We have identified six intranets that will be profiled over the next week. Igloo, Jive, SharePoint, Salesforce, Drupal Commons and Google Apps are the leading intranets in their respective areas. Take a look below to see the key reasons why your business should consider a social intranet.

The Benefits of Going Social with Your Intranet

Communication

Social Intranets are good for small and large businesses, education, healthcare, religious, non-profit associations, as well as working groups and task forces.  They create constant communication within companies allowing groups of individuals to communicate easily through activity screens, instant messaging, comments, and centralized document storage, sharing and collaboration.

Collaboration

Social Intranets platforms, can also be extended into online workplaces, which requires separate and secure instances of the software.  These extranets can be beneficial to collaborate with external partners, remote working groups, task forces, boards of directors, and can can also be used for client portals.  The collaboration software assists with clean communication, completion and efficiency of tasks. Social Intranets allow for project management and collaborations to occur online, allowing employees to collaborate and create, exchanging information and ideas in the cloud.

Mobility

Social Intranets are self-hosted, cloud based (software as a service), and some software platforms are quite simple and similar in layouts to some of the most popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, enabling some employees to navigate without any training. With mobile integration, your customer relationship management information,  project management, and team collaboration, can be accessed on the go, and is at your fingertips from your mobile, tablet or desktop.

Accessibility

Cloud-based social Intranets do not need to be “installed” on an internal network, or behind a firewall - with the exception of organizations under stringent security regulations, such as law enforcement, or government entities requiring an “on-premise” solution.  The applications are on the internet, and accessible via a secure login page on any browser, from any location.  Social intranets are great for accessing and working on your projects remotely while working out of the office.  Social Intranets allow for businesses to collaborate and connect across working groups, divisions and departments.  All communication is centralized and visible online, based on your preferred permissions and privacy settings, keeping everyone connected to the most recent updates and information.

Organization

The appearance, design, and navigation of your Social Intranet will influence how much your team, staff and working groups adopt and use the intranet. The integration of multiple processes can eliminate the need for multiple software solutions across different department and divisions.  One collaboration platform can reduce the overall cost of ownership of your internal software by eliminating unnecessary products, and the silos which are created with them. Social Intranets are platforms for the entire organization.  The platforms are built for sharing and storing knowledge in a centralized location and then sharing easily, by tagging and filing information efficiently.  You can still build departments, working groups, or divisions within the one platform, and allow for various access levels and sharing permissions for different areas.  Tasks can be separated, assigned, tracked effectively and followed up accordingly online.  Information can found efficiently, and connections with co-workers, clients and partners can be made easily.

Integration

Social Intranets are digital workplaces which extend connections between staff, partners, and customers, by combining business processes without anything getting lost in people desktops machines or on disorganized “P drives” or “Z drives” or whichever naming convention has been used for the organization of internal network folders, which are hard to search and filter.  Social Intranets allow for transparency and openness within the business, as information is easily available for employees, and they may access information by viewing, or by participating in commenting on documents, sending or receiving notifications, or using real-time online chatting functionality.  

Information

Social intranets help connect teams and keep everyone up to date on the activities of the business - across teams, divisions, departments, including staff and teams located in different cities, and business units operating across different countries.  All businesses can benefit from cross collaboration and the ease of sharing information, from sales and marketing, to operations and logistics, to finance and administration.  

Personalization & Permissions

Social Intranets are platforms of organized intelligence which are great for document sharing, storing, and collaborations due to the many social features and options for customization offered. However, social Intranets focus on the individual users need and usability.  Your staff can follow the feeds, news and information they want to be tuned into, and have access to the divisions, departments and working groups they want to be engaged within.   The setting can be configured top down from a security level, and bottom up from the user’s personal preferences and individual’s needs.

Engagement

Social Intranets can also be fun to use, and can promote team building, increased employee satisfaction, and better work environments with improved communications. Team members can customize and personalize their profile information.  Depending on policies, there can be spaces for classifieds to share postings on summer cottages for rent, or to sell personal belongings, such as bikes and sporting gear their kids have grown out of, or the treadmill that just didn’t get a lot of use.   Employees can post a question to gather feedback, or create a group, such as checking in to see if anyone wants to create a running group over the lunch hour.  Simple weather widgets showing the upcoming weather for the week can appear on the homepage of your intranet, and you can also integrate gaming elements to encourage engagement.  Gift certificates can be given out for online contributors, and those who engage effectively online.   You can incorporate on online internal service feature, such as a IT support centre, in order to respond to questions, comments or support needs quickly, for different areas and departments.  Companies can encourage the sharing of innovative ideas and have the ability to vote posts up and the preferred ideas to the top.  

The opportunities for improved engagement and communications on a social intranet are truly infinite and endless.

Stay tuned for information on Igloo Software in our next post.