Assessing Intranets: The Gap between Reported and Realized Benefits

This research examines the gap between the level and nature of intranet system benefits commonly reported by the practitioner press and those benefits cited in academic research. Results are analyzed for two different timeframes: the early period when intranets were emerging, and the more later mature stage. Conclusions are drawn concerning how claims of intranet benefits in the practitioner press have evolved, shifting from hard quantifiable benefits based on return on investment to soft benefits such as knowledge sharing across organizational boundaries. During the same period, intranet benefits identified by academic studies are found to show little change, remaining consistently focused on faster access to information as the key benefit. The disparity between promised and demonstrated intranet benefits is discussed. Results indicate that practitioner literature from the early era, around 1996, emphasized excessive ROIs, as large as 1000%. More current practitioner literature stresses intangible benefits such as communications, competitiveness, and content management. This difference in practitioner press reports of intranet benefits over time contrasts dramatically with the consistency of academic studies in identifying improvements in data access as the most significant intranet benefit. Conclusions are drawn concerning the predilection of practitioners prematurely to tout the benefits of technological improvements, and the potential value of academic research in providing objective evaluation for IT executives charged with distinguishing product fads and hyperbole from enduring and substantive improvements.