MIS382-Chapter 5 Who Is Using Intranets and How Are They Using Them?
- Amgen Incorporated
integrates corporate library materials into intranet (HR information, IS training classes & registration)
hard to keep information current
- AT&T Corp.
- started in 1990
- Uses
- Top-down approach: internal directory; Knowledge Management System
- Local, bottom-up approach: group meetings
- Results
start-up cost = $50 million, total cost = $100 million; savings = $30 million/year
- Lessons Learned
Issues and challenges:
- connecting many networks with gateways
- rapid and unpredictable growth
- conversion of legacy applications to utilize IP network
- Project received management support
- AT&T created a Network Board of Directors
- Bell Atlantic Corporation
- started in 1994
- Uses: corporate documentation for HR, legal, internal systems, processes and procedures
- Results: saved several hundred thousand dollars in printing costs
- Lessons Learned
- establish standards for content, look, and feel
- treat the entire corporate intranet as a single information source
- develop standards that allow new servers to be brought into the web
- Booz Allen & Hamilton
- started in 1995
- Uses: Knowledge On Line (KOL) - reports, proposals, best practices, and collaboration conferences
- Results: changed the way employees think about knowledge and information; opened up new business opportunities
- Lessons Learned
Challenges:
- wanted intranet to represent leading-edge application technology
- had to train employees in emerging skills
- content management
- integration of team representing all facets of the business
- team focused on content, function, and use as opposed to technology
Recommendations:
- focus on business problem first
- try to avoid bleeding-edge technologies
- business must lead the effort and take ownership
- don't get cute with the graphics
- avoid excessive hierarchy in your navigation
- EDS
- started in 1994
- Uses
- infoCentre - EDS Corporate Repository: Business, EDS Facts, Employee, News, Research, Technology, Newsgroups
- Career Library
- Corporate Shared Financial Services
- Fulcrum - repository for software components
- Organization Chart
- Credit Union Bulletin Board
- Standards
- Virtual Reality Center
- PointCast networking
- IRC
- :
- Results: increased communications speed; leverage intellectual capital of company
- Lessons Learned
Issues:
- installing TCP/IP and implementing DNS
- fear of the intranet not being secure
- fear that employees will spend all their time "surfing the net"
- modify existing processes from paper-oriented communications
- getting groups to take ownership of the information
Things that worked well:
- right solution to provide access to information
- keeping information in native form (e.g. MS Word) and using HTML catalog
- many of the Systems Engineering and Communications groups bought in easily
Recommendations:
- Have a business architecture that drives the value of the intranet.
- Concentrate on compelling content in the beginning
- Creating content for the intranet should be part of each process that creates content for other media
- Buying corporate licenses for products
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- JCPenney Company, Inc.
- Rockwell International Corporation
- started in 1995
- Uses
- company vision
- corporate newsletter
- open positions
- employee directory
- IS policies
- business travel
- links to business and financial news
- links to government sites
- Results
saves time, improves communications, awareness, and responsiveness through information sharing
- Lessons Learned
- recommendations
- get it done quickly
- don't expect to get it right the first time
- foster creativity
- do more capacity planning and anticipation of volumes
- provide a search engine
- SAS Institute Inc.
- started in 1993
- Uses
- Sales and Marketing - strategies and directions for selling software products, press releases, reviews
- Departmental homepages
- R&D Documentation for software developers
- Planning and direction documents
- Production and release schedules
- Description of work processes
- Downloaded resources for software developers
- Software design team specifications
- User manuals for products and internal tools
- Job openings and photos of new employees
- etc.
- Results
- cost has been minimal (uses free servers and browsers)
- improved communications, especially cross-organization communications
- created a de facto standard for publishing
- Lessons Learned
- use a single server
- people will get possessive of data, its display, and its organization
- Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI)
- started in 1994
- Uses
"Silicon Junction is an organizational structure for the information contained within the environment"
- Results
- information dissemination
- applications to increase organizational productivity (Electronic Requisition System)
- Lessons Learned (major issue - fantastic growth)
- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI)
- started in 1994
- Uses
- primarily workgroup reference information
- TI White Pages
- front ends to legacy applications
- TI-wide information repository
- Results
- provided excellent sharing of information
- allows collaboration via newsgroups
- provides excellent platform for future applications
- empower end users and lessening dependence on IT Department
- Lessons Learned
Issues:
- Ownership of the environment
- network performance issues
- Lack of TCP/IP connectivity
- Inadequate awareness of intranet possibilities
Recommendations
- let end users drive the strategies
- have guidelines, recommendations, and standards for the intranet
- plan ahead for the demand of the network
- spend quality effort getting IP to the desktops of all users
- keep homepage "alive"
- If IT dept. doesn't have R&D funds, get end users to fund it
- Get IT dept. into a leadership position sooner
- provide more solutions in the web server area for workgroups without technical skills
- Do a better job of staying ahead of the demand curve on the network
- Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
- started in 1995
- Uses
- Human Resources
- HRIS
- Benefits
- Purchasing and Logistics
- TRAC (Turner Reciprocal Advertising Corporation)
- policy manual
- job postings
- Results
- gives employees direct access to current information
- Lessons Learned - needed a format that was cross-functional and fun to use
Recommendations:
- involve many, but appoint a leader
- just get it going (don't try to please everyone)
- keep it current
- learn more about the technology before getting started
- create a plan for the project before moving on it
- United Parcel Service of America (UPS)
- started in 1994
- Uses
- company news
- group projects
- contact people
- employee phone book
- terms glossary
- department specific information
- database querying
- Results
- cut cost by avoiding continual paper handouts and circulation
- allows support of only a single database in one location
- increased communication, more timely information, ease of getting and updating information
- Lessons Learned
- start small and be prepared for major growth
- put procedures and standards in place ahead of the growth
- An anonymous company
- Uses
R&D
- business units
- Engineering
- HR
- IS
- Communications
- regional offices and plants
- stock prices
- Lessons Learned
issues faced:
- Organizational - bringing all of the "players" together
- Technical - Getting everyone on the TCP/IP network
- Other - educating senior management
Recommendations:
- allow intranet to grow (somewhat chaotically)
- Use a cross-functional network (Internet Team)
- Start earlier
- Have standards and guidelines in place