Summary: We’ve told you what our customers love about our intranet, but if somehow you are still left wondering why would a company use an intranet – we compiled answers from a few of our employees to discuss their favorite features about “ICONIC”, the company intranet we use here at Intranet Connections.
Intranet Connections is a small software development company with a big personality. We started back in 1999 with just one employee, the owner, Carolyn. Since then, we’ve grown to twenty-four. We live and work by a set of inspirational mottos (that are literally written on the wall) as well as our five core values, SPICED (simplicity, positivity, integrity, creativity, empathy, and diversity). Using our intranet that we named ICONIC (a play on words using the abbreviation of Intranet Connections, IC), we’ve been able to achieve a culture pertaining to our values.
ICONIC Testimonials
“I organize a lot of social events for the office, and having the
quick poll widget right on the homepage to track who’s RSVP’d is really helpful. It’s also fun to post all the photos from the events right on the homepage!”
– MONICA, HUMAN RESOURCES
“We work in a highly dynamic environment, where most employees wear multiple hats. The trust level is high, so we’ve decentralized control over the posting of information. We encourage sharing of both company related information as well personal photos, funny stories, and other lighthearted comments. When an employee has something they’d like to share, they choose the appropriate channel. Anything work related gets posted to Company News, which is main section on the home page of the intranet. Employees post anything personal to their own wall, which is automatically shared at the bottom of the home page. This design lets employees immediately see important announcements as soon as they open the intranet, but when they need a break, they can scroll down and catch up on the social stuff.”
– NEIL, PRODUCT MANAGER
“The company news and wall post are by far the best features I will use. We no longer have “All Staff” emails, so it makes it more enjoyable to see new items being posted and keep in touch with what is going on in the company. We also will use the quick poll for RSVPing to social events.”
– KATHLEEN, ACCOUNT ASSOCIATE
“I find that mega menus are an efficient and elegant means of organizing links to resources for employees without the bother of nested menus. They improve access to resources and provide a canvas for organizing related content.”
– PAUL, LEAD DEVELOPER
“My favorite functionality on our intranet is enterprise search in the document management system. Whenever I’m looking for resources, all I need to do is type into the navigation system what I believe the document would be called and it’s recovered immediately. I used to have to remember which folder’s folder’s folder my file was in, often getting lost in the inception of files’ folders. Now with a simple word and search, I can find my documents in seconds.”
– CAITLIN, MARKETING COORDINATOR
Our intranet strives is to serve our employees, foster connection, and support a learning and an engaged culture. We use a combination of widgets on our home page and applications to support communication, convey what’s happening and open channels for feedback, plus very useful widgets like our daily huddle agenda. ICONIC, is used for just that, a one-stop shop to
discover people (rich work/personal profiles), have fun by theming around success events, sharing photos and encouraging social sharing, but also to standardize documentation (e.g. sales and service processes), onboarding and staff development.
– ROB, CEO
“Each quarter, we change our theme to reflect our goals, and update the intranet design. I love how simple it is to change the intranet design background, and how much freedom I get to really tap into my creativity.”
– VANESSA, WEB GRAPHIC DESIGNER
