Building an Intranet: Theory and Practice - Conference Presentation

Our Objectives

• Share the lessons we learnt by discovery and creativity to make it easier for others to follow
• Focus on examples of the lessons learnt rather than the paper content

Learn about audience experiences:

• How many are currently running an Intranet?
• How many are planning to run an Intranet?
• How many are in "single site" organisations?
• How many are in "multi-site" organisations?

Background

DAEM

• 1800 people
• 35 offices around Victoria that range from half a dozen people at district offices to several hundred at research institutes
• head office with around a hundred and fifty staff

Paper

• theory and practice combination of consultant who didn't know the DAEM specifics, but drew on her experience working in similar distributed environments and designing communication systems, working with DAEM staff who were trying to implement something practical
• written with hindsight to match theory and practice

Embryonic Phases

• Early stage for web development everywhere - 1994
• No decision had been made regarding usefulness or adoption
• Shoestring/playing around/scavenging parts
• Recognition of potential by a few groups

Pilot Phases

Shift from an IT function to a content view

Trying to help people relate to and eventually "own" the system

Named the service 'Primeweb' which made it easier to talk about

Started to get serious:

• Set up Steering Committee
• Added a full-time HTML author
• Engaged a consultant
• Consulted users directly

Membership of Steering Committee:

• Librarians
• Admin Staff
• Information Providers
• Regional/Research Institute Representatives
• IT Staff member

Working Group Chair:

• not an IT person
• rather a manager of an information resource group right across the department

Look at existing infrastructure and toolkits followed by refining technical specifications

Talk to representatives users to:

• Market the system more widely
• Trial a user survey
• Collect sample survey data

Survey results/discussion:

• Perception of self as user more prevalent than as provider
• Relevance of information provided is of utmost importance
• Awareness of information available and ease of use important
• Provision of information not seen as job role; need management recognition of this on performance reviews and other job specifications

Implementation

Refined the system: improved appearance and navigation

Preparation of documents to 'sell' the system to the executive:

• Executive summary
• Implementation plan
• Budget
• Potential/future options
• Cost/Benefit analysis [quite impressive!]

Internal marketing and promotion:

• Senior managers can get info they need
• Staff get the information they need for resaerch and policy analysis
• Refined the appearance and ease of access
• Sections now approaching us to include their information
• Training in HTML for groups at local university
• Organise guidelines for pages and templates

Other Lessons

Consult, consult, consult

• Listen to the end user
• Actively seek input from users

Intranets are NOT Internet - private v public access

• Information content much more important than presentation
• Function over form in importance

Content creation/publishing

• distributed to the person creating the information as much as possible
• local ownership/custodianship
• Separate content input from tech support roles

Legacy components - people/systems/installed base; build around existing business systems

Implications for communication efficiency in government and other dispersed organisations

Recent Developments

Departmental amalgamation:

• Agriculture Engery & Minerals
• Conservation & Natural Resources
• Office of Geographic Data Coordination
• Office of Surveyor General
• Titles Office

DAEM experiences: internal/external; info based

DCNR experiences: two separate processes; admin based for internal, political imperative for external

OGDC: external only

Formal recognition and formation of a coordinating unit

Corporate Planning and Information Branch created incorporating:

• Libraries
• Corporate Affairs
• Electronic Information and Internet Services formed to manage and coordinate web services

Guiding principles from the beginning of the project in July 1995 are being adopted now and being met

New Home Page to help recognition that we are a NEW department

VICNET - coordinating presentation of Victorian Government to the world

Department of Premier and Cabinet consulting with about creating a Central Government Intranet