Intranet Development: Planning, Tools, and Best Practices

Introduction

Some organizations are involved in the development of computer software and naturally end up having experts in that field. However, organizations operating in other industries should concentrate on their core business rather than involve themselves in software development. It is important to understand that developing software is not the same as a maintenance function, where an organization managing plant and machinery must develop a certain level of competence in keeping equipment operational.

For example, any refinery must be able to carry out routine servicing for its machinery, yet when a major development is required — such as increasing capacity or changing operating methods — the refinery calls in outside experts. Changes in software are not like routine servicing of existing equipment; they are more like changing processes to make operations more efficient.

The importance of various roles within an organization keeps changing and depends fundamentally on the relative contribution that each change makes to the profitability and operating efficiency of the organization. With this thesis in mind, the following analysis examines the different requirements that must be met through an organization's intranet, drawing on real-world case studies and a specific product recommendation.

Organizational Intranet Requirements: Case Studies

A local council was facing difficulties in internal communication, and a study was conducted to identify the problems. Three core difficulties were found: information was hard to locate, there were no formal methods for distributing news, and the council was heavily dependent on long-serving staff. The first problem was evident from the fact that there were more than half a million files on the corporate file server, yet documents such as council policies, strategic plans, and organizational charts could not be located. The second difficulty emerged because staff depended on word of mouth to learn about council decisions. This led directly to the third problem, where the experience of long-serving staff had become the sole source of knowledge about how to get jobs done.

Due to these problems, it was clear that word of mouth was the primary channel of information, and this had to change if any systematic method was to be established. A customer services team had already developed an intranet, but it did not meet the total requirements of the organization (Robertson, 2005).

The intranet ultimately provided several key advantages. First, it established set procedures, since processes tend to become unmanageable over time without timely intervention. Second, it provided news within the organization, giving accurate information to all staff. Third, it enabled information to reach locations outside the main office building quickly — including depots, libraries, and common service units — directly benefiting field staff who had previously been unable to obtain information from the head office (Robertson, 2005). It is therefore important to identify clearly the reasons for which an intranet is to be established before beginning development.

At Toyota, an intranet and many other systems already existed, but there were no methods for measuring the efficiency of software creation. At most stages, many projects were running simultaneously, and most were intended for use across the entire organization. At one point, concurrent projects included development of an extranet system for dealers, a PeopleSoft ERP rollout, and four new systems for "order management, parts forecasting, advanced warranty and financial document management" (Wailgum, 2005). The group responsible did not communicate its difficulties to other managers within the organization, which prevented timely solutions from being found.

The solution was the establishment of the Toyota Value Action Program, which set clear action points for the department. A decision-making team of eight individuals identified the following solutions: enhancing employee training and progress, making cost savings, enabling process improvements, and implementing a metrics program (Wailgum, 2005). This case demonstrates that even when an organization has a large internal software development team, problems arise from misunderstandings of organizational requirements.

Evaluating Intranet Problems: The Disney Model

The Disney Group provides a useful contrast. Disney has always operated a decentralized model for IT development. The group comprises more than two dozen business units, including theme parks, consumer merchandise, film studios, cable TV networks, and broadcast TV networks. In total, the group manages more than 1,000 active projects and oversees more than 4,000 systems, involving products from more than 1,300 vendors.

Control of the organization's IT is exercised through an operating council of eight Chief Information Officers called the CIO Board. This board meets every six weeks to discuss ongoing and proposed IT projects. Members also hold quarterly meetings with two-day workshops as part of a 30-member IT Executive Management Council, which is responsible for approving every IT program in the company and ensuring that all committee decisions are implemented (Tasooji, 2005).

Disney's case differs from Toyota's in that Disney relies predominantly on outside vendors to create solutions, rather than an internal development team. Even so, all externally created material must be carefully evaluated. Because both companies are large, this requires considerable effort and directed action from everyone involved in IT — whether internal staff or external contractors — in order to achieve the best results.

Extension of Intranet Systems and Results

It is often assumed that an intranet encompasses only communication within a single business unit, but this need not be the case. A well-known example involves a remark made by Sam Walton of Wal-Mart to Procter & Gamble: "The way we do things is way too complicated. You should automatically send me Pampers, and I should send you a check once a month. We ought to get rid of all this negotiation and invoicing" (Koch, 2002).

This comment led to a collaborative planning process through which P&G dispatches grocery items to retailers without waiting to receive purchase orders. The system originated from designs developed for P&G by IBM, and P&G decided to use it as a tool for keeping customers satisfied. The software was developed internally, refined by P&G's own IT team, and sold to Wal-Mart in 1988. It subsequently became the industry standard. Its aim is to remove inefficiencies in the supply chain caused by high inventory levels, transportation costs, and erratic shipment volumes. The original IBM software was called Inform; the further-developed version was sold back to IBM under the name Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment — CPFR (Koch, 2002).

This example illustrates that even when software is purchased from an external company, there remains scope for the buyer to develop and adapt it further. Conversely, when software is developed entirely in-house, the developers may not fully understand the functional requirements, making continuous improvement necessary. Additionally, internally developed software carries a higher risk of unforeseen problems, whereas commercially sold software has typically already undergone extensive development and testing by the vendor, reducing the likelihood of errors. Although this particular example is not strictly about an intranet, it describes a system that operates in a functionally similar manner (Koch, 2002).

Conclusion

With the development of time, human behavior must change. Today, intranets and the Internet represent the fastest-moving changes taking place around us. They not only support business development within organizations but also position those organizations in line with other rapidly evolving enterprises. The evidence presented in this paper — from the local council's communication failures to Toyota's project management challenges and Disney's decentralized IT governance — consistently supports the conclusion that packaged, professionally supported intranet solutions offer significant advantages over custom in-house development for organizations whose primary business is not software.

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