An intranet seemed to fit the bill, but they were new to the Web scene and none of us had actually seen one in action. Without access to existing intranet sites, we needed to 'invent the wheel' ourselves. To this end, we spent several months planning the site.

The planning paid off. The site we created was able to easily accommodate such disparate elements as our internal newsletter, organizational charts, divisional policies and links to corresponding university policies, a calendar of events, survey data, various human resources information, and links to related external resources. The site also allows staff to report and check hours via a time tracking system, to order personalized business cards and stationery, and to interact with each other via a bulletin board system.

The tight architecture we established and the consistency of coding standards we employed also paid off. When we switched from a frames-based site to a tables-based site in 1999, we were able to automate a good percentage of the changeover process, saving a significant amount of staff time.

An initial team of eight staff built the site; today, the team consists of four staff, all from the original team. All agree it has been a successful venture. We have had great response to the site by staff, and strong interest from external audiences. We've presented the site to several campus departments who have subsequently contracted with ITD to build their intranets. Most recently, a major metropolitan newspaper has expressed interest in emulating our site.