It can be daunting when faced with the chance to improve your intranet or digital workplace by updating or replacing the technology you use.
I had mixed feelings when I was an intranet manager: good that I could make a difference; bad when thinking how I need to make the right decision!
Here are some steps I recommend you take to make sure you have a good outcome.
business requirements
Make sure you have a complete a set of business requirements. The better informed you are on what your organisation will require, the more likely you are to meet their needs.
Check with stakeholders what they need. What are their biggest pain points? What works well and they want more of?
Present the business requirements in a way that helps everyone to understand what is needed. This helps avoid misunderstandings and delays.
Budget
You now have the business requirements. From these you need to build your business case. This needs to show what the improvements will be. More importantly, you need to demonstrate the benefits – how much and how quickly – to be gained.
How much money is available? Is there a time limit for when the money has to be spent? Who needs to approve your business case?
You need to gain approval and understand what the conditions are that you need to achieve.
Working with it
You have the budget and the business requirements now. The next stage is to work with your IT partners to find the best technical solution. It is usual for your priorities to differ from IT.
You may want the best technical solution; IT want a solution that fits with their technical skills and experience. You may want to stagger the changes so people can accept the changes gradually; IT may want a ‘big bang’ approach because they need to reduce their costs supporting existing technologies quickly.
Proper engagement, clear understanding, agreed priorities and roles and responsibilities help to avoid different approaches becoming huge barriers that prevent progress being made.
Only when you have reached this stage can you use the budget and requirements to assess the possible technical solutions that could help.
Testing
You now have agreed which technical solutions you need to investigate further. This leads to the next stage of testing. You need to be shown how each solution can meet your business requirements. The best way is to test it on your own digital environment.
Agree with the provider of the technical solution what you require and for how long. Develop your business requirements into user stories or journeys that replicate typical examples of how people use your intranet.
Have criteria to show the results and understand the differences between each new technical solution. If you are only testing one then compare it with your existing technology you use.
Outcome
You now have assessed the technical solution(s) by testing the business requirements. You have a winner that demonstrates it can improve how people use the intranet or digital workplace.
But can you afford it? The costs may restrict your choice. Maybe the second best solution is far more affordable and best for your organisation? Decide on the solution that will gain you the most benefits.
Next agree how it will be implemented. What is the top priority? Understand timescales.
Most importantly, have a governance framework and information architecture that supports your strategy before you start implementing your new technical solution. Without these success will be more difficult to achieve!
more information
Find out more information from my new book ‘Digital success or digital disaster?‘. Read the introductory chapter to find out more. A license to share the ebook with publishers across your organisation is available.