A company intranet site is more than an internal communication solution. It’s the voice of your company. A strategic intranet platform promotes staff efficiency and serves as a key solution to reduce employee turnover, driving the business forward.

So how does a company establish and maintain a successful intranet site? It’s easier than you may think with the right steps and solutions.

A company intranet site is a private, secure network designed to facilitate the sharing of information, collaboration on projects, and efficient communication within an organization. Serving as a central hub, it provides users with access to a wide range of internal resources, such as important documents, company news, and project management tools. An effective company intranet solution not only streamlines workflows but also significantly enhances the corporate intranet architecture, making it easier for staff to navigate and utilize these resources. Additionally, it supports various content management systems like SharePoint, ensuring all information is well-organized and easily accessible. From the initial set up to the ongoing support and server management, a well-implemented intranet is designed to scale with the company, accommodating growth and evolving needs.

What is the Purpose of the Company Intranet?

The purpose of a company intranet is to:

• Communicate and share information
• Connect employees, teams, and departments
• Simplify collaboration to increase productivity
• Document and knowledge management

Additionally, it’s an internal collaboration tool that goes beyond being a content resource. It’s a place to interact, chat with colleagues, find answers, learn about what’s going on in the company, and be part of the company culture. A well-structured intranet should also include robust search functionality, enabling employees to locate the documents, files, or information they need quickly, regardless of where it is stored within the intranet.

One of the key corporate intranet goals is to offer a cohesive experience for all users. This solution applies to all departments, as a company intranet site is the type of software product that impacts everyone when managed correctly.

‍

How to create and build an intranet ? Best practices

Building a successful company intranet requires a strategic approach to ensure it meets the needs of employees while driving engagement, productivity, and collaboration. A well-designed intranet should be intuitive, engaging, and aligned with business objectives while offering seamless access to essential resources. Below is a comprehensive guide to designing and implementing an intranet that delivers real value to your organization.

1. Define Your Intranet’s Purpose and Goals

Before creating an intranet, clearly outline its objectives and key functions to ensure it aligns with business needs. An effective intranet must solve specific workplace challenges and enhance the overall employee experience.

Key questions to consider:

• What specific problems will the intranet address? (e.g., improving internal communication, enhancing knowledge-sharing, streamlining workflows)
• Who are the primary users? (e.g., office-based employees, remote workers, frontline staff, executives)
• What key features are necessary? (e.g., document management, HR self-service, chat tools, company news, integrations with collaboration tools)

Best Practices:

• Conduct surveys or interviews with employees to understand their needs and expectations.
• Set measurable goals, such as increasing employee engagement, reducing email overload, or improving knowledge-sharing.

A well-defined purpose ensures that the intranet becomes an essential tool rather than an underutilized platform.

2. Choose the Right Intranet Platform

Selecting the best intranet platform depends on company size, industry, workforce needs, and budget. The platform should be scalable, user-friendly, and flexible enough to adapt to evolving workplace requirements.

Key features to look for in an intranet platform:

• Personalization capabilities that allow employees to see relevant content based on their role and location.
• Seamless integration with existing tools such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, and HR systems.
• Mobile accessibility for remote and frontline employees.
• Advanced collaboration features, including document co-editing, real-time messaging, and team workspaces.

Best Practices:

• Choose a platform with intuitive navigation to encourage high adoption rates.
• Opt for cloud-based solutions for better scalability and security.
• Ensure the intranet supports role-based access control to maintain data security.

An intranet should be more than just an internal website; it should serve as a centralized digital workplace that connects employees and enhances daily workflows.

3. Design an Engaging and User-Friendly Interface

The user experience is critical to intranet adoption. A poorly designed intranet with a cluttered or confusing interface will discourage employees from using it.

Key design elements:

• A clean and visually appealing homepage with easy navigation.
• Custom dashboards tailored to different roles and departments.
• Smart search functionality powered by AI to help employees quickly find documents, policies, and colleagues.
• Social and interactive features, such as discussion forums, recognition programs, and commenting capabilities.

Best Practices:

• Keep the layout simple and intuitive to reduce the learning curve.
• Use branding elements, such as company colors and logos, to make the intranet feel familiar.
• Implement user-friendly icons and navigation menus to ensure quick access to essential tools.

A well-designed interface boosts engagement and ensures employees can easily find what they need without frustration.

4. Organize Content and Knowledge Management

A well-structured intranet eliminates information silos and enhances knowledge-sharing across teams. Employees should be able to quickly access company resources, policies, and procedures without searching through multiple systems.

Key content management strategies:

• Categorize content into departments, teams, and knowledge hubs to keep information organized.
• Use metadata, tags, and search filters to improve document discoverability.
• Create a dedicated knowledge base for FAQs, training materials, and company policies.
• Implement version control and document approval workflows to ensure employees always access the latest updates.

Best Practices:

• Establish a content governance team to maintain and update information regularly.
• Encourage employee-generated content to make the intranet a dynamic knowledge-sharing platform.
• Use AI-powered recommendations to suggest relevant content based on user behavior.

An intranet that prioritizes knowledge management empowers employees with the right information at the right time.

5. Drive Employee Adoption and Engagement

A common challenge with intranets is low adoption rates due to lack of awareness, training, or relevance. To ensure success, organizations must create an engagement strategy that encourages employees to actively use the platform.

Strategies to drive adoption:

• Provide training sessions and onboarding programs to help employees navigate the intranet.
• Incorporate gamification elements, such as recognition badges, leaderboards, and engagement rewards.
• Launch internal campaigns to highlight new features, success stories, and employee contributions.
• Use AI-driven personalized content feeds to ensure employees receive relevant updates and recommendations.

Best Practices:

• Appoint intranet champions or department ambassadors to encourage team adoption.
• Gather feedback through surveys and analytics to continuously improve the platform.
• Regularly update content and features to keep the intranet engaging and useful.

A well-adopted intranet enhances communication, collaboration, and company culture by ensuring employees remain actively engaged.

6. Continuously Optimize and Gather Feedback

An intranet is not a one-time project—it requires continuous improvement and regular updates based on employee feedback and evolving business needs.

Key optimization strategies:

• Track analytics to monitor engagement levels, most-searched topics, and content interaction rates.
• Collect employee feedback through surveys, polls, and open forums.
• Identify pain points and improve usability based on user insights.
• Update and refine the intranet quarterly or annually to incorporate new trends and technologies.

Best Practices:

• Assign a dedicated intranet management team responsible for updates and improvements.
• Stay ahead of emerging workplace trends, such as AI-driven automation, to enhance the intranet experience.
• Ensure cross-department collaboration to align the intranet with HR, IT, and business goals.

A continuously optimized intranet remains relevant, valuable, and aligned with the company’s evolving needs.

A well-designed intranet connects employees, streamlines workflows, and fosters a collaborative digital workplace. By following these steps and leveraging a modern, AI-powered intranet platform like LumApps, companies can build an intranet that enhances communication, boosts engagement, and supports long-term business success.

Organizations that invest in user-friendly, integrated, and employee-centric intranets can create a work environment where employees feel informed, empowered, and engaged—ultimately driving higher retention, productivity, and workplace satisfaction.

What is the most popular intranet platform ?

​In the realm of intranet platforms, Microsoft SharePoint has long been a dominant player, boasting over 200 million users as of 2020.  Its deep integration with Microsoft 365 and extensive customization options have made it a preferred choice for many organizations.​

However, the intranet landscape is continually evolving, with platforms like LumApps gaining significant recognition. LumApps has been acknowledged as a Leader in the Forrester Wave™: Intranet Platforms, Q2 2024, highlighting its commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction.  Additionally, LumApps has been recognized by Gartner in the Magic Quadrant, underscoring its growing prominence in the industry. ​‍

Other notable intranet platforms include Simpplr, Unily, and Workvivo, each offering unique features tailored to enhance employee engagement and collaboration.  The choice of an intranet platform often depends on an organization's specific needs, existing technological ecosystem, and desired user experience.

What Benefits Does a Modern Company Intranet Provide?

In the past, the intranet was just another app that people avoided using. It had the reputation of being difficult to navigate, boring, and full of documents you didn't need.

So why would a company use an intranet then? The industry became fiercely competitive over the past decade, and modern intranets are cloud-based, sleek, user-friendly, and practical. Intranet technology is expanding fast and capabilities are constantly evolving.

For many enterprises (and companies of all sizes), their intranet platform is a site where team members catch up, find information, share ideas, and socialize. These intranet solutions are key projects that have names matching the company identity. Our intranet project at LumApps is named “We,” which ties in with our company mission and values. An automotive company might name their intranet site, “The Shop.”

In today’s digital workplace, the company intranet site must address employee needs. In other words, think of employees as customers and the intranet as a website selling company value. This is another key reason why it needs a name and a brand.

After a company sets a fitting and compelling name, it’s time to think about benefits. Modern intranet solutions offer integrations with various tools that employees already use, such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and Slack, helping to maintain productivity.

• ‍Communication – a way to connect with colleagues in real-time.‍
• Information – always up-to-date information on company activity.‍
• Collaboration – working together to achieve the same goals.‍
• Engagement – resource for personalized, interesting, and useful information.‍
• Knowledge – an up-to-date knowledge base for sharing and management.‍
• Productivity – engaged employees are more productive and report higher satisfaction.‍
• Organization – an all-in-one resource for document and information storage.‍
• Connectivity – a reliable global employee network and directory.‍
• Corporate culture – building shared beliefs in the company values through transparency and communication.‍
• Employee social advocacy – improving brand awareness and trust through social media.‍
• Mobility – allowing employees to connect wherever they are, including those without a desktop or desk.

These benefits are tracked through case studies and testimonials, and they all contribute to an intranet’s purpose.

What Features Should a Modern Company Intranet Have?

Corporate intranet solutions are unique and tailored to a company’s specific needs. They should blend with the objectives of the company and be a company-wide, go-to resource. The best company intranet solutions plan around key features that benefit productivity.

The modern corporate intranet features to consider:

1. Integrations

Make a list of existing, work-critical apps, such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Zendesk, Slack, etc. Consider intranet platforms that provide native integrations with those tools. Employees can carry on with work processes and maintain (or improve) efficiency. Additionally, intranets with a seamless sign-on process ensure that staff can easily transition between various tools without disruption to their workflow.

2. Cloud-based

Employees need to be able to access the intranet site wherever they are, at any time and on any device. Whether working remotely or in the field, quick and reliable intranet access is essential. This also helps with global needs, allowing staff to connect despite time zone or geographical differences, supported by robust server infrastructure.

3. Mobile app

Mobile features encourage engagement as users can access the intranet site from where they spend most of their time – their phones. Having mobile device access allows employees to conveniently socialize, forward information, and engage with colleagues.

4. Customizable

Intranets can be built to support a company’s specific needs. An automotive company will have different requirements than a retail company, and intranet solutions should have flexible features and functions to accommodate accordingly. Additionally, ensuring that the intranet site accommodates accessibility features is crucial for inclusivity and efficiency. Also, being adaptable to business changes and growth is essential.

5. Analytics

A critical step in an intranet solution is analyzing intranet engagement metrics such as views, shares, likes, and posts.

6. Content creation

Create your intranet content strategy through internal communication features, such as news feeds, blogs, announcements, chats, and multimedia. Along with content collaboration tools such as sharing documents and supporting content repurposing for greater visibility.

7. Knowledge sharing and management

The intranet project should be a valuable resource that stores easy-to-find information for employees, allowing them to do their job effectively. From finding template letters to researching product information to referring to technical manuals, the organizational capacity of an intranet site is limitless. And a key best practice of this intranet feature is to ensure all files are kept up to date.

8. Social

A place to get together virtually to share ideas, relevant information, network, and collaborate. Intranets with consumer-grade social features improve teamwork, create strong brand advocates, and build community.

9. Multimedia

Videos, graphics, and multimedia files improve the employee experience through better engagement and education. Visual information is easier to retain than long text-based reports on the intranet site.

10. Additional access (extranet)

Some intranets give clients, vendors, business partners, or the public external access to certain sections of the intranet site to streamline communication or business processes. For example, to make bookings, share files, access media, make payments, or conduct training.

11. Security

The highest level of security is essential for an intranet site as it contains sensitive and confidential company information. Security protocols must ensure the right staff have access and maintain sufficient data security across servers.

It’s important to consider not only the basic features of an intranet solution but also those that will make it more than just a platform to disseminate information.

→ Read more: Discover 30 essential features your intranet site should have.

Choose the Best Company Intranet Software

An all-in-one intranet solution is an ideal platform for most businesses. It brings together everything under one umbrella, making it easier to use and manage. Coworkers across the globe can communicate and collaborate efficiently in a web environment.

From a high level, intranet software solutions should be flexible and powerful. This means an intranet platform is many things at once:

• An internal communication platform for creating awareness, improving internal networking, reporting, and building social connections.
• An employee collaboration platform where people can share expertise and ideas.
• An employee engagement platform to create a strong company culture.
• A knowledge management platform that gives a voice to internal experts and enhances knowledge sharing and learning.
• A single point of entry that opens the door to a robust and collaborative digital workplace.

When evaluating different intranet platform options, there are several key steps and considerations.

• ‍Fits your business goals – Short and long-term goals. How will the intranet fit with the company strategy? What is the best intranet structure to facilitate operations and meet company needs?‍
• Enhances business activities – Consider how the platform will impact the day-to-day work of employees. Will they find it easy to use? Will they enjoy using it? An adoption strategy impacts these questions.‍
• Have a variety of tools integrations and features – As mentioned, integrations with other platforms is a major benefit. Additionally, features such as multimedia, a personalized news feed, and employee directories are crucial for the employee experience.‍
• Meets your budget – What is the optimal return on investment your company is looking for? What is the current state of your digital transformation? A digital workplace requires time and resources to align with budget impacts. Basic, quick-fix intranet platforms can be very limiting and offer little flexibility.

Whilst there are ‘off-the-shelf’ intranet solutions available, these can be very limiting and offer little flexibility or support.

A custom-made communication solution can evolve and improve as your business grows. It should align with your company culture and values by creating an experience, and not be just an information board no one sees in the corner. Each work tool should operate both independently but also in harmony with the others, providing the most relevant experience for users, in order to support the smooth running of your business. It should align with company culture and values by creating an experience, and not just a digital bulletin board. An intranet site should make life easier for everyone. It should allow employees to do their jobs more effectively and communicate with each other in real time. So choosing the right intranet software solution from the very beginning is crucial.

→ Read more: Intranet Personas: The How-To Guide and Benefits

‍