Articles | IDP Group

			IDP - Getting Organized for Intranet Publishing
			The mandate of the IDP - Information Design & Publishing - group is to provide the corporation with the specialized resources and skills required to publish vast amounts of information and applications in the centralized, broadly accessible, BUT technical environment of an intranet web site.
	Why do we need this new corporate resource?		enterprise-quality web publishing is still beyond the skill-level of most people in today's corporation. Although individual documents can be prepared relatively easily by most people using WYSIWYG editors, the organization and navigation of a large collection of documents requires the skills of an information architect or designer. Larger corporations with corporate libraries will realize that an unorganized library collection is of no value to anyone. Information must not just exist, but must be accessible. engineers are best used engineering and programmers are best used programming. No one would consider asking the engineering department to design and produce the annual report. Using engineers and programmers to act as HTML publishers and graphic designers will yield poor results and the engineering and programming will not get done. by its very nature the intranet has the potential of serving the entire corporation. To ensure a corporate-wide mandate it should be resourced independent of any single department, free to serve the best interests of the entire corporation. web publishing at the enterprise scale demands a unique combination and coordination of skills and roles - programmers, information architects, user-interface designers, writers, editors, project managers and network administrators work closely together to produce and manage an online publication that operates around the clock. Such a combination or group just doesn't exist in today's corporation. the intranet is not a project. It requires on-going attention and development by trained professionals to produce a good return on investment. to a great extent the usefulness of the intranet depends on ease of use, clear and consistent navigation and a professional appearance. These qualities are difficult to achieve without the involvement of specialized resources such as would be provided by an IDP group.
	Who should be involved with this new IDP group?		due to its cross-corporate nature and mandate the IDP group should be sponsored and supervised by upper-level management via an intranet steering committee drawn from various business units - IS, Human Resources, Corporate Library, Corporate Communications, and Engineering. This group will work together to draft a charter to guide IDP in making a tangible contribution to the corporation. the IDP group can be in-house, out-sourced or a combination of the two. In any of these scenarios Corporate staff must lead and guide the group in delivering on its mandate and charter. several roles/skill sets make up a full-service IDP group: Publisher Web Master Editor(s) Information Designer Technician(s) Programmer(s) Librarian Trainer more information on these roles in upcoming articles. some of these roles could be combined into a single job description. representatives from all interested business units should be identified to serve as roving 'reporters' and 'editors' - identifying and screening content for publication.

	How do we go about starting an IDP group?		build the business case/plan. Few businesses are interested in funding intranet R&D. The IDP group must be shown to make a positive contribution to the bottom line through savings in effort, time and resources. Identify real, tangible and supportable publishing projects. secure understanding and support from upper and middle management. The intranet, due to its cross-corporate nature, is sometimes seen as a threat by individual departments to their 'territory'. Emphasize the concept of local, decentralized ownership of content and centralized ownership (by IDP) of its delivery via the intranet. outsource design and production. Focus internal resources on identifying content and developing editorial resources. draw on the expertise of consultants. We've seen the same issues and hurdles over and over again. Let us help you map out a strategy for starting and operating an IDP group.