What is an Intranet? Meaning, Benefits and Best Practices

Everyone has encountered the term Intranet, be it in school, college, or the workplace. But what does it truly signify? What’s its fundamental importance? Is it genuinely advantageous? These are the queries that often surface. It’s not just another term but a potent tool that can amplify your connectivity. It’s distinct from the internet, a fact that can sometimes be perplexing. While the objective is the same as the internet, connecting people. Today, we’ll explore disparities, benefits, and best practices of this indispensable concept, providing valuable insights.

What is an Intranet?

Let’s start by understanding what an Intranet is. An intranet is a private network, connected via local/closed servers. Which organisations or enterprises use to connect exclusively with their members. It can be used for different purposes, but at its core, the primary purpose is to communicate through private channels. Now, the question that arises is, what is it used for?

What are the uses of an Intranet?

People use something only if it brings something to the table, and there is no exception in the intranet. With its fair share of uses, the Intranet is not just helpful but can also bring significant opportunities for organisations. So, without any delay, let’s discuss these uses.

Cross-Country Connectivity

In an organisation, big or small, there are always employees who either work from distant places. However, to work together, they need to connect with others. In such situation using a vast number of servers is not an option. Here comes the intranet, through which you can connect with anyone in any place without the fear of breach.

Document Storage

There are two types of storage options in an intranet. The first one stores information accessible to everyone, akin to public storage. Secondly, there is private storage where every individual can store files that are for their personal use. But there is a catch to it: an admin/super user, who is mostly a higher authority person. He can decide who can see which information and even look into others’ private storage.

Updates and Announcements

Generally, a company goes through the traditional process of making announcements or giving updates by telling them personally or through mail. However, with the evolution of work culture, employees are working from home and many other places. Through an Intranet, they all can be notified at once in case of any new update or announcement; this not only saves time but also increases the efficiency of workflow.

Project Management

When working on a project, companies need to manage various aspects simultaneously, including assigned tasks, updates, team calls, status updates, and frequent rectifications. For all that, you need to coordinate regularly yet carefully to safeguard your client’s information. All of that can be done through a single workspace(i.e., Intranet), making all that work not only easier but also efficient and safe.

How do Intranets work?

Now that we have learned a lot about the Internet, let’s dive deeper into it and find out how it works. Unlike the internet, the intranet works on a private/closed server, which allows the PCs that are specifically allowed to access it. An intranet has a firewall that prevents any type of server breach possible, making it safe to use. In every intranet, a CMS (content management system) is set up to allow the creation, publication, transmission, and storage of important files used within the organization. In some cases, there are many interlinked LANs in an intranet that connect them to WAN for resources and stuff.

Elements Needed in a Good Intranet?

There are always some ingredients that you need to make something good. The same goes for the intranet. It also has some elements that you must add if you want something beneficial to come out of it. As we are discussing everything related to the intranet, we will also list down these elements for you. Keep reading if you want to learn them all.

Document Transfer/Management

Your intranet should have the ability to manage and transfer documents within your organisation. This will help create a better workflow and submission of work, which in turn will increase efficiency and productivity.

Communication Tools/Channels

 All the types of communication channels should be available on your intranet, whether you talk about texts, calls, or video calls. Communication channels improve the coordination between team members and help you establish a proper source of information flow without the fear of any leakage or breach.

Employee/User Directory

Organisations are compelled to have an employee/user directory, and with the intranet, you can move it online, which will be easily available for authorised users. With access to the employee directory, users can easily complete their work, and the administrative departments can also be informed about the hierarchical changes within the organisation.

Task Management

The assignment of tasks is a tiring job if done offline; you can go to every person or ask them to come to you every time just to assign tasks. With the addition of task management in your intranet, you can change this and assign every person their tasks with just a few clicks.

News and Announcements

In an organisation with thousands of employees, there is always something new happening around the corners, and updating each one of the employees is not feasible when doing it offline. Therefore, you need a resource where you just need to enter a news or announcement once, and it is automatically available for everyone to read. This will not only decrease the workload for certain employees but also ensure that everyone is updated.

Training and Development

 When organisations recruit freshers or interns, they need to train them in the working environment and ways in which they work. But, doing so through face-to-face training, will not only be more time taking, but also will accure a lot of resources. With training and development functions integrated into the intranet, the execution of the training can be done in a faster and easier way.

Analytics and Reporting

For a smooth workflow, you need to analyse the work situation inside your organisation, including feedback and review from the employees over various functions. With an intranet that allows you to do so, the process will become smoother and easier.

Security

The security of your intranet bears the utmost importance; there is a lot of confidential information stored and transferred within it. You need to make a firewall that safeguards your system from any type of breach or intrusion.

Multilingual

An organisation is filled with a diverse group of employees from various places and ethnicities, with which it is inevitable to have a difference in language proficiencies. Therefore, while creating an intranet for your organisation, you need to be more language-inclusive; doing so will ensure there is no communication gap among the employees.

Centralisation

 The authority to make decisions within an organisation is up to a certain group of people, and in centralisation, you formally provide them authority to make decisions and changes within the intranet, too. 

Culture

Work culture means a lot for a company, and promoting a good work culture helps increase morale and bonding among employees. With an intranet, you can do so with ease and maintain it with just a few clicks.

Examples of Intranet

Here are a few examples of intranets

Microsoft SharePoint

Integrated natively with Microsoft 365, Sharepoint is a web-collaborative platform that allows employees to share documents, save them and use them when needed.

Atlassian Confluence

Made by Atlassian, Confluence is a web-based corporate wiki where companies can create knowledge bases and document storage and let employees access them when needed.

Google Workspace

An intranet specifically developed by Google that is equipped with all the tools and functions a company needs for better communication and collaboration among its employees.

IBM Notes

 Previously known as Lotus Notes, IBM Notes is a platform for sharing documents, mailing colleagues, scheduling appointments and many other work-related functions within an organisation. 

Jive Software

A software developed with the purpose of smooth communication and collaboration within an organisation owned by Aurea Software, which makes more such.

WordPress

One of the most widely known platforms for content management services, WordPress helps many organisations with its ability to be customised. 

Slack

 With the ability to change the ways businesses communicate, Slack was created with the purpose of smoothening communication within organisations, and later on, it garnered attention from people as a make-do intranet.

Conclusion

All in all, intranets are a good source of communication within an organisation, with various other functionalities that allow users/employees to work in a highly inclusive environment. Using an Intranet within an organisation helps a lot, as it smoothens and lessens various tasks and the ways to perform them. With time, the use of it will surely increase as it becomes more reliable and readily available. If you are also looking for intranet services and can’t find someone suitable, contact us now.

FAQs For Intranet