Why does Intranet Governance fail?

Getting governance right is a real challenge.  So often structures are put in place that last only 6 months or so.  It is not uncommon that it takes 3 or 4 attempts  before a successful incarnation is arrived at!  Typical failure points observed in large organisations would include:

• No committed senior sponsorship
• Lack of strategic vision (“What do we have an intranet for?”)
• Mixing strategic issues with operational leading to loss of interest by senior people
• Domination by IT people and issues
• Key decision makers without sufficient time to make process work – “Not my day job!”
• Governance roles not included in performance plans
• Insufficiently senior people involved so decisions must be deferred
• Senior managers who do not believe in the power of the technology and resist change

Careful consideration of these points when setting up the governance team should mitigate the risk of these problems hitting you!

–Reinvention of the wheel

–Variable quality, out of date information

–Litigation risks

–Site proliferation and volumes of content with no value to user

–Poor search capability

–No central view and management of the cost of ownership

–Content arranged by organisation not process (suits provider not user)

–Little coordination and cooperation across the business