Greetings
I have been given the responsibility of introducing an Intranet to a Local Government organisation. In saying this my first step is to develop a “business plan” to explain to stakeholders exactly what is going to happen and where we are heading in the future to ensure they fully support the new system.
Has any member ever had to prepare an Intranet Plan for a business or Local Government? If so, is it possible for me to read/view the final document to give me a sense of structure or how it should be set out?
Any links to Intranet Plans would also be appreciated. If I receive or locate a document that is very useful to developing my Intranet Business Plan, I would definitely consider a Paypal contribution.
Kind regards
RichardN
Have you written business plans before? I don’t understand why you think that because this is for an “Intranet” that it needs to be different than say a business plan for a website.
You even said yourself what it needs to contain -
to explain to stakeholders exactly what is going to happen and where we are heading in the future
That’s correct and I respect that but I was just wondering if anyone had a Business Plan specific to Intranets/IT Projects since I don’t need to consider financial implications (I can simply leave this one out), SWOT, Personnel or a Market Analysis for example.
I’m not sure I agree. A plan for an existing company is totally different from what you are describing. Without the financials it’s a different animal.
I would make a very simple but compelling presentation about costs/benefits, plus time/resources to implement and organizational impact. That should be more than enough!
Explain the benefits that the proposed intranet app might offer to your client; reduce the cost structure; make service delivery more efficient, etc. I don’t know why you decided to drop the financial part, but including expected costs and the demonstration of how the investment expenses would be offset by resulting benefits would make you plan more compelling.
Greetings
I have now created a basic Strategic Plan for a new Intranet system. The primary reasons for creating this plan include:
[LIST]
[]Listing long term business goals that can be crossed off or delivered as a completed percentage to Executives.[/LIST][LIST]
[]A performance indicator to provide the IT team / Web Administrator a long term overview on where the Intranet is supposed to be heading at all times.[/LIST]Costs, resources and time are important but not essentially critical in this project as they have already been allocated, so please be aware that most of this type of information has been left out purposely.
I would like to hear any comments or advice on how to improve this Strategic Plan. It is my first DRAFT so I’m open to any ideas on how to make it more realistic or effective.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards
RichardN
[SIZE=1]Nice content there, Richard.
Is this a sales proposal or functional specs (or both)? Will you be presenting this document or handing it off to be read?
Can I also ask how much time it took you to create this plan? Do you already have the job or if not, will you be compensated?
-Costas
[/SIZE]
Hi Costas
Thank you for your comments.
It is supposed to contain functional specs with more regard to achieving business goals than describing the actual Intranet tools involved. I have intentionally written the document in a broad format (no actual tools described) as this was the only major requirement set by my Manager.
At this stage it is for my Manager and Director to read should they wish to know how we are going to approach implementing an Intranet system. It is also meant to be a document that we can report to down the track to ensure we are actually working towards achieving the most important goals first.
It took me a few hours to create the document and then another few hours to make necessary modifications and inclusions.
I am already employed by the Council as the Web Administrator so the only compensation I receive is my annual salary.
The Manager and Director have already allocated funds for an Intranet to be developed so you could say I already have the job.
Thanks again!
Kind regards
RichardN
All things considered, I think your document goes a long way towards communicating the project effectively-- it’s not too low level, and certainly not too high.
As far as handing it off goes, I question whether someone will take the time to pay close attention as you would like; there’s a lot of information and the paragraphs aren’t exactly short. (Although the bulleted lists help break things up.)
I would recommend taking them through the proposal yourself if acurate requirements are important at this stage.
Nice job!
-Costas
Thanks Costas, I never thought about taking someone through it personally. I’ll do that when I show my Manager.
I appreciate your time to follow up this thread so thank you.
Kind regards
RichardN
There are tons of information about business plans on the web. However, sometimes a “business plan” is asked to get rid of the whole issue. Before getting into work, I would investigate how serious these guys are about my proposal.