In the same way that we cannot remember how we coped without a mobile phone and internet access it is difficult to remember how we judged intranet development progress before Jane McConnell launched the Global Intranet Trends Report in 2006. Intranet managers and consultants alike listened to presentations at conferences about what were then regarded as exceptional intranets and then extrapolated the comments made to the nth degree in order to justify investment or a consulting contract. Just as year on year intranets are becoming more mature so this report has grown in credibility and value.

This year the number of respondents reached 440, almost double the previous year. The easy route to publishing the responses would be to keep to the same tables every year and just update them. The value of this report is that it reflects the insights of a highly experienced and analytic intranet consultant. The result is that although many of the core tables remain the same the survey questions probe new and important issues each year, especially in the areas of social media and governance.

There have been two major changes to the Report this year. First the report sets out very clearly what intranet leaders are accomplishing, defined in terms of impact on the organisation. Some of the characteristics of these leaders are that decision making for the intranet is clearly defined; the intranet, collaboration spaces and social tools are more integrated; senior management has made the intranet part of the objectives of the management team and social media is deployed more widely internally. Second there is an option to purchase the Report together with a 60 – 90 minute personal briefing from Jane for $1500. That has to be the intranet bargain of the decade. This package repositions the report as a business-critical briefing for senior management which also provides valuable information for corporate intranet managers. Each year the quality of the presentation of the report and the clarity of the writing continue to improve, essential if you are going to ensure that a copy of the report appears on the desktops of several senior managers helpfully annotated with an evaluation of how close (or how far away) the organisation”s intranet is from the leadership position.

I don”t want to create the impression that this report is only for large global organisations. Intranet managers in smaller organisations, often working on the intranet part-time, will find much to encourage and inspire them in this report. As the StepTwo Intranet Innovation Awards illustrate, intranet excellence is about vision, user-focus and execution, and not necessarily technology and the number of pages.

I honestly don”t think it is possible to write a 2011/2012 intranet strategy without using this report as a baseline. Of course there will be a requirement to undertake user research, but even then this report will help you decide where this research needs to be carried out. If your organisation feels unable to invest $750 in the report (the base price) then by definition the organisation fails to see the value of the intranet, and also fails to regard information as a corporate asset.