Where to start? How to write step-by-step specifications for the creation of an intranet?
Let us guide you step by step!
Framing drives adoption: according to Gallup (2024 State of the Global Workplace), only 23% of employees feel engaged and low engagement costs about $8.9 trillion, or 9% of global GDP.
1. Carry out a scoping study
Before you start writing the specifications, start with a scoping study. This aims to define the project to come; it can take the form of a workshop to better understand the issues, objectives, needs (use cases), and features required by the project groups and areas of expertise. Then present the results of the scoping study and share them with the stakeholders.
2. Take stock of what you already have
Don't launch a digital workplace project without taking stock of what already exists internally. Here are the right questions to ask yourself:
- What solution do you currently have? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
- What do users and the IT department think?
- What is the main need for the new Digital Workplace?
- What new features will it need?
This analysis should provide a better understanding of the nature of the company and its specific needs. It should be accompanied by a description of the current intranet (if one exists): structure, features, results obtained, limitations encountered, etc. Finally, it is advisable to take stock of your intranet's user, i.e. the number of users, their profile, and how they use it. Is your intranet intended for all employees or only for some of them? Which ones?
This preliminary inventory will allow you to better understand your needs, and thus to implement the most suitable solution. Of course, you may not be satisfied with your current solution and you may not think it is necessary to consider it. But by studying it carefully, you will be able to understand how to put in place an improved solution that meets the needs of both the employer and the employee users.
3. Present your company and the context in which it operates
The aim of this stage is to describe all of the company's activities and projects, as well as its internal organization (number of employees and departments, whether or not it has a presence abroad, possible development projects, etc.).
The objective of the company must then be specified. What is the context in which it operates? What is the initial need? What are the company's expectations of this project? This could be, for example, the desire to modernize the working environment, to promote internal communication, to strengthen employee commitment, to improve the transparency of information, etc.
4. Describe your functional needs, objectives and targets
You probably already have in mind the structure of the intranet you want to set up. It is now time to describe the sections you have in mind. In other words, this is where you propose the tree structure of your future Digital Workplace.
The following are examples of common needs expressed by companies.
You can keep all of them, or choose the ones that interest you most:
- Communication and employee commitment (e.g. building pages from a template and publishing the right content to the right target);
- User experience (e.g. making navigation easier for users, providing a modern and efficient digital workspace to accomJint for teamste teleworking);
- Collaboration (e.g. facilitating collaboration between teams; enabling communication between field and office teams; optimizing project management) ;
- Knowledge management (e.g. promoting and facilitating the sharing of expertise, facilitating documentary research).
You must then define your targets and correlate the needs identified for each of them to propose an intranet adapted to each group of users.
Don't forget to include in your functional requirements the technical constraints linked to the CIO's Guidelines.
5. Describe what you expect in terms of support and timing
This is a description of the services expected. What attitude do you expect from your integrator? How would you like to be accompanied? The following elements can be explained:
- Project support (advice, technical assistance, etc.);
- The possible provision of change management services;
- Training the project team in the new tool;
- Maintenance of the settings made ;
- Etc.
Describe your expectations and the expected deliverables, and by what means. More specifically, you can describe the administrative and contractual arrangements for the project:
i. The project approach
This involves defining the approach you want the service provider to follow (Agile, V-cycle, etc.), or mentioning that the service provider is free to propose its own project approach.
ii. Project governance
The monitoring bodies to be set up should be defined here: project committee, steering committee, technical steering committee, etc. The expectations attached to each of them must also be specified.
iii. Scheduling
The desired timetable, as well as the commitments and deliverables expected from the service provider in terms of organization, must be defined.
iv. Training and support
This entails defining expectations in terms of training (e.g.: training of contributors/webmasters, training of administrators, etc.) and deliverables. You are free to mention here whether the service provider should take charge of booking the training rooms. If you wish, you can also specify whether you would like to be supported in the functional or technical aspects.
v. Application maintenance and support
The desired positioning on the application maintenance of the solution and the application of updates must be indicated here.
6. Describe the Digital Workplace you want to achieve
In this section, it's all about letting your imagination run wild: what kind of Digital Workplace do you want to implement? Because this is a very general question, you can start by defining your needs, the objectives associated with them, and your targets.
Once this is done, move on to the structure of your intranet: what sections should it contain? What information should be included? What should its tree structure look like?
Then define the different use cases you want to enrich your Digital Workplace with. For example :
- The company directory (to connect expertise and employees with each other).
- HR Intranet (to communicate HR news, promote internal job offers, etc.).
- The news wall (to share the right information with the right people).
- EDM (to facilitate knowledge sharing and contribution).
- The Personal Dashboard (to create a centralized dashboard for employees).
You will end with your needs in terms of user experience: design and ergonomics, multilingualism, customization of the interface, etc.
The aim is to make the project's expectations as clear as possible, so that the deployment of your Digital Workplace can be perfectly adapted to your company's particularities.
Conclusion
The specifications are an essential step in the construction of a Digital Workplace project. It allows the company's needs to be formalized and the outlines of its project to be defined, in particular by spelling out the requirements, the expectations and the desired methodology.
A correctly filled in specification ensures that the project will be completed and that the result will be precise, without having to start from a blank sheet of paper.
Download here our template for your Digital Workplace. You will find a very simple template to fill in, as well as a guide to help you use it properly.
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