5 Replies Latest reply: Jan 25, 2010 1:15 PM by John Waller RSS

    Advice on building and internal website?

    BearHNC Community Member

      I am looking for books and articles on building a successful internal company websites, people mostly have been refering me to general web developing and design books which is nice but not what I am looking for, I realize that many of the same principles apply, but I was hoping someone could point in the right direction of a really great book or articles that specialize in the construction and design of internal websites.

       

      The website we are building is not going to be very large it's purpose is to help our account managers and sales teams with finding the most up-to-date marketing collateral in Sharepoint. Currently we just have sharepoint set up to store and share documentation but if you don't know exactly what you are looking for it can be difficult to navigate, so we want to set up an internal site that links to documents that are stored in our Sharepoint database. Anyone got any helpful hints to push me in the right direction?

       

      Thanks in advance

      Cheers

        • 1. Re: Advice on building and internal website?
          pziecina CommunityMVP

          Hi

           

          The reason people are pointing you to books on creating web sites, is that there is no difference whatsoever between creating an intranet site and an internet site.

           

          these articles may help -

          http://efuse.com/Build/intranets5.html

          http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/bb985007.aspx

           

          However if you have not done anything like this before, you may find you are trying to run before you can even crawl. In which case my advice would be to advise your boss that professional help will be required, especially for the server-side / database programming.

           

          PZ

          • 2. Re: Advice on building and internal website?
            John Waller CommunityMVP

            I'm not 100% clear on the kind of advice you're looking for but I was involved with intranet creation in an enterprise environment a few years ago.

             

            In terms of coding, there is no difference between an intranet and a website. If you just want a page full of links to your Sharepoint repository then that's simple enough.

             

            However, in terms of content, layout and target audience there's a world of difference.

             

            The approach and thinking is different. Certain assumptions can be made (e.g. Flash may be available on every machine, inhouse conventions can be assumed and adopted, terminology follows corporate practice etc.)

             

            We found the Jakob Nielsen paid-for "10 Best Intranets of the Year" report quite helpful. It's produced annually. It's by no means cheap but in a corporate environment we found it to be a good place to start and it gave us plenty of ideas and practical examples.

            http://www.nngroup.com/reports/intranet/design/

            • 3. Re: Advice on building and internal website?
              BearHNC Community Member

              The programming aspect I have pretty well figured out, I am looking for some dos and don'ts. Really this particular service will only be used by a select few in our company (I have meeting set up to ask what would they like out of this), we are very global and have communication issues when it comes to keeping our sales teams up-to-date on the latest product developments and colleratal that we produce  (sharepoint stores it but does not advetise it). The main concept is really to keep the company up-to-date on everything that is new. We are not a huge company under 500 people and this site will serve solely as a way for our marketing department advertise within the company. There is no way I will get the approval for an expense like the one you refered, I apperciate it though because I believe that is the type of information I am looking for. I am looking for things that worked, things that didn't, and thing you would of done differently looking back.

               

              I attached two files that help illustrate what i am dealing with. One is our Shapepoint library, and the other is the basic concept of how we can better present the information. We have not commited to any design this just helps me to communcitate the concept. I just want this to be the best it could be so I am trying find out as much as I can before we commit to the developement process. We have had many internal sites in the past and all have failed for 1 reason or another and I would like to avoid that. I realize this is very specific so I really appercaite the patience.

              • 4. Re: Advice on building and internal website?
                pziecina CommunityMVP

                Hi

                 

                As I said there is really no difference, so a simple link to your section of the site placed on the sharepoint index page should suffice for access.

                 

                For the page itself a search system is a must, along with a short descriptions of new or updated items, everything else is a simple master/detail page set-up. Just as a matter of interest are you using classic asp or .net?

                 

                Also do not forget to include the code on each page to check that the 'original' referring site/page was from the sharepoint server, just as an extra precaution. There are also a number of scripts/plug-ins available from Microsoft and third party extensions that will make your life much simpler when viewing things like ms Office pages, (not certain if they are still included, but a number of these where originally provided with the sharepoint server).

                 

                PZ

                • 5. Re: Advice on building and internal website?
                  John Waller CommunityMVP

                  DO's

                   

                  1) Ensure this initiative has senior management knowledge and support (including access to reasonable funds). Without that it'll be another failed intranet. Obtaining essential resources such as reasonably priced PDFs containing a wealth of practical experience and knowledge will then be no obstacle.

                   

                  2) Work out specifically why previous intranets failed. "Not really sure" doesn't help. Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it.

                   

                  3) Clearly define the problem you're trying to solve and set some measurable achievable goals

                   

                  4) Establish a small, focussed test group of interested individuals who understand the main goal.

                   

                  5) Set dates for milestones and rollouts and meet them

                   

                  DON'Ts

                   

                  1) Lose sight of your main goals. Sideprojects are inevitable over the watercooler. Don't get sidetracked.

                   

                  2) Let prevailing office thinking and culture get in your way.

                   

                  3) Be afraid to ask. The answer might be Yes.

                   

                  If it works, expect it to go far beyond the marketing dept. The web began as a system for CERN scientists to keep colleagues up-to-date with the latest research and thinking. It caught on.