From intranet to intelligent workplace

Companies of a certain size - usually 50 employees or more - use a central IT platform ("intranet") to inform their employees and make their daily work easier by providing important information such as official documents, lists, forms, news and knowledge.

The intranet is a central element for informing and addressing employees virtually, promoting the exchange of knowledge and enabling them to perform their tasks even better - a digital platform for so much. Often with its own identity and name ("MyCompanyNet"), it has gradually established itself over the last 20 years or so and continues to develop into an intelligent platform.

The traditional intranet was primarily concerned with internal communication. Various types of information were made available company-wide - usually in a controlled form - such as official documents, process descriptions, personnel information and news. It was primarily used to bring information to employees. There were only a few (often no) interaction options with the system or other employees.

As part of the modern intranet, the focus has increasingly shifted to the employee. Collaboration through shared workspaces, social interaction (commenting on articles and content) and process digitization (e.g. the automation of internal orders) became part of the intranet and increased its added value immensely.

Modern intranets offer

• Digital mapping and automation of processes
• Virtual collaboration within projects, teams and working groups
• Employee profiles and expert search
• Knowledge management and wiki
• Communities and topic-oriented exchange
• E-learning and online training
• Instant chats
• Connection to communication (telephony, presence status, video conference)

The modern intranet has addressed many important aspects for a company. However, user behavior is constantly changing due to influences such as mobile working, the flood of information, new technological possibilities (cloud), regulatory requirements, etc.

The intranet must be flexible, integrated and connected, intelligent, expandable, scalable and personalized. The former intranet is becoming more and more versatile and is increasingly becoming an intelligent workplace that combines a wide range of requirements.

• Personalization and relevance of information for specific users 
• Merging various services into integrated digital processes 
• Intelligent search based on user behavior 
• Notifications for events (push notifications) 
• Governance dashboards and lifecycle management of content 
• Mobile access through apps 
• Assistance through bots