Social Intranet Software

An Intranet strengthens the sense of community between the employer and the employee. If there is open and sufficient communication with employees, they feel valued and appreciated. This increases productivity and has a positive effect on the corporate culture. Furthermore, a company Intranet can promote team spirit and an efficient transfer of knowledge. Through improved cooperation, costs can be reduced and processes optimised. 

Functional and comfortable design

Most people use their mobile phones nowadays, so users need to be offered a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes. 

Calender

A calendar function can be useful for displaying holidays and birthdays to reduce the number of emails sent to employees on this topic. 

Search function

When employees can't find the right information to their search request, they can quickly become frustrated. For this reason it is important to integrate a good search function. 

Notifications / Alerts

Employees should be kept informed of new posts or content through real-time Email or dashboard notifications. 

Social collaboration tools

With modern social Intranet functions, employees can be committed to share and label content, and to respond to it and you can follow favorite users. Surveys and studies can be provided and much more.

Interactive employee directory 

Such a directory facilitates cooperation with colleagues and quickly and easily establishes a connection to the right people.

Dashboards

Keep the team and employees directly on the Intranet homepage of the company about important announcements.

Drupal offers a variety of features that you can use individually for your company to promote knowledge transfer, social collaboration and internal communication between employees. The most important functions that an Intranet should contain can be realized with Drupal. In addition, further features can be implemented according to your needs.

 

Discussion Forums / Groups

Enabling the exchange of opinions, with moderators able to control discussions. The Drupal core module already brings the function of a forum.

User-friendly search function

The integrated Drupal search can be extended at this point, for example with the integration of "Apache Solr" to provide full text search, filtering with regular expressions, auto-complete and much more. 

Wikis

The collaboration is organized in so-called wikis, so that the content can be edited or supplemented by any user. 

Password protection

Certain areas can be password-protected so that only those users who need it have access to information.

Social Collaboration Tools - Blogs, Chatrooms, Bookmarking, Dashboards

Various features offer users the opportunity for "social collaboration". Communication and information management thus becomes more efficient. 

Single Sign-In

Intranet users only need to log in once to access the selected intranet environment. 

The main difference between a social Intranet and a "general" Intranet is the dynamic knowledge transfer and collaborative work. Information and content are not only provided centrally by a moderator, but users can actively participate in the creation of content, network with each other, write blog posts and exchange information in Wikis, forums and chats. A social Intranet must therefore serve to convey information as well as to promote interaction, collaboration and Internal search.

Since Drupal includes the already finished distributions like Open Social, it is very easy to set up a social Intranet with the open source software. We at 1xINTERNET will help you with this.

Corporate policies and official documents

An area should be set up where the latest versions of all forms, policies and official documents of a company are stored.

Corporate strategy and goals

The possibility to refer to the corporate strategy helps to inform employees about the overall picture. In this way they know where the company is heading. The strategy section of the intranet should also include details of major initiatives and any sub-strategies, e.g. for different lines of business. 

Corporate values and social responsibility (CSR)

Many organisations are interested in explaining their values to employees and highlighting their commitment to supporting associations etc. This Intranet content can help build a culture that encourages engagement and gives employees a sense of purpose. 

Brand Center

Most companies want to show consistency both in tonality and visually in their communication. A Brand Center on the Intranet supports this. If possible, access to related digital resources such as logos, images, presentation templates, etc. should be included.

Information about products and services

Having information about the most important products and services of a company on the Intranet is very important. This is absolutely crucial for sales employees who have to discuss binding offers with customers. It also helps to raise internal employees' awareness of what the company does externally. Ultimately, this content can support better customer service.

Location information

Most companies have more than one location and it is very useful to have information about each one. The content should be targeted not only at the employees based at that location, but also at those who travel there. Typical intranet content for a site includes:

• How to get there
• Maps and floor plans
• Facilities and safety information
• Local hotels and restaurants
• Essentials like the latest menu of the staff restaurant or Wi-Fi code for guests

Area for new employees

This can include an overview of the company with a tour of key areas such as organisational structure and strategy, as well as important forms and checklists. A streamlined onboarding process is not only efficient, but also ensures that the entire list is checked off each time a new employee is hired.

HR Information

Every employee should have access to HR information on the intranet. This can cover everything from social benefits to processes such as booking holidays or individual training. Including this content on the intranet can save HR managers a lot of time, as employees can find the answers to questions themselves.

Intranet Guide 

Last but not least, don't forget to include a section that instructs users on how to use the intranet. Although many modern Intranets are easy and intuitive to use and do not require training per se, there will be some users who are less familiar with the technology. This may be especially true for social elements of the Intranet, such as "commenting" or joining groups, which may be new to some employees. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), user documentation or instructional videos can provide great value to users.