Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Modernising Your Intranet Applications Now

Intranet portals have been in existence for several years in many organisations, institutions, schools etc. Businesses have realised the benefits, an intranet site offers, to the thousands of employees connected to it, as well as to the company, in general.

Intranet enable the employees get password-based access to a centralised corporate database on the company’s LAN (Local Area Network). These intranet sites have proved themselves useful from the standpoint of easy navigation to the company’s employee contacts list, time tracking applications, company event details, messages from the CEO or from the top management etc.

A major advantage of the company intranet portals has been the use of web-based applications, which have allowed the companies to avoid investing in software licenses for individual employee desktops / laptops.

All employee records are maintained on the intranet for restricted access by the HR team and the employees themselves.

The ticket-based employee service app or portal is one of the common apps in a company’s intranet that enables employees to receive immediate help, with regards to any issues, with their computer hardware, IDcard, project IDgeneration, new software installation, international or domestic travel, etc.

Intranet forums or communities help employees get in touch with each other socially and understand what’s happening across various departments of the organisation.

Having dealt with many innovative intranet product enhancements, it is of paramount importance for us to keep coming up with new ideasto revamp / modernise the existing intranet system in organisations.

Reasons to Revamp Intranet Portals

If you think there is no need of revamping your existing Intranet portals, these reasons will make you think otherwise.

• Although the investment for intranet portals is restricted only to the web server on which it is hosted, it is still possible to reduce costs further and leverage more benefits out of cloud infrastructure services such as Salesforce, Amazon, Azure etc.

• Instead of simple social intranet forums or communities, a comprehensive social networking platform with 24×7 access is required for businesses.
  This is because, apart from helping employees stay in touch and know about various events and happenings quickly across the business line, the social intranet apps can go a long way in assisting the HR or the resource team. It helps find the right internal candidates for various short-term and long-term projects, within a short span of time.

• With the rising trend of mobile websites, it is now imperative for companies to extend mobility to their intranet websites as well.

Tips to Modernise Intranet and Social Apps

Let’s check out some innovative ways to modernise a company’s intranet applications.

Increasing the Social Quotient

Enterprise apps, like Yammer, help employees stay connected and share critical information in various modes across geographical boundaries.

It is necessary to spice up the existing corporate social networking apps as the world thrives on social networking outside the corporate arena.

With this provision available within the organisation, the employees will be motivated more than ever before and this will help improve the overall business productivity.

Improved Mobility

Your company’s intranet might be accessible from mobile devices to the few employees at top-level positions.

But it is necessary to have this intranet mobility for each and every employee in the organisation.

If employees can raise travel requests, fill time cards for weekly effort tracking, book meeting / conference rooms, check the monthly training calendar and send nominations for training programs etc. on the move, it will allow your company to save precious working time.

Online Forms for Better Feedback

One of the major contributions to your company’s improvement and progress often comes from employee feedback. It is necessary to tap useful statistics from employee feedback and opinions, not just annually, but even more frequently.

This can be easily done through feedback or survey forms created using a good e-form builder app for the intranet. You can seek employee opinions for any new business services, new office locations, event ideas, and training programs to name a few.

Conditional Triggers and Intelligent Workflows for Automation

When it comes to managers and the HR department of a company, a major part of working time is spent on approving requests, providing permissions, checking feedback from project teams and more.

When the employees fill any of the online forms, conditional triggers and intelligent workflows for seeking permissions, triggering notifications etc. prove useful.

This helps automate the entire form-filling process for various employee-based activities in an organisation.

Enhancements to Employee Directory

Probably the first thing that comes to your mind when someone asks you to define intranet is access to the employee directory.

Instead of having traditional data such as employee name, address, telephone number, email id, project, and service line mentioned in the directory, you can focus on offering much more through this database.

Some useful tips to enhance the employee directory are listed below:

• By sharing their vehicle numbers along with their starting points, employees can co-ordinate for car pooling and make their daily commute hassle-free.

• Similarly, allowing employees to maintain their social network IDs (for Facebook, Twitter etc.) in the directory will enable them to quickly connect outside the office as well.

• Accommodation information can be maintained for employees willing to share rented flats with their colleagues.

The purpose behind sharing the tips for a modernised intranet is to help realise that, as much as the technologies, products and services offered by a company need to be frequently upgraded, it is imperative to keep upgrading the intranet system as well, to keep up with the needs of the hour.

It is a lifeline for the employees within your organisation and if they are happy, content and connected, your business is bound to grow in your desired direction.

So what do you think about modernising your intranet? Have you planned to do it soon? Please share your comments below. Thanks for reading!