I saw one of the best definitions of an intranet as “what the employees experience” earlier this month. The point that Stephen Fishman was making, and poignantly so, was that it doesn’t really matter where the tools are, your average employee doesn’t distinguish between portals, benefit centers, wikis, and whether it’s a platform, suite, mash up, or other option.
The “intranet” is very much an IT-created concept and the more we focus on user experience and design, the better off everyone is.
As Google Apps proliferate across small and medium sized businesses, across education, non profit, and for profit businesses, and even in some larger enterprises, there’s a real question of whether Google Sites can stand up to traditionally defined “intranet” projects.
To dig in, I connected with a Google Sites expert from Kirksville Web Design, Kyle Horst, to get the scoop on how he’s worked with clients recently to meet their intranet needs with a combination of Google Apps.
A social business is about linking people and prioritizing people first. This month Google introduced Google+ to enterprise users. The challenge of course, is how to convert organizations that, in the absence of a social option, have likely turned to other alternatives. Think 
There are many reasons not to use Google Sites for your intranet. Maybe you have an intranet already, maybe you want (need?) java applications for some complicated business application and custom builds. Maybe you want lots and lots social features built right into the page. But maybe not. Maybe you want a flexible, easy to use, easy to share, content management system that is free (for many, cheap for all) and ready to use out of the box.
Google Docs and Sites work so well together that peanut butter and jelly need to step up their game. Here’s why: