HIGHLIGHTS
- 80% of larger organisations said that employees were not taking full advantage of intranet.
- 86% of participants indicated that intranet will become more important in the near future.
- 61% of respondents indicated that they used Microsoft systems for intranet.
- 28% made Google the most popular proprietary search technology on intranet.
- 86% said intranet is controlled here in Ireland.
- 67% said there is no benchmarking of intranet against industry standards.
- 78% said they did not know of, or did not have any accessibility compliance.
This research for the Computer Society in Ireland is both rare and original. There is very little information available about the nature of individual organisation intranets and the fact that access to these intranets is so preciously guarded adds even more value to the result. The detail provided by participants is striking and gives real insight into the varied and complex nature of intranets in use in Ireland today. Intranets typically fall within one of six levels of maturity, namely; Information Sharing, Self-Service, Collaboration, Enterprise Portal, Application Dashboard, and Consolidated Workplace. In Ireland intranets are well along this maturity path and collaboration is a major driver. That said delivery of applications through intranet and use of intranet as an application workplace remains to be more fully achieved and the developments indicated will no doubt move intranet along this path.
Almost all participants, 86% said intranet is set to become much more important in the near future. The range of organisations participating represents both large and small, public and private, new and established. In most instances, 80% intranet is controlled here in Ireland.
It is clear also that the IT department maintains control over intranet and intranets have been in place for a number of years with several revisions taking place over time. The influence of Microsoft technologies on document formats, operating systems, database technology, and search is significant and is broadly 2:1 compared to other systems. There is a difference between Microsoft based intranets and other systems across a range of software tools and features.
While a great variety of tools and features are available, document management, contact management and e-learning are consistently present. There are tools for staff collaboration such as announcements and document sharing but little delivery of tasks through intranet. Both in-house and proprietary content management technologies are used in equal measure. Detailed tracking of staff or department use of intranet does not take place. Accessibility compliance is low at 20% but major improvements in this area are planned.
Google is used on a significant number of intranets, 28% but Microsoft technology is also used for intranet search. Almost 60% believe that staff do not take advantage of what is available on intranet and 67% said there is no benchmarking of intranet against industry standards.
As a microcosm of the various encounters between global technology players, intranets in Ireland offer interesting insight into a number of key areas including Microsoft and Oracle, Microsoft and Google, as well as new areas like Web2.0, Accessibility, and Staff Management. Establishing trends in these and other areas will be the basis of further research.
Go directly to the Intranet 2006 research report site >>