Having remote access to important business documents has grown in importance with fewer people working from offices. Whether accessed through an intranet or a file-sharing service like Dropbox, maintaining well-organized and updated internal files can minimize miscommunications or business interruptions caused by gaps in company knowledge. Here are five tips to reorganize your internal files.
Find the Right Owners
Consider if your internal files are currently managed by the right people. Do they have say over the content? Will they know when it needs to be updated? Executives or team leaders may have the most ownership of internal files. Alternatively, a group can be formed to ensure a variety of eyes regularly review the content.
Gather Feedback From All Stakeholders
Power users of internal files will likely have the strongest opinions about how they should be organized, but users who are less familiar—potentially because of a lack of organization—should also be considered. To make an intranet successful, you’ll need buy-in from all stakeholders.
Track the Content
Whether you have in-house IT professionals or find an outside consultant, create a way to track views and downloads of internal files so stakeholders know which items are most important and to prioritize. Tracking may also reveal important information that’s being overlooked.
Challenge Your Structure
The intranet of a brokerage or team does not necessarily need to mirror the organization’s department structure or hierarchy. Question if information can be better arranged to follow how stakeholders perform their tasks.
Make it Sync
Setting up documents on the intranet to sync with files in your business cloud, such as through Microsoft or Google, reduces the burden of updating content and ensures the latest version is always the one accessible.