Intranets & Web Portals – Strengthen Your Team Digitally

What are Intranets?

Intranets, also known as web portals, are private enterprise networks designed to allow a company’s employees to connect, collaborate and perform their jobs more efficiently. First implemented in the 1990s, web portals were a singular welcome page with basic company information with blue hyperlinked text to company communications, built for one-way communication.

Today, web portals have evolved to include help desk features that allow employees to self-service administration functions. It has never been easier to apply for leave, clock in and out and roll out and track online employee training programs.

The benefits of setting up a web portal

Web portals are singular hubs of information, that pools information from various users and server to combine it all into one user-friendly interface accessible by approved users such as employees and contractors.

Web portals empower employees by allowing them to self-serve and complete company processes such as

• Undertaking independent internal training out of business hours
• Find answers and communicate on relevant forum boards
• Sharing appointments and alerts within teams
• Access corporate documents, procedures & protocols
• Requesting leave
• Claiming for expenses
• Revisiting up-to-date company policies and regulations

Managing small administrative changes such as changing addresses or bank details are now simplified and can now be done directly by employees with all their information stored securely in one place.

Using web portals, employees can also refer to each employees’ profile and connect based on mutual interest or expertise. It’s a great way for your employees to connect and foster a healthy culture of learning, and more importantly it saves you money. According to a 2004 study by the Society for Human Resource Management, Fortune 500 companies who fail to share knowledge lose at least $31.5 billion a year!

To encourage employees to share their knowledge, an intranet can have a forum where employees can ask questions and respond in the form of comments. For example, if John from HR has a question regarding how to integrate task manager Trello into this emails, he can post his question on the forum where employees from other departments can comment and share links to resources that can help John make him more efficient at his job. This will in turn also be a great resource for others with a similar situation, empowering team members in a growing digital sweep.

Web portals improve a company’s 

• Communication between its team members
• Community feeling through fostering an environment of support 
• Internal processes as resources are readily accessible
• Ability to manage, organise and distribute information to a large group 
• Time efficiency as digital processes are streamlined and resources are localised

Web portals are secure

Using a Single sign-on (SSO) user authentication service secure your portal and making it easy for your employees to sign on and use the service.  Furthermore, permissions can be allocated via departments, giving you control over the flow of information. Making it easy for your employees to log in and access the information they’re looking for enhances a positive user experience, encouraging them to return and use this valuable resource you’ve invested money into. 

Web portals can even grant secure access to external users which include trading partners and clients. This opens up the possibilities to improving the efficiency of making business deals and sharing information between internal and external team members, whilst ensuring there is no compromise on privacy. 

How we can help 

With extensive knowledge and expertise in creating web portals for medium and large enterprises, we can tailor a custom solution to enhance both your employees’ and management’s user-experience of your web portal. 

As digital specialists, we are able to tailor your intranet to perfectly suit your needs offering you maximum flexibility and customisation. If you’d like to learn more about having a custom web portal developed for your business, you can give us a ring on 9912 6403.