The recent article, "Debunking Intranet Myths" (Intranets July/August 2004), is a reality check for Intranet managers. Jim Howard identifies what he considers the most popular myths, ones that he believes rose during the Internet boom days but still survive to this day.
Considering the fact that most people consider personalization to be the holy grail of Intranets, I was interested in his discussion of myth number 1, "Intranets need to be personalized for the individual user." He states that "...the difficulty and cost of implementing and managing portal software is almost never warranted." and cites a recent Jupiter Research report that shows that "personalized Web sites are, on average, four times more expensive to run than sites that are not personalized."
Other myths include:
- Intranets are places to collaborate
- Intranets can be successful without a simple way for non-technical staff to update and control content
- An intranet will manage itself if a Web content management system is installed.
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