Intranet is a private network organizations use to create secure communications within their workforce, create collaboration, and store information.
Businesses are not just built on visionary ideas and ambitious goals; they thrive when their employees work in unison, effectively communicating, sharing information, and utilizing the right tools in the right way to propel their collective efforts forward. And as enterprises grow in size and complexity, managing communication and information across entire organizations becomes a considerable challenge. Miscommunication, scattered data, and a lack of centralized access to critical resources can hinder productivity, thwart innovation, and lead to costly errors.
If your business employs more than one person, chances are you need some form of interconnected systems to help ensure that everyone is on the same page, has access to the same source of truth, and that important tasks are not being overlooked (or duplicated). One essential solution that has emerged as a cornerstone of internal communication and information management is the company intranet.
An intranet serves as a private, secure, and internal network accessible only to employees within an organization. It acts as a virtual nerve center, providing a centralized hub for employees to access crucial resources, collaborate on projects, share knowledge, and stay informed about the latest updates within the company. In essence, an intranet enhances your workplace connectivity, streamlines workflows, and fosters a culture of collaboration within your business.
Although most people in the modern age have a clear idea of what the ‘internet’ is, intranet is something different, describing a separate kind of network in terms of accessibility and structure.
The internet is an expansive network of interconnected computers and servers that stretches across the entire globe, enabling the exchange of information and services on a monumental scale. This vast digital infrastructure operates as an open and public network, devoid of any singular form of ownership or control—there is no governing entity that manages the internet in its entirety. Rather, the internet represents the amalgamation of countless interconnected networks administered by diverse organizations, governments, and service providers around the world.
By comparison, an intranet is a private and exclusive network, accessible only to individuals with the right authorization. Unlike the internet's universal accessibility, an intranet is designed to be securely confined within the boundaries of an organization. It operates as an internal digital ecosystem where employees can share, store, and manage information relevant to their work without exposing it to the public domain.
Within a company's intranet, access rights and permissions are carefully managed, ensuring that sensitive information remains confidential and restricted only to those who need it for their roles. This controlled environment not only enhances data security but also helps organizations comply with data protection regulations while safeguarding their valuable intellectual property. Additionally, an intranet can provide an effective platform for collaborative work and knowledge-sharing within the company.
If the internet is a fully public network and an intranet is a network that is restricted only to an organization's authorized internal users, an extranet is the halfway point between the two.
An extranet in an intranet that expands the accessibility of certain intranet functionalities to external stakeholders such as customers, partners, or vendors. It represents a controlled extension of an organization's network, granting selective access to individuals or entities beyond the company's immediate workforce. The external parties accessing the extranet are granted specific authorization, allowing them to interact with those sections of the intranet tailored to their needs.
In other words, the extranet serves as a collaborative space where external partners can get support, access product information, place orders, or participate in shared projects with the organization. By providing this controlled access, companies can foster stronger relationships with their clients, streamline supply chain operations, and enhance how they work with their business partners.
An effective intranet's defining feature is its ability to connect authorized users while restricting unauthorized access. As such, setting up an intranet involves careful planning and implementation to create an efficient, user-friendly, and totally secure digital workspace tailored to your organization's specific needs. The process typically begins with the identification of objectives and goals, followed by a thorough assessment of your company’s requirements and resources.
Before you can establish a working intranet, your company needs the following:
- Local area network (LAN)
A reliable and robust local network infrastructure forms the backbone of your company intranet. The LAN connects all the devices within the organization and facilitates seamless communication and data transfer. - Servers
Intranets demand dedicated servers to host and manage internal content, applications, and databases. These servers store and organize information, ensuring easy accessibility for internal users. - Intranet softwae
Specialized intranet software is essential for designing and developing the intranet's interface and functionalities. These solutions allow your business to select the specific capabilities it wants in its intranet, such as document management, collaboration tools, internal messaging systems, and task tracking (to name only a few). - Security tools
Intranets demand stringent security measures to safeguard sensitive data and maintain confidentiality. Firewalls, encryption protocols, and access controls are crucial components of intranet security.
The idea of internal company networks has been around since the early days of digital communication, allowing for increased employee productivity through direct access to internal documents, tools, and communication. But while the earliest intranets were confined to organizations' private networks, the rising need for remote accessibility—employees needing internal network access despite working off-site—meant that companies would need a way to facilitate secure internal connections over the public internet. Virtual private networks (VPNs) are the answer.
A VPN establishes a secure, encrypted, point-to-point tunnel through the public internet, ensuring a private and protected session between remote users and internal company networks. Using a VPN, your employees can safely access sensitive internal materials regardless of their physical location.
Data protection is perhaps the most crucial factor in an effective internal network, and that means that security is one of the most essential elements. To defend against cyberthreats, unauthorized access, and even insider threats (malicious or otherwise), companies employ multiple forms of digital security. These often include:
- User authentication
Employees are required to provide unique login credentials to access the intranet, ensuring that only authorized personnel can gain entry. - Access controls
Access privileges are assigned based on job roles, limiting employees' access so that they can only touch information that is relevant to their responsibilities. - Encryption
Sensitive data transmitted within the intranet is encrypted, making it unreadable to unauthorized parties even if intercepted. - Regular updating
Intranet software and systems are regularly updated with security patches to address vulnerabilities and ensure optimal protection.
Intranets have become an integral part of modern organizations, regardless of their size or industry. Companies implement intranets to streamline internal communication, centralize knowledge-sharing, enhance collaboration, and optimize workflow management. With the rise of remote work and dispersed teams, intranets have proven invaluable in maintaining seamless connectivity among employees working from home or otherwise away from the company servers.
Intranets are evolving to incorporate advanced features such as artificial intelligence-driven search capabilities, personalized content delivery, more-complete integration with other business tools, and mobile-friendly interfaces. These enhancements are designed to provide employees with a more intuitive and efficient digital workspace, further boosting productivity and fostering a collaborative work environment.
At their core, intranets are communications tools, but that does not mean they are limited to instant messaging. Today’s intranets are versatile and indispensable solutions within modern organizations, catering to a wide range of operational needs. Among the most prominent intranet use cases are:
Intranets are generally used to host information centrally and provide secure access to policies, documents, and relevant information employees need for their roles. This streamlines information retrieval and ensures that everyone has access to the most up-to-date resources. Examples include content management systems (CMS) and document management systems (DMS).
Intranets empower organizations to manage and share knowledge more effectively, acting as repositories for internal expertise, past projects, best practices, and lessons learned. Employees can contribute their insights, enabling the organization to harness collective knowledge and create a valuable knowledge base that fosters continuous learning and growth. Using forums, idea boards, team areas, and discussions, employees can ask questions or find answers with their peers' help. Additionally, this knowledge may be captured and made available, even when a contributor is no longer with the company.
Effective intranet solutions incorporate automated workflows, further empowering employees to accomplish more, more easily. Employees can assign tasks, collaborate on projects, monitor deadlines, and track project milestones, streamlining the entire workflow and boosting overall productivity. Intranet-based task management, document collaboration, automation, and progress tracking tools all contribute to effective workflow management.
Intranets are a hub for internal communications, empowering organizations to share company-wide announcements, policy updates, event notifications, and other important news, easily and effectively. This ensures that all employees are well-informed, aligned with company goals, and actively engaged in the organization's initiatives. Social and communication tools like wikis, forums, and blogs can also be used to create two-way internal communications among staff.
Employee engagement is crucial for employee satisfaction and retention. Intranets provide channels for feedback, surveys, and interactive forums, allowing employees to voice their opinions, contribute ideas, and engage in discussions. These platforms foster a sense of belonging and enable management to gauge employee sentiment and address concerns—anonymously, if needed.
Intranets play a pivotal role in aligning employees with the organization's broader objectives and vision. By communicating strategic goals and initiatives, businesses can help their employees understand how their individual contributions contribute to the overall success of the company, fostering a sense of purpose and motivation. Building, embedding, and communicating a common culture improves engagement among employees and increases staff retention.
Intranets facilitate seamless cross-functional collaboration by breaking down departmental silos. Employees from different teams can collaborate on projects, share insights, and work together towards common objectives, promoting a collaborative culture that encourages innovation and creativity.
Implementing an intranet within your organization can significantly enhance operational efficiency, collaboration, and overall employee experience. Key benefits that your company may enjoy by investing in an effective intranet solution include:
One of the primary benefits of an intranet is its ability to foster seamless and efficient communication among authorized internal users. By providing a centralized platform, intranets enable real-time messaging, group discussions, and targeted announcements. This improved communication ensures that employees stay informed, connected, and engaged, leading to better collaboration and enhanced productivity
Intranets serve as valuable repositories for sharing knowledge and best practices. By creating a centralized location for documentation, tutorials, and other resources, organizations promote a culture of continuous learning and unrestricted knowledge exchange. Employees can access valuable insights and expertise, empowering them to make smarter, better-informed decisions.
An intranet modernizes the employee experience, mirroring the user-friendly interfaces and functionalities of popular consumer applications. This familiar and intuitive digital environment enhances user adoption and engagement, making it easier for employees to navigate through tasks, access information, and collaborate effectively, even across teams and departments.
Intranets allow organizations to personalize communication and information delivery based on individual user preferences and roles. Customizable dashboards and news feeds ensure that employees receive relevant updates tailored to their specific needs. This personalization enhances employee engagement and minimizes the risks associated with information overload.
Intranets provide organizations with greater visibility into ongoing projects, task progress, and key performance indicators. Managers can use built-in tools to monitor team activities, identify bottlenecks, and track project milestones in real-time. This transparency promotes accountability while also enabling timely decision-making and fostering a culture of data-driven performance evaluation.
Intranets break down silos within an organization by facilitating cross-departmental collaboration and information sharing. Employees from different teams can collaborate on projects from a centralized location, sharing expertise and gaining insights into each other's work. This integration leads to a more cohesive and efficient workforce.
While intranets offer many benefits for modern organizations, they are not without their challenges. As with any technology, there are possible drawbacks that your company will need to address to ensure successful implementation and usage. When investing in an intranet, be aware of the following disadvantages:
Intranets with inadequate search functionality can frustrate users who struggle to find the information they need quickly. Many intranets take the form of badly optimized 'link farms' with very little in the way of information architecture. A poorly designed search feature may return irrelevant or outdated results, hindering productivity, frustrating or misleading users, and reducing the intranet's overall usefulness.
An intranet may contain vast amounts of information, but without built-in options to take next steps—such as signing policies and ordering equipment—employees may feel disconnected from the tasks they are expected to perform. Effective intranet solutions should be integrated with relevant programs and supported by a clear system of action, so users can accomplish more than simply finding answers or accessing documents.
If employees do not actively participate in contributing content, sharing knowledge, or engaging in discussions on the intranet, its effectiveness as a collaborative tool may be limited. Overcoming low user participation requires fostering a culture that encourages and incentivizes employees to actively use and contribute to the intranet.
Implementing and maintaining an intranet can involve significant upfront costs and ongoing expenses. Organizations need to invest in hardware, software, and infrastructure to set up the intranet, to say nothing of the expenses associated with customization, security measures, and regular updates to keep the intranet relevant and secure. If the intranet is unable to return on this investment, then it may represent a significant financial loss.
Some organizations may face challenges in providing adequate technical support to intranet users. Without proper technical assistance, employees may encounter issues or difficulties while accessing or using the intranet, leading to frustration and reduced user satisfaction. Ensuring prompt and reliable technical support is crucial for the smooth functioning and adoption of the intranet.
For larger organizations or those with distributed teams, managing the intranet's network infrastructure can be complex. Ensuring seamless connectivity, high availability, and fast performance across various locations may create network management challenges that some IT departments are not equipped to address.
Without clear ownership and governance, an intranet may lack direction and consistent updates. It is essential to have dedicated personnel or a team responsible for managing, updating, and maintaining the intranet to ensure its relevancy and usability.
Employees expect seamless access to company resources and collaboration tools from their mobile devices or when working remotely. A lack of native support for mobile-device features such as talk, camera, etc. may hinder productivity for on-the-go intranet users, while insufficient remote-use options can completely cut off access for a significant portion of the modern workforce.
Intranet software refers to the specialized digital solutions and tools designed to create, manage, and optimize intranets within organizations. It serves as the backbone of an intranet, offering features and functionalities designed to streamline communication, information sharing, collaboration, and overall workforce productivity.
Intranet software comes in various forms, ranging from pre-built platforms with ready-to-use features to customizable solutions tailored to an organization's specific requirements. The software typically includes components for content management, document sharing, task tracking, team collaboration, employee directories, and more. This software empowers organizations to create a centralized and secure digital workplace.
While it may be possible to set up a working intranet without investing in any third-party software solutions, the challenges of doing so can be difficult to overcome. These challenges may include:
- Absence of scalability
Organizations may face scalability issues when managing an intranet without proper software solutions. As the company grows and the intranet's user base expands, a lack of scalable software may result in performance issues, increased downtime, and difficulties in managing a larger workforce. - Disorganized content
Without proper intranet software, content organization and management may become challenging. Information could be scattered across various locations with no clear hierarchy or association, making it difficult for employees to find relevant documents or resources quickly. - Inefficient collaboration
An intranet is a hub for employee collaboration, but without effective software tools, facilitating efficient teamwork can be problematic. In the absence of features like real-time messaging, task assignment, and document collaboration, employees may resort to using external tools or simply fall back on email communication, creating silos and hindering seamless collaboration. - Limited functionality
Limited functionality Managing an intranet without dedicated software solutions can limit its capabilities and potential benefits. Organizations may struggle to create a user-friendly interface, implement essential features, and ensure seamless integration with other business tools. This limitation could hurt employee productivity and collaboration. - Security and compliance risks
Security should be a top concern for any intranet user; without robust software solutions, organizations may face increased risks of data breaches and unauthorized access. Properly configured intranet software can implement security protocols, encryption measures, and access controls to protect sensitive information from potential threats. Additionally, these tools can help organizations remain compliant with evolving data-protection laws. - User adoption issues
User adoption is critical for the success of any intranet initiative. Without user-friendly intranet software, employees may find it challenging to navigate the platform or engage with its features effectively. This can lead to low user adoption rates, reduced utilization, and limited return on investment.
Harnessing the full potential of your company intranet means adopting a set of best practices designed to help you optimize its functionality and positive impact. Your organization can create a thriving digital workspace that fosters collaboration, boosts productivity, and enhances overall employee satisfaction by integrating these practices into your intranet strategy:
Effective communication requires a multi-channel approach, and the intranet can serve as a central hub for this strategy. Integrating different communication channels, such as instant messaging, email, video conferencing, and social media-like features, the intranet ensures that your employees can engage with the platform using the methods that are best suited to their needs. This encourages higher user participation and makes critical information easier to access for authorized users of all kinds.
As remote work continues to grow in popularity, intranets should be optimized to cater to the needs of off-site employees. Providing seamless access to resources, collaboration tools, and real-time updates helps remote workers stay connected, engaged, and productive, even when they are outside the range of the company's wireless network.
The intranet should act as a unified gateway, integrating with all relevant employee tools and business systems. By seamlessly connecting with HR software, project management tools, document repositories, and other essential applications—often using only a single login—the intranet streamlines workflows and reduces the need for your employees to switch between different platforms.
Regularly monitor and analyze intranet usage to gain insights into user engagement and adoption. Leveraging analytics allows your organization to identify popular features, user behavior patterns, and areas of improvement. Based on this data, you can make informed enhancements to the intranet, tailor content to user preferences, and increase overall user satisfaction.
A well-structured and intuitive information architecture is vital for an effective intranet. Organize content logically and intuitively, create user-friendly navigation, and implement a powerful search function to ensure that authorized users can find the solutions and tools they need quickly and easily. A clear and efficient information architecture enhances the user experience and encourages regular intranet usage.
The most effective intranets are dynamic environments, always evolving to better serve the demands of the organization and its employees. Regularly update and improve your intranet to keep it aligned with changing business objectives, advancements, and user insights. Soliciting feedback from your employees and involving them in the improvement process helps build a sense of ownership over the intranet and ensures its continued relevance and value.
As new technologies and accessibility options become available, the modern intranet is poised to undergo a significant transformation. In the next decade, intranets are likely to become even more user-centric, personalized, and AI-driven. Artificial intelligence will play a significant role in enhancing search capabilities, delivering personalized content, and automating routine tasks, streamlining workflows and boosting productivity in the process.
Additionally, as remote work becomes ever more common the intranet will continue to adapt and optimize for seamless remote access, ensuring that employees can collaborate effectively and access essential resources from anywhere. The intranet will act as a cohesive platform, integrating with a wide array of employee tools and business systems, providing a unified and seamless experience for employees.
Intranets play a crucial role in modern organizations, offering a centralized platform for communication, collaboration, and information management. However, the increasing complexity of digital solutions and the proliferation of disconnected systems have led to the downfall of many legacy intranets, failing to meet the evolving needs of today's flexible and remote workforce. Recognizing these challenges, ServiceNow, the leader in employee experience, presents an innovative alternative: Employee Center Professional.
Built on the award-winning ServiceNow AI Platform, Employee Center Pro addresses the limitations of traditional intranets by offering a unified and personalized employee experience. By integrating multi-department service delivery, targeted content experiences, and AI-driven search functionality, Employee Center ensures employees can access the NEWS, help, information, and resources they need effortlessly, from every authorized channel and any location.
Unlike traditional intranets, which often lack structured content management and personalization, ServiceNow Employee Center delivers a consumer-grade interface, enhancing engagement and user satisfaction throughout every department, team, and user. And, with additional built-in tools and integration options, managers can provide the increased support their hybrid workforces need to remain fully connected and productive.