Just read James Robertson’s Post “Web Workplace: A new word for Intranet”.
I agree that Workplace describes a more holistic view of for what typically fulls under the “Intranet” umbrella. A few years ago now, IBM adopted the term to describe a new organization formed when the Corporate Intranet team moved out of Communications and under the CIO. The mission of the “Total Workplace Experience” group extended to everything “on the glass” - which I think was (and still is) the right way to think about things.
To my mind, Workplace expresses the importance of how everything the end user does through the glass is an ultimate expression of the Company. And Workplace Experience is about an integrated approach to maintaining the overall quality, experience and brand of what employees do through the desktop - whether it be via a Web browser, through a desktop client, or through any mobile interface.
For many, including myself, the entire workaday experience of a company happens solely through the narrow rectangle of my ThinkPad lid. A strange thought, indeed, but one which underscores the importance of user experience and digital brand when it comes to strategic intranet (workplace) management.
