Intranet Responsibilities

All information and services (i.e. requirements) delivered by an IAT intranet need to be assigned as responsibilities to permanent staff within the organisation. These staff will be trained to take responsibility for the administration of their area/role's information or service.

The following table needs to be completed (i.e. responsibilities assigned) before creation of an intranet can commence.

Responsibilities for the New Intranet

Responsibility	IAT Dept/Branch	Person(s)	Comments
Content
Structure and chart of all parts of Directorate & IAT org	HR	Angela
Accurate contact information for IAT directories	HR, IT & Schools/Branches	Admin Staff in each area
Profiles (key summary info) of each IAT school, department, unit	Relevant unit/dept	Admin Staff in each area
Outlines & updates about all IAT projects	Relevant project	Project Managers
All HR information for staff to be available - applications, getting settled, policies & procedures, what happens when you leave, etc	HR	Nadia, Sahara, Layla
All Finance info, forms, policies	Finance	Huda, Nishita
All I.T. info..	IT	Husham
All Operations info..	Operations	Phil, Abdul Aziz
All Professional Development info..	Staff Development	Tony, Amal, Layla
Best practice sharing area	Staff Development	Tony, AC's, Schools
News, announcements & updates	All Departments	Admin Staff in each area
All required forms & letters to be available electronically	All Departments	HR & Finance especially. Others as desired.
Services
Contacts directory for all IAT Depts, Schools & Projects	HR, IT	Gulf HR Admin	Gulf HR integration
Calendar & Events listing	Relevant Departments	Admin Staff in each area
Online helpdesk for all relevant Depts & Areas	Relevant Departments	Allocated or generic helpdesk person
"Ask the Managing Director" enquiry form		John McFadyen
General complaints/feedback form	HR	Layla
Coordination of file/document sharing areas	Relevant Departments	Intranet/GHR admin
Coordination of collaborative workspaces	Relevant Projects/Depts	Project/Dept users
Administration of discussion forums including classifieds system		Intranet/GHR admin
Project or Team management areas & tools	Relevant Projects/Depts	Project/Dept users
Other Duties
Administration of all users and permissions		Intranet/GHR admin
Administration of integration with MS Office & other applications	IT	IT Dept Rep
Support & Training for intranet administrators and end-users		Intranet/GHR admin
Creation of specialised content (graphics, multimedia)
Translation of bilingual content
Overall intranet administration of content & services (e.g. portals)		Intranet/GHR admin
Administration of intranet ICT needs (server, active directory, network)	IT	IT Dept Rep

Intranet Requirements

Please add your ideas and requirements for the new intranet project as comments to this post, which will be used to update the table below. Alternatively, you can email them to adrian.lobo@iat.ac.ae. The aim is to have all key requirements listed and prioritised here by the 4th of March, so that solution analysis & recommendation can take place.

Notes on Table
1. Any examples are generally listed in order from least sophisticated to most sophisticated.
2. "Requestor" is listed only if unique to a specific person/area.
3. "Difficulty" refers to the complexity of development.
4. "Analyst Recommendation" indicates the suggested approach by the Project Consultant (Adrian).

Requirements for the New Intranet

Requirement / Idea	Examples / Details	Requestor	Priority	Diffic.	Analyst Recom.	Approved Outcome
Content
Profiles, structure, directory, who's who and chart of all parts of Directorate & IAT org			High	Low	Develop
Profiles, main activities & and directory for all Campuses			High	Low	Develop
Outlines & updates about all IAT projects			High	Low	Develop
All HR information for staff to be available - applications, getting settled, policies & procedures, what happens when you leave, etc			High	Low	Develop
All Finance info, forms, policies			High	Low	Develop
All I.T. info..			High	Low	Develop
All Operations info..			High	Low	Develop
All Professional Development info..			Medium	Low	Develop
Best practice sharing area			Medium	Low	Develop
News, announcements & updates			High	Low	Develop
All required forms & letters to be available electronically			High	Medium	Develop
Services
Contacts directory for all IAT Depts, Schools & Projects			High	Low	Develop
Calendar & Events listing			Medium	Low	Develop
Contact/Enquiry details or form for all Depts & Areas			High	Low	Develop
"Ask the Managing Director" enquiry form			High	Low	Develop
General complaints/feedback form			High	Low	Develop
Ability to store & share all types of files in organised groups			High	Low	Develop
Can effectively collaborate on shared documents & activities			Medium	Medium	Develop & Evaluate
Organised discussion forums including classifieds system			Medium	Low	Develop
News & announcements areas for Depts, teams & Schools			High	Low	Develop
Project or Team management areas & tools			Medium	Medium	Develop & Evaluate
Staff messaging & chat service			Low	Medium	Not required
Shared & requested task management facilities			Medium	Medium	Develop & Evaluate
Teaching & Learning spaces to be available to all Schools and teachers			Low	Medium	Use separate e-learning tools
Interface & Usability
Web-based portal interface that acts as gateway to all info & services for staff.			High	Low	Develop
Simple login & permissions system to provide secure access & customized "views"			High	Medium	Develop
Structure to facilitate easy navigation & finding of required info			High	Low	Develop
Other Functionality & Capability
Ability to easily search all content & files			High	Low	Develop
Direct integration with MS Office applications			High	Low	Develop
Seamless interface with IAT website, internet sites & both internal & external online services			High	Medium	Develop
Accessible remotely through internet			High	Low	Develop
Can utilise multimedia - pictures, video, Flash, etc.			Medium	Medium	Develop
Ability to support multiple languages & translations			High	Medium	Develop
Administration & Usage
System is easy & intuitive to use with no intensive support or training requirements			High	Medium	Develop
Simple, web or desktop based content creation, editing & publishing			High	Low	Develop
Enables content re-use, approval & auto-publishing			Medium	Low	Develop
Sophisticated site usage & monitoring tools			Medium	Low	Develop
Can readily identify and manage old or unused content or areas			Medium	Low	Develop
Dynamic content management. E.g. Latest news/events modules.			Medium	Low	Develop

Review of Intranet Usage

A review of all existing intranet usage (by whichever method or system) and experience is currently taking place in order to:

> Help determine comprehensive intranet requirements that will better facilitate effective usage by the majority of staff.

> Establish issues & problems with intranet usage that need to be addressed in the new intranet system.

> Identify all existing intranet information, documents & functions that will need to be migrated to the new system.

Please report your usage and experiences of these or other methods using the comments or by email.

Sharepoint Usage

*Draft review below pending broader access to Sharepoint sites & stats.

IAT currently has installed Microsoft Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 which provides the ability for staff to manage collaborative activities online with direct integration to their MS Office applications and Windows user folders.

Usage of Sharepoint to-date has not deployed or utilised all features available (most notably portals or document/meeting workspaces). Indeed, usage of the sharepoint sites does not make much usage of Contact, Event & Task lists - which require a not insignificant level of active usage by all group members. Discussion boards, surveys and file library usage (e.g. images) are also not used by the majority of users.

The main usage of Sharepoint to-date has been as a means of sharing files needed by a staff team or project group - mostly Word documents.

Problems & Issues
Some of the problems and obstacles to wider or more effective usage cited have been:

- Lack of awareness of the Sharepoint facility or who can access it and how this is arranged.

- Some staff are aware of Sharepoint but do not feel any need or value in obtaining access.

- Usage by staff with access appears to vary significantly, even within the same group.

- Plenty of "areas" and "spaces" have been set up but a lot of these are currently unutilised.

- Some staff have login access problems and are unable to get reliable access to the sites or documents when they do use it.

- The ways in which Sharepoint can be used vary considerably and there is a significant learning curve for more intensive usage beyond simply sharing documents - both for administrators and users. There doesn't appear to be any training or support capacity available.

Summary Stats
Active Staff Users:
Active Group/Site Administrators:
Number of Active Sites:
Number of Documents/Files:

Shared Network Drive Usage

Some departments are also currently using shared network drives to store and make available common documents and files. However, this does not appear to be an organised activity and is just a facility available to some areas which they are using in their own way.

A review of the current usage of these shared drives is awaiting details to be collected and provided by the I.T. Department.

MS Exchange Usage (i.e. Outlook)

Calendars > Used by individuals to coordinate meetings, but very little or no usage of shared calendars has so far been identified.

Contacts > Groups exist and are maintained by I.T. in the Global Address List, but there is no simple, descriptive list of these - which would encourage broader utilisation by staff. It is likely that individual staff maintain their own contact groups too, but unlikely that these are administered and shared in an organised way.

Tasks > Used by some individuals (but probably not widely). It is unlikely that there is much usage of shared task capability and task requests among departments, teams or projects.

Email > Is used for the vast majority of communication & sharing functions through simple emailing and attachments. Unlikely to be significant usage of shared email folders.

Other Tools?

Please advise of any other tools or methods currently used by staff to communicate, coordinate activities or share information/documents.

Intranet Alternatives

Various alternatives exist for the deployment of a modern intranet. These range from employing the most appropriate tool for each function (e.g. news, collaboration, document sharing, project management, internal communication) and making this flexible "toolset" available through a common interface; to comprehensive intranet applications that combine several of these tools.

Comprehensive Intranet Systems

> Microsoft Sharepoint
> Lotus
> Zimbra
> Zoho
> Central Desktop
> BrainKeeper
> eGroupWare

Integrated Applications with Intranet/Groupware Features

> Groove - Sharing, coordination & collaboration tools for teams. Also MS Office Groove version available.
> phpGroupWare
> MS Exchange - e.g. your group/sharing capability in Outlook
> DotNetNuke - community & collaboration focused portal
> more.groupware

Focused Intranet Tools

> Google Docs & Spreadsheets
> Google Calendar
> Wikis - collaborative websites
> Hula - Calendar & Email
> dotProject - integrated project management tools
> ATutor - a comprehensive learning management system with collaboration facilities designed for teachers

Advantages & Disadvantages

> The more integrated the "tools", the more seamlessly they will work together. However, with integrated systems, you will not be able to pick and choose the best individual tools to use for each function.

> Microsoft-based applications interface most readily with the MS Office applications used in the organisation: Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint.

> Commercial systems can be very expensive and have ongoing licencing costs - normally based on the number of users. Opensource or freeware applications are much cheaper but generally require customization and integration and support may still need to be paid for.

Intranet Considerations & Issues

Various issues will need to be resolved as part of this project to determine how the intranet is designed, implemented and used. All input and comments are welcome. Decisions will be then be discussed & approved through the Intranet Project Working Group & Steering Committee and the outcomes summarized here.

(1) Open access to all staff?
Requiring a login to access an intranet is often a major impediment to them being used by staff. Even where logins work seamlessly, they still need to be created individually for staff members and remembered with appropriate permissions set. It may be preferable for all users on the IAT network to be able to access the "common" intranet without needing a login and only those accessing special areas or privileges (e.g. editing) would need to login. However, personalization and customization of the portal for a user requires identification of that user (i.e. an ID / login). A technical assessment of how this balance can best be accomplished on the new intranet will take place at the earliest opportunity.

(2) Which content should not be available to all staff?
Some content on the intranet can and will be made secure - accessible to only authorized staff. This may be confidential information or information only needed by staff working on a particular project or in a particular department. However, where these lines are drawn is an open question. Securing information also has an administrative burden attached to it.

(3) What extent of information will be placed on the intranet?
Will the intranet be used to make available a limited amount of key information or will it ultimately be used to manage all information that staff need access to and replace other repositories like network drives. This will determine the depth of information added to the intranet.

In some instances, policies or guidelines are introduced requiring information to be published on the intranet. E.g. For describing & updating all projects & initiatives.

(4) Publishing or Working Space?
Some intranets are used to publish only selected, high-value organisational information and documents. Others are used as actual "working spaces" where a considerable amount of organisational information, knowledge & work-product is intended to be captured and shared. If the balance is too much toward the former, then the publishing of content to the intranet is often a distinct activity that can become disconnected from routine department & individual work processes. However, the latter requires a significant change in the way people work and quite intensive training, support & management.

It is normally recommended that organisations start by identifying the really key information that needs to be accessible on the intranet and establishing new processes for working and managing this information. This can then be expanded over time to the extent that proves feasible.

(5) Who will do what on the intranet?
Effective intranets typically involve many staff members in an organisation and require closely coordinated & integrated work from them. Whatever the extent of the new intranets intended usage, various positions in the organisation will need to be allocated active roles & responsibilities. This includes: creating, publishing & updating information; monitoring & approving content; administering all services made available; responsibility for responding to and actioning all communication & requests; support & training; administration & management; representing departments/areas on decision-making groups & acting as the liaison; and development, refinement & customization work.

Intranet Project Outline

Intranet Project Overview

As part of its comprehensive initiative to develop modern online services, IAT will be creating an intranet system to meet all internal staff communication, information-sharing and collaboration needs. This intranet will run on IAT's network and be accessible to all campuses, locations & remote staff with network access. The objectives, scope, timeframes and activities will be summarized in this project plan, with progress updated on the blog.

Project Goals, Rationale & Benefits

> Enable staff to access all the information they need including about all key aspects of IAT (e.g. structure, staff directory); policies, procedures & forms (e.g. HR, Finance, Operations); and organisational information resources (e.g. Curriculum Framework, Professional Development, Best Practice).

> Provide for improved communication - both between campuses and especially between Directorate and the campus staff. The intranet will allow and encourage feedback, input and ideas from all staff and deliver a clear mechanism requiring responses and action to that feedback.

> Allow staff to work collaboratively & effectively coordinate their activities on projects and in whatever teams they participate in.

> Create a repository for storing & sharing all appropriate documents and files in a well-organised, easily-accessed common space.

> Act as a portal to all organisation functions (IT helpdesk, HR & Finance contacts, Operational liaisons e.g. facilities) and online services including news/announcements, calendars, directories, groups, project sites, forums, classifieds, etc.

Project Scope

The full scope of this project includes all activities required (from planning & requirement determination to development, implementation & usage) to meet the objectives outlined above. To make this substantial undertaking manageable, the project will be split into three distinct phases:

Phase 1: Consultation with Directorate and campus staff, collection & analysis of intranet requirements, solution recommendation & selection, and creation of a prototype with examples and needed plans/documentation.

Phase 2: Full development of the chosen intranet solution with migration from any existing alternatives and integration with relevant organisation areas (e.g. HR). Initial content covering all areas & services to be added so that the new intranet can be launched.

Phase 3: Implementation of extended intranet content/services and ongoing effective usage by all staff.

Project Timeframes & Chief Milestones

*Draft only

	Key Milestones
Phase 1 21st Feb - 15th Mar	- Finalization of project scope & plan (27th Feb) - Finalization of requirement consultation (4th Mar) - Completion of requirement specification (5th Mar) - Selection of recommended intranet system (7th Mar) - Complete setup of sharepoint 2007 system (8th Mar) - Creation of new intranet prototype & examples (15th Mar)
Phase 2 16th Mar - 24th April	- Creation of approved intranet design & structure (17th Mar) - Development & integration of all required intranet functionality & services (3rd April) - Completion of development, testing and initial content creation (15th April) - Confirmation of key organisation areas & staff with major ongoing intranet activities. E.g. content maintenance, online service provision. Training commencement. (16th April) - Begin migration of existing sharepoint, network drive and other alternatives (17th April) - Completion of operational, production intranet site with initial content (24th April)
Phase 3 25th April - Ongoing	- Confirmation of initial go-live content & service requirements (25th April) - Completion of initial staff training and maintenance arrangements (27th April) - Launch of new intranet site & services (1st May) - Completion of migration of existing sharepoint & other network alternatives (11th May) - Post-launch review & assessment of achievement of project goals - Ongoing content addition and refinement

Project Staff & Steering Committee

Project Managers:
Husham Zaki. Dubai Campus. Email: husham.zaki@iat.ac.ae.
Adrian Lobo. Dubai Campus (A217). Email: adrian.lobo@iat.ac.ae

Project Sponsors:
Layla Al Bloushi. Deputy Director HR & Finance. Dubai Campus. Email: layla.albloushi@iat.ac.ae
Phillip Rutherford. Deputy Director Operations. Dubai Campus. Email: phillip.rutherford@iat.ac.ae

Department Representatives: Representatives for each Directorate department, campus and major projects will be identified and listed here. These representatives will be responsible for coordinating the provision & maintenance of information and services for their area. They will also represent their areas on any Working Group meetings.

Department / Area	Representative	Email
Human Resources
Finance	Huda?
I.T.	Fedha?
Operations
Curriculum & Assessment
Professional Development	Tony?
Al Ain Campus
Abu Dhabi Campus
Dubai Campus
Fujairah Campus
Ras Al Khaimah
VEDC
School of Nursing
Aviation College
ADEC
Other? B/G, SOC, AAwir, Pre-uni GHQ

Other IAT staff will be involved in various activities and stages of this project. Please see the How to Get Involved post to find out how you can contribute to this or other related projects.

Steering Committee: A Steering Committee will be used to discuss and approve all strategic decisions relating to this project, such as the choice of intranet systems and the nature of its usage: services available, accessibility/security of information, for what purposes it can be used by staff. The steering committee members will be listed here. It will meet as required with Layla Al Bloushi as the chair.

Project Resources

Intranets are intended to be actively-used systems by a large number of staff and the new intranet will need to be well-supported by key personnel in each area who have been trained to maintain and update their information and services. The extent of ongoing, widespread usage will largely depend on the successful incorporation of intranet usage into the activities of these areas - whether corporate (e.g. HR) or at the campuses (e.g. for teacher groups).

It is also desirable that permanent, in-house development, customization and administration skills are ultimately available in the chosen intranet system - either through existing I.T. staff obtaining this familiarity or through recruitment. Additional recruitment requirements can be combined with the requirements for supporting the new IAT websites and other online services being developed.

Standards, Guidelines & Compliance

Any UAE Government or other regulatory standards and guidelines that relate to record & information management, policy communication and staff administration need to be taken into account in setting up the new intranet system and determining the information available and access to it.

Project Execution/Action Plan

Please see the Intranet Project Action Plan on the blog.

Project Outputs/Deliverables

The main deliverable will be a completely new intranet with integrated online services that provides IAT with the capability to attain the project goals outlined. This new intranet will replace all existing intranet systems and ad hoc alternatives.

Integration with Internet site & Related Systems

While it is possible to run an internet and intranet site in the same system, consultation to date has determined that the new systems be completely independent but able to be readily associated where desired. It is intended to eliminate duplication by clearly delineating between content for the internet vs the intranet and maintaining information only on one system or the other. Wherever relevant, this information can be connected between the internet & intranet using hyperlinks and serving content from one system within the other.

Extranet Usage
While an intranet is a private network for internal staff, an extranet is a secure network for communication with external clients, partners or stakeholders. Current analysis of extranet requirements for IAT indicate that the relevant secure services for students, parents, the government, etc can be delivered through the internet site. The new internet site will have login capability to allow authorized users to gain access to customized, special information and services. These can either be delivered through the internet application itself or by it acting as a gateway to separate web-enabled business applications.

Considerations & Issues

Please see Intranet Considerations & Issues on the blog.

Review of Existing Intranet Usage

Please see Review of Intranet Usage on the blog.

Requirements for the New Intranet

Please see Intranet Requirements on the blog.

New Intranet Potential Alternatives

Please see Intranet Alternatives on the blog.

Intranet Project Action Plan

This is the Project Action Plan for IAT's new intranet project. It is intended to be updated with all necessary tasks needed to progress the project so that these can be followed up by the intranet project's meeting groups and managers.

Project Execution/Action Plan

What	Who	When	Status
Project Initiation & Communication	Layla, Husham, Adrian	Feb 24th - Feb 28th	Ongoing
Set up Steering Committee & Working Group (dept/campus representatives)	Layla, Husham, Adrian	Feb 26th - Feb 28th
Obtain licences, install Sharepoint 2007 and set up test site	Husham & I.T. Dept.	Feb 25th - Mar 4th	Ongoing
Review existing sharepoint, network drive and "intranet" usage	Adrian	Feb 22nd - Feb 28th	Ongoing
Consult with all staff regarding new intranet requirements	Adrian	Feb 18th - Mar 3rd	Ongoing
Dept/campus representatives to begin identifying & organising information & services to be added to the intranet	Dept/campus reps	Mar 1st - Mar 15th
Create wireframe of new intranet structure & services	Adrian	Feb 26th - Mar 2nd
Complete scope of current "intranet" activity & migration needs	Husham, Adrian, current intranet admins - e.g. Janet	Feb 27th - Mar 6th

Project Contacts

> Layla Al Bloushi. Deputy Director HR & Finance. Dubai Campus. Email: layla.albloushi@iat.ac.ae
> Husham Zaki. Dubai Campus. Email: husham.zaki@iat.ac.ae
> Adrian Lobo. Dubai Campus (A217). Email: adrian.lobo@iat.ac.ae

Staff Communication & Info Sharing

Intranet, Knowledge Management & Sharepoint Review

As part of this project, the extent and usage of IAT's intranet services is being assessed with the intention of improving staff's ability to: (a) share and access the information they need; (b) work collaboratively & coordinate activities with other staff; (c) enhance communication within the organisation - particularly between campuses and between campuses and Directorate.

Please add your input as comments to this post or email adrian.lobo@iat.ac.ae

Review of Existing Intranet & Online Information & Communication Services

The first step is identifying all the current services & tools available and collecting feedback from staff about them. This may include what you use them for and how; problems & issues - including access or knowing what's available; and discussion of how these services should be used or administered.

Known Services (please contact us to add to this list or if you administer the service)

(1) Sharepoint - which appears to be currently used by staff working on common activities for sharing & updating documents.

(2) Microsoft Exchange Services (accessible through Outlook) - extent of usage to be established.

(3) Project Management Tools - to be identified

Exploration of New or Alternative Services or Tools

If you have experience with different methods, tools or usage that facilitate sharing information, coordination or communication, please let us know so we can add these alternatives and suggestions here.

Some other contemporary options will be added here for staff to explore and provide feedback on.

Reference Information

(1) Intranet overview on Wikipedia
(2) Sharepoint & MCMS blog