Following Andrew’s post on January 2 on one of 2007's ‘year end’ and ‘best of’ lists, it’s interesting to look at what usability guru Jakob Nielson thinks are the 10 best intranets for 2008. We at Forum One have had the pleasure of working with a number of large organizations recently (including the IMF, Population Council, and Bono’s Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) to help them navigate the myriad options in knowledge management, information architecture, and technology platform selection for their intranets.

One of Nielson’s comments is particularly noteworthy: “As with every year, we again conclude that intranet technology is an unsettled field with no clear winner.” There are many sound technologies available today. Because of this, what we have concluded on several recent projects is that in certain cases, the smartest intranet plan will integrate a solid user interface using a robust portal or content management system with data and content from a variety of off-the-shelf or custom-built systems…some of which may even have been used by employees over many years.

The 2007 intranet trends Nielson summarizes speak for themselves in terms of what’s useful to staff users of the tools:

• Increased personalization
• Integration of information sources, often resulting in a single "one-stop shopping" page
• Emphasis on mission-critical applications and information (such as sales targets)
• Improved event and project calendars
• Special sections to help orient new employees
• Prominent display of stock quotes and other financial information
• Integration of external and company news, often in the form of customizable feeds
• Integration of alerts with the main intranet to inform users of important messages
• Redesigned and improved search features, which often went from horrible to good and generated ecstatic user feedback

And finally, Nielson speaks to measuring ROI for intranet usability. This is often a component of a project that gets left behind—but shouldn’t. British Airways, for instance, was able to measure a £55 million savings through one aspect of their intranet’s redesign. The important thing here is that they were actually able to measure this savings. What does this mean for the average, much smaller organization or NGO? If even a fraction of this amount could be saved by changing the way employees find knowledge, complete tasks, or interact with each other, the savings in staff time could be well worth a smart one-time planning and development expense. It’s worth asking some questions.

We find from our own experience that international organizations also gain a lot from well designed, useful intranets. Some of the benefits?

• Helping staff in remote offices feel connected to home
• Providing access to information 24/7 (translate: even while others in distant offices are sleeping!)
• Sharing news across borders & projects
• Fostering online collaboration & communities of practice within a large organization
• Centralizing knowledge online, rather than on individual desktops & servers

Feel free to share some of your own insider hints on smart intranets in the comments!