Here's an interesting 'fact' I read today:
Option A: If a content publisher takes 10 minutes to quickly publish a piece of content as a PDF document
on the intranet, staff will take 30 minutes to find and understand it.
Option B: If a publisher takes 30 minutes to properly publish the
content, then employees will take 10minutes to find and understand it.
The article went on to explain why this doesn't happen in the real world. The argument is that content owners seek to protect their silos of information and thereby defend their perceived importance. For example, HR content is easily found by the other staff in HR and is easily understood by them. This content is written by HR for HR not for wider consumption.
Another important influence on this 30:10 rule is that wasted time by
content consumers is not measured or even recognised as a cost in most
cases. This is bad in an intranet but even worse when it is true in a website where content consumers and often customers.
The customer is not and should not be concerned with organisational politics. The intranet content consumer should not have to contend with them either.