Top 10 Modern Intranet Features to choose your SharePoint Intranet

With the current rise in the Work from Home trend, an intranet with the best intranet features became the need of the hour. But choosing the one perfect for us is tacky. Let us help you out.   Don’t worry. We are here to help you ward off this confusion. Let’s take a quick look at the top modern intranet features that you should consider while choosing your SharePoint Intranet:  Top Modern Intranet Features to SharePoint Migration 1. Company Dashboard  Being away and still feeling connected to your organization is not that easy. To aid employees in doing so, the intranet must have a common dashboard. It should be a virtual synonymous space for the office notice boards and inter-employee chitchatting.  This space needs to have separate sections for company basic updates, announcements, and news. A great intranet will keep you updated on departmental updates, company policies, customer updates, and everything else that matters. A common announcement area will ensure that all the employees are on the same page with their colleagues.   2. Branding Options  The corporate identity of an organization is what matters the most! An intranet must provide enough customization options to make sure it looks like the platform that specifically belongs to the company. Best corporate intranets allow configurations regarding themes, background images and section placements. Letting the organizations use their own logos and brand colours make each of them feel at home. Make sure you test the branding capabilities of an intranet before you opt for it.  3. People-Centric  An intranet is expected to be the virtual cultural hub of an organization. It should bind each of its users as a single unit. Therefore, an intranet should be “of the people” and “for the people” that emanates company culture in every way possible. Some of the desired modern intranet features of an employee-centric intranet are- 

• Push notification for matters of individual interest 
• Personal sub-theme option 
• Birthday and work anniversary portal 
• Appreciation and recognition center 
• Know your team section 
• Personalized profiles 
• Informal Forums  

4. Collaboration  Ideas, when shared across, give rise to better ideas and ultimately to innovation!  The most important requirement when working remotely is to have a proper collaborative platform in the organization. A good intranet must ensure a great flow of information that is on par with the real in-office conversations and collaborations. Along with that, it can work as a great platform to promote non-hierarchical communication too. Have an intranet that takes collaboration a notch higher. 5. Security  Security is the prime concern for anybody and everybody. Every organization has some its own share of confidential data such as company plans & policies, personnel information and financial data, which if leaked to the competitors can lead to a hefty loss. This information needs to be shared only on a need-to-know-basis. An Intranet essential features should include proper multilayered security and encryption systems that block unauthorized access and ensure no security breaches. Choose your intranet wisely to relieve yourself from data theft, misuse and other such security concerns. 6. Content Management and Searchability  Information, besides being an organization’s greatest assets, is the one most difficult to tackle too. An intranet should be used as a well-managed library rather than just an information dumping yard. The intranet should be intelligent enough to organize all the information and documents in the best way possible.  It must have a powerful search feature with lots of filters that will make sure the employees don’t need to waste their precious time in searching content and are able to utilize it for other productive works.   A proper navigation feature will ensure simplified document management, thus maximizing adoption and productivity.   7. Socializability  The popularity of social media is known to all. The modern intranet features must be at par with those of the social media to make sure it is able to attract their traffic too. If a Sharepoint intranet can take up inspiration from the basics of social media, it can surely do wonders. Influence your digital workplace with social media features and to experience a great surge in your employee engagement. Let the employees post, tag, like, share and comment upon what they feel like without any censorship. Let them form official as well as unofficial groups and forums.  Also make sure that the intranet can integrate the already existing business apps and platforms such as feeds,  yammer and teams to avoid the resentment to change among the employees.  Choose an intranet service provider that makes your intranet as fun and engaging as social media.  8. Mobility  Mobility is a must in today’s fast pacing world where working at the go has become so common. The intranet must be mobile responsive and good enough to be used on smartphones. This can bring in a lot of ease to the life of your employees.   Let the employees log in anytime from anywhere and deliver their best!  9. UX/UI  The visual features of an intranet play a vital role in determining employee engagement. It dramatically determines if the employees consider visiting the intranet as an obligation or are happy to be there. How well an intranet is organized directly impacts the user performance.   Make sure that the intranet you choose is streamlined enough to be used by everyone in the organization irrespective of their tech-expertise. Besides, minor self customizations like tab locations, drop-down menu layouts, button designs and shortcut menus are desirable too. A good UI and UX can surely boost productivity and engagement.  10. Accessibility and Governance  Every information available on the intranet is not meant for everyone! Choose an intranet that segregates the access permissions according to the job roles, departments, administrative positions, location, personal or professional interests, etc. This will ensure the security and integrity of the departmental or hierarchical privacy.  An intranet should also offer easy governance. Permission levels should be customizable according to organizational needs. Along with that, the Non-dependency of the content managers on the IT team can be a great feature to include in your intranet.  An intranet is as successful as its adoption and employee engagement rate defines it to be. Make it the most fun and addictive place where the employees wish to come back again and again. And you yourself can figure out how humongous it will impact the overall organizational productivity.