefit to them and helps them perform their jobs better, not because of its sheer availability or a company-dictated policy. "Build it and they will come" rarely works. Success depends on an ongoing process that has as much to do with people management as it does with the availability of an appropriate information-technology infrastructure.
