Digital Transformation Today

The Importance Of A Social Intranet And How It Can Work For You

The topic of social intranet capabilities is not new – it’s been a hot topic for more than a few years. In fact, research has shown that social intranet technologies raise worker productivity by as much as 25 percent. That’s reason enough to learn how to use such tools properly.

Read on to learn more about the importance of social intranet, best practices for implementation and social intranet solution considerations for your organization.

Why Social Intranet Is Important

The intranet is a network that utilizes social software to consolidate data within an organization. For instance, team sites may lack discoverability, social sites perhaps lack a business context and company portals could lack participation.

Having a social intranet solution addresses these issues, as such platforms allow information to flow easily in many directions, give employees the chance to capitalize on knowledge and increase engagement across departments. By improving access to information, knowledge and communication, you provide your employees opportunities to collaborate and innovate, and thus enhance company productivity. Social intranet platforms also give workers a range of ways to express themselves. For managers, it paints a clearer picture of all that’s going on within the company at any given time.

Those Who Have Done It Right vs. Those Who Haven’t

More than 70 percent of company employees rate their company’s social intranet tools as poor to fair. That means many organizations are having problems not only implementing a communication and collaboration hub, but also getting workers to use it effectively. For many organizations, implementing an intranet involves turning a SharePoint document library into an interactive and social experience. And yes, Yammer and SharePoint integration can achieve this.

As the numbers suggest, companies also fail at combining various systems into an effective social intranet. This could be for a number of reasons, including lukewarm support from top levels, inadequate platform infrastructure and low employee adoption rate. These barriers lead to a social intranet platform not being relevant and/or useful to employees.

Conversely, companies that have managed to successfully utilize social intranet software have realized employees not only need a dashboard detailing employee information and their tasks, but also require the tools to get tasks finished in a productive and effective manner.

In short, such organizations understand social intranet tools are for two-way communication—the benefits are best enjoyed when employees connect and work together. For example, to successfully integrate Yammer into SharePoint, this philosophy needs to guide the process; furthermore, you need to have the proper infrastructure, enthusiastic support from executives and employees need to see the potential of the system.

So, What’s the Right Social Intranet Solution?

If you’re running Microsoft Office 365, you know it boasts the tools and services for your company to store and exchange tons of content and data. However, you may desire more to transform the platform into a true communication and collaboration hub. That’s where systems like Yammer can help, as such tools can provide a richer enterprise social experience. But Yammer isn’t the only option you should be considering.

When choosing a platform to give your company the best possible social network, features and budget are paramount to the choices available. Beezy, for instance, is a collaboration solution for Office 365 that offers on-premises, hybrid and cloud services. It has features ranging from microblogging and wikis, to ask the experts and polls, in addition to providing migration tools from other popular platforms like IBM.

The choice is ultimately up to you. As the social intranet evolves, it’s crucial to look for platforms that fit your company and inspire your employees. The future of the social intranet is bright, as it is the best way for employees to access information quickly, form a community and ultimately connect all operations. Tremendous potential exists if utilized correctly.