Vibrant MCSE BOOT Camp Notes :

Wresting Order Out of Chaos: Maximizing Value and Optimizing Utility

As discussed more fully in Chapter 35, "Creating Real-World Applications," a little discipline on the front end yields significant long-term benefits for any organization considering an intranet. There are numerous examples of major corporations and associations that have made expensive mistakes by racing pell-mell to embrace a technology whose strengths and limitations they do not fully understand.

For example, in one case, the sponsoring organization badly underestimated the resources required to manage its intranet effectively over time. As a result, internal message traffic quickly overcame the sponsor's capacity to respond, and posted content became first chaotic and then stale. As a result, despite much initial fanfare, company users soon reverted to traditional patterns of interaction-telephone, fax, and haphazard hallway meetings.

In another instance, the sponsor-an international trade association-failed to consider extreme variations in users' technological capacity and local connectivity. The result was a state-of-the-art intranet that could be used only by a select few-completely undermining the original goal of democratizing the communications process by enabling equal access.

In still another case, a corporate sponsor wanted an intranet largely for reasons of prestige. The CEO envisioned a showpiece that outsiders would admire, as opposed to a management tool that company insiders would actually use. This extremely hierarchical company traditionally has discouraged interaction among its various business units and staff functions, and, as a result, information is jealously guarded. Once the intranet was introduced, most users saw it as an electronic outlet for disseminating official corporate communications. However, top management was appalled to discover that a few subversive middle managers found ways of using it to collaborate, and quickly reconfigured the site to restrict information exchange.

Each of these examples illustrates a mismatch between technological capability and organizational requirements. At best, disconnects like these mean lost opportunity; at worst, they can result in actual setbacks. Each of these organizations wasted time and money; in some cases, the effort significantly eroded credibility as well.

Perhaps because the underlying technology is new-and in many respects revolutionary-many organizations fail to apply basic analytic disciplines as they consider the pros and cons of intranets. In the most extreme instances, common sense seems to fly out the window, and managers abandon years of training and sound business judgment. While this can be exhilarating in the short term, it doesn't make for productive use of this medium.

A far sounder approach is to consider or evaluate intranets in much the same way as any other major organizational initiative. No successful organization undertakes a new product introduction, a major marketing campaign, or a fundamental shift in business strategy, for example, without a clear understanding of goals, consequences, risks, benefits, and costs. So, too, should you or your company subject an intranet to the same exacting scrutiny. And while the technology may be revolutionary, many of the standard tools of business management should be applied.

Adopting a programmatic approach to establishing an intranet helps the sponsoring organization perform functions such as these:

• Manage resources
• Manage expectations
• Plan ahead
• Monitor progress
• Measure results

Such an approach need not be unduly complex or time-consuming. Rather, it simply means that you should look before you leap. Applying common sense and business discipline at the outset greatly improves the likelihood of success in deploying the full power of this medium.

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