How to Make Your Intranet a Value-Add for IT

Intranets can have an influential impact on an organization, and that impact—good or bad—is usually felt exquisitely by IT teams.

Whether they’ve been mandated to duct tape together a set of disparate tools that don’t talk to one another, build an enterprise-grade platform from the ground up with paperclips and pocket lint, or roll out a turnkey solution that fits the stack like a labradoodle on a tricycle, it’s almost guaranteed your friends in the IT department have been through it at least once.

But that’s not going to happen this time.

Your intranet won’t be a nightmare for your friends in IT. It’s going be a major value-add.

No matter what system you use, or where you’re at on your intranet journey, there’s an opportunity to deliver an experience that everyone can benefit from and appreciate. The earlier you can start, the better, but it’s never too late.

In this guide we’re going to cover some key areas where an intranet can make life easier for IT. Just reading it will probably put you on top of the VIP support queue, because while they’re constantly thwarting email attacks, keeping systems operational, and looking out for the team, a colleague who looks out for them is the rarest of gems.

Part One

Spend some time together.

This first step is simple, but essential: if you’re not already working closely together, get to know the IT team better. Grab a cup of coffee, tea, a 16oz Rockstar, or whatever you like, and learn a bit about their goals, priorities, and challenges.

You might be surprised by how frequently IT priorities already align with yours, and vice versa. The journey to discovering those points of common ground and aligned efforts will pay dividends beyond this exercise.

After all, isn’t the real intranet value-add the friends we made along the way?

Part Two

Get crystal clear on your requirements.

What are the purpose, the necessary functionalities, and expected outcomes for your intranet? This exercise isn’t just beneficial for the IT team; it will help you sharpen your own understanding and focus.

It’s ideal if you can do this before rolling out a new intranet, but if you’re already midway through a river crossing, don’t worry—you won’t need to leap onto a new horse just yet. Probably.

When everyone is clear on what’s needed and how those things will work together, there’s a good chance you may end up with a less complex tech stack. In some cases you may even get to sunset a few costly SaaS contracts. Both of these outcomes can really help the IT team out by reducing their workload and/or freeing up human and financial resources for other projects.

Part Three

Involve IT as early as possible.

This is an important factor, but it comes with some caveats. Everyone has their own workloads, ideas, and roadmaps. There are some critical intersections where yours will meet, and this is where you’ll want to focus the majority of your efforts.

An intranet that is a true value-add for IT isn’t one they have to dedicate finite resources to managing every aspect of. It’s unlikely they’re going to want to have to write and test front-end code every time you want to change the look and feel of your intranet. They probably don’t want to host it, either.

In many cases, the less IT needs to be invested in the day-to-day operation of an intranet, the better. However, there are a few areas where getting their involvement early on can not only smooth out the implementation process, but also make maintenance easier, and help earn you some precious buy-in.

For example, if your organization uses single-sign-on (SSO), SCIM provisioning, requires HIPAA or SOC II type 2 or ISO 27001 compliance, your IT team will know. If that sounds like a lot of acronyms, you’re right. But the IT team is guaranteed to know them all intimately, and would probably love to be part of the initial qualification process.

The same is true for integrations.

There’s likely a set of mission-critical tools that everyone in the organization relies on. Connecting to those tools seamlessly is a big weight off the implementation burden. A value-add intranet can take things a step further by integrating those tools into a centralized, secure location that makes them easier and more powerful to collaborate with.

Part Four

Don’t compromise on user experience.

Why are we talking about user experience in a guide about making the IT team’s life easier—aren’t they mythical sages that see the world in pale green code?

Even if many of your colleagues in the IT department are quite comfy troubleshooting issues and living in the command line, the rest of your team probably isn’t—and this is where it really counts.

Most IT teams spend an absolutely crushing amount of time fixing issues related to user error. The simpler and more intuitive an intranet is to use, the less of a burden it will be for IT.

Additionally—and this is a big one—the more effectively users can complete tasks (like searching for instructions on setting up a new device or using the printer), the more burden the platform lifts from other, often repetitive IT support requests.

Part Five

Security, compliance, and reliability are paramount.‍

You’d be hard-pressed to find an IT team that doesn’t agree.

Every organization has its own set of standards. Find out what the system security, compliance, and reliability table stakes are for your IT team. These will often be non-negotiable.

Some intranet platforms meet rigorous and recognizable standards for security, data privacy, and stability. A few examples of these include:

• Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2) which hinges on five trust service principles: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Most platforms that meet this standard can provide a third-party audit report confirming these controls are in place.

A SOC 2 report can save your IT team some time and effort by affirming a third-party was able to confirm many of the relevant security controls your team may require are in place.

Now it’s time to go beyond table stakes and add real value for IT. Some platforms can help improve your organization’s security posture by providing tools and a venue for secure, private communications.

Check out Haystack’s Secure Delivery toolkit for some examples, like digital watermarking, copy-paste prevention, read confirmations, and forced authentication.

So whether you’re shopping for a new turn-key solution, or working to shore up your current system, keeping security, compliance, and reliability front-of-mind can go a long way toward earning buy-in before, during, and after implementing your intranet.

Part Six

Provide a Venue for Sharing Critical Knowledge

IT teams have a wealth of knowledge about the key systems that keep your organization running. Some of that knowledge is hyper specialized, and some of it is generalized.

Because many of the systems your organization relies on require active and effective participation from admins and users in order to work properly, it’s important for IT teams to be able to share both kinds of knowledge effectively.

We’ll share some examples below of ways an intranet can be a knowledge sharing powerhouse for IT teams, but because features and functionality can vary greatly, we’ll use Haystack as the example intranet.

Specialized knowledge sharing

Intranets are an excellent venue for specialized knowledge sharing, especially if they integrate with other, more purpose-built tooling. Whether it’s SOPs, product documentation, onboarding, post-mortems, project updates, or anything else worth sharing, intranets make a great home.

Generalized knowledge sharing

Intranets can also provide an opportunity for IT teams to communicate critical information to the broader organization, both in the format of top-down communications like company-wide posts, and also in the format of easily searchable resources and documents.

Taking this a step further, the team can support compliance efforts by confirming who has acknowledged key policies, and remind those who haven’t.

Part Seven

Recognize the IT team’s contributions

It’s unfortunately common for IT teams to receive infrequent praise for the crucial work they do on a daily basis. The simultaneously mystifying and behind-the-scenes nature of their work doesn’t really help this trend, either.

Most people think about IT when something goes wrong. If employees rarely think about IT, that’s probably a sign the IT team are a bunch of all-stars at the top of their game, and all the complex digital machinery that supports your organization is humming along smoothly.

That’s a massive achievement that deserves recognition.

An intranet is a fantastic place to showcase, contextualize, and celebrate the contributions the IT team makes to your organization. Whether it’s a company-wide show of appreciation to the broader team, an exclusive digital badge, or an individual shoutout, intranets are a great place to give credit and recognize your friends for their accomplishments.

Bringing it Home

This isn’t an exhaustive list, because every organization is different. You and your IT team may have additional considerations, but these seven are relevant to most any organization. So start there!

If you made it past part one and took it to heart, you and your new friends in IT have probably already established what parts eight and beyond will be. And if you’re ever in doubt, see part one.