5 tips to build the best corporate intranet
Corporate intranets are the commonplace tool chosen by large companies to improve communication, increase collaboration, and share knowledge. Intranets can help overcome many of the workplace challenges that large organizations face on a day-to-day basis. So what are the most important design features that will improve user adoption of this technology and make your intranet an overall success?
#1. A mobile-first intranet
In order to increase user adoption, it is essential that your corporate intranet has a mobile strategy in place. It is about supporting the various devices that users want to use in order to get their work done, and one approach to achieving this is responsive design. A responsive application design ensures that the application layout changes according to the screen resolution of the company employee's device to maintain cross-platform usability. The next level of mobile strategy however is to elevate mobile experiences through the use of a dedicated native mobile application. Whatever your choice, ensuring that your business' intranet solution supports the way that employees want to work and helps them stay connected on the move and out of the office is essential to modern intranet success.
#2. Support corporate flexibility
Custom intranet software solutions require significant planning before any coding begins. As the business evolves and business goals change, so do the requirements of your corporate intranet and technology. Changing your intranet requirements or adjusting scope mid-project can be costly, therefore picking an out-of-the-box offering with the option to customize as and when necessary could be a far more effective way to go. This will introduce the flexibility and scalability that the large enterprise requires in rapidly shifting markets.
#3. Functionality for smarter employees
The best intranets provide users with the tools they need to work smarter. Without great functionality designed around employee needs, your intranet will not fulfill business goals and user adoption will be low. Internal communications, content management, people directory, forms, and notifications are all becoming commonly requested features that can really accelerate the success of a corporate intranet. The more useful features your intranet has, the greater the chances it will become a central business tool and deliver the return on investment that you are looking for.
#4. Intranet design is important
The design of your solution is crucial to success. A well-designed business intranet makes for seamless user experiences and intuitive access to information and content. This in turn can result in less time spent training your company employees, developing associated materials and less support intervention. A great intranet design can embody brand sentiment and company ethos, and can help drive a sense of community and belonging amongst geographically distributed company employees. Finally, an eye catching design drives user engagement. If your intranet looks great, then your users will want to visit it every day and work with it.
#5. Custom or Cloud service
As briefly touched on above, your organization can decide to build a customized company intranet solution or opt to use a turnkey solution to lay a strong foundation on which to build. The choice will vary from business to business and really depends upon things like the completeness of vision and overall business goals.
Unily is a cloud intranet product that offers the speedy deployment and strong foundation associated with an as a service solution, encapsulating all of the key features discussed above, as well as offering the flexibility to customize and expand your solution over time to meet future requirements. Unily intranets are being used by some of the largest corporations in the world who are benefiting from a responsive, flexible, feature-packed, beautifully designed company intranet specifically designed to deliver maximum value by growing with your business.
Get in touch to discuss how your company could embrace better collaboration and efficiency with a Unily intranet.
