What should you look for in a modern intranet?

A successful modern intranet connects and engages every member of your organization across hierarchies and reflects the ethos and principles of the company. But what should you consider when looking for a company intranet platform? What are some of the must-have functionalities of a modern intranet? While every business and its needs are different, there are some basic elements that guarantee a good intranet experience.

Private social network

An intranet should function as your company's own social network where employees can have their profiles, follow other members, and share updates and information. For ideas to flow freely, and to encourage communication across hierarchies, an intranet's functionalities should include social features such as news feeds, profile pages, posts, comments, interactive hashtags, discussion forums, groups, and more. Furthermore, setting up a space where employees can interact and form a community helps build an open and transparent work culture.

Easy access to everything

One of the most important functions of an intranet is connecting people with the resources they need. Whether it's access to the employee directory, the team calendar, or useful links, the information architecture of an intranet needs to ensure that employees find what they need in a few clicks. Most modern intranet platforms like Zoho Connect are equipped with a built-in calendar, customizable widgets, organization chart, and a powerful search function to help people find what they need when they need it.

Collaborative spaces

Teamwork and collaboration are an essential part of sustaining any business. According to an article by McKinsey, up to 80% of businesses use social collaboration tools to enhance their business processes.  When considering an intranet, it's crucial to make sure it includes dedicated team spaces or groups and a task management space integrated within them to help teams form ideas and convert them into work plans and goals. Unified intranets help develop a sense of community within the company, making it easier for employees to collaborate across hierarchies and take steps towards a common vision.

Knowledge sharing

For any organization to be successful, it is vital that they develop a culture of learning and sharing. To encourage this, there needs to be a common platform where your in-house subject matter experts can share information and others can access it.

A good company intranet facilitates this, either through a built-in knowledge base or by integrating with an existing application. This is also a cost-effective way to manage your needs and grow your culture. Rather than adopting different platforms, a modern intranet encompasses the benefits of a knowledge base and a document repository to ensure that information-sharing is part of your company's routine. This provides reference material for existing employees as well as new hires, while helping them learn and expand their skills.

Integrations

When it comes to businesses, their processes, and their overall culture, there is no one size that fits all solution. While a modern intranet eliminates the need for a few additional applications, any organization will still rely on multiple tools to move work forward. A reliable intranet solution should play well with other applications, and a platform like Zoho Connect has the advantage of being supported by the Zoho ecosystem for your internal needs.

Feedback

A company intranet is not just a platform to bring people and resources together, but is also a digital space that reflects and reinforces your company's culture. Feedback is vital to evolving your organization. Offering a common space for all employees, as well as your management, in one platform sets the stage for positive communication to help people learn, grow, build confidence, adapt, and bring about meaningful change. Additionally, through capabilities such as surveys, polls, and town halls, you can gather constructive feedback directly from employees on a regular basis, strengthening your existing culture.

Governance

While it is important for each organization to develop their governance framework based on their needs, their intranet solution needs to be flexible and provide the basic infrastructure to facilitate this process. Here's some of the capabilities your intranet should offer to ensure effective governance:

Roles and permissions
The ability to define the scope of members in your network by assigning them roles and granting them specific permissions within the network.

Content moderation

The ability to ensure that only relevant content gets shared within your network by assigning moderators who check and approve the material before it can be shared.

User management

Controls to add, remove, and sync members with an existing directory to make sure everyone's on board.

Module management

Sometimes, an intranet offers more than what you need. Admins need to have the option to enable or disable modules based on their organization's needs and goals.

User Analytics

The ability to track and understand how members interact in the network is important for making the most of your intranet platform. Any modern intranet needs to provide the big picture on usage details with charts and diagrams.

Customization

Your intranet is a reflection of your brand and culture, and it should be truly yours. Customization options need to include accessing an intranet from your domain, adding colors and fonts that reflect your brand, custom email addresses, and so on. Employees need to feel at home in their company intranet, and the platform should be conducive to this.

Privacy and Security

You should always own your data and using an intranet should never change anything about this. Intranets like Zoho Connect are committed to handling data responsibly and have a proven track record for this.

The ultimate aim of a company intranet is to improve organizational growth while helping you offer pleasant employee experiences and empower an open company culture. Platforms like Zoho Connect offer this and the flexibility—as well as scalability—required to help your organization attain its vision without putting a dent in your budget.