The poor state of Sweden's intranets

Swedish intranets are seriously under performing, lacking resources and lacking routines – quite simply they are not delivering to the maximum of their capabilities

In October 2009 Web Service Award released a report, “Hur mår Sveriges intranät” (“How is Sweden’s intranet”) in which they surveyed 290 intranet managers about the quality of their intranets and their working environment.

One in Two intranets are useless

Some of the results are really quite alarming. Only 47% thought that their intranet helped employees with their work. Every other intranet manager therefore considers their intranet to be of no use! Shocking!

Given that the report goes on to say that 42% have no routines for checking that information published is correct, that 62% have no routines for checking the quality of text which is published, and that 60% think their intranet structure is poor – it’s hardly surprising so many think their intranet isn’t helping at all.

Most intranets are used as news distribution channels (81%) and for finding employee contact information (73%), whereas very few as used for activities such as E-learning (7%) and discussions (8%).

Back to basics – Intranet strategy

The survey claims that 63% of intranet managers are working actively to encourage employees to make use of the intranet. Judging by the reports findings, the best they can do is go back to basics – analyse what employees actual do and see how those behavioural patterns can be assisted by the intranet.

An intranet is no different to any web site in many ways – you need a strategy, and you need to understand your target audiences and help them achieve their goals and in turn yours. Thankfully 43% said they were planning to “rebuild” their intranets. Hopefully that will mean more than a new design and moving some pages about.