5 ways intranets have changed for the better

Underused, unusable, a waste of time – for many people, these are terms that might come to mind when picturing an intranet.

We’re trying to change that perception, because we know that, done right, an intranet can have a truly transformative effect on an organisation and its staff.

It’s fair to say that intranets have had a bad rep in the past, because, in the wrong hands, they’re very easy to mess up.

For many who’ve used an old-school intranet, the experience was one of frustration – at not being able to find information, at the site being out-of-date, or even at being unable to use it on the latest browsers.

Fortunately, it’s 2016, and all that has changed. We’ve put twenty years of experience into creating our Kira intranet accelerator.

It’s a new kind of solution that brings the corporate intranet resolutely into the 21st century.

With Kira working wonders for everyone from household names like Tesco Bank and Standard Life to charities, public sector bodies and SMEs, we’re setting a new standard in intranets that aren’t just usable, but that your organisation will want to use.

Here are five things that an intranet built with Kira has out-of-the-box that puts those nightmare intranets of the past to shame.

1. Everyone’s on the same page

At its heart, an intranet should ensure that everyone has access to the latest corporate information – whether that’s news bulletins, updates about where the business is heading, internal materials like a company handbook, or HR policies.

With a modern intranet, now there’s a place for everything, and content management and version control means everyone who accesses a document is on the same page.

Web-style search and filtering means all that stuff doesn’t get lost, either; just type a couple of keywords and the powerful algorithms will return exactly what you’re looking for.

For those who have been disappointed by intranet search in the past, that’s not an overstatement – we know how important search is to intranet users, and have built and refined it to be as useful as your favourite search engine.

2. Content filtered by context

Companies generate a lot of information, and that can lead to information overload.
That’s something nobody wants, so we’ve baked the functionality into Kira to automatically filter what people see based on their role and location.

For example, a sales manager in your Newcastle office might not need to see news about your accountancy team in Glasgow.

Kira pre-filters aspects of the intranet to ensure that only the most relevant information is shown first time (of course, you can remove those filters at any point to gain a complete view).

3. Get people involved

Social media is a huge part of many people’s experience of technology, and we think it has positive applications in businesses.

Intranets built using our Kira platform can take advantage of interactive elements like comments and page ratings that help get people involved.

They’re also useful tools for gaining unexpected insight and for measuring the popularity or usefulness of a page.

Full integration with Microsoft’s Yammer corporate social networking platform also brings a highly-social aspect to your intranet, with the ability to share and discuss information in a way that is preserved and searchable in future.

4. Make teams self-sufficient

Gone are the days when a small team of intranet editors was tasked with creating all the content for your intranet.

Now experts from across your organisation can contribute to pages and even have their own sites within the intranet.

This frees up your communications staff to take on a commissioning, editorial and content governance role.

This approach ensures that there’s relevant, accurate and up-to-date information across your intranet, written and maintained by the people who are closest to the content.

5. Work on the devices your staff use

Finally, all Kira intranets are fully responsive, meaning they will adjust to whatever device they’re being viewed on.

Your intranet will work just as well on a tablet or mobile phone as it will on a desktop PC, with elements of the page automatically rearranging themselves to fit.

This functionality is built-in, so you can focus on just creating great content.

These are just a few of the great features of a modern, Kira-based intranet. Visit our Kira microsite to discover the full details of what this powerful system can do for your business.

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