Comments on: Web Workplace – a new word for intranet?

By: The Digital Workplace, a 10-year old term with new life NetJMC/Intranet Strategies

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:02:45 +0000

[...] NetJMC&Co (LinkedIn group dedicated to intranet managers). In April 2009, I wrote my first post about the “workplace web”. The conversation continued via James Robertson and Alex [...]

By: J. Boye | “Experience Management”..Meaningless vendor jargon!

J. Boye | “Experience Management”..Meaningless vendor jargon! — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:34:21 +0000

[...] management to realize what they are missing out on. A recent example: It was suggested in 2009 to deprecate the term “intranet” as it carried to much “dead weight” . Terms such as personalisation and portal have [...]

By: NetJMC / Intranet Strategies Global Organizations / Feedback to the 5th annual Global Intranet Strategies Survey

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:14:51 +0000

[...] NetJMC: Absolutely. See this post. [...]

By: Jane McConnell

Jane McConnell — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:54:16 +0000

Hi François,
The only negative I see with the “my” is that work is so much based on teams and collaboration that the “my” could feel outdated as intranets and the workplace web (or whatever!) become truly more collaborative and social. What do you think?

By: Francois Meyer

Francois Meyer — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:37:27 +0000

I like the term enterprise portal but I think that it is a little bit outdated.

I think the name should reflect that the intranet is becoming a web gateway to all the enterprise information as well as applications. It should also outline that it is becoming more and more customized to the employee role. Finally, it should reflect the increasing social&collaborative aspect. Based on that I would suggest names like:

*My Enterprise (enterprise could be replace by the real name of the enterprise)
*My Enterprise gateway
*My Enterprise Online
*My Web workplace
*Enterprise online network

By: Thomas Choppy

Thomas Choppy — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:42:36 +0000

You’re so right about the misconsideration of intrathings by management.
The main (or only) thing they care is work, so why not :
WorkNet ?
Thomas @ Smile
PS : sorry for the english

By: Andrew Wright

Andrew Wright — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:17:18 +0000

I like the term “web workplace”. But I guess that begs the question, what is the definition of a “web workplace”? How would it be different to say a portal or an intranet.

By: Geoff Garcia

Geoff Garcia — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:55:18 +0000

There is no amount of correction nor training that has been able to help our users get their mind around the usage of the word portal. We find it being used to refer to at least 5 different things within our intranet and it confuses our users to no end.
Based on this end-user lesson, I’d advise against using “portal” in any way.

By: Jane McConnell

Jane McConnell — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:05:58 +0000

I agree with lots of the comments above! I’d like to add 2 points to this discussion which I started when I suggested that “web workplace” could be a good term to replace “intranet”.
1. The word “intranet” is not as clear as some think.
In the last 3 years as I have been presenting findings from the Global Intranet Strategies Survey in meetings and conferences in different parts of the world and in different companies, I have yet to meet a group of people who agree on what the word intranet means. This has also been my experience when I work with my clients. Last week I ran 2 workshops for 2 different clients. In both cases, people put quite different meanings behind the word.
My experience has been that many people simply assume that others understand the word as they do. Therefore, using a new word is not necessarily moving away from a commonly understood term.
2. I believe one of the problems is that the word intranet is a technical word rather than a business or user-oriented word.
This is illustrated by the way some people use “extranet” meaning the “intranet” can be accessed over the “internet”. Others use “extranet” to mean a closed space for groups such as clients or suppliers who work with a company but cannot access the “intranet”. The word “intranet” is grounded in a technical explanation in these examples. This may be one of the reasons why the word intranet does not trigger a lot of interest in the minds of senior executives in many organizations. They assume it’s a technical thing that IT will take care of.

By: Andrew Wright

Andrew Wright — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:42:49 +0000

I am not sure that the assumption that the term intranet implies “dead weight” is correct.
I think the perception of an intranet varies from each organisation, depending on how the intranet has been implemented at that organisation. So it’s not so much the term “intranet” that has the negative connotation, but how an intranet has been implemented. For example, I know of a number of organisations that consider their intranets to be critical business tools. On the other hand I also know of organisations that see their intranets as not much more than a flashy company newsletter (which unfortunately they are in some cases).
I think the real challenge for intranet professionals – as James Robertson points out on his blog – is not so much to change the term “intranet” but how we change the perception of intranets from a “nice-to-have” communication tool to a “must have” business tool.
In my experience, some ways to do this include:

use the intranet to manage intellectual property. There is much research to show that IP is often the most valuable asset of many organisations and yet it is not managed with anywhere near the same discipline as other assets (how much IP sits on people’s C drive or email folders for example?)
use web forms and work flow functionality to implement business process improvements (how many Word/PDF/Excel forms do organisations have that could be converted to a web form?)
facilate collaboration through a comprehensive staff directory, team sites, discussion forums and blogs – ensure there is a process in place for capturing and classifying IP that comes out of the collaborative process
use the intranet as a portal to valuable, often hard-to-find corporate data. For example, data that resides in ERP/CRM systems
use the intranet as a portal to business applications and external websites that staff need to do their jobs
use the intranet to provide dashboards and other management reports
use the intranet for training, change managment and continuous improvement initiatives
use the intranet to increase employee engagement (studies have shown there is a direct correlation between the level of employee engagement and profitability)
use case studies from other organisations to demonstrate business value
make sure staff have access to the intranet off-site and via mobile devices if possible (how many staff use webmail to file work documents?)

To accomplish the above, however, intranet owners need to be aware of the possibilities. They need to know that intranets can be more than just an expensive internal communication tool.