Evolution of the Intranet
Categories: Technology
Social networking has become a hot topic and corporations are struggling to leverage them in business operations. Many companies have harnessed the marketing potential of social networks but rejected the idea of allowing employees to conduct business within them. This is all for good reason. Facebook is not a space you want to map out changes in corporate strategy or discuss business partnerships. That being said, the collaborative ideologies that can be found within applications like Facebook are the perfect platforms to build community in the workplace and intranets are beginning to fill that niche.
Traditional intranets were designed to be places of information dissemination from the top down. Most contained information from top level management regarding company goals, major achievements, or changes in HR policies. Some of the more sophisticated systems allowed for simple file sharing. All of that is changing.
With advancements in web technologies, intranets are quickly becoming a one stop shop for all business development needs. Places where employees can collaborate in immersive, flexible communication environments. With integrated access to web conferencing, instant messaging, blogging, microblogging, file sharing, team forming, project tracking, etc, the opportunity for increased productivity is endless. Add on top of that the ability to track all interactions through the system; these tools are quickly becoming essential business development resources.
Careful consideration should be given to selecting the right tool for your organization. As always, a needs assessment should be done to determine what your organization would most benefit from. A tool will not solve a problem on its own. The right tool for the right job used in the right way is the only way to success. What problems could an intranet present or solve in your organization?
Popular Intranet 2.0 Tools:
