Alan at Socialtext presents the top 10 reasons you know you need to upgrade your intranet:

10. The most common question about it is “What Intranet?”
9. Today employees just look for the cafeteria lunch menu
8. The CEO was given upgrade suggestions from their 5th grader
7. The employee directory still lists job titles from 6 years ago
6. You want to level the playing field between the introverts and extroverts
5. Your organization has more silos than on all of the farms in the state of Vermont
4. There are more servers under employees’ desks running wikis and blogs than in the server room
3. When you click on the link to open it, you hear “No, I’m sorry, Dave. I cannot do that …”
2. The CFO thought microblogging was cheaper than blogging
1. You’re not popular on Facebook but maybe you could be a corporate collaboration hero

My Comments
1. As intranet strategists will tell you, if these are the push-backs you’re getting, it’s time to review the strategic intent of your intranet. For resources, check out Martin White’s Intranet Management Handbook, James Robertson’s Designing intranets: creating sites that work, and Jane McConnell’s Intranet Trends Report.

2. New technology MAY help, but unless you are clear on the reasons why the intranet has failed in the past, merely putting in new technology without re-thinking your approach and strategy … will result in doing it wrong again. My book, SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration talks about this pattern in the SharePoint world.

3. The above list is a failing of vision first, governance second, and technology third at best.

4. If the technology is to blame, make sure you see what Socialtext has to offer. I’ve been impressed with their broadening focus and deepening capabilities over the past 12-24 months.