Will your Intranet Investment pay you back?

Return on Investment

No doubt, you will have heard the phrase "Return on Investment" (or ROI for short). Certainly, it is a frequently used term at the moment, as many companies seek new ways to build or improve their Intranet system. The question many of these companies will ask is; 'how can I evaluate the potential positive effects of such a project before undertaking it?'

Certainly, Intranet software will provide a business with many benefits across a wide spectrum, and not all of these can be evaluated with simple 'bottom line accounting'. Sometimes, the positive impact of the Intranet can be secondary, causing improved performance that is difficult to directly measure.
Positive Effects of the Intranet

Knowledge is the key asset in most businesses - the information overload that we face today often makes it difficult and very time consuming to locate the information that we are looking for. This is usually because the information is distributed all over the company, with different people collaborating and using various computer systems.

Intranets can change all of this, offering a solution by providing a single source for information which acts as an "Umbrella" over other internal systems. Using a web browser makes the Intranet simple to use for everyone, so little or no training is required to take advantage of it. This means that information in other systems can be easily accessed by the right people, without the need to learn to use accounts and personnel systems.

The increased accessibility of information can substantially increase a company's efficiency, and can also help to improve staff moral, as they feel more in touch with the business. Your company Intranet can provide a simple communications platform that will enable information about the business to be easily and effectively distributed to all levels of the organization. This can give staff a great feeling of personal involvement.

The commitments that you will need to make

The implementation of an Intranet is not a 'fire and forget' solution for your business. As with most new technologies, it requires a certain level of internal commitment. The effective distribution and management of an Intranet across all key departments is essential if it is going to succeed as a long-term solution. This doesn't have to be the sole responsibility of your IT team, other departments can help - for example; HR should be able to manage their own Intranet information.

And why should they have to rely on the IT department?

This approach provides a solid foundation for the Intranet to organically evolve and meet the demand of individual and unique areas of your business.

So, an Intranet can offer many benefits - some are difficult to measure directly as positively impacting your company's overall profitability. However we can easily measure the time that employees would otherwise spend searching for key information