The Other Side of the Business Process
It is certainly important to gain a thorough understanding of any
business interaction before trying to automate it by creating a web application. But the
best results are obtained when we remember to fully analyze the people
process as well.
Intranet Applications Face a Design Challenge
Many applications built for intranets miss the boat by failing to
provide capability for really useful inbound or outbound links. This
ignores the needs of users by forcing unnecessary and unnatural
navigation.
About Best Practices
Best practices are always a great idea. But the success of your web site
or application depends on a clear understanding of what "best
practices" really means, and how to identify approaches that will
yield an advantage.
The Human Touch
In trying to find technology solutions to business problems, much
emphasis is placed on streamlining workflow to decrease the involvement
of people in a particular process. While this can yield results, in some
cases the most important factor in building a solution is remembering to
include the human touch.
Considering an Application Service Provider
In trying to enhance the functionality of a site, it may sometimes be
desirable to engage the services of a vendor to provide an
application that is hosted on an outside server. This can work well, but success is
dependent upon proper consideration of certain key factors.
Department
Intranets
Many corporate intranets are actually made up of content directly
authored or otherwise provided by representatives of each department of
the corporation. In fact, some intranets are simply a collection of such
departmental sites. While managing a corporate intranet is a
considerable challenge, managing a departmental intranet site poses its
own challenges and pitfalls.
Increasing Intranet Usage
First, the good news: the key to increasing use of an intranet is to
follow a fairly simple concept. The bad news: following this concept can
mean some hard work.
Measuring Web Success
How can you know if your web site is a success? Well, first of all, if
your site was created as nothing more than a hobby and you are enjoying
yourself, then your site is a success. Great job! (I'm serious. Web
publishing is good, clean fun.) Otherwise, read on.
The Importance of Purpose
Knowing the core purposes of your web site is
an important factor in making it a success. Sites built with no clear
definition of purpose may suffer from a variety of maladies.
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