7 Steps For Implementing A Mobile Intranet

Does this sound familiar? You're juggling a bunch of assignments—drafting content, overseeing communications for change management initiatives, and producing the next employee newsletter. Now your boss throws an elephant into the mix by announcing it’s time to create a mobile intranet!

If that sounds daunting, fear not: we’ve honed the process to be simple and clear.

Getting your mobile intranet launched can happen in just 7 steps. And the beautiful part of launching an intranet is that it’s more than just a chance to impact your organization’s culture—it’s an opportunity to show your communication and leadership skills to senior management.?

Here’s how to begin:

Step #1 Develop your requirements.

What do your stakeholders want, and how will your intranet deliver on those objectives? Establishing your goals and requirements are the critical first step. Remember, requirements come in two flavors:

Business requirements: These are your stakeholders’ intranet wish list. They're a high-level description of what an intranet can do for your organization, such as building a stronger connection among employees, helping individuals find others with similar professional experience and interests, or something else entirely. So, how do you get there? That’s the job of your second type of requirement.

Functional requirements: These describe how your intranet should work to meet your business requirements. Based on the business requirement examples above, your functional requirements could be:

• Employees can create, update and personalize their individual profiles
• Employees can search for peers online through a number of criteria – location, role, areas of interest
• Employees can connect and engage with peers through social components

To get that wish list of business requirements, you’ll need to talk with senior managers in Corporate Communications, Human Resources, Marketing, and Facilities, among others. Now is the time to think boldly! Once you have those business requirements, determine what functionality your intranet needs to reach those objectives. This leads us to the next step.

Step #2: Involve your IT organization early and often.

Above everyone else, you’ll need to build a strong relationship with IT to launch your organization’s mobile intranet if you don’t have one already. IT will most likely first want to evaluate potential in-house options, or software they already license to determine if a solution is already available.?If you’re evaluating one of the many intranet apps out there, loop in your IT contact. The internal communications landscape is filled with fast-talking salespeople who will try to convince you their app is the magic bullet that barely needs any input from IT to implement. Watch out! Bypassing IT is asking for trouble.

When is the best time to connect with IT? Here are some suggestions:

• When you’ve defined requirements, so IT can help gauge their feasibility
• When you’re looking for IT to weigh in on technical requirements related to things like system security and authentication processes
• When you’re meeting with vendors and asking questions to evaluate their offerings
• After you’ve agreed on a vendor and start contract negotiations
• When you’re ready to officially kick off your project team

Where you can get the next five steps

There are five more steps to helping you succeed at implementing your mobile intranet. You can get them by downloading SPI Group’s guide: 7 Steps For Implementing A Mobile Intranet. It’s free, full of practical advice and is the perfect 8-minute read before or after work. Because, as communicators, when else do we have eight minutes of uninterrupted time??