Powerful, easy to use intranets

Intranets provide a powerful, efficient and cost-effective means of providing up to the minute information to staff within an organisation and enabling them to communicate more easily with each other. Typically they are used to distribute information, provide a method of posting shared documents and enable fast easy access to applications.

Abacus has designed and built a number of intranets, particularly for clients in the public sector. Based on our Webstructure content management solution, a key benefit of the sites designed by Abacus is that content can be created and posted by authorised users, without requiring technical assistance.

Lincolnshire County Council – design and build

To ensure the new intranet met as many requirements as possible, Abacus took a consultative approach, carrying out market research and running a number of usability workshops. Based on the feedback from these, Abacus developed an entirely new information architecture for the intranet, supporting such facilities as a phone book and a people finder, which allowed users to add extra details about themselves such as their hobbies, skills and photos. A directorate home page enabled each head of department to communicate their messages to employees – without having to take up valuable space on the main home page.

Cambridgeshire Intranet – design

Abacus was awarded the contract to design a new intranet for Cambridgeshire County Council following a three way competitive design pitch. With the focus on adhering to strict accessibility guidelines, Abacus designed and built new HTML/CSS templates and was then responsible for training the in-house team on how to use these to their full potential. The intranet was built in-house by the Council’s own team.

Intranets – far and wide

Other councils and public sector organisations for which Abacus has designed and built intranets include a number of London Councils, Isle of Anglesey County Council, Conwy Borough Council, the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability, Rushcliffe Borough Council and West Lindsey District Council.