Innovative Intranets create a big Impact

Almost all organisations have a corporate intranet, and yet many are taken for granted. The winners of the inaugural Intranet Innovation Awards, just announced, challenge this view.

Fiat, this year's Platinum Award, used its ‘Avanti e Veloci’ (‘Fast and Forward’) web portal to help turn around the fortunes of the whole organisation. A major cultural change programme was launched to establish a new leadership culture within the organisation, and to revitalise business practices. The web portal played a key role in supporting the program, helping to turn around a loss of 2 million euros a day to an operating profit level of 5 million euros per day.

The Intranet Innovation Awards were established by Australian-based intranet experts Step Two Designs, supported by a global network of intranet-savvy organisations. James Robertson, managing director of Step Two Designs highlights that the awards recognise individual intranet improvements, and not intranets as a whole. “While almost every organisation has an intranet, it is often gets little visibility. This is about bringing the true value of these sites into the light” says Robertson.

- QBE, a Gold Award winner based in Australia, demonstrated that the corporate intranet can directly support key business processes, through the creation of an online ‘Investigator Wizard’. This has raised the standard of referral letters to investigator firms markedly, helping to address the impact of fraudulent claims, a vital issue for any insurance business.
- Perkins Eastman, a major architectural firm based in the US, uses the intranet to support ‘Practice Area Communities’ which bring together specialists in a collaborative environment. This underpins the innovative designs delivered by the firm, as well as providing staff with a key source of information and knowledge.
- The City of Casey in Australia, and SunGard AvantGard (USA and New Zealand) both demonstrated innovative enhancements to the corporate ‘phone directory’, helping to keep track of staff movements and improving communication.
- The Environment Agency in the UK developed a rich set of staff personas to support the delivery of better intranet content and functionality.
- Nycomed, a global pharmaceuticals business based out of Switzerland and Denmark, has brought product information together in a single location, no small challenge for a firm of this size.

The common theme behind all these winners is that technology can play a vital role not just in delivering products and services to customers, but in enabling improvements within organisations. Formerly invisible tools such as intranets have now come in from the cold, and are playing their part in the pursuit of innovation.

Entries for the 2008 awards will open in March 2008, and all organisations are encouraged to submit their intranet projects. Click the link for details of current winners and 2008 submission procedure.

Associated Link: Intranet Innovation Awards 2007

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