Where can I find more information on the "best" content for an internal CRM portal? I need to design a portal to improve relationships between IT and its "clients."
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I'm presuming, when I answer this, that when you say internal portal, you mean what we old-timers used to call way back when two years ago, an intranet -- something being accessed by a single company's employees and "friends." That said, this is a bit puzzling, since the content for a portal of that sort especially, is entirely based on the assessed needs of the particular company. Some of the questions that might be asked (and you'll have to pardon the public bluntness because these are really internal questions) would be things like:
1. How friendly is the relationship between IT and its "clients?" Is this portal being designed to improve already good relationships or to mend bad ones or more neutral than that?
2. What does the IT department do that the rest of the company would be interested in? What does it do that individual departments would be interested in?
3. Is education on how things work in IT important to the sales department? The marketing folks? The customer service people?
4. Is the purpose of the portal to integrate disparate IT functions and then provide a unified framework to the rest of the company? Or is it a single IT department or group that is going to run the thing?
5. Are there any individual or group political agendas driving this move to an internal portal? If so, what are they? Because believe me, that will be affecting the content that you are providing entirely.
6. Is there any need for customer records to be viewed through this portal? Is the portal going to have any ecommerce components? Any workflow that will be important? For example, is the IT department going to be posting jobs in the department for others in the company to be aware of? If it is, is there going to be an application process directed toward someone?
There are a myriad of other questions, some essential, some useful, some interesting, that need to be answered. There is no "best" generic portal content. The content is whatever knowledge needs to be disseminated and whatever interactions need to occur between the IT department and its clients. Sorry to not be any more specific than this, but that is the only reality. I'd be happy to discuss it further. Feel free to call me at 703-551-2337. Thanks.
1. How friendly is the relationship between IT and its "clients?" Is this portal being designed to improve already good relationships or to mend bad ones or more neutral than that?
2. What does the IT department do that the rest of the company would be interested in? What does it do that individual departments would be interested in?
3. Is education on how things work in IT important to the sales department? The marketing folks? The customer service people?
4. Is the purpose of the portal to integrate disparate IT functions and then provide a unified framework to the rest of the company? Or is it a single IT department or group that is going to run the thing?
5. Are there any individual or group political agendas driving this move to an internal portal? If so, what are they? Because believe me, that will be affecting the content that you are providing entirely.
6. Is there any need for customer records to be viewed through this portal? Is the portal going to have any ecommerce components? Any workflow that will be important? For example, is the IT department going to be posting jobs in the department for others in the company to be aware of? If it is, is there going to be an application process directed toward someone?
There are a myriad of other questions, some essential, some useful, some interesting, that need to be answered. There is no "best" generic portal content. The content is whatever knowledge needs to be disseminated and whatever interactions need to occur between the IT department and its clients. Sorry to not be any more specific than this, but that is the only reality. I'd be happy to discuss it further. Feel free to call me at 703-551-2337. Thanks.
This was first published in September 2002