Web Portals : Make the Corporate portal case

1. Gather web stats far back as you can. Generally 12-18 months worth of logfiles can provide enough data about the changing (lack of) use patterns of your end-users. If you can go further back from when the intranet or internet website was launched and show a diminshing traffic pattern as users became more demanding and the technology became less accomidating, you'll be in even better shape.
   
   
2. Survey to your end-users (include management at all levels). Find out what keeps them from using the intranet, what capabilities they would like to have, and capture both the good and bad in detail. Provide incentives for completed surveys. Incentives may be donuts & bagels in the morning, a candy bar for completion of their survey or some other company appropriate item.
   
   
   Use a variety of survey formats:
   
   • Web surveys (such as surveymonkey.com) allow easy setup, user navigation and data collection. There is a charge, but its nominal. This type of survey can be delivered via email very easily.
     
     
   • Internal surveys launched from the intranet - as long as people will go there and you have the ability to capture and easily analyze the data.
     
     
   • Paper format - have surveys people can fill out and drop off at a collection area at your company. This is great for when not all employees have internet access or email (such as a manufacturing facility).
     
     
   • Face-to-Face meetings with key individuals or groups to get a more intimate response. This works well for dealing with people who are not afraid to share both positive and negative feedback.
     
     
3. Communicate. No matter how you conduct your survey, be sure to cover all avenues of communicating to the end-users. Entice them with incentives and use an attractive ad campaign to draw them in. Create posters on the upcoming survey, have an article in your company's internal newsletter, talk to people. Make it eye catching and make it easy. Show them that their feedback matters, and that any improvement that you will be making, be to their benefit.
   
   
4. Sell management and decision makers on:
   • Improving productivity
   • Improve business processes
   • Increaseing collaboration
   • Decreasing IT or webmaster administration of static information
   • Integrating applications, data, and disparte information
   • Securing corporate assets
   • Through the results of the surveys
   • Drop the words Corporate Portal a few times and be able to speak to what it means.
   • They will ask about resource and cost, but at this point you're in discovery mode, there is no actual project until you are given the green light to proceed to Step 4: Buy vs. Build Corporate Portal Options.

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