ARL Intranet Analysis

and Development Study

by Dana L. Ulery

prepared by

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, Georgia 30332

under contract

DAK-Fll-97-D-0001

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
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c

,

,

The findings in this report are not to be construed as an official

Department of the Army position unless so designated by other

authorized documents.

Citation of manufacturer’s or trade names does not constitute an

official endorsement or approval of the use thereof.

Destroy this report when it is no longer needed. Do not return

it to the originator.
Abstract

We analyze the concept and practice of l&anets used in midsize and large enterprises,

focusing on their use and impact within research and development (R&D) organizations. We

examine the shift from the old concept of business computing to the modern concept of

enterprise computing, and consider Jntranets- a class of enterprise computing-relative to

enterprise computing trends. By analyzing in detail some case studies selected from the

literature, on-site visits, and workshop discussions, we then offer three tools to frame the critical

issues and provide structure for systematically constructing strategic Intranets specific to a given

organization’s mission and culture. Arguing that creation of an Intranet that projects an image

of a world-class organization demands no less than a world-class enterprise that is strategically

enabled through information technology, we then analyze the current U.S. Army Research

Laboratory (ARL) Intranet and present a three-step action plan to expedite ARL’s movement

toward creation of such an Intranet.

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Table of Contents

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1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. R&D Enterprise Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3. Case Studies From the Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3.1 Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Energy Systems.. .......... 7

3.2 The Naval Undersea Warfare Center .................................................................. 8

4. Case Studies From Site Visits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

4.1 PricewaterhouseCoopers ..................................................................................... 9

4.2 EDS ..................................................................................................................... 13

5. Key Learnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

6. A Process for Developing Strategic Intranets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

7. Classes of Intranets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

8. ARL Intranet Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

8.1 Background ......................................................................................................... 20

8.2 Current State........................................................................................................ 22

8.3 Strengths and Weaknesses .................................................................................. 22

Intranet Development Plan for ARL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 9.

10. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Distribution List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Report Documentation Page ,................................................................................. 35

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1. Introduction

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Intranets are emerging rapidly. Intranet technology is the fastest-growing computer

technology within the past 2 years, and leading organizations worldwide are rushing to use

Intranets as tools for business improvement and as agents of organizational change, with varying

degrees of success. Intranet objectives and implementations run the gamut from simple, lowcost tactical Web pages to ambitious, strategic corporate systems. One no longer needs to be a

visionary to recognize that Web technology can be a powerful enabler of internal enterprise

management. Yet, according to Dave Whitten, Vice President of the Gartner Group, the biggest

mistake in creating Intranets is in failing to align them with clear business objectives

(Whitten 1997). While the task of aligning an Intranet with clear business objectives appears

straightforward, quite the opposite is true.

In the first place, business objectives are typically framed in terms of external results that

impact the organization. A typical business objective might be to be the number one producer of

XY widgets worldwide, as measured by number of sales. Since an Intranet is a closed

environment for use internal to an enterprise, alignment of externally oriented business

objectives to an Intranet is complex and uncharted. Expected internal results are typically

defined in secondary terms such as metrics, policies, and procedures. How these secondary

terms line up with an enterprise’s stated business objectives is frequently poorly understood by

the workforce.

A second major factor concerns the culture and “Corporate image” that management

typically would like an Intranet to reinforce or change. While Corporate culture is frequently

discussed, it is rarely explicitly defined by the internal enterprise. The Corporate image is

typically defined as part of an overarching marketing strategy directed at selling products to

customers. The application of Web technology to external marketing issues is currently a hotbed

of Internet research and development (R&D). R&D for applying Web technology to internal

marketing and culture change issues to create Intranets has received much less attention.

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A recurring theme among visionary researchers is that the impact of information technology

in the knowledge age is revolutionary and pervasive. Its effect extends to every aspect of

business, research and development. Fernando Flores (1997), asked by the Association of

Computing Machinery to speak about the future of the next 50 years of business and computing,

states that “business is all about communication.” The top business consultant and workflow

software pioneer continues to say that cyberspace is

. . . not a technological revolution. It is a change in the way human beings relate.

We human beings are essentially relationships. Changing these relationships, we

are going to also change the way we work, and the way we do business. Then we

need to investigate how social relations are changing in business, and how

technology is affecting this, and vice-versa. But this change extends further than

business. We are also changing the way that we relate with ourselves.

Intranets are the very embodiment of the cyberspace revolution that Flores talks about. It

should be no surprise that wide variation of Intranets exists, with little agreement regarding

purpose, scope, or content even within a single enterprise sector. A successful Intranet project is

one whose implementation matches expectations. In the R&D sector, expectations range from

enablers of sweeping, strategic change to limited, tactical tools. The same is true in all enterprise

sectors today. Leaders in the strategic use of Intranets to achieve critical enterprise goals are

emerging in various sectors.

The goal of the Harvard Business School (HBS) Intranet is to enrich the learning

environment by putting course material online and making assignments, schedules, and research

tools readily accessible to students. Reporting about its progress in CIO Magazine

(Santosus 1998), HE3S Dean Kim Clark clearly considers the school’s efforts to be successful.

The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), Newport Division, also uses its Intranet to

enhance classroom learning, but the primary role of the NUWC Intranet, according to Division

Commander Captain Stephen Logue (Kahn 1998), is “to do more with less.” Driven by severe

budget reductions, NUWC uses its Intranet to streamline its purchasing process and to enable a

culture shift toward more information sharing. As a result, the NUWC Intranet had many

hurdles to overcome that the HBS Intranet never faced.

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The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), like NUWC, is looking to its Intranet to help do

more with less. At the same time, ARL sees the potential to utilize its Intranet as a knowledge

enabler and a business reinvention enabler. Along these lines, some simple, but tough, questions

come to mind. How do you create an Intranet that projects an immediate sense of a world-class

R&D organization? How do you utilize an Intranet strategically and still motivate scientists and

engineers to use it?

To answer these questions, we must decide what it means to be “world-class” in this context.

Some basic assumptions about a world-class R&D organization are that it is recognized

internationally, is technically competent, is internally well run, and applies state-of-the-art

technology and best practices to perform an excellent job for its customers. In the context of an

Intranet, the focus is on applying state-of-the-art information technology and best practices to

create and implement an Intranet that strategically and effectively furthers the internal goals of

the enterprise. Thus, to answer these questions, we must also answer a third question: How do

you create a world-class Intranet?

The literature makes it apparent that these three questions raise a number of issues, some of

which this report seeks to address. Specific goals of the study are to (1) clarify the distinctions

among business computing, enterprise computing, and Intranets and identify latest trends;

(2) investigate case studies from the literature and on-site visits; (3) against those findings,

identify key leamings, define a process model for developing strategic Intranets, and formulate

some trial Intranet classes to distinguish key characteristics and issues; and (4) with sharper

definitions in place, identify what ARL has in place and suggest ways it might move forward to

meet ARL’s objectives.

2. R&D Enterprise Computing

Intranets are part of the class of computing called enterprise computing. This general area

was formerly called business computing, as distinguished from scientific computing.

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Historically, business computing referred to administrative financial and human resource

applications used to automate line-of-business processes. These typically were justified by

displacing people Tom business administration functions and were run on centralized

mainframes accessible only to the Corporate information technology (IT) function and the

administrative specialists. In most organizations, and especially in R&D organizations, business

computing was viewed as a necessary but not very exciting housekeeping activity, with little

direct relevance to most people’s primary mission.

Today, management and IT researchers view enterprise computing much more broadly. The

well-known management visionary, Peter Drucker (1998), describes ttio new paradigms that

significantly impact enterprise computing: (1) The distinction between business and nonbusiness

organizations and their processes is quite artificial; and (2) In the current knowledge age, the new

basic resource common to all enterprises is information. He states that “whether you are

managing a software company, a hospital, a bank or a Boy Scout organization, the differences

apply to only about 10% of your work. This 10% is determined by the organization’s specific

mission, its specific culture, its specific history, and its specific vocabulary. The rest is pretty

much interchangeable.” Thus, any process required to achieve the enterprise mission is a

business process, and enterprise computing includes business computing in this sense.

Moreover, Drucker points out that “information does not pertain to any specific industry or

business. Information also does not have any one end-use nor does any one end-use require a

particular kind of information.” This is radically different from the traditional assumption “that a

unique technology pertains to every industry and that every end-use is supplied by a specific and

unique product or service.” The new enterprise computing and the concept of information as a

basic resource are tightly bound. Both are mission-critical in new, uncharted, and far-reaching

ways.

Enterprise computing has increasingly focused on delivering knowledge applications, such as

communication and collaboration, to the organization through Intranets. New research is

underway to better understand the impact of Intranets on organizational knowledge creation,

organizational memory, and organizational decision-making (Scott 1998; Sridhar 1998).

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Peter Senge (1994) extends the concept of knowledge applications by suggesting that enterprise

computing include “microworlds” on a personal computer that provide information from diverse

sources and the capability to experimentally “integrate learning about complex team interactions

with learning about complex business interactions. These new microworlds allow groups to

reflect on, expose, test, and improve the mental models upon which they rely in facing difficult

problems.” From a technology perspective, Senge is describing an integration of data

warehousing technology, decision support technology, and Intranet technology.

Another major area of enterprise computing is global enterprise resource planning (ERP)

systems. Complex and expensive ERP systems, available from vendors such as Baan, Oracle,

PeopleSoft, and SAP, include business applications such as procurement, payroll, accounting,

and human resource management. Most of these are not yet Web-accessible. According to

Ameet Pate1 (1998), the survival of these products depends on whether or not they will be able to

extend these applications into the emerging areas of Intranets and commercial Web-based

processes. Organizations deploy ERP systems to standardize industry business practices across

the enterprise and in so doing more effectively manage the enterprise as a whole. Another

motivation is to reduce costs by eliminating inefficient and redundant systems. Although many

companies claim that they cannot compete without ERP systems (Kay 1998), the problems and

costs of implementing and deploying these systems are great. Anil Gupta, Baan vice president,

notes that “ERP is not a technological implementation. It’s change management, which is about

people, processes, procedures, and new ways of doing things, which are always more taxing.”

Retallick (1998) discusses the central role of data in business knowledge sharing and

identifies four requirements for enterprise knowledge sharing. Enterprise computing data are of

two types: (1) structured and (2) unstructured. Usually, data used for business process

applications such as procurement are structured and stored in a database or application-specific

store that is organizationally managed. Unstructured data, such as text documents, are more

common to knowledge applications and are often dispersed and managed by individual users

who see themselves as the “owners” of the data. To share not only product or process

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knowledge, but also knowledge about what is going on in an enterprise, four requirements must

be met:

.

(1) An integrated suite of business applications that are “married” with knowledge

applications so that they trigger actions and know about other areas of business.

(2) A consistent user interface for common applications, such

applications, that is accessible to everyone in the enterprise.

as calendars and business

other, less research-oriented, organizations. The major differences between R&D enterprise

computing and that of other organizations are the omission of certain sector-specific functions,

such as industry manufacturing practices, and the primary focus on R&D. Since the principal

product of R&D is knowledge, the current trend in enterprise computing toward knowledge

applications and knowledge sharing is especially propitious.

(3) Formal and informal workflow applications for use by everyone in the enterprise.

(4) A system to manage the workload of information suppliers, such as “help-desk”

workers.

Brown and Duguid (1998) of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center make the point that the

production of knowledge-a subject of particular interest to people in R&D-is a social process,

and somehow that social process must be brought together with the technological knowledge

processes, not replaced by them. Many of the emerging knowledge technologies are proving

most effective when used in an inclusive, rather than exclusive, way with other human-oriented

processes.

R&D enterprise computing can encompass most of the enterprise functions automated by

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3. Case Studies From the Literature

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The case studies in this section and the next come from two sources: (1) the literature and

(2) personal site visits. By definition, R&D Intranets are closed systems. For that reason, the

degree of detail available in the literature about another organization’s Intranet implementation

and its impact is lirnited. Fortunately, site visits to IBM/Lotus, Cognitive Communications,

EDS, and PricewaterhouseCoopers have provided rich benchmarks for this project.

3.1 Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Energy Systems. Oak Ridge

National Laboratory (ORNL) and Lockheed Martin Energy Systems (LMES) are part of a

public/private cooperative venture located on three campuses in eastern Tennessee. ONRL,

established during the Manhattan Project in 1942, comes from a culture of secrecy, high security,

and compounds surrounded by barbed wire and guarded gates. The introduction of an Intranet

and its attendant Web-based culture of openness has presented ONRULMES with more cultural

challenges than technology challenges (Slater 1996). It started as a grass roots effort by

scientists and engineers who recognized that they could use the technology to accelerate their

research through faster communication and shared access to large data sets. Applications of all

sorts, most aimed at achieving collaboration with other researchers, have appeared. Examples

include a system that lets employees maintain information about property assigned to them, a

locator system that lets employees update their personal contact information, and Web access to

data in some of ORNuLMES’s legacy research databases. Researchers have been particularly

interested in examples using the Intranet to participate remotely in .experiments that involve

manipulation of visual images. Although the ORNL Director, Alvlin Trivelpiece, and the central

IT department gave the group working on the project a lot of encouragement, they provided no

organizational resources or funding for the effort. Departmental and divisional management

have been resistant, viewing the work as nonessential. In addition, many managers and

employees continue to view information as job security and, in a time of downsizing, see an

Intranet as a threat. To overcome this resistance, Intranet supporters launched a sequence of

educational activities that culminated in June 1998 in Web Week, an internal symposium to

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highlight recent developments in the ORNIJLMES’s Intranet and Internet. The results were

mixed-enthusiasts found it very useful, but it received little management support.

3.2 The Naval Undersea Warfare Center. The NUWC Intranet, mentioned earlier in this

report, was launched as a Corporate cost saving measure with strong commitment and direction

from Division Commander CPT Stephen Logue (Kahn 1998). Since 1994, the NUWC budget

has shrunk from $1.2 billion to $750 million, and since 1992, overall headcount has shrunk by

nearly one third. At the same time, it has had to absorb staff from three other bases. Newport

had a major technological advantage, however, since more than 90% of their 3,000 employees

have networked computers on their desktops and about two thirds of the employees are engineers

and scientists that take quickly to new technology.

A major Intranet success at NUWC is the “IntraMart,” an application that provides a direct

link to Office Depot’s private Web site and lets NUWC users do just-in-time purchasing with

direct delivery. The head of NUWC’s commercial acquisitions department, using ideas he saw

at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA), introduced a government bankcard process and established the

necessary customer-supplier relationship that enabled the center to successfully implement the

purchasing function as a Web application for end-users. The initial project has recently been

expanded to automatically check available funding and provide records of the purchases.

NUWC also uses its Intranet to provide access to various Corporate legacy databases, such as

an equipment database and an employee phone list, and to post the weekly reports that

CPT Logue sends to supervision. The open access to information has created the main hurdle, in

a culture where information has always heretofore been a source of power. Although the

purchasing system also faced resistance from the purchasing and finance functionals, the

enthusiasm of the end-users and management assurances that the new system increased

accountability helped to overcome this barrier.

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4. Case Studies From Site Visits

4.1 PricewaterhouseCoopers. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) was formed in July

1998 by the merger of Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse and is now the largest

professional services firm in the world with over 150,OO employees in over 100 countries. Its

Intranet, called KnowledgeCurve, is the central ‘communications and knowledge-sharing tool for

PricewaterhouseCoopers and is the “home” for all of its internal Web-based initiatives.

KnowledgeCurve was begun in the United States in December 1995 to support the

Corporate-wide deployment of a Web browser to employee’s desktops. It was developed by the

Knowledge Strategies Group in cooperation with the Strategic Technology Group and the

Marketing and Communications Group in Coopers & Lybrand. By April 1997, it was fully

operational in the U.S. firm and was named among InfonnutionWeek’s 25 most Innovative

Intranets in 1996 and 1997. Global expansion was chartered in June 1997. Today,

KnowledgeCurve is viewed as a tool to support the efforts of the Chairman’s office, and as a

major supporter of the merger process. According to Tracy Beverly, PricewaterhouseCooper’s

Global Director of Intranet Services (1998), one major objective for KnowledgeCurve is to

support rapid integration of the two organizations by:

l Contributing toward communication of PricewaterhouseCooper

standards.

values, culture and

. Stimulating innovation and growth by leveraging both firms’ investments in knowledge

management and technology.

l Connecting people and build communities across lines of service, industries, and

geographies.

l Integrating a firm-wide body of content in a single place, regardless of underlying

technology.

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l Providing a timely and efficient delivery vehicle for information and communication.

Other KnowledgeCurve objectives are also described in terms of what they will do for the

business, not in technology or functional terms. Current objectives include:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Create value through a knowledge management Intranet.

Support quick access to resources of the global firm.

Keep up-to-date in a rapidly changing environment.

Work smartly.

Support dynamic internal communications globally.

Facilitate virtual communities.

Link a network of experts.

Stimulate continuous learning.

Save time and money via the virtual office.

Unify a variety of technology and content.

Each objective is achieved through a variety of technology and content solutions, some of

which overlap. Applications such as travel and subscription management are viewed as part of

the virtual office. These applications are just being introduced in the upcoming version and only

provide forms that can be downloaded-no workflow applications are integrated with the

Intrariet.

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The PricewaterhouseCooper Intranet is based on Lotus Notes/Domino. The foundation for

an Intranet began in Coopers in the 198Os, when email and discussion groups became

widespread. This planted the seeds of a sharing culture. In the late ‘8Os, Notes was used as the

technology base for these functions. When the Intranet was launched in 1995, it was very basic,

providing simple functions such as news, user information, and a guide to Corporate resources.

The first major change occurred in 1997, following extensive usability testing and redesign. A

lot of content was added at that time, and the Intranet was moved to a Notes/Domino server. In

September of this year, another major usability testing initiative was launched. Focus groups

were set up and interviews were conducted, yielding increased awareness among end-users and

the input necessary for the 1998 redesign now in progress.

A number of initiatives have been put in place to motivate employees to use

KnowledgeCurve. The most successful of these is giving cash bonuses as a reward for

participating. Plans include putting Intranet participation into people’s job descriptions and

developing new role models. Management wants to replace the current “cowboy” role model

(the worker who stays all night and successfully solves a tough technical problem on his own)

with a new role model that rewards the worker who goes home to family and community at night

and uses the Intranet to collaboratively work out problems during work hours. A Champions

Program was launched a year ago to motivate Intranet participants. They currently have

200 champions in this program “Fun” things are also included in the Intranet, such as

information on favorite vacation sites, to draw users.

Creation of the Intranet has involved a lot of R&D. Coopers, along with Hewlett-Packard,

was one of the earliest companies trying to develop an enterprise-wide Intranet and continues to

be a recognized industry leader in this area. About 50 people globally in Corporate IT, including

library services people, are assigned to this project. They do not have responsibility for the

Intranet infrastructure. Most of the content is third-party content, paid for on a charge-back

basis. Internal content is coordinated by IT but produced and owned by the people who need it

to do their jobs. KnowledgeCurve also provides many pertinent external links, saving

professionals the time and effort needed to find and evaluate such links.

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KnowledgeCurve is content-rich, with a large quantity of third-party content. The most used

area of KnowledgeCurve is its “Research Center, ” which receives 35%~40% of the hits. The

Research Center provides third-party content and evaluated external links that are highly relevant

to employees jobs. Examples of KnowledgeCurve content include:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Who’s Who, leadership profiles.

News and events.

Top business news, press releases, and client news.

Employee benefit information.

Web development tools.

Service and industry descriptions.

Client and competitor information, including projects done for clients and personalized

folders.

Stock presentations for clients, recruits, and suppliers.

People directories.

Policies and procedures.

Discussion groups and feedback.

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KnowledgeCurve also provides a content architecture whose design structure is based on

content use. Personal profiles of individuals are kept for purposes of targeting KnowledgeCurve

content.

4.2 EDS. Despite heavy involvement in helping other organizations build knowledge

management systems, including the U.S. Army, EDS is just beginning its own Intranet creation.

A small, local grassroots FY98 knowledge management start-up, funded by $130k of Corporate

seed money, has resulted in FY99 funding of $3.2 million to extend the work and provide

training to the entire workforce. Although Corporate IT has developed a limited Intranet, the

knowledge management start-up is a local project with no linkage to the Corporate Intranet.

Similar stand-alone initiatives within specific EDS business units is common. For example, the

EDS technical community of about 35,000 people maintains TechLore Page, with no linkage to

the Corporate Intranet. Apparently, EDS is only now. starting to consider a consistent enterprise

strategy for the Corporate Intranet. Currently, Strategic Business Units decide for themselves

whether or not to use Web technology to help them run their internal business and are under no

mandate to align such efforts with a strategic Corporate effort.

The knowledge management start-up project is focused on creating collaborative

communities within EDS. Anyone interested in participating in an ad hoc knowledge

management team is given funding to travel to a team meeting, then is expected to help develop

a team Web page. Current knowledge management content includes reports of team activities,

contact information, Web tools, and some “fun” items such as the Kiersey Temperament Sorter.

The goal of the project was to demonstrate the concept and “sell” the idea of a knowledge-based

organization to management. The next phase will be to develop some formal processes for

individual Web pages, extend participation and concept education, and link this initiative to other

Corporate initiatives. This project appears to be aimed more at team building and collaborative

work processes than at building an enterprise-wide Intranet.

The TechLore Home Page is one of the most popular local Intranets within EDS. The

technical community formed a team that established the following content categories:

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Cooperative Work Technologies.

Certifications.

Emerging Technology.

Desktop Applications.

Information Management.

Software Development.

Capability Management.

Infrastructure.

Contributions/Discussions.

The Capability Management section contains rich project information that takes a user to

varied materials associated with a given project, such as documents, processes, and experts. That

section also allows individuals to self-select areas of interest and their level of expertise in those

areas. Each category has a “gatekeeper” assigned to decide if the individual has self-selected

correctly. One of the major problems has been the amount of “junk” contributed to this Intranet,

since everyone is free to contribute anything. The technical community decided to self-police by

having each subcategory post an expiration date and a user “owner,” responsible ,for controlling

content. Corporate IT checks activity on these pages, and if it is low, Corporate IT goes to the

“owner” for permission to delete those pages.

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5. Key Learnings

A number of key findings emerge from case studies in the literature, the on-site visits, and

the “Developing an Effective Knowledge Management Intranet Workshop” that the author

participated in on 4-5 November 1998 in New York, NY. Other workshop participants included

managers from BellSouth Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., Prudential, Volkswagen of America,

Caterpillar, Dofasco Steel, Mitretek Systems, and U.S. the Army Edgewood Research

Development and Engineering Center (ERDEC).

Central to many learnings is the observation that an Intranet is both an exceptional enabler

and an unrivaled magnifier of realities in the enterprise. It is not the technology to use if people

want to hide behind political curtains. If the value of information determines power in an

organization, then the information architecture is not a technical document-it is a political map.

The Intranet that implements that architecture therefore becomes a political instrument.

Eight key leamings should be seriously contemplated when planning for a strategic Intranet:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Clear business objectives and how the Intranet will help achieve them should be

articulated prior to creating an Intranet.

Top management commitment, resource allocation, and communication to motivate the

workforce is essential.

Policies and procedures that reinforce desired workplace behavior and information

ownership should be in place before the Intranet project begins; otherwise, the decisions

leading to these policies and procedures will appear to be very political.

Each stage of an Intranet project should be very focused, resulting in short-term, visible

success.

15
(5) Clear measures of success should be established prior to starting anIntranet project and

communicated to those responsible for meeting these metrics.

(6) Metrics should evolve with the Intranet and be formally updated and communicated.

(7) An ample supply of job-relevant content should be provided from internal, external, and

third-party sources and should be organized to enable rapid, focused subject-matter

research.

(8) All other Intranet features and issues, including visual and technical design and content,

are secondary to and dependent on the first six items.

These learnings appeared in all sectors and seemed to apply to all organizations

more people.

with 50 or

6. A Process for Developing Strategic Intranets

This section defines a process model for developing strategic Intranets that is based on the

project-proven process used by Cognitive Communications, an industry leader in Intranet

strategy. Cognitive Communications has used various steps in its process to develop successful

Intranets for leading Global 200 companies such as Xerox Part, General Motors, Mastercard

International, and Andersen Consulting (Weiner 1998).

The process model is designed to ensure that the enterprise Intranet supports and embodies

the Corporate vision for that enterprise. This can happen only if Corporate business objectives

are clearly articulated and translated into focused projects whose impact can be measured.

The Strategic Intranet Process Model includes 14 steps:

16
(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

Assess, or confirm, the business need for an Intranet and commitment from top

management.

Articulate clear business objectives to meet the business need.

Identify process changes and behavioral changes that must happen to attain the business

objectives.

Identify content and processes the Intranet needs to include to meet the business

objectives.

Determine who currently “owns” the processes and content and if any ownership change

is needed.

Put in place Intranet policies, procedures, metrics, and incentives needed to effect

desired changes. Communicate these to the workforce.

Identify focused, short-term Intranet projects with a high potential for success.

Prioritize Intranet projects.

Develop a tactical roadmap for the top Intranet project:

l Create a content architecture.

l Develop metrics.

l Develop incentives for workforce to use it.

l Develop a deployment plan.

17
Attain the required level of funding and personnel to ensure project success.

Design and develop the Intranet application.

Deploy.

Provide ongoing support and help.

Evaluate results, refine steps l-8 as required, and repeat steps 9-14.

Development of the Intranet is treated as a project. The first steps in the process are aimed at

putting in place the groundwork required to align the project with business goals and provide the

business infrastructure needed to enable cultural change. The actual building of the technology

solution does not occur until step 11 of this process. Without clear articulation of goals, policies,

and process ownership, it is impossible to create an Intranet design to embody the Corporate

vision. As an example of this, if content and process ownership follows the formal

organizational structure, then so must the Intranet information structure. A different, perhaps

more user-oriented, information structure would in this case lead to power struggles and other

political ownership issues.

7. Classes of Intranets

Teasing the varied meanings of Intranet apart and differentiating the key attributes are not

easy tasks. The only agreed-upon meaning is that an Intranet is a Web-based system for use

internal to an organization. “Intranet” is a word that takes on a different context and meaning in

the eyes of every beholder.

What are some attributes that would clarify important distinctions needed to compare and

contrast Intranets? Is the Intranet from one case study so different IYom that of another case

18
study as to make a comparison meaningless.7 Are the differences and similarities mainly due to

the enterprise sector or mainly due to other factors?

Telleen (1998) uses level and scope of expectations to define an Intranet and best determine a

planning approach. He separates expectations into existential visions and referential visions.

Existential visions are those that expect an enterprise to change the way it does business or even

the business itself. Referential visions are those that expect an enterprise to make existing

processes faster or more efficient. Existential visions generally focus on the development of

people and organizations and define a set of referential goals in support of that development that

the visions want the Intranet to support. Expectations based on referential visions generally are

more technically focused, looking for the Intranet to Web-enable existing applications and

processes to make them less expensive and more user liiendly.

The media frequently use the concept of generation to categorize Intranets. First-generation

Intranets typically refer to a single networked system that provides internal email throughout an

enterprise. Second and third generations loosely refer to extensions of the first generation that

evolve from applications addressing a single narrow business process or a single site to multiple,

but limited, applications. The term “fourth generation” is now used to describe Intranets that

support broad operational applications or advanced knowledge management.

Case studies of ambitious, fourth-generation Intranets show that as Intranets evolve,

expectations become hybrids of Telleen’s existential and referential visions. Interestingly, the

case studies also make plain the fact that similarities are greater than differences across

enterprise sectors. The major factors that differentiate one Intranet from another are

functionality, scope, and complexity. Similar expectations are sometimes translated into very

different functionalities, resulting in Intranets that face very different organizational, political,

and technical issues.

Herein, we distinguish seven Intranet classes to differentiate Intranets in terms of function:

19
(1) Information storage and distribution.

(2) Information access and analysis.

(3) Collaborative Workgroup functions.

(4) Self-service workflow functions.

(5) A one-stop enterprise computing interface.

(6) Education administration and distribution.

(7) Knowledge sharing.

These provide the classification structure needed to systematically plan and architect a strategic

Intranet. They will be particularly useful applied to some of the process steps defined in

section 4, especially steps 4 and 8.

8. ARL Intranet Analysis

8.1 Background. Some parts of the ARL enterprise have had a network infrastructure in

place since the 198Os, and have used that infrastructure to make email and electronic documents

part of the everyday work environment since that time. Other parts of the enterprise were slower

to use network technologies such as FTP and TCP but had email capabilities in place by the end

of that decade. By the late ‘8Os, many ARL researchers felt at home with some aspects of

transferring files, using email to distribute notices, and obtaining information from electronic

public directories. In the early ‘9Os, when distributed Army R&D laboratories were brought

together organizationally to form ARL, the various cultures ranged from users who were

computer-shy to local experts developing IT tools to automate special group or site processes and

using multiple languages and platforms. The multiplicity of electronic processes and

20
applications was a barrier to moving the diverse cultures toward a common vision. ARL-wide

communication was dysfunctional, and the Office of the Director had no way to harness IT to

help manage the enterprise. By the mid-‘90s, the situation worsened as Defense resources were

severely cut and the operational staff that had provided many of the day-to-day services

manually were severely reduced.

At the end of 1996, the Corporate Information and Computing Center (CICC) was formed as

part of a major ARL business realignment. Two major responsibilities assigned to this center

were:

(1) Use IT to streamline ARL business processes.

(2) Enable internal business operations to be conducted over an ARL Intranet.

Work on an enterprise information architecture began early in 1997, and the first ARL

Intranet was launched in April 1997. The fast Intranet was very different from the one in place

today. It was very basic, including a news section, brief announcements of the forthcoming

automated purchasing and travel systems, access to a local “locator” phone database at

headquarters, and some user information and support.

Enterprise Systems Division @SD), the part of CICC responsible for creating the Intranet,

was established as an eight-person division. Only five of these were technical staff. The

high-priority tasks for the division in 1997 were (1) to create an enterprise IT architecture and

(2) to develop an automated workflow system to be used ARL-wide for small purchases.

The ARL Intranet, named ARLinside, was designed primarily to give Web-access to ARL

workflow systems. The complete vision for the Intranet was grand-it would be the single entry

point for all enterprise computing throughout ARL. However, with low priority and virtually no

available technical resources or funding, the first version was built as a prototype to demonstrate

the concept and its potential. As part of the launching of the Intranet project, ESD published the

21
Intranet Standards and Guidelines document detailing standard procedures

required for process owners to post content information on the Intranet (David, to

and processes

be published).

8.2 Current State. ARLinside Version 5 is a major change from the first version. It has

moved to a new production server, tests new features on a dedicated development server, and has

added a considerable amount of internally generated content. It dynamically displays a “What’s

Hot” section and a “What’s New” section, to let users be up-to-the-minute with ARL Dispatches,

the AFZ Calendar, and major new application releases. It gives the workforce Web access to a

newly developed Corporate “phonebook,” new applications for purchasing and personnel job

description formulation, plus access to two Technical Library site pages and many Chief of Staff

(COS) content pages. From both a technical and content point of view, it is a maturing Intranet.

.

Although usage continues to increase, participation and usage by researchers is far less than

desired.

8.3 Strengths and Weaknesses. ARLinside is strongest in areas aligned with its initial and

primary objective: to provide Web-access to traditional “business” computing. In ARL, this had

meant access to procedures and processes typically performed by the COS organization as

services to support research.

It is weakest in areas aligned directly with the laboratory’s research mission. There is very

little job-related, subject-matter content to attract researchers to use the site routinely. The few

third-party content links that are available on ARLinside are not easily found because content is

primarily organized not by subject but by internal offices that “own” the content. No process is

in place to identify objectives or to motivate use of the Intranet by researchers. The primary

participants are the service organizations, largely because the inclusion of many COS content

pages is mandatory.

ARLinside has been forced to start with a fourth-generation approach of providing

enterprise-level access to workflow automation. These applications, among the most difficult

22
and costly to achieve, have little appeal to most of the workforce. Unfortunately, multiple

processes at various sites were not standardized or reengineered before the automation was

delivered. As a result, the software is too often seen as part of a problem instead of as a solution.

Tim Woisin, Director of Information Management at Compaq Computer Corporation, states that

“All of our IT enterprise failures have been because we have been unable to get global agreement

on a single process” (Woisin 1998). ARLinside, by design, is intimately associated with these

high-risk workflow projects.

Another major problem is that the ARL Intranet continues to be severely underfunded and

understaffed relative to expectations for its performance. Only 5% of the ESD budget is

designated for the Intranet project directly, and this is used primarily for Intranet technical

support and maintenance. No funding has been provided for strategic planning and motivation

of the workforce.

Despite these problems, the case studies reveal that ARLinside is a leading-edge Intranet.

Only a few enterprises have developed the fourth-generation concept of a Web-accessible, single

user-interface to enterprise computing. In most enterprises today, business computing and group

collaboration applications are still separated by technological and organizational structures. Data

warehouse initiatives and Intranets are rarely discussed in the same breath. This is changing

rapidly, however, as Intranet leaders continue to grow and publicize their feats. The challenge

for ARL is to retain its Intranet vision while championing its early accomplishments and

sharpening the development focus to match resource realities.

9. Intranet Development Plan for ARL

The ARL Intranet was created to provide Web access to a planned suite of operational

application software intended for use by all ARL sites. Since automation would mandate a new,

single process at all ARL sites that would be different from any currently in use, a major

objective of the Intranet was to market the new processes. This strategic, cost-saving objective

was expected to have resistance.

23
ARLinside has evolved from a limited, fuzzy concept to a viable, technically mature business

information infrastructure. In addition to the operational applications, it includes much

operational content and other applications. Some of these have potential for wide appeal. Most

have strategic goals in the “do-more-for-less” category.

The challenge for ARLinside to embody the vision of ARL as a world-class R&D enterprise

articulates a new expectation for ARL’s Intranet. The business objectives associated with this

expectation are undoubtedly different from the original set. The target audience is the research

community, not operational functionals.

This section recommends a plan to help ARL reap the benefits of the first Intranet project and

to develop a roadmap for the next-generation ARL Intranet. This plan draws upon the key

leamings of section 5, the process model defined in section 6, and the classes distinguished in

section 7 to address ways for ARLinside to project the image of a world-class R&D organization.

As noted earlier, in the context of an Intranet, to create the image of a world-class R&D

organization is to demonstrate a world-class Intranet. This takes direction, commitment, and

resources from the top as well as enthusiastic participation from the ranks.

The plan focuses on three primary actions:

Action #l. Broadly champion the existing ARL Intranet, build awareness of its strengths in

the ARL research community, and make highly visible additional, job-related,

third-party content.

Action #2. Apply the Strategic Intranet Process Model to systematically evaluate, refine,

grow, and migrate the current version of ARLinside to the desired

next-generation Intranet.

24
Action #3. Translate the business objectives articulated by action 2 into a focused Intranet

project that is expected to have an immediate, positive impact on the research

community and that can be successfully implemented in no more than 4 months.

Action #l builds on work already accomplished but not broadly recognized or utilized. A

world-class Intranet needs enthusiastic, participating users. ARL suffers from a common

predicament, well described by Lew McCreary, Editor-in-Chief of WebMaster Magazine

(McCreary 1997): “With Jntranets, market laws still apply-notwithstanding the captive user

base. Just because you build it doesn’t necessarily mean they will come.” User training is the

first step. In most of the case studies reviewed for this report, the IT organization had

responsibility for IT (and, therefore, Itrtranet) training. When this function crosses

organizational lines, the complexities and barriers that arise need special attention. Training

alone, however, neither creates champions nor regular users. Some solutions to this problem

include giving users something they desperately need or want (i.e., “low-hanging fruit”), internal

marketing, and formal incentives.

To the research community, nothing is more important than job-related content. The ARL

Technical Library is the historical provider of such information. Currently, all commercially

provided content is found on the site technical library pages. The Jntranet offers an opportunity

to add value to accessing, searching, and presenting this information to researchers. In

particular, good Jntranet design can present the information in a way that reinforces business

objectives and makes it easier for the researcher to locate. This author recommends that ARL

adopt the U.K. Defense Evaluation and Research Agency knowledge management concept of

“Deep Storage.” Commercial and reference publications, archived customer and technical

reports, and published journals reside in electronic form in a Deep Storage repository rather than

being linked directly to “library” Web pages. The Deep Storage repository is accessible to the

Corporate Data Warehouse, which is in turn accessible to the Intranet. This architecture permits

the flexibility of design necessary to align the Iirtranet and its content to business objectives.

25
AI&inside has in place a small, but interested, group of participants that are the points of

contact for user content pages and work informally with the ARLinside Webmaster on technical

issues. This group might form the core for a champions program similar to one described by

Tracy Beverly, Global Director of Intranet Services for PricewaterhouseCooper (Beverly 1998).

They launched a highly visible Champions Program a year ago. They sent email and brochures

to 200 users of their Intranet announcing the start of the program and asked each to participate 1

hour per month as

participation as an

personal homepage

early testers of the planned new version. Each participant included this

objective on his/her performance evaluation, was permitted to put up a

on the Intranet, and was given access to a special Intranet discussion group

just for “champions.” The champions represented all areas and all levels in the firm. The

program was highly successful in marketing the new Intranet.

This author recommends that Action #2 be included as part of the CICC strategic planning

effort. This action should also build from successes of the past 2 years. One way to undertake

this action is to do formal usability testing in parallel with a Strategic Intranet Process Model

workshop.

Formal usability testing would provide an evaluation of the current Intranet and, at the same

time, build awareness. Small, narrow focus groups could be set up to evaluate and comment on

specific Intranet components and suggest improvements for next versions. Interviews with

individuals could serve the same purpose and, at the same time, provide an opportunity to

introduce new users to the system and to mentor new Intranet champions.

A Strategic Intranet Process Model workshop made up of a few key people could be used to

develop a plan for:

l Reviewing current state of steps l-7 of the Strategic Intranet Process Model.

l As appropriate, revising objectives and redirecting tactics related to steps

Strategic Intranet Process Model.

26

l-7 of the
l Defining a path forward for implementing steps 8 and 9 of the model for the

next-generation Intranet.

Action #3 cannot be successfully implemented until Actions #l and #2 are complete. When

that happens, there are a number of Web design methodologies that the project should consider.

As part of the new ARL Science and Technology Academic Recognition System (S.T.A.R.S.)

program, Tyrone Williams presented a Web development methodology this summer that extends

the methodology used for designing the current Intranet (Williams 1998). The methodology

presented adapts elements of classical software engineering methodology to Web-related

programming languages and technologies. other useful references are modeling tools described

by Arocena and Mendelzon (1998) and Takahashi (1998) and lessons learned fi-om the

University of Geogia Intranet project (Dennis 1998).

10. Conclusions

Intranets are rapidly becoming the centerpiece of the new R&D enterprise computing

phenomenon. The present analysis of government and leading industry Intranets reveals that the

Intranet of any modern enterprise serves as a relentless internal mirror of the organization and its

vision. It is as much political instrument as technological tool.

A second critical point of this analysis is that information and the processes that convert that

information into lmowleclge are corrnnon to all enterprises, regardless of the organization’s

specific mission. What is special about the R&D organization is the fact that its principal

product is knowledge. This has two important implications for an R&D organization: (1) It can

draw upon “best of breed” Intranet experiences from any type of organization in any sector; and

(2) An Intranet that provides knowledge management should be viewed as a “core” R&D

function.

The case studies presented show that some industry leaders are successfully using an Intranet

as a leadership tool to transform their enterprise into a knowledge-based organization. In each

27
case, this has happened through an evolutionary, planned process with strong financial, as well

as personal, commitment from the top of the organization. Bottom-up approaches work well to

awaken sleepy top management to the potential of an Intranet but appear to lead inevitably to a

costly, uncontrolled excess of information not focused on business needs. As a result, as an

Intranet matures and begins to tackle the thorny problems associated with the dynamic changes

needed to compete in today’s business climate, motivation of end-users becomes a major

challenge.

From the case studies and trends analyses, we have derived three tools to frame and clarify

the key issues and provide guidelines for their solution. Seven key learnings that are

business-sector independent and appear to be critical to the success of strategic Intranets

designed for midsize and large organizations have been identified. We have defined a 14-step

Strategic Intranet Process Model to provide a systematic method for applying these leamings to a

specific organization. This model ensures that the Intranet solution supports and embodies the

Corporate vision for that organization. We also have defined an Intranet classification structure

to be used in conjunction with the process model for planning and architecting a strategic.

Intranet. Used together, these tools can help bring the focus an organization needs to build a

strong relationship between its business goals, its information technology goals, and its culture.

We began by asking how you create an Intranet that projects an immediate sense of a worldclass R&D organization. A pivotal finding of this analysis is that an Intranet is a magnifier of

organizational realities. You create an Intranet that projects a world-class image when you

create a world-class enterprise that is strategically enabled through information technology.

Another finding that is critically relevant to answering this question is that it is essential for

an organization to clearly articulate its goals, policies, and ownership of processes in order to

create an Intranet design that embodies the Corporate vision. Unless that is done, political

factors and status quo organizational structures determine Intranet architecture and design. Any

attempt to design the Intranet in ways that change process and information ownership results in

power struggles.

28
Applying these findings specifically to the ARL Intranet shows that ARLinside is just one

step behind the Intranet leaders. The initial conceptual vision of ARLinside as an enabler of

“business computing” was particularly ambitious, resulting in an advanced, fourth-generation

Intranet concept but omitting alignment with other critical enterprise objectives. With its current

experience and technology base, the state-of-the-art perspective and tools presented here, and the

recent rapid expansion of available third-party content, ARLinside is well equipped to move

forward and become a leading R&D Intranet. We recommend a three-step action plan for

accelerating the migration of ARLinside from where it is today to where it wants to be. Action

#l will harvest the current Intranet. Action #2 will apply this study’s key learnings, Strategic

Intranet Process Model, and Intranet classification structure to develop a roadmap for the next

generation ARLinside. Action #3 will start the journey by identifying a focused, quickly

achievable Intranet project expected to have immediate and positive impact on the ARL research

community.

29
30
11. References

Arocena, G. O., and A. 0. Mendelzon. “Viewing WISs as Database Applications.”

Communications of the ACM, vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 101-102, July 1998.

Beverly, T. “Developing an Effective KM Intranet: A Case Study of PricewaterhouseCoopers.”

Workshop, PricewaterhouseCoopers, New York, NY, November 1997.

Brown, J. S., and P. Duguid. “Organizing Knowledge.” Knowledge Management, vol. 1, no.6,

pp. 6-9, June-July 1998.

David, J. “Intranet Standards and Guidelines.” Technical Report, U.S. Army Research

Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, to be published.

Dennis, A. R. “Lessons From Three Years of Web Development.” Communications of the

ACM, vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 112-113, July 1998.

Drucker, P. F. “Management’s New Paradigms.” Forbes, pp. 152-177,5 October1998

Flores, F. ‘The Impact of Information Technology on Business. Proceedings of the Sdh

Anniversary Conference of the Association for Computing Machinery, San Jose, CA,

4 March 1997.

Kahn, S. “Blue on Blue.” CIO Magazine, http://www.cio.corn/, 1 July 1998.

Kay, E. “Going Global with ERP.” Datamution, http://www.datatmation.com/, 1998.

McCreary, L. “Superior Interiors.” WebMaster, http://www.cio.com/arrchive/, August 1997.

Patel, A. “It Is the Dawning of Shrink-Wrapped Extranets.” Application Development Trends,

February 1998.

Retallick R., and S. Sanchez. “Enterprise Knowledge Sharing, Activity Management, and a

Fabric for Commitment.” IBM Systems Journal, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 189-199, 1998.

Santosus, M. “Wire Education.” CIO Magazine, http:l/www.cio.cornl, 1 October 1998.

Scott, J. E. “Organizational Knowledge and the Intranet.” Decision Support Systems, vol. 23,

pp. 3-17,1998.

Senge, P. M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization. New

York: Doubleday, 1994.

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Slater, D. Webmaster. Pp. 46-51, November 1996.

Sridhar, S. “Decision Support Using the Intranet.” Decision Support Systems, vol. 23,

pp. 19-28,1998.

Takahashi, K. “Metalevel Links: More Power to Your Links.” Communications of the ACM,

vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 103-105, July 1998.

Telleen, S. L. Intranet Organization. http://www.iorg.com/, 1998.

Weiner, S. Cognitive Communications Workshop. New York, NY, November 1998.

Whitten, D. “Inside Intranets.” The Future of IT: A Supplement to Forbes Magazine, Gartner

Group Report, http://www.forbes.com/specialsections/gartner/whitten.html, 1997.

Williams, T. S.T.A.R.S. Summer Presentation. U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Atlanta, GA,

August 1998.

Woisin, T. Private communication. November 1998.

32
NO. OF

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DEFENSE TECHNICAL 1 DIRECTOR

INFORMATION CENTER US ARMY RESEARCHLAB

DTIC DDA AMSRLD

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OSD

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RJTREW

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34
REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved

OMB No. 07040188

butdan ,or d,,s col,e~Uo” 01 ,n‘~ma”on 1s agl”,Wed 10 awm‘,e 1 how pa reapotma, lncludlnp the “me ‘or rwlewlng InS”Z”O”S, d.XWhb‘, CotiSdlq data Iy)“-

1215 Jellaadn

ARL Intranet Analysis and Development Study

DAR Fll-97-D-0001

Dana L. Ulery

REPORT NUMBER

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA 30332

U.S. Army Research Laboratory

Al-IN: AMSRL-CI-E ARL-CR-441

Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5067

11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

Sponsoring agency for this research is U.S. &my Research Laboratory, ATIX AMSRL-IS, Atlanta, GA 30332

12a. DlSTRlBUTlONlAVAlLABlLlTY STATEMENT 12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

13. ABSTRACT(hfadmum200 words)

We analyze the concept and practice of Intranets used in midsize and large enterprises, focusing on their use and

impact within research and development (R&D) organizations. We examine the shift from the old concept of business

computing to the modem concept of enterprise computing, and consider Intranets-a class of enterprise

computing-relative to enterprise computing trends. By analyzing in detail some case studies selected from the

literature, on-site visits, and workshop discussions, we then offer three tools to frame the critical issues and provide

structure for systematically constructing strategic Intranets specific to a given organization’s mission and culture,

Arguing that creation of an Intranet that projects an image of a world-class organization demands no less than a

world-class enterprise that is strategically enabled through information technology, we then analyze the current U.S.

Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Intranet and present a three-step action plan to expedite ARL’s movement toward

creation of such an Intranet.

14. SUBJECT TERMS 15. NUMBER OF PAGES

Intranets; enterprise computing; corporate information; strategic process models; intranet 37

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