I worked for a large non profit (80 remote locations) as director of media. We tried 3 times to implement an intranet and each time we failed. We did eventually launch two applications that had 100% buy in. Here are the three things I believe a successful collaborative system must have.

1) Used by big dogs - it will never gain traction from bottom up. Adoption of any new tech must be top down. Field workers, and regular staff were too busy to be bothered. If email was working they stuck with that.

2) Tied to email - ANY system MUST have reporting and updates sent via email. And preferably an email client. Most forums have this simple feature (sending alerts) but you’d be surprised how many intranets of just 3 years ago did not.

3) Tied to money - our most successful launches were applications where money was concerned. Time cards - The government (and then management) made these mandatory for grant activity reporting. You didn’t get paid if you didn’t log on and fill out your time card. Second was the Reimbursements - EVERYONE logged on to fill out their expense reports! No report, no money.

As much as I hate Lotus Notes, these three issues were met my our Notes platform even though we we still client based (vs browser based) up until 2 years ago. So imagine this - we got 100% buy in from around the globe on a client based system that had to be manually installed in every 3rd world location we were in.