Your bad intranet sucks. You need help. But there’s not a lot of people with intranet expertise; even fewer dedicated intranet consultants.
The few intranet consultants exist come in only a few shades and colors:
- Interactive or digital agency that may have worked on one or two intranets, usually in tandem with a greater website or ecommerce initiative (common; low intranet expertise)
- Freelance intranet consultant that is part communications consultant or part IT consultant and likely managed a corporate intranet in some capacity and is now an contractor (more rare; better specialized skills though focused on either the business or IT side)
- Intranet agency – dedicated and focused on intranets (very rare; specialized intranet experience, usually focused on reselling one software solution such as SharePoint)
Like intranets, not all intranet consultants are created equal. An intranet redesign, or a brand new intranet, requires an exceedingly high work load that usually requires months, or often, years. The average intranet redesign requires 12 to 18 months. Perhaps more in larger organizations (or much less if you choose a hosted, out-of-the box solution). Additionally, if you decide to build or rebuild the intranet, who will be minding the store?
Hiring an intranet consultant will free-up the necessary time to stay on top of the day-to-day job such as the daily news, benefits enrollment, new application rollouts, etc. Consultants also bring years of experience, best practices, and top-line skills. However, of course, they cost money.
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