Many of the most important features on the winning intranets directly support everyday work, says the report. "While advanced applications can boost productivity, smaller tools sometimes do the trick," the authors write. To book a department vehicle for offsite assignments, employees at the Department of Primary Industries used to call a receptionist, who took the information over the phone and entered the details into a fleet management system. Now, a one-page form on the firm's intranet lets a mine inspector (the report's example) reserve the vehicle directly, saving time and increasing accuracy.

Most intranets let employees find information, but what about finding people? In many companies, it's tough to find the right person inside your own organization. Increasingly, says the report, employee directories and other search tools are catering to the need to find a subject matter expert, and make the best use of their organization's knowledge.

Good results can be achieved with just about any technology. The winning intranets were built with a diverse set of tools, including SharePoint, the Google Search Appliance, Red Hat Linux, Lotus Notes and Domino, and Oracle databases, according to the report.

The 10 organizations with winning intranets are based in six countries and have employee populations ranging in size from 200 to 200,000. They include Bank of America (US); Bankinter S.A. (Spain); Barnes & Noble (US); British Airways (UK); Campbell Soup Company (US); Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation (US); IKEA North America Service, LLC, (US); Ministry of Transport (New Zealand); New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (Australia); and SAP AG (Germany).