Planning for your Intranet

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Planning for your Intranet

Planning your Intranet can be a step-by-step process for you as an individual or as a business.

Know and understand the goals for your Intranet!
What documents, procedures or catalogs should be put on-line? Who is the intended audience? What database data, reports or standard queries are needed, how often, and by whom? What are the long range intentions for this on-line information - will there be a need to migrate to direct Internet connections in the future?
Select your Internet Buy or Build Strategy!
Do you want to:
- Plan, design and install your own Intranet?
- Hire someone to plan, design and install your own Intranet?
- Mix and match? Plan, design and install portions of your own Intranet and hire someone to develop other portions for you?
Plan the construction and installation of your Intranet
Put down an item by item accounting of the actual steps you need to take:
- Secure your Intranet Web Server software and/or hardware
- Gather the Intranet Web site content
- Determine database accessing tactics - CGI scripts or Vendor-specific database accessing APIs
- Layout its design for navigation
- Test it
- Evaluate its effectiveness
- Finally install it for Intranet access!
Gauge the effectiveness of your Intranet
Get feedback from the people using your Internal Web sites on a daily basis. Take it into account and make changes to your Intranet Web Presence! Speed up CGI scripts and database accessing. Add new on-line information. Restructure.
Update and Change your Intranet!
You aren't the same person you were a year ago, 5 years ago or even 10 years ago! And your Intranet Web sites will grow and change over time along with you. Remove information that's not accessed regularly. Add information that requested by just about everyone. And then just repeat these 5 steps again!