Toby Ward, an intranet expert examined and compared the major parent categories or channels of 13 leading intranets, like Google, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, SAP, Ericsson, British Airways and Bank of America to find clues, tips, and lessons for crafting an effective intranet information architecture (IA).

The term parent category is defined as major categories or sections that host or provide access to the bulk of the information or content on a given intranet and represent the major or global navigation for the site or portal. Most of these intranets have other navigation links that are not in fact 'parents', but rather are support links that might include the following: Search, Site Map, Feedback, Help, Contact Us, Directory (Phonebook), Login.

The examined leading 13 intranets show that:

• the average number of parent categories is 6, the most common parent is News (6x);
• the 2nd most common parent: About… (4x);
• most of the examined intranets do not have consolidated sections for products and services, and/or customers. Most leave that information to division or business unit silos.

Concerning parent categories, what is good or intuitive at one company, is not necessarily so at another.

Bank of America (6 categories): My Work / Sales & Marketing / Collaboration / SAP / Portfolio / Employee Services / Managers Services

British Airways (7 parent categories): News / Travel / Our airline / Company procedures / Business info / BA & Me / Off Duty

Cisco (6 categories): About Cisco / Employee Services / Learning & Development / Support & Tools / Products & Industry / Security Information

Ericsson (8 categories): Workplace / News & Events / Sales & Marketing / Products & Services / Projects / Support / Unit Info / Employee Info

Google (6 parent categories): My Office / Survival kit / Internal News / HR / Company info / Communications

HP (6 parent categories): Job Tools & Resources / Benefits, Careers & Policies / Organizations & Locations / Business Performance / Indexes / Help

Microsoft (5 categories): News / Campus / Employee / Services / About Microsoft

SAP (6 categories): Our Company / News / Tools & Support / Benefits & Pay / Career & Learning / My Division

The main challenge of any information architect is that what works at Google or Microsoft, doesn't necessarily work at his/her organization. The keys to success is understanding the corporate culture and how employees work, relate to each other, and the nomenclature used to categorize and seek out information at a given organization.

Sources: Article of Prescient digital