10 Tips to Develop a Successful Intranet Solution
An Intranet must be rich enough to help employees achieve company goals – unfortunately, most Intranets work as file hosts with a calendar, a ticket generator, and some fluffy information. An Intranet must engage the employee (or franchisee or affiliate or reseller, etc.) and motivate him to achieve goals. Developing Intranet software is a small cog in the wheel of the Intranet process. If an organization creates a barebones Intranet that doesn’t engage the employees, it will fail. Here are 10 tips that will help companies develop successful Intranet software solutions.
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Intranet Objectives
An Intranet can help employees, individually and as a group, work towards achieving the organization’s goals. Therefore an Intranet must be created to meet a certain objective – that of enabling employees to achieve their goals, and in the process becoming productive and profitable workers. Developing a goal for the Intranet is tough, and if it is not laid down, the Intranet will become just another brick in the wall.
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Applications
Every Intranet system must contain applications that help employees. Feature-rich Intranets contain apps like phone directory, timesheets, meeting room booking, calendar, documents, instant messenger, forum, menus, training information, vacancies, ticket management, and more. So, the Intranet developing team must ensure that all applications that are required to make the employee’s job easy are developed.
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Accountability
An in-house software team must be accountable for the functioning of the Intranet. It should be the team’s responsibility to maintain and update the Intranet and it’s CMS (Content Management System). The team must make the whole Intranet solution flow logically and in a structured manner. If accountability is not fixed, the Intranet will wither away.
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Single Log-In
The Intranet must be simple and easy. Employees should be able to access all its areas with a single login. The system also must be enabled to automatically login the user the second time around (by remembering the credentials). Each employee’s credentials must be authenticated with every application inside the network.
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User Interface
An Intranet does not have to be a flashy piece of software that is loaded with graphics. Its user interface should have a clean design that is easy on the eye, and it should be simple to navigate. All its pages must load quickly and the design must be intuitive. Pop-ups and frames must be avoided. The home page must feature the latest happenings and highlights.
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Intranet marketing
Employees will not use the Intranet unless they are informed about its exciting and informative features/updates. There should be a marketing team that’s in charge of sending out emails that motivate the reader. This team should organize Intranet training sessions and the employees must be left with no doubt that the provided Intranet solution will make their life easier.
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The Search Function
The Intranet solution must be equipped with an efficient search function, which should index all hosted documents including docs, PDFs, Excel Spreadsheets, PowerPoint Slides, JPEGS, PNGs, etc. An Intranet system must work like a library – a resource center that gets the employee whatever information he is in search of.
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Content and Editorial team
Every Intranet requires a content and editorial team to conceptualize and collect content from other departments. This team should also edit and polish the content, and ensure that the content is organized in a structured manner. This team must be set up when the Intranet software solutions and apps are being developed.
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The Personal Touch
The Intranet must contain a database of all the employees (per department). Each department’s manager should be listed. Details such as phones, extensions, etc., of all the employees also should be provided. Current projects per employee can also be listed.
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Forums and Photo Gallery
The Intranet can be a buzzing, throbbing place if it contains a forum where employees across the globe can discuss company issues. The forum must have a moderator. Event photos can be posted in a photo gallery. Exciting discussions can be emailed to employees so that the buzz goes on.
The Intranet is a private Internet place where users (usually employees) meet, share, discuss and get information that helps them achieve their goals. To be successful, every Intranet solution should ideally contain all the features discussed above.
Hemina Shah is an internet marketing specialist at Shivam Technologies – a creative software development company in Australia. Her areas of specialty includes web designing & Intranet Solution. When she isn’t working, she loves exploring the outdoors and go for a walk at the beach.
