The key to developing a successful intranet - one that promotes rather than inhibits effective and interpersonal communications - will depend on how it is envisioned, built, maintained, used and supported within a corporation.
Elsevier Food International, Vol. 5, Number 2, May 2002
Gary F.Grates

From a communications standpoint, "the most effective intra nets are those that optimise, not replace, existing internal communications programmes," notes a senior communications expert. "Before our intranet, employees didn't know what many of their co-workers in other departments were working on. The intranet helped bring them together and give them a sense of teamwork and collaboration." Managers and employees believe their intranets help them stay on top of a rapidly changing business environment. GE Capital's 'Network: for example, helps functions such as HR and internal communications to maintain close relationships with employees, a benefit that boosts morale and minimises misinformation. To help keep employees informed, managers from each business unit and corporate department post new developments on the intranet - a particularly valuable feature for a company that experiences a high volume of mergers, acquisitions and other fast-paced transactions. "Before the intranet, you'd get most of your information through the rumour mill, which meant it wasn't always accurate or timely," observed one employee. "The network changed all that - it really makes you feel a part of the system."
At Dell Computer Corp., the intranet provides tools and information to help employees feel truly connected to the company's business priorities and initiatives. 'InsideDell' includes a section dedicated to Dell's business priorities ¬providing definitions, metrics, performance against targets and examples of best practices from throughout the company. A section called 'Direct to Michael' shares CEO Michael Dell's perspective on the company's priorities, while monthly webchats allow employees to pose questions directly to senior leadership. The intranet also includes a website dedicated to the company's diversity initiative. 'Dialogue@Dell' explains why diversity is so important to the company, and includes a calendar of events, a frequently asked questions page and leadership perspectives.
"Companies are finding that their intranet systems are making a tremendous difference in the way their salespeople approach and communicate with their customers," notes a senior marketing executive for a US Midwest manufacturing concern. "Just as important, intranet systems are also changing the way these employees feel about their jobs and the company they work for."

Helping staff cope
Following last year's terrorist attacks, The Coca-Cola Company used its intranet to help employees cope with their feelings and create a sense of connection with their truly global organisation. After 11 September, Coca-Cola's communications team stopped posting the company-related news typically seen on its intra net. Instead, they used the site to inform employees about the company's role in relief efforts and as a forum for sharing stories from employees around the world. Coke employees from Germany to South Africa to Pakistan shared words of compassion and support for their colleagues working in the US. Photographs of makeshift memorials set up at various Coke offices were also posted to the site. After reading about the company's donations and other charitable activities, emails poured in from employees who said how proud they were to be a part of The Coca-Cola Company.

Overcoming cultural resistance
While many companies have cultures where information sharing is a common practice, other organisations have trouble coping with the 'open environment' brought about by an intranet. As many communications professionals are learning, installing an intranet system is about much more than finding the right technology - it can mean a massive cultural change.
Witness the experience of one Fortune 500 company as it embarked on the installation and integration of its intranet. "When we first launched the intranet, there was no mechanism in place to prevent somebody from rearranging the conference room schedule or from looking at other employees' performance records," notes the company's web master and chief communications officer. "We were relying on the honour system and a culture built on trust and respect. As it transitioned to a more participatory culture, the company made certain sensitive materials, including HR records, available on a read-only basis."
Another issue is fear of sharing too much information - even among co-workers in the same division. Take GE Capital, for example, where a highly competitive culture meant that business units were afraid to share competitive secrets.
Armed with that knowledge, GE Capital decided to include a low-risk system for incorporating examples and best practices into the company's Network system. If a business unit does not want to reveal a piece of information, it can place its data behind a firewall or use case studies without numbers. To encourage people to overcome their competitive instincts, management instituted a practice that, in part, ties promotion and pay increases to how well employees share information online.
While encouraging people to share information via the company web is a big challenge, many are finding that making the intra net an integral part of every employee's job is an even bigger one. As one pro-intranet executive observed, "Our goal is for the intranet to be every employee's first stop each morning.
Eventually, they'll come to appreciate the intranet when they realise that they get important news immediately, without the delays typically associated with paper-based communications."
At one large telecommunications company, the communications department meets with employees and managers regularly to discuss how the intranet site is being used and what types of content they would like to see. "We expect them - and we really need them - to be full partners in the effective management of the site," explains the company's vice president of internal communication. "We have to give them news they can use. You have to establish a situation where they know that if they don't go to the intranet, they will not get this information. "

The supervisors' dilemma
Once a company's intranet is up and running and employees are accessing it as part of their daily routine, an interesting phenomenon begins to take place. Employees are now 'in the know' maybe even more so than their managers or supervisors. This upset to the traditional management model - meaning an imbalance of how power is understood in a corporate setting can cause short-term reverberations throughout the organisation.
In November 2000, General Motors announced an initiative that offered employees access to low-cost Internet service in their homes and an employee intranet portal accessible from work or home. "Our employee portal, 'MySocrates,' is a personalisable website that provides all the information employees need to make informed business decisions in a single browser window," explained a member of GM's communications team. "All employees - from corner offices to factory product lines - can get what they want from GM, when they need it." GM's MySocrates site allows employees to change benefits, schedule training sessions, manage investments, use career development tools or share ideas with company leadership. GM's unique intranet portal brought new levels of information and empowerment to employees. Hourly employees, who previously had only limited access to the web and email, could now explore important company information at their own pace, from their own home computers. The result has been a gradual shift to a more informed and involved manufacturing workforce. In a not-so-subtle way, the intranet is liberating the workplace and causing managers to rethink and reassess their role and ultimately their value to the enterprise. This may be an unexpected and unwelcome byproduct of a well-thought-out, well-executed intranet system. One that communications can take a lead on by providing a progressive management communications/development process that moves managers to a different, higher value position within the organisation.

The Bottom Line
One of the most compelling reasons for communications to take the lead in intranet development is the potential for releasing communicators from their often intermediary role into a more strategic one.
"In addition to the improved communications an intranet can help create for an organisation, which must be the primary consideration, an intranet may also help communicators focus on big-picture items, like strategic planning and changing organisational behaviours," notes one communications executive. "While I agree that an intranet should not replace face-to-face communication, I believe this new medium has the power to strengthen internal communications by fostering the development of an involved, informed and enabled workforce."