Life as an intranet consultant can be quite dispiriting at times, because I am usually only called in when an intranet has reached the point that even senior managers realise that something has to be done to enhance the content and findability, and alignment to the requirements of the organisation and individual employees. The objective that is initially set for the consulting assignment is to advise on a total rebuild of the intranet. At present no organisation has the resources and patience to undertake a total rebuild. The trick is to focus in on some specific applications or content that could have a signficant impact on at least a defined group of employees, or a common task across the organisation. No where is the value of this approach better illustrated than in the Intranet Innovation Awards from James Robertson and his colleagues at Step Two Designs, for which I have the pleasure of being one of the judges.

On 5 November Intranet Innovations 2009 will be published, which describes the winners of the 2009 Intranet Innovation Awards. The Awards structure has been revised this year, and there are now a Platinum Award and then Gold awards for Core Functionality, Communication and Collaboration, Front Line Delivery and Business Solutions, together with a group of commended entries. This year there is less of a global spread, with many of the winners coming from the USA, but the innovations are certainly not geographically specific.

This year the Platinum Award goes to The Workflow Inbox from CRS Australia, which provides vocational rehabilitation services and assistance for people with disabilities, injuries or health conditions. The CRS intranet, CRSNet, is a central channel for this dispersed organisation, and is tightly integrated with SAP. It provides detailed information and advanced functionality for staff and managers, wrapped within a seamless user experience. CRSNet is designed to be the single online operating environment, and although Workflow Inbox has only been recently introduced the initial staff feedback has been extremely positive. All features and requirements that were requested have been delivered and in some instances have exceeded expectations.

All ten award winners are described in detail, with good screen shots and a very useful summary of the lessons learned. As with all Step Two reports the presentation is highly professional, and makes you want to read the report at a single sitting. As is so often the case nowadays this nearly 200 page report comes without an index, so anyone looking for ideas on (say) staff directories has to browse through the entire report.

Intranet Innovations 2009 is a treasure trove of great ideas that work, and could well work just as well for any intranet. It is all about having the right balance of vision, objectivity, passion and commitment in the service of well-defined user requirements. Resources don't come in to it as a significant majority of the award winners had to work in zero-budget situation. The applications described in the report are also timeless, so buy the report today and you will still be referring to it in three years time. It takes a lot of work to manage the awards process, and the intranet community is very much in the debt of the team of Step Two Designs for the work that they put in to making this report one of the highlights of the intranet year.

Martin White
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