Enterprise Intranet: Features, Use Cases & Top Solutions

Enterprises often struggle with managing large workforces. Between multiple offices, distributed teams and departments, and an increase in remote employees, it’s hard to ensure people feel connected and part of your company – let alone that they’re getting a consistent employee experience from day one of onboarding and beyond.

Data, assets, and information can be difficult to find without a centralized way of managing assets, and time and productivity are lost if employees are constantly looking for key documents. A lack of a unified employee experience can also affect employee engagement and satisfaction levels, which may result in low retention rates.

But that’s enough scene-setting. Let’s get to the reason you’re here: working through those problems! In this article, we’ll explain where an enterprise intranet and employee experience platform can help.

What is an enterprise intranet?

An enterprise intranet is essentially a private network designed specifically for a company or organization. It functions like a central hub that provides employees with all the tools, resources, and information they need to perform their jobs effectively. Think of it as your company's own internal internet.

Intranets have since expanded to offer more features and benefits to employees to further promote collaboration, increase engagement, and build company culture, and often serve as the central hub for company communication.

An effective enterprise intranet will help streamline operational processes and onboarding and improve overall access to key details and information.

What’s the difference between enterprise intranets vs SMB company intranets?

Enterprise and SMB intranets function similarly but differ significantly in scale and complexity. Enterprises have a much larger workforce and digital footprint to account for, so enterprise intranets have modeled their features to account for the challenges that often come with cloud-based infrastructures.

Enterprise intranets are built to serve thousands of employees across multiple locations, where SMB intranets are designed to work with fewer than 100 employees for a given organization. They also serve as a central hub for all communication, integrating with multiple solutions, offering real-time communication options, and even fostering cross-functional interaction via social networking tools. 

An SMB-focused intranet is often simplified and limited as an offering, whereas an enterprise intranet can serve as a holistic employee experience platform, unifying a variety of features to better serve larger, more complex organizations.

Benefits of implementing an enterprise employee intranet

An enterprise employee intranet can centralize communication to and from executives, within teams, and throughout the entire company. It also enhances productivity through more effective knowledge sharing and streamlines employee management by integrating with third-party solutions an organization is already using.

Ultimately, an effective employee intranet can improve overall engagement, productivity, retention, satisfaction, and collaboration.

Enhance communication and collaboration

An enterprise employee intranet can serve as a real-time hub for information sharing, announcements, and discussions. Many intranets can house forums for dedicated questions, provide an organized view of key documents, and can provide timely information that may not be open to the public. Intranets can also have dedicated areas of collaboration for specific departments, streamlining overall productivity.

Improve employee productivity

Employee productivity can take a hit if people are constantly searching for key documents. Having an enterprise intranet creates a central location that’s often the first place an employee goes to look for the information they need.

Knowledge management

FAQs, style guides, product fact sheets, and project documentation can be maintained in real-time, streamlining knowledge management. This is especially useful for new hires and employees who shift departments.

Boost employee engagement

Because intranets are private and accessible only to employees, a culture of success can be created celebrating employee achievements and departmental KPIs, increasing employee engagement and motivation.

Streamline business processes

Internal processes such as IT and HR support can all be done via the intranet, saving time and centralizing information.

Transparency and goal visibility

Communicating goals, strategies, and leadership positions through enterprise intranets can increase overall transparency and foster trust throughout the workforce. Executives also have an easy way to communicate with entire organizations and obtain feedback and responses in real-time.

Foster connections

Intranets can be equipped with internal social networking, forums, and employee directories, which can help remote-first or distributed teams connect and bond.

Improve onboarding 

Effective and efficient onboarding is crucial for new hire performance, retention, and overall satisfaction. A well set-up intranet can be key in bringing a new joiner up to speed.

Key features and functionalities to look out for in a corporate intranet

Selecting the right corporate intranet requires you to understand what your internal organizational needs are, and then match them to key intranet features. Here are some of the most important key functionalities.

Content Management System (CMS)

A user-friendly CMS fosters easy management, including editing, creating, and asset organization across multiple content types.

Search functionality

A robust search engine ensures that employees can quickly find the information they need and is essential for an effective enterprise intranet.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

SSO streamlines the user experience by providing secure access to the intranet and other essential work applications through a single log in, improving accessibility and engagement. This is particularly important for frontline employees, for example, who don’t necessarily have a company email address.

Communication, collaboration, and engagement tools

An effective intranet should include the following communication and collaboration tools

• Forums
• Employee profiles
• Activity feeds
• Asset directory
• Social networking tools
• Company news feeds
• Direct messaging capabilities
• Document sharing
• Employee directory
• Calendar for events and important company dates
• Real-time communication

These tools will foster a more engaging and interactive work environment that encourages both collaboration and knowledge sharing. This also facilitates cross departmental communication, allowing teams to work together more effectively.

Ultimately, through these tools, companies can stay on top of the most up-to-date information and even have a sense of community through active participation in company events and employee success stories.

Mobile accessibility

Given how often employees do work with their mobile phones, having mobile accessibility is a must to maintain engagement.

Robust security features

Intranets are full of sensitive data and proprietary information. Access controls, data encryption, and account security are all essential elements here.

Third-party integrations

Third-party integration allows you to more seamlessly connect your intranet to your external CMS, communication apps, contact center, calendar, email, and HR management platforms, improving overall efficiency and productivity.

Analytics and reporting

Robust analytics and reporting allow you to measure intranet engagement, identify areas of improvement, and optimize intranet performance. You’ll also be able to conduct surveys and get feedback from employees to get a sense of their experience.

Most common intranet use cases

Given how expansive and feature-laden an intranet can be, you can utilize it for a number of reasons. Here are some of the most common and effective use cases.

A digital workplace for all employees

Intranets are used as a crucial element of having an effective digital workplace, fostering collaboration and productivity across devices, locations, teams, and offices.

Reinforcing company culture and teamwork

A social intranet that promotes employee achievements, encourages collaboration, and fosters overall recognition can help build and maintain company culture, especially for remote and hybrid teams and distributed companies. This can be done through internal social networks, ongoing announcements, competitions, and forums.

Internal Content Management System

An effective CMS ensures an organization’s knowledge base is properly maintained, easy to access, and easy to use. This ensures that all employees have access to the most up-to-date information and improves collaboration efforts and workflows across the entire organization.

A social intranet to boost interaction

An intranet can build up independent culture and employee connectivity by incorporating social media-like elements such as forums, profiles, and engagement features. Ultimately, this will improve company culture and encourage interaction across teams and employees.

Streamline workflow via mobile intranet apps

Intranet access via mobile apps is necessary given the prevalence of BYOD and a mobile-first workforce. These apps allow employees to stay connected and access resources outside of their local office in a secure fashion, enhancing productivity through flexibility.

Best practices for successfully launching an enterprise intranet 

To ensure your enterprise intranet is being utilized and positively impacting productivity, communication, collaboration, and efficiency, there are a few best practices worth following.

Otherwise, you may end up with an enterprise intranet that isn't a good fit for your organization or your employees. You don’t want to spend precious time and budget for little to no gain.

Conduct employee research 

Because intranets are so flexible and customizable, it’s important to implement an intranet that serves your employees’ needs and addresses their potential paint points. Surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews with department heads can help you get a sense of what your intranet should provide, making it more effective and improving overall engagement. Questions could include:

• What's the most frustrating thing about our current communication tools for you?
• Are there any tasks that take too long because we don't have the right tools or info easily available?
• What kinds of tools, apps, or features are you most likely to use in an intranet?
• What kinds of company updates or information do you want access to?
• Would you prefer an intranet that you can customize to your own needs or do you prefer a curated intranet?
• How often do you see yourself engaging with the intranet, downloading and uploading assets, and collaborating with your other team members?
• How do you currently communicate with your other team members and how satisfied are you with the current process?

Getting an understanding of your employees’ needs, frustrations, and work styles is vital for implementing an intranet that will actually serve your workforce. These questions are just a starting point and you can return to them after the intranet is launched to identify other areas of improvement and iterate on the current version.

Get leadership buy-in as soon as possible

Because an intranet should serve the entire organization, you have to ensure all your department heads are bought in. This will encourage overall engagement, improve the implementation process, and streamline resource allocation for an effective launch.

Getting buy-in here requires you to communicate the effectiveness of an intranet in a way that’s tailored to your audience. The head of finance will be swayed differently, for example, to the head of marketing, so make sure you’re taking the time to craft your communication strategy accordingly.

Develop an intranet launch campaign

An effective launch campaign ensures a high engagement and adoption rate from the outset, while also improving the intranet’s chances of long-term success. Work with your department heads to craft a launch campaign that should include:

• Education about the platform
• Training for optimal use
• Examples of best-use cases
• Anticipation for the intranet launch

Get creative here. You can generate buzz and excitement by rewarding initial intranet use and team giveaways that encourage participation. Challenge your teams to collaborate with you through the intranet’s internal social networking features. You’ll be leading by example here by showing how effective and useful the intranet can be.

Continuously improve the intranet through feedback

Effective intranets are dynamic and constantly improving and you should spearhead that process by conducting formal and informal feedback sessions. This can be done through surveys and interviews as we detailed earlier, but you can also use the intranet itself to run polls and surveys, and even provide suggestion boxes to see what specific feedback employees may have. 

Your intranet should also provide engagement and activity data, allowing you to see which features your employees aren’t enjoying and where users might be experiencing friction.

Best intranet software for enterprise businesses

There are a lot of enterprise intranet software platforms out there. Choosing the right one requires an understanding of your organization’s needs and the options available.

Here’s our breakdown of some of the most popular intranet software options on the market.

1. Workvivo

Workvivo is one of the most robust cloud-based intranet platforms on the market. It fosters a more engaged and productive digital workplace through its community-led communications, social feel, and unrivaled customer support. As an all-in-one employee experience platform, it offers internal communication, engagement, recognition, and measurement features through a single app.

Top strengths

• Fastest time to value: Workvivo is designed to be implemented as fast as possible with minimal training required so your intranet can be up and running quickly.
• Social app feel for engagement: The platform has the look and feel of modern social media platforms that results in increased adoption and engagement
• Mobile first: The company prioritizes a mobile-first design to reach a modern workforce, meaning it can be utilized by enterprises with a global workforce and multiple offices.
  Workvivo’s robust feature set is what makes it stand out among its competitors and the top choice for any enterprise. Here are a few of the other features worth highlighting.
• Centralized platform: The platform integrates with the majority of productivity, engagement, and HR tools, making it a central hub for employee experience management.
• Human support: Workvivo has dedicated support teams for its clients so it can resolve any issues quickly rather than relying on less effective automated support systems.
• Customizability for organizations and employees: Managers can customize Workvivo to integrate with its existing employee management infrastructure and end users can also tailor their feeds to ensure the most relevant information is being displayed, maximizing effectiveness.
• Ease of use for all: The platform takes a consumer-facing approach to the platform, making it easier to use. The same is true for platform managers, meaning no dedicated IT team or function is required.
• Robust analytics can measure ROI: The platform reports employee activity, content reach, and engagement, and allows managers to measure employee sentiment through feedback tools, allowing organizations to improve retention and employee satisfaction rates.

Workvivo is a clear winner compared to its competitors as it offers a comprehensive feature set all in one place – from knowledge sharing and asset storage to collaboration features – while also scoring high on usability and gamification features.

2. Microsoft SharePoint

SharePoint is a comprehensive document management and collaboration platform from Microsoft that can serve as a central hub for communication, content sharing, and team collaboration. It isn’t a complete intranet solution but can be used by enterprises that already have Microsoft as a centerpiece within their tech stack.

Top strengths

• Integration with Microsoft 365: SharePoint is designed to integrate with other Microsoft apps like Teams, OneDrive, Defender, and Office Online to streamline and unify the employee experience.
• Robust communication and collaboration: The platform works well as a collaboration and asset-sharing platform, allowing teams to work on multiple projects in real time over the cloud.
• Security features foster external collaboration: Managers can customize access and permissions, allowing teams to work with external parties such as other vendors or contractors while maintaining secure data and account practices.

Weaknesses

• No social feed or networking tools: SharePoint is strictly for files and assets so it doesn’t have the internal social networking benefits a true intranet requires.
• Reliance on Microsoft Applications: SharePoint works best with other Microsoft Apps, which can be limiting for enterprises with different applications.

Enterprises that only have Microsoft applications as part of their organization’s architecture can utilize SharePoint well, but it’s not robust to be a top intranet choice.

3. Microsoft Viva Engage (formerly Yammer)

Viva Engage is an internal enterprise social networking platform from Microsoft that is designed to foster communication, collaboration, and holistic company engagement within an organization.

Top strengths

• Social media-like interface: Viva Engage models its look after popular social media applications, which improves platform engagement and adoption.
• Fosters group discussions and communities: The platform is effective at building company culture through group discussion and company communication features.

Viva Engage is an effective enterprise social networking platform but as a Microsoft application, runs into the  same vendor-specific issues as SharePoint. It’s also not comprehensive enough to be an enterprise’s sole intranet application and requires the use of other apps for additional benefits such as file sharing, and collaboration, making it a limited application compared to a platform like Workvivo.

4. Simpplr

Simpplr is a cloud-based employee experience platform that seeks to provide a single platform for knowledge sharing, internal enterprise social networking, employee recognition, team collaboration, and streamlined workflows.

Top strengths

• AI-powered platform: AI is a driving force behind Simpplr’s recent feature releases, which can automate analysis, search, and lead to more frictionless experiences.
• Mobile-first design: Simpplr is designed for distributed workforces and offers a mobile-first platform to increase adoption and overall engagement.

Weaknesses

• Automated support: Simpplr has automated support for its client, which can be limiting and less effective than dedicated support teams.
• Interface isn’t modeled after social media: Unlike Workvivo or Viva Engage, Simpplr doesn’t have a social media-like feel to its platform which may impact overall usability and familiarity.

Simpplr is an effective competitor to Workvivo as their feature set and strengths are similar. However, the lack of dedicated human support is a crucially lacking feature, especially for enterprise buyers.

5. Workplace from Meta (Discontinued)

Workplace from Meta was a Teams alternative that was essentially, Facebook for enterprises. However, in May 2024, Meta announced that it will be shuttering Workplace and is giving its existing customers an option to transition to Workvivo, Meta’s only preferred migration partner. 

The platform is allowing organizations to continue using the platform until August 31 2025 and all access and data will be deleted by May 31 2026. 

6. Staffbase

Staffbase is a cloud-based intranet platform that’s designed for leadership to employee communication and provides a mobile-first approach to reach diverse, distributed, and remote employees. 

Top Strengths

• Newsletter functionality for improved communication: The platform allows managers to create, publish, and send their own newsletters, increasing employee reach by communicating directly via email.
• Modular app-based customizability: Managers can customize the platform through its mini-apps ensuring it’s tailored exactly to the workforce’s needs.
• Microsoft 365 integration: Staffbase is a strong alternative for enterprises that have a significant Microsoft footprint within their existing architecture.

Weaknesses

• Homepage display: The platform view looks more like a news homepage than the social media-like offering other platforms provide, which may impact engagement.
• Features are limited: Staffbase doesn’t have robust internal social networking features, so it’s less useful as a comprehensive employee experience platform compared to some of the other platforms reviewed.

7. Igloo

Igloo is a cloud-based digital workplace platform that serves as a knowledge base, a communication tool, and a company culture platform for employees to stay connected. 

Top strengths

• Optimized for frontline workers: Igloo was designed for frontline and non-desk workers, which is perfect for hospitality, construction, manufacturing, and ICS industries.
• Effective for compliance adherence: Given the industries Igloo is optimized for, it also ensures those companies can stay within strict compliance and regulation standards.

Weaknesses

• Limited to key industries: Igloo’s key strengths can also be limiting so it may not be the best choice for enterprise and industries with an office-based workforce.
• Less comprehensive than other options: Igloo doesn’t have the same social networking and is more geared towards having a centralized hub for top-down communication so it’s less effective for companies looking for a more robust and comprehensive platform.

8. Guru

Guru is a knowledge management platform that’s designed to help employees find and share company assets, documents, and valuable information. It’s a focused platform that can integrate with additional applications for a more comprehensive intranet experience.

Top strengths

• Search functionality: Guru has invested heavily in search and with its AI-powered feature set, it cuts down on the time employees often take to look for a key document or asset.
• Automated answer-based tool: A key feature is its question and answer-based search tool where Guru surfaces important information that even takes from external integrations.

Weaknesses

• Limited as an intranet solution: Guru is excellent as a knowledge base and internal search directory but doesn’t have other comprehensive features to make it a true enterprise intranet platform.
• Requires additional applications and integrations: Organizations will need to invest in more solutions and vendors to have a fully functioning enterprise intranet, which may lead to a disparate tech stack.

9. Unily 

Unily is a comprehensive employee experience platform that focuses on ease of use for content managers and offers a wide variety of communication, collaboration, and intranet features.

Top strengths

• Easy to publish content features: Unily has an easy-to-use content management system that lets managers and users easily publish content with minimal training or IT support.
• Journey-based employee experience: Managers can create employee journeys for both new and existing employees to ensure employees have a clear understanding of how their growth is being measured.

Weaknesses

• Best for Microsoft apps: Unily is optimized for Microsoft integrations so it may not serve enterprises who are using solutions from other vendors.
• Lack of pricing transparency: Unily doesn’t publicize its price and reviews have mentioned its high price tag as a potential issue.

10. Happeo

Happeo is an AI-powered intranet best suited to enterprises that use Google Workspace. It serves as a centralized knowledge management platform, bringing in information and assets from a number of disparate sources.

Top strengths

• Best for Google Workspaces: Happeo is rated #1 for Google Workspace organizations so it may be a first-choice look for enterprises relying on Google Workspace.
• AI-powered centralized search: The platform’s prominent search bar centralizes information and data from its multiple integrations to more effectively serve its workforce.

Weaknesses

• Best for Google Workspaces: Happeo’s affinity for Google Workspaces means enterprises who are using other solutions are less likely to make the most of what Happeo has to offer.
• Limited employee social networking tools: The platform is best for knowledge management and effective communication but it’s less limited in terms of fostering employee collaboration and social networking internally.

Level up Your employee experience with a modern intranet 

To have a robust and comprehensive intranet that truly delivers a modern employee experience, Workvivo is a clear standout. It seamlessly integrates with your existing infrastructure and is stacked with features that allow organizations to:

• Communicate effectively with employees through announcements and ongoing company news
• Foster collaboration across teams through a robust knowledge base, asset-sharing features, and real-time communication
• Engage with employees via social networking features, personalized content, and gamification features
• Amplify your workforce whether they’re in the office, remote, or working on their personal devices
• Build and improve on company culture via analytics, reports, and in-platform feedback tools like surveys and polls

To learn how Workvivo can supercharge your employee experience, book your free demo here.