Select an HR or corporate communications activity for your first phase, because both groups have a need to share information with a large community. Or select a remote workforce as your first step, because business processes within this community can yield dramatic improvements.

Whichever you choose, build upon your successes, continuing to add other high impact, high usage groups. Focus on departments with very specific, localized needs in later project phases.

Mistake #4: Having multiple sign-ons.

Users are already accustomed to managing their own secret list of login credentials: usernames and passwords that get them into the company's CRM, ticket tracking, ERP and other systems. So what's one more login/password combination to enter the corporate intranet?

It's an unnecessary barrier to entry, which may give users the impression that the intranet is isolated from the existing company infrastructure. Look at each login as a potential point of abandonment, which is precisely what you don't want. Take the opportunity to make your user's life simpler and let them focus on the task at hand, by eliminating their need to know mundane details like pathnames and login credentials.

Build a corporate intranet that serves as a bridge of sorts, linking users in each audience to the wide assortment of tools and systems they use on a daily basis. Once they cross the bridge (i.e. sign onto the corporate intranet), their credentials automatically open up the door to other resources they need to do their job. No additional passwords required.

Once users realize they can toss their secret list of login credentials, and erase all memory of directory paths, they'll come to the intranet every time they need a tool.

Mistake #5: Downplaying the importance of integration.

Many CIOs say that data integration significantly slows down their efforts to improve business processes. Yet when evaluating an intranet product for purchase, ease of integration is oftentimes underrated, the problem trivialized with the mistaken belief that web services, SOA or regularly scheduled data refresh can quickly fill the gaps.

Nowadays, tight integration with these systems is critical for company strategists. Real-time, on-demand information is needed by supply chain managers who must respond to inventory fluctuations, and sales/marketing teams tasked with increasing revenue and identifying new opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell. Since the primary value of an intranet lies within its ability to integrate data from a variety of applications for easier management, accepting anything less would give you little more than a fancy Web interface.