Introduction

There is now good evidence from both the report Global Intranet Trends1 and from the work of the Nielsen Norman Group that, ideally, there should be one full-time intranet manager for every 3000 users of the intranet. Most organizations would see this as an unattainable and unrealistic target at a time when they are making efforts to reduce employee numbers in an attempt to reduce costs. However, these organizations fail to recognize not only the role that the intranet manager plays in ensuring that the intranet is fit for purpose, but also that there is a distinct role of ‘intranet manager’. Indeed, in many organizations the ‘intranet manager’ may well have additional tasks and a job title that does not reflect the work they do in managing the intranet.

It does not help that there is no professional organization to represent intranet managers, there is no structured training for intranet managers that would lead to some form of certification, and there is no obvious career path for an intranet manager. If the numbers of people with intranet management roles were small, this might be an acceptable situation, but the reality is different. In the UK, CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, has a membership of around 20,000. With at least 50,000 intranets in the UK it is quite possible that there are more intranet managers (either full time or part time) than there are information professionals. The situation is probably similar in many other countries. Even in the USA there is no association for intranet professionals.

Hopefully, this situation will change. Certainly the advent of many informal groups of intranet managers is helping to establish good practice, and from their meetings intranet managers are able to gain ideas that they can use in their own organizations. From my attendance at these meetings, it is clear that many intranet managers tend to find themselves in their posts almost by accident. When a vacancy occurred they just happened to be able to take on the responsibility, and now enjoy the work that the position requires. However, many are now wondering how to develop their careers.