Chapter 18
Intranet Administration: A Critical
Function
CONTENTS
Any consideration of administrative functions
must derive from broader decisions concerning user access, intended
usage, and data security. After these decisions are made, intranet
administrators arguably play the single most important role in
the successful implementation of this medium. The administrator's
job is by definition multifaceted and includes information management,
troubleshooting, conflict resolution, and technical support. An
intranet administrator is the person who controls the flow of
information on the site, and on any given day may act as traffic
cop, librarian, enforcer, confessor, arbiter, moderator, or quick-fix
artist.
All these tasks suggest that selection and training of administrators
should be integral to the overall process of intranet implementation.
Whether responsibility resides with a single (harried) individual
or is shared throughout the organization, intranet administration
requires structure, definition, and adequate preparation. This
chapter offers a range of options for defining administrative
roles, managing intranet administration, and identifying and addressing
training needs.
Certain administrative functions are necessary to maintain virtually
any intranet site. Some of these functions are discussed in the
following sections.
The administrator is the person who adds new users to the intranet
and provides them with user IDs and passwords. A user ID is public,
but the password is usually private and only for a specific user.
The ID could be something as simple as a person's name. The password
allows the user access to the intranet. The security of the site
is the factor in deciding the password. If the intranet is high
security, for example, the user passwords may be jumbled with
letters, numbers, and underscores to make access difficult for
others.
The style of the intranet is material to selecting and training
an administrator. It can be a fundamentally dictatorial system
where the administrator is all powerful and runs the intranet
according to clear and strict protocols, or the style may be more
of an organic relationship between the administrator and users.
In the first situation, in which security is high, the administrator
may assign passwords and not allow users to change them. In a
more interactive and bottom-up organization in which security
is not as high, the users may be allowed to pick their own simple
passwords, like "dog," "jerk," or "schatzie,"
and change them routinely.
Access management is the act of controlling user accessibility
of certain applications on the intranet. Some users may have more
access than others in different areas. If a conference is scheduled,
for example, access would be limited to those involved. The users
involved in the conference would be privy to the subject matter
and the date and time of the conference, but other users on the
intranet would not.
The administrator also can set limits accessing intranet documents,
allowing one set of users to access documents to make edits or
any other changes while giving another group of users read-only
privileges.
An organization wouldn't want works in progress to be disseminated
prematurely-whether a policy analysis or technical paper-for competitive
or legal reasons. So, in some cases only the users who are involved
in the editing and decision-making progress of a document should
be allowed to see it. Of this group of users, only some should
be allowed to access the actual document, whereas others should
have read-only access. Administrators heed caution: Too many cooks
will spoil the broth.
In other situations, administrators may need to set up many levels
of access. One group might draft an initial document. During the
next step, the document is edited by another group of users. The
document then might move through yet another group, who will approve
the document. Finally, it reaches the broad group of recipients.
In some circumstances, the administrator's job may seem like the
technological equivalent of "pushing paper."
A range of employees who all wield a slightly different level
of power are likely to be working on the intranet. Remember, most
organizations do not need every user to have access to everything
each staffer is working on. Just as in any office, each employee
does not have access to every conference, decision-making session,
conversation, or memo.
The administrator should have access to all data in any area of
the intranet, using either the ID of the user or an administrator
password. This capability is necessary for checking problems and
troubleshooting.
Usage analysis is the log of information about users and
their activity on the intranet: when they log on, how often they
log on, what pages they access, and for how long they are on.
It gives the administrator an idea of the activity on the site.
Usage analysis is helpful because it tells the administrator what
is going on from a user standpoint. Additionally, it tells something
about the users, such as which part of the site is most popular
or which sections are rarely utilized. The analysis also can serve
as a checklist of sorts, showing what pages need maintenance or
edits or what needs to be archived. The administrator can use
this information to make decisions about current and future applications
that might be planned for the intranet.
If the usage analysis shows the administrator that the mission
and vision pages are seldom accessed by the users, but the CEO
really wants users to view those pages, for example, the administrator
should bring it to the attention of editorial staff or content
providers. In fact, they might work together to add something
new or different to enhance the pages and draw more users. If
the analysis shows that users never check the minutes from board
meetings, the administrator might suggest having the minutes edited
for content or archiving them in another area of the intranet.
Usage analysis also can be used to monitor the success of a mailing.
Assume that the administrator wants to gauge the interest of new
users. He or she sends out introductory packets and then monitors
when the new users log on. Allowing for mail time, the administrator
can find out how eager the new users were to log on and how long
it took them to get involved. The same strategy can be used from
time to time on the site with existing users. Sending out a mail
message about a new feature or even pointing to some exciting
news and then watching the usage closely can provide an administrator
valuable information about user interest.
Usage analysis has analytic features that administrators can use
to perform surveillance functions-for example, to detect unexpected
entry from either a user on the intranet who doesn't have access
to the particular area or from a stranger who has intruded. If
administrators are regularly checking usage, they can quickly
spot anomalies in the usage patterns, which may signify intruders
on the intranet.
An integral job of the administrator is the technical support
he or she provides to the users. If the user cannot access the
intranet or does not understand how to access the intranet, the
intranet in these situations is not an asset to the organization.
It is therefore vital that the administrator be accessible to
the users. The administrator can use usage analysis to check to
see if all the users have even logged on for the first time after
they are provided "how-to" information.
Technical support is both the nuts and bolts of physically going
to the users to assist them or demonstrate a new application and
interacting with the users to find out what they're thinking.
This interaction allows the administrator to see eye-to-eye with
the users and thus better understand what the job of the administrator
is in maintaining the site.
The administrator needs to gauge users' interest continuously
and encourage feedback from them. If half of the should-be users
are not logging on, the administrator's job is to find out why.
The administrator needs to make sure they are connected.
If users don't have fast connectivity because they're using a
9600 baud modem, for example, this creates problems with the slow
speed they're accessing information from the intranet. If they
find it faster to call or use e-mail instead of the intranet for
communication, again the intranet is not an asset to the organization.
With the knowledge of this situation, however, the administrator
can recommend a solution, such as an upgrade for more satisfaction
and a faster connection; or the administrator might recommend
that the host put different information on the intranet so that
it takes less time to access.
The purpose of content and archive maintenance is to make life
easier on the users. It's a house cleaning of sorts. Depending
on how administrators approach this maintenance, it can be either
a full-fledged spring cleaning or a list of weekly chores. Maintaining
the intranet may mean taking information not frequently accessed
by users and archiving it, upgrading and changing files to make
them timely or more attractive to the user, cleaning up a file
so that it operates more efficiently, or creating subdirectories.
The users' needs and wishes drive the maintenance. When maintaining
content, the administrator needs to ensure that the pages are
interesting to the users; otherwise, they won't use those pages.
The more data that is added to the site, the more difficult it
is to manage and the more critical it becomes for the administrator
to keep it updated and tidy. If the administrator edits a site
or revises a page, he or she also needs to take down the old page
to ensure that users don't accidentally access and use the old
page as up-to-date information. Old information should be archived
or deleted.
As an organization works on an intranet, the sites get fatter
with more files to manage. The administrator might need to shift
fields and directories and create new subdirectories so that information
is more easily retrieved by the users. If many international legislative
documents are listed on one page, for example, the administrator
might create subdirectories for each country with legislative
documents.
After the subdirectory is created, the Uniform Resource Locator
(URL, which is the complete address of a Web site) for that information
changes, so the administrator needs to revise or edit all the
links to those pages to reflect the new URL. Every page has a
specific URL, so the deeper the user goes into the site, the longer
the URL is. If the user is in a subdirectory of a subdirectory,
all those addresses are included in the URL. One of the duties
of the administrator is to ensure that these pages are organized
consistently in those directories.
Intranets may contain hyperlinks to other parts of the Internet,
which let the user just click the URL to view the related pages.
It is important that the administrator keeps a current file of
those sites and their corresponding URLs. If the URL is wrong,
the link won't work, and the users will get a message to see their
system administrator.
Although exchanging information on a bulletin board for different
users to view is one solution to more open communication among
employees and business partners, giving users the ability to communicate
with each other in a more dynamic setting provides an even better
channel of communication. When it comes to managing e-mail, the
administrator's function is to configure and update the links
of e-mail addresses for all the users. It's a good idea to create
an e-mail address on the site that all users can utilize to alert
the administrator of problems or to get general questions answered.
The precise scope and nature of intranet administration are largely
determined by the complexity of the site and the degree of its
interactivity. If the site is intended primarily to display static
information from a single source, for example, archive maintenance
is a key administrative function. By contrast, if the intranet
is designed to encourage interaction, the administrator may play
an important role in moderating online discussions and in managing
multiple postings. Of course, many sites or intranets emphasize
both or more of these objectives, thus requiring a more sophisticated
management team. In other words, the scope really depends on the
goal of the intranet. The responsibilities of the administrator
become heavier depending on the functionality of the site. The
more functional it is for the user, the more labor-intensive it
is for the administrator.
If all the users are dealing with one simple issue, such as the
market price of a single commodity, for example, any publicly
available market information is accessible to all the users. If
several larger groups belong to the Society of Sweet Sugar Growers
of the World, they likely would need additional and diversified
information on the raw material. This group probably depends on
specific information to guide their business decisions, such as
current market prices, competition, global sugar production, import
and export issues, legislative activity, or global distribution.
In this case, the administrator's challenge is to create different
subsections of the intranet that will provide the specific information
for the large audience.
In the first example, the administrator must make sure that all
pages are current and that all users are accessing the information
without any glitches. In the second example, the administrator
must maintain the different sites of the intranet so that individual
groups can access the specific subsections that are beneficial
to them. The administrator also must make sure that unauthorized
users are not accessing any of the sites.
Defining the administrator's job requires answering some key questions
about how the intranet will be utilized and by whom:
- What is the overall purpose of the intranet?
Is it used for disseminating institutional information, encouraging
interdisciplinary or interdivisional collaboration, or expediting
data flow, for example?
- What kinds of information are appropriate
for posting to the intranet? Some organizations tightly restrict
content, whereas others encourage informal interchange. This information
may include newsletters, newspaper articles related to the organization's
mission or purpose, speeches, studies, meeting agendas, schedules
for conferences, and calendars.
- Who are the intended users? Keep in mind
that a given intranet may include multiple user access levels.
These access levels include conference, bulletin board, shared
access to documents, read-only, ability alter, and save.
- How is each user group expected to use
the site? Will the groups, for example, read or download information,
exchange documents internally, edit or coauthor materials, post
new content, or schedule meetings?
- Who will provide content? Will the marketing
group decide the important content to be shared? Will the communications
group provide it? Or will each department separately provide information
depending on the issue?
After a company knows what will be distributed via the intranet,
it must consider how all the information will be administered
and distributed. The organization has spent much time planning
and creating the intranet, but all the information and resources
will be rendered useless unless the data is organized and current.
Some companies may choose to centralize administration with a
single individual or department as a means of assuring control
of site content. In these cases, all input to the intranet is
funneled through a single channel for posting. Depending on the
technical proficiency of the content author(s), input may be forwarded
in HTML or may require translation by administrative staff.
In addition, an administrator's level of authority and internal
reporting should be considered in advance of assigning these tasks.
Many organizations distinguish between sectors of their intranet
sites such that certain areas are restricted to read-only content
(for example, permanent, or official, information like the mission,
vision, and biographies of officers), whereas others are dedicated
to interchange (for example, conferences, bulletin boards, and
online publishing). Depending on volume, these organizations may
assign different individuals to administer specific sectors.
One significant advantage of segmenting intranet administration
is that it helps the sponsoring organization safeguard against
potential abuses of power. The trade-off here is between centralized
and distributed control, but neither approach is perfect.
A growing number of companies-in response to concerns about employee
privacy, among other issues-believe that oversight of their intranets
should be shared, however, rather than investing sole authority
in a single individual (such as the corporate security director).
Depending on the organization and the intranet, an organization
may have two administrators: one to handle the technical functions,
like support and access, and the other to handle the political
end-who in the organization has access to what conference rooms,
newsletters, discussion groups-and to moderate discussions held
on the intranet.
Regardless of whether the organization decides to work with one
administrator or distributed administrators, all intranet administrators
must understand and respect the potentially sensitive nature of
their roles. By definition, they have regular access to a broad
range of company information, often in draft or prospective form
that is not intended for general distribution. Users must trust
the administrator, or they will be leery of using the intranet.
If users lack confidence in their administrator's discretion,
they will not use the intranet, which means a great deal of time
and money wasted.
In considering various options for assigning the administrator
role, thinking in terms of technical requirements as well as of
interpersonal skills is useful. Very often, an organization may
treat this role as an afterthought, on the presumption that some
generic support staffer or research assistant can take on these
duties in addition to his or her regular job. In the early stages
of intranet implementation, and given the right set of skills,
this approach may actually work. As the intranet evolves, however,
the administrator's job becomes more complex and demanding, and
it's wise to think ahead.
In an ideal world, an intranet administrator already has a number
of skills and traits, including technical proficiency, attention
to detail, and interpersonal skills.
Obviously with something as new and rapidly evolving as the intranet,
an organization needs to have an administrator who has an extensive
technology background and can understand how and why things happen
in a computer system. The administrator needs a thorough background
and proficiency with the Internet because the intranet is so similar.
A technically proficient administrator can save time and effort
running the intranet. An administrator can automate a task, making
it easier to perform in the future. If a user wants to create
a conference, the administrator creates a script. A script is
a form set up by the administrator to create something on the
intranet that is used more than once, such as a conference. For
a conference, the administrator may set up the script for the
user to enter the subject of the conference, the names of the
participants, and the time and date of the conference. The script
means that the user doesn't have to go through the administrator
each time for a repeating function, freeing up both the administrator
and the user.
The administrator needs to have a firm understanding of connectivity
(which is how the computer is connected to the large network of
the Internet), the hardware connection, and the software requirements
that enable the user to browse the World Wide Web and surf the
Internet.
The administrator also must understand the Internet inside and
out, allowing him or her to utilize it fully for the benefit of
the organization. It's advantageous for an administrator to understand
and be aware of other developments in other sites that are relevant
to the intranet; he or she should be continually looking out for
other developments.
The administrator needs to have knowledge about the World Wide
Web, the latest Web browsers, and what kind of features they support.
Netscape, for example, produces a table if it uses specific HTML
commands, but Mosaic doesn't support tables. If the organization
sees a use for tables, it needs a Web browser that will create
them.
One of the jobs of the administrator is to keep URLs and links
up-to-date so that they work properly. The administrator therefore
needs to enter all this information exactly. This information
has to be precise; the exclusion of a period or quotation mark
or bracket can completely mess up a document. If an organization
has a dynamic site, one that is frequently changing, for example,
the link could soon be outdated. The administrator's job is to
keep these links current; otherwise, the users will hit dead ends.
For many users, the administrator is their personal guide to the
intranet. The users must feel like they can communicate with the
administrator. If they don't like or trust the administrator,
they won't come to him or her with questions. The administrator
has to be patient, even if the same user calls with the same question
for the tenth time. The administrator needs to remember that,
for some users, especially the "green" users, this cutting-edge
technology can be frightening.
The administrator must communicate-in layperson terms-with the
users. If the users can't understand the administrator, they won't
ask questions or seek help. A fine line exists between a computer
support person and a user support person; technical know-how doesn't
mean anything if the administrator can't communicate well with
the users.
The administrator must be able to put himself or herself in the
users' shoes and must understand the importance of the intranet
for the users. In many ways, the administrator is a politician
who has to be in touch with constituents-the users. If not, the
administrator is going to lose the election because he or she
doesn't understand the needs, concerns, and questions of the users.
Many computer geeks can perform miracles on the machines but cannot
communicate with users in a friendly and accessible way. Stay
away from these self-proclaimed administrators.
Obviously, a certain level of technical speak is necessary so
that the administrator can function as the organization's techno-salesperson.
In addition to talking technology in simple, everyday terms with
intranet users, the administrator should be versed in some techno-speak
so that he or she can secure the most appropriate applications
and technology that the organization is counting on.
Finally, the administrator must approach an organization's intranet
with sensitivity, especially regarding some of the more confidential
activities on the intranet. Many functions accessible via the
intranet are considered private, closed-door meetings. The administrator
should be trustworthy and able to keep sensitive issues private.
Obviously, intranet administrators require far more extensive
training than users. Front-end investment in administrator training
pays off in efficiency and user acceptance, and training content
should be considered early in the intranet development process.
Training content reflects both the intranet design and functions
and the expectations of the sponsoring organization. Depending
on the skills of the trainees, a training curriculum may combine
customized content with commercially available courses in specific
technologies-for example, courses on HTML, connectivity, high-tech
courses on the Internet, and courses on Web servers. In addition,
administrators also should know their way around the users' different
client hardware and software, as well as the server hardware and
software. If the company uses a database, database administration
should be a priority.
Subscribing to and reading different publications on the Internet,
technology, and computer applications also provide useful training
for the administrator because the intranet is so new that few
courses or books are yet available on the subject.
Administrators also play an important role in user training. Involving
administrators in training brings them closer to the "customers"
and helps them understand users' needs, which in turn helps them
do their jobs better. In addition, "train-the-trainer"
programs often yield significant time and cost savings.
After a company decides what functions it wants the administrators
to provide, it must choose them and train them. Deciding who should
administer the site depends largely on the roles the company wants
that person to fill and the degree of complexity of the intranet.
If a company wants the administrator to be a Webmaster for a largely
static HTML site, for example, it does not need someone with as
much technical know-how as for, say, a site with mostly dynamically
generated pages and a back-end database. Learning how to manage
an HTML Web site and even writing HTML could take an administrator
just a few days. Learning advanced programming languages or how
to use database gateways could take months or years. The company
should find out what its needs in an administrator are and fill
the position based on that. Too often I have seen organizations
choose who will manage the site before deciding what the site
will be, which can leave an administrator vastly under- or even
over-qualified.
The real trick is to teach administrators how to shape and mold
the intranet into a useful (and used) device for the organization.
The administrator therefore must not only be able to construct
the site, train and assist users, and manage the flow of information
both from the intranet to the user and from the user to the intranet,
but also must learn how to manipulate the site to make it as efficient
and attractive as possible for users.
After a company carefully selects administrators, the next step
is to familiarize them with the process of the intranet-where
the files are, how the Web server works, who the users are, and
who is responsible for providing content. The administrator also
should learn about any applications that run on the intranet.
If there are message boards, he or she should know how to create
new message boards and edit existing ones. Perhaps the company
wants the message boards moderated. If so, the administrator needs
to know how to delete messages from the message board and when
to do so. In essence, administrators need to learn everything
about the day-to-day maintenance and upkeep of the site.
One of the easiest ways to train administrators is to give them
space of their own on the server to experiment with new ideas
and techniques. Even if just provided space for a personal home
page or pages, users will be more apt to engage more interesting
and new HTML tags or applications if they know their work is not
going to be seen by all their coworkers right away. I have known
several administrators who have learned everything from Java to
RealAudio to VRML just by puttering around in their own Web space.
In essence, because of rapidly changing technology and because
of the instantly flexible nature of an intranet, most of the learning
process for the administrator is likely to be on the job. Administrators
should be ready to adapt to the changing nature of this medium
and ready to accept new technology and methods and scrap those
that are outdated or unused.
| MCKEON & JEFFRIES
|
| McKeon & Jeffries selected only one administrator for its intranet. The administrator is a former administrative assistant at the company's Philadelphia office with experience using HTML. Involving the administrator in the project
from the beginning eliminated the need for much of the training that would otherwise be required. M&J's administrator is in charge of collecting information for the site from various sources throughout the organization and publishing it on the site.
The administrator also is in charge of providing training and support for the users of the intranet, although most technical questions are referred to the firm's systems administrator.
|
| THE SPORTING GOODS AND APPAREL ASSOCIATION
|
| The SGAA hired a corps of administrators specifically for maintaining its intranet. Three individuals are charged with handling three distinct responsibilities. The first deals with user issues-from handling technical support questions
and working with users to designing and updating the graphical interface of the site. This administrator is responsible for creating help text and user manuals, as well as gauging user interest by carefully watching the logs. Another administrator is in
charge of creating content. This individual collects information and publishes it on the site. Serving almost as a librarian, this administrator has the responsibility of keeping track of the information on the site and knowing what is there and where to
find it. The third administrator is in charge of the software on the site; her responsibilities include developing new applications as well as fine-tuning and fixing existing ones. In all, these three administrators make the intranet a constantly changing
and up-to-date information and communications source for the association.
|
The administrator must understand an organization's goal for its
intranet. He or she is the one who will continue to build the
intranet and plan for its future. A good administrator will keep
discussion groups on task, help facilitate easier access of information,
understand and troubleshoot user problems and needs, and be personable
enough that any frustrated user feels comfortable e-mailing him
or her with the most benign question.
Before selecting an administrator, an organization must define
what the goals of the intranet are and how the administrator position
will be responsible for keeping the intranet's goals on track.
An administrator should have a grasp of the organization as a
whole so that he or she can make the most appropriate decisions
regarding site maintenance. The individual should have a technical
background as well as a patient and open approach in dealing with
users.
The administrator role can go to one or more persons, again depending
on the organization of the intranet, the goals of the intranet,
and the setup of the host organization.
|