Step Two Designs have announced that entries are now open for the Intranet Innovation Awards. 
As one of the judges I may be a little biased but over the last three years these awards have shown that, even when an intranet is in need of significant investment overall, intranet teams with a strong focus on user requirements can still deliver world-class solutions that have a measurable impact on the organisation. This year William Amurgis from AEP is a judge, joining Jane McConnell and me. William and his team won a Gold Award in 2009 for the excellent Now Ideas innovation system. It will be interesting to have a factory floor input from William to complement the views of two consultants!

There is much more about these Awards than just rewarding exceptional intranet commitment. The solutions that have won in the last three years all provide ideas for other organisations to use, and to assist this process the reports profiling all the Award winners from 2007-2009 have just been published as a set. I have also used the Awards as a way of encouraging the intranet teams at clients of mine to start to think about what they might consider entering. Even if they feel that this year is not the year to do so it does start to focus the team in on what they could achieve.

Entries have to be in by 23 April, and the announcement of the winners will be made in September. I would encourage everyone to download the forms, convene a meeting of the intranet team, and find something that you are doing that is worthy of an award. I am sure there is more than perhaps you think there is, and if in doubt ask your users. They will certainly have something positive to say about any intranet innovation that makes their life easier.

Martin White