THE ADVANTAGES OF THE INTRANET
Intranet: everything you need to know
The intranet is a tool that aids organizations in achieving intelligent digitization, which provides several benefits regardless of market.
Companies require this tool because it plays such a significant role in the current working environment, where many people work from home, and it is difficult to work without it.
Let's see why.
What you will find in this article
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What is the intranet
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What you can bring into the intranet
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How does it make your company competitive? Which areas does it strengthen?
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Costs for benefits
What is an intranet?
To keep up in today's digital world, you simply need to find the best tools.
The intranet is a corporate platform that, thanks to all the digital advantages we have in 2024, allows the organization to face an innovative and empowering working world.
Only those who work for the company have access.
Each user has his own company account, which he can access from his tablet, PC, or smartphone at any time.
The company uses communications and services to keep employees informed and in tune with the company's dynamics.
We'll list some of the business aspects that you can implement with the intranet's use in this article to help you understand what the real features of the intranet are.
Why does your company need it?
Because an intranet, or more accurately, a digital workplace, is the virtual space you'll need to take advantage of new technology's opportunities. Many businesses have already invested in it.
The company's internal communications are improved by using the corporate intranet, which allows you to interact with all employees in real-time and receive immediate feedback.
Time and resources saved can be put to better use to meet business objectives.
Unnecessary work is eliminated, allowing you to focus entirely on the most important tasks:
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Increase in productivity with better business apps.
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Saving of time and resources.
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A quick exchange of files, data, and information.
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Simplified communication channels and company bulletin boards.
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Real-time collaboration.
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Involvement of employees.
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Categorized data store.
An enhanced workspace
In a nutshell, the portal is a time saver and a work optimizer. It enables you to send out corporate communications, service news, and information to employees, allowing them to stay informed about the organization's evolving dynamics.
All the people who are a part of it and live it every day can meet and collaborate using the various tools available, and most importantly, they can share their knowledge with the rest of the company.
Any intranet-generated activity will always be centered on people.
Surveys, feedback, and anonymous reports that the company provides on a satisfactory platform that responds to their needs are used to monitor their feedback and behavior. As a result, it has the potential to improve the company's performance.
What can you bring to the intranet?
You can enter company communications, work documents such as brochures, templates, or company procedures, as well as information that the company and the employee need to be in sync.
It is also possible to publish in support of all aspects of the company structure, mission, values, and identity, which are required to engage employees.
Each department can have its own secure area where it can track the progress of its activities and review its department's goals.
Do you want us to help you build your digital workplace?
Our intranet is ready in 10% of the time and with 10% of the budget. Our Italian and international clients are always satisfied with the excellent results in their company.
Areas for the employee
Did you know that each employee has their own private space on an intranet where they can access to all the company's services?
Business processes in the welfare sector, for example, are intelligently digitized and made available within the intranet with a single click.
Employees can use this area to:
- Visualize past and future pay slips, as well as make requests such as vacation requests.
- Make travel arrangements.
- Check out the expense report.
- Request to work from home.
- A shared business calendar.
The user also has an area dedicated to their professional career in this space. They can create a digital CV with their professional advancements, successes, interests, skills, and KSAOs.
This is a way to increase your visibility among superiors and coworkers.
Furthermore, each employee can investigate their skills to find the most suitable and competent person for their projects.
Enhanced communication
The intranet ensures a constant, up-to-date, and complete flow of digitized data.
As previously stated, each employee can find:
- News or service alerts are examples of corporate communications.
- Brochures, templates, and business procedures are examples of business documents.
- Objectives, awards, and new employees are examples of information the company needs to synchronize with the employee and vice versa.
In addition, elements that strengthen the mission, values, and corporate identity in all areas can be published.
Every company information finds the right visibility according to its priority through prominent banners, notifications, and alerts.
Enhanced search
According to an IDC White Paper, organizations lose nearly $ 2.5 million per year due to employees' inability to locate and retrieve critical information. On the other hand, if each employee can have the right document at the right time, the company's performance improves, and the company can provide all the necessary tools to work in the most innovative conditions.
You can improve four aspects of this operational side by supporting:
- The company's knowledge management. All research processes must be fluid, complete, and instantaneous to manage the flow of knowledge in the company optimally.
- Employee involvement is important. Employees will be able to work with valuable content in a high-quality environment.
- Collaboration between teams that is effective.
- Management of a project. Managers can access critical information quickly and easily, find the right people with the right skills, and locate previous projects.
The intranet we offer you is equipped with an intelligent search system that allows you to save time and money by pressing the accelerator key on each of these aspects.
What you can do is:
- Searches multiple databases, including intranet documents, news and pages, company colleagues, and company information.
- Improve retrieval assign tags and categories to each piece of content.
- You can use our analytics tool to track user searches and respond to their requests.
Online archive
The intranet disseminates all types of information, from service to corporate data.
All this data is saved in an online cloud storage system and can be accessed anytime and from any location.
This allows you to streamline your searches while saving time.
Not only can the company's internal intranet shorten and simplify the communication channel, but it can also ensure that the operation is carried out safely.
Internally, digitized data and information are exchanged in a completely secure manner.
Create and strengthen a community
Being a community member entails discussing specific topics, drawing inspiration from others' ideas, and thus improving oneself.
The intranet is built on the concept of community, which is then expanded and applied to the business world.
Thematic communities allow you to get information, share ideas, and discuss activities related to a specific theme.
This mechanism can be used by businesses as well.
People who work for the same company are, in fact, all in the same field.
Even though they have different skills, mansions, and roles, they all work toward the same objectives, sell the same products, and provide the same services.
The strong point is that everyone knows exactly what they're doing, which is an invaluable asset for any business, and it's critical to capitalize on it.
Giving people the opportunity to talk, exchange ideas, and express themselves increases positivity in the workplace.
Everyone enjoys the opportunity to share their knowledge with others and thus help each other improve, which in turn improves business results.
As a result, in a digitized environment, it is common for a value chain to be unleashed.
Benefits for workers and customers
Giving those who work in the company every day a voice allows you to solve any problems that arise in the company sooner and reduces the risk of having unhappy employees.
Furthermore, the benefits must be considered not only from the standpoint of the worker but also from the standpoint of the customer.
A continuous dialogue with people who are in close contact with customers allows you to find digitized data that is suitable to meet their needs and, as a result, understand which service to provide ahead of the competition - and, more importantly, how to do it.
Throughout the organization, there is a clear understanding of what is being done and for whom.
No one can deliver this information more effectively than those who work in the company on a daily basis.
Everything we've talked about so far is available to all companies via the intranet.
It's an excellent tool for giving these individuals a voice.
Create discussion groups on the intranet or using any digital workplace tool available, such as Microsoft 365. These tools are set up and ready to use with just a few mouse clicks.
They are extremely valuable to a digital company.
Improve involvement and engagement in the company
Furthermore, the intranet is a resource that you cannot ignore, particularly because it has the potential to improve the corporate climate and identity.
People who have a voice or can quickly obtain information for their work from others are clearly more engaged than those who work alone.
It goes without saying that as they improve their work, not only does corporate productivity rise but so does the "company vibes."
Consider how a person who has had an idea posted on the intranet, discussed, and implemented might feel as if they are a part of the company project.
Consider the ripple effect that such an example can have among colleagues.
The intranet is the ideal location for establishing such motivating digitized work environments.
It's the ideal location for employees to share information and knowledge.
The intranet creates a corporate community where people can share information and have discussions.
Employees only need to take a few steps away from their bulletin board to communicate with one another and share information, which speeds up and improves productivity.
Chat systems, comments, feedback, reactions, and high-interest posts are used to increase user engagement and ensure that corporate communications are received properly.
Employee engagement
In the day-to-day operations of the company, hired jobs produce better results.
The intranet's fulcrum is the employee, as evidenced by all the tools it provides for work.
They can expand their network by putting them in touch with everyone's colleagues, in addition to keeping them constantly synchronized with the company through company news, notices, communications, or intra-company discussions, and always ensuring them the materials they need with relative sharing. The departments are easily accessible.
Also see Employee Engagement in 2024: Everything You Need to Know
Each user is listed in a traditional telephone directory, which includes personal information such as contacts, interests, prior experiences, and technical and non-technical skills.
Employees can establish a more solid digitized corporate network and more fluid communication this way.
Through public posts and feedback, the intranet becomes a place for exchange, discussion, and recognition.
Their sense of belonging to the company will become more important.
Business success
Employee satisfaction and participation are critical to any company's success.
The greater the commitment of the company's employees, the more likely it is to achieve its objectives.
The corporate intranet must put people and their needs first.
As a result, people need a usable digital space where they can enter information, compare notes with colleagues, and express their thoughts and ideas.
Employees who are dedicated will be more motivated, and their work will be more productive.
As a result, an intranet is beneficial not only for improving internal communication and streamlining business processes but also for allowing advanced digital collaboration between people and assisting businesses in creating engagement.
What are the costs for the benefits?
Given the numerous benefits it provides, the intranet has now become an indispensable tool that no company can afford to ignore.
As a result, the question you may be asking is: what are the costs of such benefits?
With our product, you can get a high-performance intranet, Microsoft 365-integrated systems, and artificial intelligence tools for 10% of the cost and 10% of the time.
You can take advantage of advanced market-leading tools for business digitization by integrating with Microsoft 365 and using AI.
If you use the right KPIs, you'll quickly see how the intranet can save money for any company in any industry.
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What is intranet.ai?
intranet.ai is the ready-to-use corporate intranet, designed to reduce costs and implementation times, thus creating a collaborative and modern digital work environment:
- Initial price of 3,650 €/year for a complete intranet
- 50+ applications, including advanced search, document management system, push notifications via Teams, personal profile, and FAQ pages
- 100% integrated with SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365
Giuseppe Marchi
Microsoft MVP for SharePoint and Microsoft 365 since 2010.
Giuseppe is the founder of intranet.ai and one of the leading experts in Italy in all matters related to Microsoft 365. For years, he has been assisting companies in creating their digital workplace environment on the Microsoft cloud, focusing on people's experience.