Chris Murray and I had lunch yesterday and Intranets were on the menu, big time…

He posts this morning(by the way, new url alert – he’s changed the location of his blog, so update your reader):

But a common theme in business seems to be “our Intranet sucks” or “I can’t find anything in our system” or ” that’s your stuff, I need to find my stuff.” Too many businesses see their information systems and processes as a cost center rather than leveraging them as competitive advantages and assets.

If your company Intranet sucks, it’s affecting you in ways you don’t often realize:

• Lack of employee confidence – They can’t trust that they have the right information.  This lack of confidence is often transferred to the customer.
• Lost time searching for stuff – Lack of proper organization translates into dollars as people waste valuable time trying to find the information that should be at their finger tips.
• Mistakes that shouldn’t happen – If you’ve got wrong information on your Intranet, then Murphy’s Law says that someone will use it and when they do, it’s likely going to cost you dearly.

Personally, I think an Intranet is a barometer of how well a company is run.  Great companies don’t settle for mediocre Intranets, because the Intranet is a first line of support for employees, an enabler that let’s them do their jobs more effectively, and ensures uniform information distribution while providing access to appropriate documents, policies, etc.  They’re also great internal marketing that let’s you easily communicate with the team – and an informed team works better.

You want to fix your Intranet? Give us a call and Chris and I will sit down with you and explain our solution.  We’ve got a great Intranet system for you!

I’m going to start devoting one post a week (at least) to Intranets.  Really, if yours is bad, it’s losing you money.