7 essential things to know before launching a successful intranet

2 minutes

You are planning to develop an intranet for your business, but you don’t know where to start? Well, you’re in luck! In this article, we will discuss seven essential things you need to know before launching your intranet.

From defining your objectives and involving stakeholders to choosing the right platform and ensuring security and privacy, we’ll cover everything you need to know to build a successful intranet that meets your business needs.

So, let’s get started!

Define Your Intranet Goals and Objectives

Defining your intranet goals and objectives is crucial for building an intranet. Determine what you want your intranet to achieve, such as improving communication and collaboration, streamlining HR processes, enhancing document management, or all of the above. This will help you determine the necessary features, and functionalities your intranet must have.

Involve Stakeholders in the Intranet Launch

Involving stakeholders such as employees, managers, and IT staff in the intranet planning and development process is crucial for a successful launch. 

Gathering feedback and insights from stakeholders will help ensure that your intranet meets their needs and expectations. For that, you can organize a brainstorming session with a few people and send a form to all the employees who will use the intranet. 

Choose the Right Intranet Platform

Choosing the right intranet platform is essential for building a modern intranet that meets your organization’s needs. Research and compare different intranet software to find the best platform for your organization. Consider factors such as user experience, design, features, and cost.

If you want to display or provide access to data for one or several of your other tools, be sure that the platform select can connect with those tools. If it not the case, you will need to contact an agency and develop a custom intranet what can connect to your tools’ API. 

Design an Effective Intranet

Designing an effective intranet with a user-friendly interface and necessary features is key to successful adoption. 

Make sure employees can easily navigate the website, find the information they require, and interact with other employees. 

Foster a sense of community through social intranet features and make the intranet an effective tool for employee engagement.
We recommend integrating features often used by users so that they can regularly connect to the intranet: new about the company, events listing, chat between employees…

Ensure Security and Privacy

Intranets may contain sensitive information, so it is essential to ensure that your intranet is secure and that the privacy of your employees is protected. 

Implement security measures such as access controls, data encryption, and regular backups to safeguard your intranet. Ask your development agency or IT service how it will implement those safeguards.

Train Employees on the Intranet

Providing adequate training and support to your employees is crucial for the successful adoption of your intranet. 

Make sure your employees understand how to use the intranet and its features.
Provide ongoing support to address any issues or questions.

Monitor and Measure Success

After launching your intranet, it is essential to monitor its usage and measure its success. Collect feedback from users and analyze usage data to identify areas for improvement and ensure that your intranet is delivering the intended benefits. Don’t neglect going into the office and talking to people. 

If you are launching a first version with limited functionalities, be clear about it. You don’t want users to have a bad image of the intranet from the first days. 

Encourage users to adopt the intranet and foster a culture of feedback to continually improve the intranet experience. For example, you can add a button to a satisfaction survey on the main page. It should only take a few seconds to give feedback. 

Key features 

Here are four key features of a successful intranet: 

  • User-friendly Interface: A successful intranet should have a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and search. The interface should be intuitive and accessible to all employees, regardless of their technical abilities.
  • Personalization: A successful intranet should allow employees to personalize their homepage and tailor their experience to their needs. This feature can increase employee engagement and help employees find the information they need more efficiently.
  • Collaboration Tools: A successful intranet should have collaboration tools such as wiki, chat, and file sharing. These tools enable employees to communicate and work together more effectively, regardless of their location.
  • Analytics and Reporting: A successful intranet should provide analytics and reporting capabilities that enable administrators to measure the intranet’s effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. Analytics can also help organizations track user engagement, adoption rates, and usage patterns to improve the intranet’s functionality and performance.

Conclusion

Intranets are an excellent tool for enhancing communication, collaboration, and productivity within your organization. However, creating a successful intranet requires careful planning and execution. 

A successful intranet can be a game-changer for your business. It can streamline processes, improve communication, and enhance collaboration among employees. 

However, launching a successful intranet requires careful planning and execution. By following the seven essential things discussed in this article, you can increase the chances of creating an intranet that meets the needs of your employees and helps your business achieve its objectives. 

Remember to define your objectives, involve stakeholders, choose the right platform, design for user experience, ensure security and privacy, train your employees, and monitor and measure success. With these steps, you can create a successful intranet that makes your business more efficient and productive.

If you want additional information on intranet, don’t hesitate to read our previous article on Is creating an intranet a good idea in 2023?

Do you want to launch an intranet? Contact us, we have a team of specialists to develop your project.

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