Do you promote your IT department?

This is a great topic and I think true in most organizations. We started an internal Discussion database talk about 'How-to's' and 'Did you know' articles as well as other company topics.

Once a day, the user receives a report of 'what's new' in the discussion.

I think the biggest thing is it needs sold from the top down to make people aware of it and to want to use it.

Good point.

I was thinking of a suggestion box database in notes, and a quarterly (us IT guys don't like to write for newsletters ;-) ) newsletter.

You hit the nail on the head with the top down approach, if management doesn't support it, it won't get accepted

I've been thinking about this a lot recently since I've been tasked with exploring Social Networking in the enterprise. I think a lot of people see IT and helpdesks as "last resort" options and therefore try to ignore their existence. I think, at least in my organization, that social networking tools will help with that impression.

I don't know if we'll need or use a "suggestion box" but if we do, I'm going to be pushing for an enterprise version of IdeaJam.

mostly discussions don't work or tend to fade away. a newsletter works but is considered quiet quickly as spam (as it should be). maybe a product like ideajam can contribute in the way that customers feel their voice heard in department improvements or improvements in standard IT offerings ?