A collaborative tool whose popularity on the market is undeniable more than 20 years after its creation, the intranet offers many advantages for its users. But what type of company is it ultimately intended for? Is his interest limited to certain services? Or to all employees?

Among all types of organizations, SMEs and ETIs have a real interest in turning to an intranet-type digital solution. Indeed, this type of portal is particularly favorable to medium-sized companies, in full development, wishing to have tools adapted to their needs and uses, particularly in terms of internal communication and cohesion: highlighting first-class information importance, centralization of documents, consolidation of business software, etc.

The impact and benefits of the intranet can be very exciting. Looking more closely, all the departments and employees of a company can benefit from it, which is pushing more and more of them to be tempted and to redesign their intranet or even adopt a new one to their collaborators.

What is an intranet?

Regarding its definition, an intranet is a collaborative platform internal to the company accessible via the Internet. This solution responds to many problems, particularly in terms of internal communication. The intranet particularly promotes remote working and strengthens the link between the company and its employees by centralizing news and documents of the structure in a single and secure tool.

Who can use a professional intranet?

The intranet, within a company, such as an SME , can be beneficial to all employees. As we will be able to see, whether it is the sales department, the administrative department or the logistics department, the advantages of this solution trickle down and promote communication as well as team cohesion and the feeling of belonging. employees, the relevant information passing through much more easily and much more quickly.

1. The intranet at the service of sales?￰

The sales department is the first department we think of, when the question of the intranet is mentioned. Indeed, salespeople, especially traveling salespeople, are on the move most of the time and must, as such, have tools enabling them to continue to manage their business, even several hundred kilometers from the office.

Is the intranet the solution? The answer tends towards “yes”. Indeed, the intranet allows them to connect to an internal platform linked to their company, to access their profile and to manage both old and new projects, to dispatch them to the teams and to ensure their progress. This also allows them to have constant access to sensitive documents, such as quotes, promises of sale or invoices.

2. The intranet at the service of marketing

In a telework situation , whether it is a choice or an obligation, the marketing department of a company can rely on the intranet to ensure the continuity of ongoing operations. Thanks to the latter, the marketing department has a tool of choice to communicate all kinds of information to the entire structure and thus ensure that employees are kept up to date with the latest hot news from the organization, whether in the office or remotely.

In the same vein, the addition of a collaborative dimension to the intranet, now firmly anchored in the tool via features such as team messaging, promotes exchanges and thus reinforces the feeling of belonging of employees to the culture of the company.

3. The intranet for the administrative sector

The issue of good administrative management has long been a concern for many companies. Indeed, the documents are piling up as they go along, making the archives room practically unusable. This resulted, most of the time, in a real waste of time, whether to search for a document, confirm or refuse a request, etc.

However, the deployment of the collaborative intranet has upset this state of affairs. The tool facilitates exchanges and allows all employees of the administrative department to be able to respond quickly to internal requests from employees. All documents (invoices, payslips, etc.) are thus centralized in a single tool, thus becoming accessible in just a few clicks.

4. The intranet for the human resources department

Previously, it was customary to go directly to the human resources department in order to ask a question concerning one's holidays, one's situation in the company, etc. However, with the emergence of digital internal communication tools and in particular the intranet , that era is well and truly over. Indeed, human resources are getting up to speed and also benefit from the advantages of the intranet.

Indeed, specially developed and adapted functionalities can be implemented, such as a tool allowing you to enter your leave in a few clicks. Certain functionalities allowing you to organize a meeting, a meeting with the HR department , whether in real life or in a digital version, optimize and streamline daily exchanges.

5. The intranet for logistics services

More surprisingly, the intranet can also serve the interests of the logistics department within a company that has one. As we have seen in previous articles, one of the main advantages of the intranet lies in the fact that it is possible to customize the tool and above all, to add the desired functionalities.

In the context of logistics and production (supply chain) this can be translated into applications allowing for example to monitor the status of stocks in time. But also to easily place orders, to plan and anticipate thanks to the establishment of a "bridge" between the sales department and the production department in order to reduce waiting times for a part, etc. The possibilities are very numerous. and make it possible to considerably improve the relationship between the services.

6. The intranet for the legal service

Within a company working in a particularly monitored sector (chemicals, health, etc.), the laws evolve quite quickly. Moreover, the risks of not respecting them can be quite significant. This can ultimately have a negative impact on the company's brand image as well as on employees and the company itself, from a legal point of view.

The company intranet portal allows the legal department in charge to recall and ensure compliance with certain standards, to transmit the most important information to all employees or to the persons concerned within a single department. This allows them to quickly be aware of the slightest change, the slightest risk and therefore reduce potential dangers.

7. The intranet for the IT department

The IT department (developers, administrators) also has a platform from which to discuss current projects. This allows these employees to better discuss and anticipate the slightest problem in order to avoid a breakdown or other disturbance that could considerably impact the production line and sales.

Let's take the example of an e-commerce site going down. Quickly, financial resources would run out. And the shortfall can be quite high. An intranet allows internal administrators to anticipate, discuss and react in the space of a few minutes, thanks to the sharing of information and the implementation of tools allowing discussion, to see each other and swap.

Finally, a search and content collaboration social network is not for everyone. Depending on the needs, you have to know how to adapt, in order to offer your staff the adoption and use of a simple and effective system, which will not prevent them from working well.

Also Read : Corporate intranet portal