Why Your Company Needs (and Wants) an Intranet

I can see you cringe already.

“Another website? It’s enough work taking care of the one we’ve got! And don’t get me started about Facebook and Twitter!”

It’s true that businesses today need to invest far more time in their digital face – company website, social media, and online content marketing – than we did even five years ago. And, no doubt, time is one of your most valuable commodities. So how could you possibly benefit from adding another site to that mix?

Well, here’s how: It’s not really in that mix. It’s above the mix.

A company intranet is basically an internal, secure website created to fill your internal administrative and communication needs. You control what is and isn’t included, and you control who has permission to see or engage with it.

Since it’s inward-facing, rather than outward-facing, the content and design of your intranet will be completely different from your standard company website. This opens up a universe of possibilities for internal communication among managers, employees, vendors and suppliers.

Here are some of the most universal reasons why your company needs (and probably wants) an intranet:

• Everyone in the organization needs access to various forms, documents, images and information, but making sure everyone has clean, updated copies is a pain. (With an intranet, a 30-second investment of time lets you scan and upload a new form, update the appropriate file on your intranet, or make multiple versions available, and everyone has a printable copy of the most up-to-date version.
• Your distributors, suppliers, vendors and other external connections want and need consistent access to necessary information or systems in order to work with you, but standard methods are falling short. (By creating customized sections of the company intranet designed specifically with those various users in mind, and giving them secure access to only those sections, your external connections can enjoy all the same intranet benefits your employees have.)
• You want the organizational benefits without all the hassle or added infrastructure. (You can outsource the updates to Gotham to keep your intranet current, and with password protection and offsite storage, it’s a hassle-free, worry-free win-win situation.)

Of course, with some brainstorming, you can probably come up with a hundred more benefits to be gained by having a state-of-the-art internal web-based solution at your fingertips. Here’s some food for thought: the “10 Best Intranets of 2012” and what makes them so awesome.

An easy-to-use, quality intranet system gives all users access to pertinent company information and frees up employees to do other things for the company. And there’s no arguing with that ROI.