Over on What are other banks using for their intranet?, Paul B. raises this great question and I believe warrants it’s own discussion.
Let’s hear about why you even have an intranet and what you’re using it for.
Over on What are other banks using for their intranet?, Paul B. raises this great question and I believe warrants it’s own discussion.
Let’s hear about why you even have an intranet and what you’re using it for.
Jon D.
I am definitely NOT a proponent of internally developed intranet sites. When the developer resigned from our bank we were left destitute with a site that never was “quite right” and couldn’t be fixed without great cost. That is one of the reasons why we chose SharePoint…there are 100’s if not 1,000’s of companies that can do SharePoint work. I don’t even like the idea of depending upon a single company as companies go out of business and/or change focus along with internal expertise.
When we scoped our project, we wanted to create the least amount of change possible for our users, so we decided to simply duplicate the functionality of our old Intranet site, and only add photos to employee searches. We felt in that way the users could get up to speed on SharePoint without having to learn much except navigation. Other features such as “My Site”, etc. are turned off.
Later phases will be designed to introduce additional functionality in a piecemeal manner to the site. That way we can continue to have an operational site while we add the functionality and train the stakeholders in how to manage and use it. Future phases will include departmental customization pages, intelligent routable forms, and simple workflow and workgroup collaberation.
The key to any SharePoint project is to clearly define your objectives, no not include too much in the initial stages, and train, train, train your users. (Come to think of it, those points are key to just about any project!)
Matt F.
We are about to start development on our third intranet. The first was similar to Jon’s experience. It was built by a 3rd party and not supported very well internally. The 2nd version was built using Pivotal CRM and is currently doing quite well. We use it as the main portal for everything the employees do. We have all our Application Shortcuts (Desktop Apps) and Web-Based Apps (Bookmarks) broken out by department. We also have workflow queues for Referrals and Service Requests (also broken out by department) all in one central location. Every application we rollout is integrated, to some extent, with the intranet.
Adam A.
Our intranet is supposed to be a tool to assist employees in performing their everyday duties form assisting members to processing loans etc. Currently, I’m the point person at my CU for updating and upgrading the Intranet. Its a daunting task involving looking over procedures, product profiles. The sticking point is that there is only one IT guy and any changes have to be pushed to live site by him, but he’s in charge of IT for both branches and Main office, so our “Intranet Project” is like the very last priority for him. Am going to look at the sharepoint thing and maybe bring it to boss’s attn. If anyone has any advice or tips, i’m all ears