There will be many businesses out there that don’t have intranet software and will be thinking “Is it right for us?”. In short, if that company employs two or more people the answer will be a resounding “YES!”.
Smaller businesses (Small and Medium Size Enterprises - SMEs) have in the past tended to have a reputation for great internal communication and collaboration. Fewer employees working in close proximity to each other meant that if one wanted to know something or get something known all they’d have to do is get up and walk a few paces to the next desk. However, with even the smallest organizations now under pressure to offer flexible working this is no longer always the case. Staff can now be working from anywhere at any time, but still need to be able to collaborate and communicate with colleagues. As such, SMEs need effective intranet solutions as much as large corporations.
Workers are more productive if they have the quality tools they need to do their jobs at their fingertips. Time and effort are wasted searching for the right applications, documents and contact details by employees who could be doing something more useful than looking through endless directories. A great intranet can provide systems that enable the organization and searching of anything an employee might need on a corporate network. Saving them time and the business money.
For those businesses with offices spread out over a wide area a quality intranet is a must for preventing information silos that could cost time, money and reputation. Having employees who are separated by many miles working with each other as if they were at the same desk leads to a number of huge benefits such as greater productivity, efficiency and even creative thinking.
Businesses that struggle with internal communications could be helped by an intranet. The best platforms incorporate voice, video, email, instant messaging and social to empower employees’ communication. But this will only help if employees know what information to share, how and when, otherwise information could get lost or misinterpreted.
Ultimately, there will be very few businesses that will not benefit in some way from having an intranet and those that do not have one will end up falling behind those competitors that do.
