Phase one — strategy

Before you start shopping you need to know what you’re looking for. Your intranet strategy will inform what your business needs, and therefore what features to look out for. The intranet strategy will also give you a business case (which we have assumed is signed off during this process) as well as a rough budget.

There are two areas to explore as part of your strategy that we are going to explore a little more: user needs and business strategies. This will also help develop your list of must have functional requirements.

❑ How to write an intranet strategy

User needs

The discovery phase of an intranet deployment project usually involves a mix of methods to gather insights from your colleagues, and research areas where an intranet could support their work. This could include surveys and focus groups, but there are alternatives that can be done on a shoestring.

❑ Take a look at what employees always want from their intranet

If you have frontline workers, you should consider their needs carefully; don’t underestimate the restrictions inherent in their jobs. For example, if they don’t have regular access to computers, a mobile intranet or even a dedicated employee app may be needed. There’s really no substitute for visiting frontline workers and seeing for yourself what their work environment is like.

❑ How employee apps tackle business challenges

Business strategies

The easiest way to get support for a new intranet is to show how it supports objectives that your organisation has already agreed on. That way you’re positioning it as a way to meet goals rather than something extra. Questions to consider include:

• Who are your stakeholders and what are their expectations?
• What does the rest of your digital workplace look like, where are the gaps or possible crossover points?
• How do existing IT, HR, and Internal Communications strategies influence your digital workplace strategy?

In general, the business strategy tells you the priorities that your intranet should address, and the user needs help you understand how to deliver the solution. Both then feed into the requirements element.

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Work out what matters most

Once you have identified the strategic direction of your intranet you will need to understand what areas to prioritise. We would advise that you plot the individual packages of work onto a value-ease matrix.

The ‘value’ axis reflects the strategic importance to the business or to employees; while the horizontal axis reflects how easy it is to bring about the desired outcome (hard things often involve culture change, easy things may be about using an existing tool in a new way). Process and technology changes are self-explanatory, but ‘org. change’ could refer to internal processes or cultural changes.

An example value-ease matrix chart for an intranet.

Once you have plotted the strategic points onto the matrix you can start to identify the functional requirements that will make them happen. For example, “support bite-sized learning” as a strategic point could result in “video publishing” or “integration with our LMS” as requirements.

Phase two — requirements

Write down the functional requirements as you identify them during phase one; we recommend Excel, but you could use Trello or similar. See phase three for some ‘givens’ that you don’t need to capture here.

You also need to add non-functional requirements to your list, which are specifications that the software must adhere to. For example, ISO 27001 certification, authentication via Azure AD, or data storage within a specified territory. Your IT department will be able to guide you.

A checklist of non-functional requirements you need to identify.

One non-functional requirement that might be raised is the assumed need to use SharePoint. SharePoint is a feature of many Microsoft 365 licenses, but that’s not an automatic reason to use it, here’s why:

• Independent intranets can integrate with SharePoint too
• The technical implementation of a SharePoint intranet in-a-box product is basically the same as implementing an independent intranet (and the costs are similar)
• The document repository side of SharePoint can be tricky to manage, plus it’s not the only requirement to consider.

You should consider all your requirements and explore both categories of intranet products during the following phases: you don’t have to decide whether to use SharePoint or not right now.

❑ What is an independent intranet?

❑ Using SharePoint for documents doesn’t mean you have to use it for your intranet

Not all requirements have equal importance for your organisation. Go through each and apply a rating to it, we prefer MoSCoW but you could colour-code, score, or apply stars to your list. It’s important to rank things, so that a minor requirement doesn’t scupper a major decision among stakeholders.

❑ The MoSCoW method

Your ‘must have’ functional requirements are the focus features during your search. We’d recommend this list (called the ‘focus list’ from now on) has around twenty requirements, which is detailed enough without creating too much work for yourself. Keep items outside of your focus list for reference, as they are bonus features to look out for, or could form development areas for future phases of your intranet lifecycle.

Keeping your whole requirements list in mind might feel a bit daunting. So as a small tip, from your list of twenty and / or from your non-functional requirements, work out around six things that matter most (called the ‘top six’), these will help you make quick decisions early on.

Make sure that ‘cultural fit’ is one of your non-functional requirements, which refers to the cultural fit of the vendor’s company against your own or how well you think you would be able to work with them. You will be contracted to the vendor for several years so need to make sure you can work with them, ‘cultural fit’ is therefore something you will need to consider throughout.

Phase three — product and vendor research

Forming a longlist

Starting from a long list ensures you don’t discount an option for a cursory reason, or through a lack of knowledge about the software. The quickest way to start your longlist is to download our report. We are vendor neutral and have spent hundreds of hours researching products for this very purpose – to save you time.

Our report page list out the products we’ve reviewed, which is a good starting point in itself.

❑ Have a look at the SharePoint and the standalone intranets that are worth considering

Alongside our reviews, there are other sources you can use to identify products to explore:

• Social media channels – Follow individuals who are active in the intranet community; vendor accounts can be useful but will be sales-heavy.
• Competition winners – Step Two, Ragan, Nielsen Norman Group, and Digital Impact are four example competitions that are an excellent source for case studies and an indication of what a product can deliver.
• Vendor workshops and webinars – Sign up for a few to get a sense of the product and what it will be like working with the vendor.
• Vendor websites (please, don’t only do this) – Have a look at their case studies and screenshots / videos of the product in action.

❑ Our directory of intranets and employee apps will help

Identify your shortlist of best-fit intranet products

Now it’s time to contact vendors to talk through what you’re looking for. We advise setting up informal half-hour demos, so you can get an initial feel for the product. Spend particular attention looking at how your focus list items are being presented, not simply whether they are there. Ask for clarification on anything you were unsure about from their website and beware:

• Impressive features that aren’t on your list – it doesn’t matter how good it looks if you’re not going to use it
• The last time they updated the product – if it’s an older product that was last updated six-months ago it would ring our alarm bells
• “We could do that” – if something isn’t on their feature list already then be careful of false promises.

Also keep in mind these ‘givens’; we suggest you leave them off your list as any intranet product should do these things:

• User friendly
• Attractive
• Contemporary
• Fast page loads
• Secure
• Works in chosen company browsers.

Take what you learn and update your focus list appropriately; automatically exclude any products that don’t meet the majority of your top six well.

Ideally, you want to be left with a shortlist of three to five products to invite through the RfP process. If your shortlist is still long, you could arrange another longer demo, and invite other members of the project team. Or, you could look back at your requirements and explore those that fell just below your focus list.

Phase four – RfP and product selection

Writing the RfP (request for proposal)

Use your focus list as the basis for the RfP document, phrasing the requirement areas as scenarios. You may find that you need to include some requirements that fell below your focus list but try to differentiate these for the vendors. Send the RfP to your shortlisted vendors and ask them to apply.

An example business scenario that shows one aspect of the original requirement