As the foundation of the Intranet, a corporate web portal supports employees in their everyday efforts and activities performed for the sake of the organization. It may assume any chosen form and provide various features, depending on the company’s needs. The following is a list of suggestions and good practices for similar solutions, which we implement for our customers.
Document sharing
A well-designed internal web portal makes it possible to quickly send files to a shared repository and provide access to them to users or groups being granted specific authorizations. Documents should be saved in a standard file format, so that all employees can open them without facing any compatibility issues.
Friendly user interface
A well-designed and simple corporate web portal interface translates directly into enhanced working performance of its users. With the navigation and the structure being too complex, the interface is frustrating and discourages employees from actually using the web portal. In this respect, less always means more.
Search engine
Finding information in the web portal should be as quick and as easy as possible. Therefore, it is truly worth giving your best to mark the documents being published in an appropriate manner, but what you also need is a well-devised search engine allowing for the given piece of information to be found really quickly.
Access control
The resources stored at the internal communication portal should be properly safeguarded against intruders. Therefore, it is indispensable that access be password-protected, where authorization is handled via an integrated server of directory services which simplify both deployment and maintenance of rigorous security principles. Controlled access also makes the Intranet more flexible and significantly expands its applications.
Forum and comments
Well organized and neatly designed forum and/or comments attached to the contents being published not only provide an opportunity to share one’s own views, but also encourage users to actively participate in sharing of ideas which may turn into innovative solutions.
Event calendar
A centralized planning system ensures that every user receives notifications about respective meetings. Furthermore, it enables activity planning with other meetings as well as the availability of resources and people in mind.
Task management
A design of an internal web service may also involve implementation of a centralized task management point. Thanks to such a solution, users are provided with a single location for tracking new tasks, whereas their superiors – for tracking the progress in their execution.
Content ranking and assessment
Offering users an opportunity for content assessment proves crucial for the process of continuous improvement of the content published on the web portal. It also boosts the users’ involvement in the basic dimension of the internal web portal, namely the organization’s internal communication. Employees should be able to easily mark contents with key words and quickly assess them, e.g. using a system of star grades.
Decentralized administration
It is for the simple mechanisms of web portal management that both users at managerial positions as well as regular workers can be granted considerable administrative authorizations. Thanks to such a solution, the organization’s contribution to the portal development grows, which significantly increases its efficiency and usefulness.
User profiles – address book
Good Intranet enables users to not only add short notes about themselves along with photographs and contact details, but also information concerning their professional experience and skills, and to tag all these pieces of information with key words. Consequently, not only does the organization obtain an address book with phone numbers, but can also easily search for specific assets with the prospective as well as ongoing projects in mind.
Remote access
It is a common feature of contemporary users that they tend to access the internal web portal via mobile devices. Therefore, it is an indispensable function of a well-designed website and the Intranet system infrastructure that it can be used by means of mobile devices.
Areas and groups
A well-designed internal communication portal offers a simple and fast functionality of creating separate spaces for departments and project groups, namely virtual working areas for discussion and document sharing. Thanks to that solution, all thematically associated pieces of information can be stored at one location, available to a group of authorized users only.
Personalization and flexibility
One of the most important characteristics of an internal web portal is the capability of simple adaptation to needs of specific users. It goes without saying that there are no two identical organizations, which makes it even more important that the software deployed should enable full adaptation of layout and functionality to the company’s needs.
