I’m in the process of completing a survey of our intranet practices, for a well known consultant in the intranet industry. One of the questions was “How do you see the role of the intranet manager evolve over the next 3 to 4 years?” and it got me thinking.
The role of the intranet manager going forward will be determined by the vision of the senior managers within the part of the business who own it. If they’re brave enough to acknowledge the importance of the role and how a fully supported team of people can make significant efficiencies within the buisness, then the intranet manager will thrive.
Alas many organisations are extremely short sighted in their approaches and the intranet only becomes important when its actually not available. This in itself, indicates how important intranets are, and therefore how crucial an intranet managers role is.
But it is also upto to us to help ourselves. We need to be ambassadors for change, and challenge the way things are done in our businesses, as well as demonstrating our understanding of what the business wants from its intranet. I see far too many intranet managers who don’t understand the needs of their business. This is a self defeating approach.
We need to get out there and regularly be seen to clearly support what the organisation is trying to deliver, and what we can do to help it achieve its objectives.
Hide in your ivory towers at your peril.
