An intranet or digital work environment (DWO) employees should help employees do their jobs well. An optimal intranet helps employees complete tasks, it makes work more efficient and it provides the right information appropriate to the employee's specific task and role.
When employees work more efficiently and effectively, it is obviously better for the organisation. Productivity increases, work goes faster, costs decrease, there is less chance of errors, and service is greatly improved. In other words: A good intranet provides a “win-win-win” situation for organizations, employees and managers. Who can be against this?
Intranet as an internal service provider
The problem is not that anyone is against a valuable intranet, but more that the intranet is still too little seen as an internal service provider that supports organisational processes. It is still too often the signboard for corporate news and the various departments in an organisation.
Siv Rauv regularly writes about the value of process support provided by an intranet. In these articles, Siv provides examples of key organizational processes and related tasks that an intranet could help employees with.
How an intranet can help
An intranet or DWO improves and supports organizational processes in several ways:
it provides quick and easy access to the relevant information employees need to perform their tasks to the best of their ability,
It provides centralised access to information that would otherwise be available across many systems and channels,
it connects and supports conversations between people to improve work processes,
it supports and streamlines processes with specific input screens and workflows,
it provides 'self-service' for employees who are therefore less dependent on specialists and other departments,
It takes the inefficiency out of the organisation by significantly reducing the amounts of e-mail (with attachments!), network drives bursting with documents and even paper.
The 12 most important processes of any intranet
You can really use the intranet or the DWO to help the organisation with at least these 12 processes. There are more, of course, but this is a great list to start with.
Connecting people.
Provide access to “corporate” forms, templates and documents.
Create, publish and provide access to information.
Organise and manage events (such as meetings).
Manage projects.
Replace paper forms and email with data-driven workflows.
Facilitate knowledge sharing and training.
Manage HR processes.
Supervise new employees.
Manage IT resources and applications.
Provide customer service.
Support continuous improvement.
This is a great list. I would say grab five processes, work them into a strategy and get to work. Then grab another five (sub)processes until you're at the point of continuous improvement and you're ready to support your organisation's digital transformation.
More explanations for each process
The white paper 12 Key Business Processes to Unlock Intranet Value provides further explanation and several practical examples for each process. You could use this as a blueprint and “talking plate” for your intranet team or digital transformation team.
Also read Siv's other articles on processes on your intranet:
Notice! Process before the tool
Now don't fall into the trap of thinking that implementing a new CMS, a set of “cool” social tools, a workflow system or an “out of the box” online HR tool will make your intranet a success. “A tool with a fool is still a fool!”
Before you can get started with a tool, you need to properly map out those processes and optimize them where necessary. That's not very complicated, but if you could use some help with that, the BPM training for information professionals might be for you.
Learn to optimize processes for digital transformation
In the 4-day Business process management (BPM) course, you will learn more about process management, process analysis and continuous improvement as part of digital transformation.
It provides you with all the tools, methodologies and best practices to let your intranet or DWO support your organisational processes in an optimal way.
The training is specially designed for professionals who want to supplement their professional knowledge with new insights into process management and digital transformation.
You can bring your own case and on day 4 you will present that case based on everything you have learned in the training. So I would say bring your intranet!
Sign up for the BPM training!
More about the BPM training on 13 14, 20 and 21 November 2024.
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