Survey shows company intranets 'massively' under utilised

The 2006 Intranet research report of the Irish Computer Society (ICS) has found that 80% of large organisations surveyed said that employees are not taking full advantage of company intranets as an internal communications tool.

The research, which was carried out by Amárach Consulting and sponsored by pTools Software, surveyed over 200 Irish companies with intranets and concludes that Intranet usage, through the addition of communication and collaboration features, is set to increase significantly over the coming years.

Many organisations felt they were not gaining full potential benefit from intranet and this is sure to raise question marks over investment in intranet initiatives.

The survey also highlighted the winners and losers in the competition to deliver intranet technology with Microsoft and Google both featuring strongly.

Among the key findings of the report are: 80% of larger organisations said that employees were not taking full advantage of intranet; 86% of participants indicated that intranet will become more important in the near future; 61% of respondents indicated that they used Microsoft operating systems for intranet.

Google is the most popular proprietary search technology on intranet while Intranets running on Microsoft show less accessibility compliance.

Document management, elearning, and contact management were the most prominent intranet tools and Microsoft Office formats the most prominent file format.

Intranet features typically revolved around staff announcements and messaging but the list was varied and included everything from documentation and forms, to blogs and wiki's, phonebooks and directories, weather and menus, and even bus timetables.

Google was the most popular proprietary search technology on intranet but a significant number of those surveyed were using Microsoft technologies as the basis of search for intranet also.

Almost two thirds of respondents indicated that they used Microsoft operating systems for intranet but they were also less likely to be accessibility compliant than intranets running on Unix or other operating systems.

The report found that a wide range of technologies are utilised and improved staff collaboration is the main driver for intranet development.

Although many indicated no accessibility compliance on intranet there was an intention to make rapid improvement.

Microsoft platforms featured strongly with twice as many intranets running on a Microsoft operating system than any other environment.

In a significant number of intranets Oracle database technology was used in conjunction with Microsoft servers.

Unix platforms also featured strongly and while there was a greater tendency to use open source technologies with this platform, open source did not feature significantly overall.

Commenting on the research Jim Friars, Chief Executive of Irish Computer Society said: “We are delighted with the results of this research and believe it offers a valuable insight into intranet activity in Ireland. ICS will conduct this survey annually and we aim to grow knowledge of intranet activity and allow members to benchmark against the trends and results identified in the research”.

"Our survey shows that IT managers and decision makers are focusing on their intranets as a key resource for improving working practices across the workforce, and delivering real productivity gains for their companies", noted Gerard O'Neill, Chief Executive of Amárach.