Streamlining business processes is the ultimate need of every global venture today. Hence, no entrepreneur can afford to ignore the implementation of social intranet in his organization. An intranet is basically a tool that not only helps your staff to work from remote locations, but also use it for a number of business functions, viz. content creation, document management, internal communication and so on. So, if you are planning to create an easily accessible communication hub or platform in your organization, social intranet is the right solution for you.

But, while purchasing the software, you need to keep some points in mind. You need to ensure that the purchased software or intranet highlights your business as a whole. So, the choice can be tricky and may consume some time. But, if you check few specific features in the intranet, the choice may become easier for you.

Here are some important intranet features:

1. Forum & Commenting

First of all, you must check whether or not the intranet has forum and commenting capabilities. You obviously want to purchase the tool just to facilitate strong communication among all the employees and colleagues. Right? So, look for an intranet software that allows for forum and commenting via threaded communication. This will motivate the users to participate in certain discussions and also drive faster solutions to the problems.

2. User Interface

If performance is the most important factor for you, make sure the user interface of the intranet is streamlined. If it is to be explained in simple words, UI is something that relates to the functionality of the intranet, for example, overall layout, drop-down menus, buttons and others. How your staff would use the intranet or how well the company intranet will be organized, is totally dependent on the UI of the intranet.

3. Ideation

Contributing and sharing new ideas is one of the principal factors for intranet. But, what if the users are unable to do the same? What if there are a number of restrictions and permission issues in the intranet? Will your company intranet be able to reach its maximum performance, in such a condition? Definitely, no!! So, choose an efficient software which foster collaboration and idea sharing.

4. Attractive and Neat Design

The design of the intranet is often underrated, but actually, it is one of the most important features that can add credibility to the user experience. Also, do not confuse design with the UI. The former basically focuses on how your intranet looks (i.e. the visual appeal of the intranet), rather than how it operates. Experts say that one must choose a simple, yet attractive design, as messy designs make even the most productive social intranet very difficult to navigate.

5. Content Ranking System

This feature contributes to the improvement of your company intranet, with the passing time. This helps the employees to tag content with keywords, which according to them, was useful to them. In addition to this, there should also be an option for creating comments on the content and rank the content on a scale of 1 to 5. This will, eventually promote discussions and internal communication on the intranet.

6. Employee Search

For a multi-national corporation or large business, it is common to have a huge number of employees. Hence, it often becomes difficult to find the right person for any specific job or task. Hence, the social intranet software you choose must have the facility for employees to tag themselves with their current job designation in the organization. Also, the employees must have the facility to tag their skills and expertise, which in turn, could be used as keywords to search the right ‘fit’ for the task.

7. Access on Mobile

Last but not the least; easy accessibility or functionality on mobile is the hottest feature that you must look for. At present, people do not use their laptops as much as they use their tablets and smart phones. Therefore, the organization intranet must definitely be accessible through mobile devices. Further, it should be noted that not all software companies are passionately active into building mobile intranets. So, you will have to spend a considerable time in finding the right match for your needs.

Conclusion

In simple words, social intranet is the most pivotal factors for very modern business; and its trend is not going to fade away any soon. So, take your time to search the right platform, put in more efforts and come up with an effective intranet that features all the important attributes, as mentioned above.

Author Bio: Shruti Mahour is a digital marketing expert at MyHub – Intranet Software Company – with more than 5 years of experience in blogging about different kinds of intranet solutions for various organizations. Helping global businesses understand the use and concept of intranet, she would love to contribute her knowledge on all types of intranets used in the biz world.