Intriguing intranet technology trends

There’s quite a bit going on in the intranet technology landscape. Three trends I’m seeing are:

1. Many “out of the box” intranetplatforms are popping up
2. Organizations are using combinations of platforms to fullfill employee needs
3. Organisations are outsourcing functional and technical maintenance, and hosting

Standard intranet solutions

I don’t where you live but where I live, in the Netherlands, many standard intranet solutions are popping up. This is understandable if you see how many intranets, that have been developed on cms’s, have failed. Many are so sick and tired of the failed intranet projects that they flee to intranet platforms that can be set up quickly and are well-designed.

As much as I understand this, I’m also intrigued by it. Over the last 5-10 years almost all companies have left their custom developed intranet (cms) behind and have moved to standard cms’s, like Drupal and SharePoint. Two of the main reasons to do so was the lack of innovation in these tailor-made intranet platforms and vendor lock-in.

But now take a look at the “out of the box” intranetplatforms. They usually pay quite some attention to UX, which is great. They usually fulfil the basic employee needs (lots and lots of “me too” in this vendor space, regrettably). My main concern with these types of platforms is that it’s back to the old times. Because when you do business with one of these vendors there’s no other developer that can maintain and extend the intranet than the vendor itself. And that’s called vendor lock-in… Finally, most of these platforms seem to be dead cheap, but when your really add up the costs they’re not that cheap at all. Oh and finally finally, the “out of the box” intranet have the huge risk that an intranet project will be about technology again, instead of people and strategy...

So, as much as I understand this I don’t like where this is going. In about 5 years organizations are going to be complaining about vendor lock-in and lack of innovation and will move their intranet to some standaard cms...

Of course there can be good reasons to use an “out of the box" intranet platform. Step2Designs has a good post about this. I see quite some organizations using these platforms to try a more interactive intranet temporarily and then develop the “long term” intranet based on standaard technology.

Combining platforms

Another technology trend I see is that organisations are combining technologies to fulfil needs. Of course this has been going on forever, but more organizations are explicitly accepting this and actively looking for combinations instead of “one platform to do all”. So, SharePoint is combined with a good content management system. Or a good content management system is combined with a great social networking platform. I think this is great news. And technology vendors are making sure they integrate well with others - at least many of them are.

Outsourcing intranet maintenance and hosting

Finally more and more organizations are outsourcing functional and technical maintenance of their intranet, usually to the developer of the intranet. And they’re outsourcing hosting. IT is mostly about delivering standaard technology to employees and lowering maintenance risks and costs. The intranet, being a specific bit of technology with demanding users, is usually not IT’s cup of tea. Outsourcing this work is usually a huge relief to IT (and employees…) and is usually done for much lower costs. This goes for hosting as well. Mobile access to the intranet is just one of the reasons to host your intranet externally.

Let's talk

I’m curious if you recognize these trends. Do you? Or are there other trends that caught your attention? Looking forward to discussing in the comments.