Having first appeared in the early 1990s, intranets have become an essential tool to facilitate the flow of information, improve internal communication and connect entire organizations. Thus, in 2020, 85% of all companies will have an intranet.¹
At first glance, creating an intranet may seem complicated. However, today there are many turnkey solutions to set up your platform in just a few minutes!
To help you take the plunge, we explain in this article:
- all the advantages intranets offer
- six steps for choosing the best intranet for you
- how to easily and inexpensively create your intranet with Talkspirit
The advantages of an intranet
Whether you are an SME, ETI, or even a large group, the intranet will allow you to meet many challenges:
- bring all your employees together on a single platform
- facilitate information sharing and boost internal communication
- improve collective intelligence and knowledge capitalization
- develop cohesion and a sense of belonging
- give employees a voice and encourage feedback
- boost productivity by reducing unnecessary emails and meetings
- facilitate day-to-day collaboration
Also read: Intranet: Definition and Features
Choosing your intranet
There are a multitude of intranet solutions available on the market, and this can discourage many when it comes to choosing a platform. Our advice to make this decision process easier: think about what you need before starting to benchmark.
Here are six steps to follow when choosing an intranet:
- Evaluate your needs: ask yourself why you need an intranet, how many people will use it, in which work context (remote work, face-to-face, or both).
- Identify your main use cases, for example: internal communication, information sharing and access, resource centralization, community management, employee engagement, document base, employee valorization, etc.
- Think about your constraints, for example by asking yourself the following questions:
- Do you need a secure and GDPR-compliant platform?
- Should all employees have access to the intranet (including employees without email)?
- Would you like to be able to customize your platform?
- Do you need to connect specific business applications?
- Does the platform need to have a mobile and/or desktop application?
- Identify the features you need: news feed, home page, publications, chat, video conferencing, drive, directory, organization chart, etc.
- Shortlist remedies that meet your needs by comparing:
- features each platform offers
- the quality of any guidance and user support
- the price per license and per user
- the ergonomics of the platforms
- the level of security and data hosting
- user reviews on software evaluation sites (such as G2, Capterra or Appvizer)
- Test the chosen solution in your company in order to gather user feedback and verify that it meets your expectations.
To facilitate benchmarking, we invite you to consult our comparison of the best intranets.
Talkspirit, the turnkey intranet
Created in 2008, Talkspirit is a “new generation” intranet, also known as an enterprise social network.
100% made in France, Talkspirit allows you to modernize your internal communication, bring together employees, and facilitate the sharing of information thanks to functionalities such as publications, intelligent search, news feed, directory, groups, or shared calendar.
What’s more, Talkspirit integrates collaborative features like video conferencing, chat, document sharing, and co-editing—all this through an ergonomic, easy-to-use platform.
According to Fabrique du Net, a customized intranet costs €30,000-€100,000 for a small or medium-sized company. With a turnkey online platform such as Talkspirit, you can drastically reduce the price of your intranet by saving costs related to development, maintenance, and updates, which can all reach very high amounts.
From €4.00 per month and per user, Talkspirit gives you access to all the features of its platform. That amounts to just €5,000 per year for an SME with 100 people—enough for substantial savings!
In addition to its competitive pricing, Talkspirit is a constantly evolving tool with regular improvements. Users can access all new features at no extra cost and even suggest improvements to our teams.
To create your intranet on Talkspirit, simply start a free trial. Once your space is created, you can:
- customize it by adding your company’s colors, logo, login page, and name
- create your home portal with important news and events
- create your own communities
- make documents available to your employees on the Talkspirit Drive
- invite all your employees (blue and white collars), but also partners, suppliers, customers, and others when necessary
- start using the tool!
Test and learn more about Talkspirit
In order to facilitate the use of the tool, we also provide you with video tutorials that you can access here.
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You now have all the keys in hand to create your intranet with ease
Want to know more about Talkspirit? Click on the button below to discover our platform in more detail:
¹ Simpplr’s white paper: “2020 State of the Intranet”
Author: Emmanuelle Abensur
