SMU’s Integrated Information Technology Services (IITS) has won the Gold award at the Intranet Innovation Award 2015 by IT consultancy company StepTwo Designs for its development and deployment of the new SMU intranet portal - iNET.

SMU is the first university in Asia to receive this prestigious award.

Created for the 1,100 faculty and staff at SMU, iNET has been developed to improve operational excellence, and enhance collaboration and knowledge discovery in the university. It replaces the old intranet which has been in use for 10 years.

The new intranet offers a fresh modern design with new and updated content. It is mobile-ready and optimised for the latest modern web browsers. A redesigned information architecture and powerful intranet search engine makes information search a breeze. It also provides new ways of working and collaboration by integrating with Office 365 and a user friendly web-based content management system.

iNET offers a fresh modern design with new and updated content. It is mobile-ready and optimised for the latest modern web browsers.

The scope of the new intranet is very wide, covering publishing, collaboration, employee services, business solutions, single sign-on and mobility. With a strong focus on user experience, iNET is projected to save SMU 1.5 days per member of staff, a considerable feat.

Mr James Robertson, Managing Director of Step Two Designs, and a member of the judging panel said, “A strong redesign with a focus on delivering simplicity and business value. Lots of nice elements to learn from, such as the induction process. Not easy to do in a university, plenty for others to learn from.”

Another member of the panel, Mr Sam Marshall, Director of ClearBox Consulting, said “It’s very rare for any organization to be able to knit best-of-breed systems together in any practical way. What SMU have achieved is remarkable, especially as academic environments are notoriously hard to bring coherence to.”

[Caption: The IITS team which developed and rolled out the new SMU intranet portal in May 2015 comprises (from left to right) Mr Goh Wee Sen, CIO & Vice President Mr Lau Kai Cheong, Mr Karl Erik Pe Mendoza, Ms See Hui Fen, Ms Theingi Zaw, Mr Melvin Tan, Mr Arkar Winn Minn Htwe, and Mr Muhammad Nurazhan Bin Moin.]