The Source for Communicators

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July 25th, 2007 GlaxoSmithKline on creating an intranet strategy

Expectations for intranets are sky-high. But as one of the authors in Melcrum's Transforming your intranet report points out: Too many organizations don't have an intranet strategy at all, and in the companies that do have strategies, they aren't working.

To provide some guidance, the report shares an article from GlaxoSmithKline on "Ten tactics to align your intranet with the strategy".

If you're working on a strategy to transform your own intranet, here's a few tips to help you get things right from the start:

Assemble a team representative of the major business areas. They will drive a review project and develop a proposal with clearly identified aims. (Ideally these will be willing volunteers!) Ensure they have enough time to devote to this project, absorb research and attend workshops to develop solutions and proposals.

Identify the key decision makers and drivers of strategy within each business area as early as possible. Gain their buy-in to an intranet review program by explaining clearly and in business terms the benefits to them of aligning intranet development more closely with their strategy and objectives. Assure them that the input from their area will be key to guiding the new direction of the company intranet – and keep that promise.

Identify a second, equally influential, group of employees within the organization – the doers. These are the people who maintain the infrastructure and content or coordinate groups of developers and communicators. It’s essential to understand what they do and to engage them fully. Remember that the people on the ground, who work with the intranet and its users every day, will often tell you (in no uncertain terms) where the real issues lie.

To read all 10 tactics, download a full copy of the article.

See you next week.

Mandy Thatcher
Editor
mandy.thatcher@melcrum.com

P.S. The latest edition of the Melcrum Podcast is ready for downloading. This week we've got two interviews with people at the cutting edge of internal communication.

Peter Eschbach, a senior vice president with Porter Novelli, talks about how to create an internal communication environmental campaign (find the interview at 0:20 on the podcast).

Social media guru Neville Hobson explains how to produce your very own podcast (find the interview at 7:20 on the podcast).

Further reading
Top tips - Introducing social media into your company Top tips - Tapping into intranet user needs at IKEA Vital Statistics – Are you less truthful on the phone?