Some days cycling is magic and effortless, but not today. Every mile was work. http://is.gd/ccckQ. But it’s still something I’d rather do than many other things.
Interesting discussion kicked off by James over here: http://2020visions.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/intranets-huh-what-are-they-good-for
Having weighed in in the comments, here’s some more considered thinking that seemed too wordy for a comment.
Intranets matter and deliver when distributed service levels and scale are factors. One of the best examples I can cite is in a global consumer goods company that was driving a centralized procurement system. They could achieve millions of dollars of savings annually through this, but they weren’t getting the penetration and usage they needed because folks found the SAP system behind it hard to use, and the policies and procedures were…somewhere else. Here, the intranet integrated SAP transactions into step-by-step pages that explained the policies and process, leveraging personalization to deliver content for country-specific variations (i.e., different office supply vendors in each country, local procurement contacts) and in the local language.
Solutions like this are far from easy, and I believe this is why so many intranets are as you describe. This project cost a lot of money and took almost a year, but the savings were huge and ongoing. Thankfully the sponsor was a finance person and understood that this effort and cost were necessary to achieve her larger savings targets.
Intranets need to support business processes and reduce complexity and friction if they’re going to add value. It may well be that solutions like that one only work for global enterprises, not for organizations that have only a few thousands of folks.
Teachers inspire – and when they do it right, they inspire for a lifetime.
“Our reason for choosing Mrs. Rothman as a woman who we should all aspire to be, has nothing to do with the fact that she was our teacher, or that she’s often on big time TV shows. It’s simply because, she’s built her entire life on love and passion, and in return it has paid her back well.”
http://besonewyork.blogspot.com/2010/05/lesson-to-live-by.html
I enjoy it when a UX practitioner takes a step back from the art, science and ethos of usability and shares a practical view of how to play nice with other disciplines (and customers).
Jared Lewandowski does just this in an article in UX Magazine where he relates how had to pick up a partially started project with vague goals and little time, and turned it into a win.
“…the reality is that UX professionals are often asked to accomplish a lot with very little time or resources. This means we frequently have to get creative about how we can focus and speed up our work to deliver strong results within the constraints we’re given.”
Dion Hinchcliffe continues the conversation sparked by Salesforce.com’s recent announcement of social features in their product. While we still can’t say whether this continued trend is going to have a clear value- in fact the results will be decidedly mixed – I like his Five benefits of making enterprise IT social. Go read it if you haven’t already and store those thoughts for when you’ll need them.
This is Cleft Road in Mill Neck, south of Bayville and west of Oyster Bay. It’s a causeway that runs between Beaver Pond to the south and Mill Neck Creek, which is actually an inlet of the bay. The tidal flats are frequented by egrets while swans are usually on the Pond.
This is the south view of Beaver Pond.
Same spot, turned around to look north at Mill Neck Creek.
Excuse the occaslionally wonky appearance of things here while I try to break in a new pair of shoes theme.
As unsettling as FB’s move to broker identity across the web is, I’ve sensed an air of inevitability about it that reminds me of my views on SharePoint’s upturning the enterprise portal market.
You don’t have to like it – but be realistic. Get familiar with FB’s privacy controls and exercise vigilance, because it’s here and it will get bigger. That is, until the Next Thing comes along.
A quick test post, thanks.
