We recently came across an interesting post by Kim Komando, who is the host of the nation’s largest talk-radio show about computers and the Internet. Kim also writes a syndicated column for more than 100 Gannett newspapers, and for USA Today.
Kim explains why even small businesses can benefit from an intranet and she makes some key points that can apply to any SME looking to implement an internal communication and collaboration intranet tool.
1. Businesses need constant, reliable, and secure communications with others in the company to ensure successful growth. Communication can suffer when information distribution is a huge task. An intranet can resolve that problem by providing a central location to post company wide communications like weekly reports, memos and corporate goals. This way everyone is up to speed and stays in the loop.
2. An intranet can save you time, and time is money. It’s an easy way to post important and relevant content for your employees so they are not wasting time looking for the right information. Publish events to an intranet calendar, add corporate policies, and give employees a simple and fast way to lookup and interact with information and tasks pertinent to their jobs. Business practices such as vacation requests and changes to HR benefits can be streamlined through the use of electronic forms.
3. Using an intranet is more effective than email. Broadcast emails and sending multiple versions of the same document or presentation via email can lead to confusion and information overload. Using your intranet to share documents, PowerPoint presentations, and videos is less intrusive, more interactive, and can lead to collaboration and shared resources. Document versioning through the intranet allows employees to work on shared files without confusion and the potential of overwriting someone else’s work. You can even monitor, track and moderate what work is being published onto the intranet.
Jumping onto an intranet can be a daunting task, but once you begin to provide valuable tools and interactive collaboration that will improve upon existing communication channels, the return of investment can be significant.
Read Kim Komando’s full article.
Tags: Employee Communication, intranet deployment, intranet ROI
Will it make the colour of the stretch mark go away?