How to avoid an Intranet hotchpotch - Part I

A lot of people have contacted us lately to ask for help in bringing back together their web tools. Over the years, they have chosen what feels like the best web app for the job. But as time has gone by, they realise that they are left with a Frankenstein's monster. The intranet is incompatible with their e-learning platform, their content management separate from their reporting tools.
Generally, this is down to years of innovation leading in different directions. A series of separate, sensible decisions have not built web apps that look the same or feel the same. So they end up with a bit of a hodgepodge.
The symptoms are common. You have to sign in more than once to different areas. Your reports are underpowered or available in different places. Technologies aren't really compatible and need to be hosted in different ways.
Or perhaps your branding varies from one site to the next - and the design is not easy to change. Data needs to be laboriously moved from one server to another, or synced awkwardly.
So what's the fix? Next time, I'll look at how to avoid stepping in the glue and maintaining a sustainable approach to a thriving intranet.