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Enabling intranets at a glance

Site Genre: Pattern Group a

magnify image Figure A11.1 This intranet in a box from SAP provides many of the basic applications that a business needs for sales, human resources management, and finance. Customers can find these applications immediately on the left-hand navigation bar.

Background

Unlike the other site genre patterns, which cater to external customers, intranets support the internal work of an organization. You may employ entire site genre patterns, like NEWS MOSAICS (A2) and WEB APPS THAT WORK (A10), within the intranet. This pattern forms the core of what makes an intranet work.

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PROBLEM

Companies need employees to be more productive, but each employee’s responsibilities change over time. Employees should not have to constantly learn entirely new computing systems to carry out their new responsibilities.

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SOLUTION

magnify image FigureA11.3 If provided with customized lists of applications and information, employees need not wade through unnecessary items that they’ll never use. Applications that trigger requests forward a request automatically to the next person in the workflow.

Provide a secure area, customized for each employee, where the employee can go to see a list of applications and information. List employees’ current pending requests of others and any pending requests made of them. Automatically trigger new requests via an application workflow. Support employee learning by using consistent terminology across the intranet, and by designing consistent interfaces for your Web applications.

Other Patterns to Consider

All employees must use a SECURE CONNECTION (E6) and go through a secure SIGN-IN/NEW ACCOUNT (H2) page to access the intranet from outside the firewall. Once on their HOMEPAGE PORTAL (C1), employees will see PERSONALIZED CONTENT (D4) and company news. Requests that are pending and requests that require action from the various WEB APPS THAT WORK (A10) are displayed in CONTENT MODULES (D2). Employees can find information about human resources issues, company product and service issues, and project status through MULTIPLE WAYS TO NAVIGATE (B1). Each employee’s WEB APPS THAT WORK (A10) are accessible as well.

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