How An Intranet Can Help Your Business

Streamlining workplace communications and collaboration is vital for success in today's digital age. Intranets are a robust, efficient, and comprehensive business tool that benefits both businesses and their employees. However, intranet solutions and their benefits are often overlooked.

What is an Intranet?

An intranet is a secure, private virtual network for businesses and organizations, accessible only to their employees/members. Modern intranets help streamline, centralize, and improve a business's ability to communicate, collaborate, and access information and tools. Intranets provide a wide variety of benefits for businesses that save time and money, increase efficiency, and improve the employee experience. If your business or organization does not have its own intranet software, you’re missing out on some major benefits.

Common Features of an Intranet

A good intranet software should be mobile responsive, secure, and scalable. A CMS intranet can include a wide variety of features based on your business-specific needs. Just a few broad, key features of an intranet include:

• Shared Company Calendar 

• Discussion Board/Forum

• Staff Directory 

• News & Updates 

• Document Library 

• Resources & Links

• Scheduling Capabilities

• Request Submission Feature (time off requests, reimbursement requests, etc.)

• Employee Recognition Functionality

What Are the Benefits of Having an Intranet?

Makes Sharing & Finding Information Easier

Most organizations share information across multiple platforms such as email, Word, direct messaging platforms, etc. With an intranet, your team members have a one-stop shop for finding and sharing information. A discussion board can be a faster, more informal way to discuss projects. A staff directory makes it fast and easy to locate contact information for other employees. A centralized location for important company news and updates stores everything your employees need to know in an accessible spot. And the list goes on! No matter what resource you are trying to share or information you are trying to communicate, an intranet makes it faster, easier, and overall more efficient.

Better File Management

A secure intranet allows you to store all of your company's files in one centralized, digital location. Managers can assign certain permission to each employee so that sensitive files can only be accessed by approved employees. General files such as HR materials, company policies, client information, and more can all be quickly and easily accessed by anyone who needs them. 

Naturally, this provides a myriad of benefits. Instead of sifting through emails or file cabinets trying to track down the right file, employees will know exactly where to find what they are looking for. This also prevents employees' computers from becoming cluttered with tons of files, which can potentially create storage issues. Centralized, digital files also reduce the need for physically printed files, saving money and helping the environment. 

Improves Communication

Being able to send messages, assign tasks, and comment on ongoing work from one platform makes communication faster and simpler. Shared resource files and document libraries make referencing specific information easier. Additionally, since intranets can house a wide variety of information and tools in one platform, employees can find the information they are looking for, without having to ask. These communication features can also help eliminate the need for meetings and/or increase the efficiency of meetings.

Increases Employee Engagement

Engaged and informed employees are vital to a productive, collaborative, and happy working environment. By creating one common space that houses an abundance of company information, employee engagement is increased. Message boards and employee compliments/kudos features are more informal than emails and make it easier for more employees to participate. Housing important company documents, news, updates, and information in one easily accessible place increases the odds that these materials are actually read.

Fosters a Positive Company Culture

Creating an environment where employees from different locations, departments, and positions can easily interact is vital for strong company culture. Intranets allow every employee to contribute and have their voice heard. This also helps create an open and transparent culture, where all employees have access to the same information and can easily communicate with any member of the company. 

Features like employee compliments and kudos also empower employees to encourage each other and interact in a more meaningful way. Having one place where employees can easily get their questions answered, share information, and connect with their co-workers makes for happier, less stressed, and more productive employees. 

Makes Remote Work Easier

By making it easy to access and share information, connect with other employees, and stay up to date with what’s going on at the company, intranets can be vital for remote work. Creating a digital workplace allows remote employees to work virtually while also feeling connected to the company and their co-workers. Mobile responsive intranet solutions also make it easier for employees who usually work at the office to work while traveling or otherwise out of the office.

Simplifies Member Management

A company intranet streamlines and organizes membership management in a more efficient and simplified way. Vacation requests can be submitted, approved, and then displayed on the company calendar. Employees can easily view other employees of the company, their position, and contact information. Team members can easily see what meetings are on the shared company calendar and who all is in each meeting. Many intranet solutions also allow you to group employees into relevant categories (such as departments, project teams, managers, etc.), so that information and updates can easily be disseminated to specific, relevant groups. 

Increases Productivity & Collaboration, Streamlines Workflow

For all of the reasons discussed above, company intranet solutions can dramatically improve employee productivity. Intranets can also help streamline workflow and improve project management. Intranets allow employees to track ongoing projects in real-time to monitor progress, resolve issues, and communicate needs. Multiple employees can easily work on the same project, assigning tasks, sharing resources, looping in other departments, and so much more. 

Having a centralized, resource-rich digital employee experience allows for better collaboration and feedback. Message boards, shared resources, task assignments, calendar invites, and more, allow employees to quickly and easily collaborate on multiple projects at the same time and give feedback. A project can easily be created and assigned to specific employees who can then work on it together. Once a project or task is completed, it can then be submitted for approval and billed to a client, all within the intranet software. 

Fully Customized Intranet Solutions For Your Business

Global Reach’s highly flexible, scalable, and easy-to-use intranet will feel like a custom development solution but without the cost. Every intranet is designed to match your own brand so you can maintain brand consistency within your employee intranet. Our award-winning web design and web development teams offer a feature-rich intranet solution to meet any need you may have. Start seeing how an intranet solution can save your business time and money while boosting productivity!

Get a FREE Intranet Demo & Quote Today!