Modern Intranet - Benefits and Features
The intranet is a central framework that connects all the elements in the modern office. These elements include tools, processes, tasks, and most importantly - people. As companies tilt toward hybrid systems, it is essential to have a network that keeps every employee constantly connected.
However the intranet landscape has evolved, modern intranet systems barely resemble their predecessors from ten years ago. This guide explains what a modern intranet is, what it’s not and everything you need to know about modern intranet software for enterprise organizations.

What is an intranet? Full definition
An intranet is an internal website that is accessible only to employees of an organization. The platform enhances collaboration and communication will full control over security and privacy. Like the internet and software industry, the intranet landscape has expanded its use and effectiveness over the past decades.
In the beginning, it was simply a tool for communicating information from top management to the employees via catch-all messages and links. The modern intranet is a dynamic, social, and collaborative platform that powers personalized communication and drives employee experience initiatives.
In fact, many organizations have adopted enterprise social networks as part of their intranet solution, which provides numerous benefits and features such as improved communication, knowledge sharing, and employee engagement.
A brief history of the Intranet
The term “intranet” was coined in 1994, but the concept started decades earlier when organizations adopted Ethernet technology for local networking. The intranet became accessible to more organizations when the World Wide Web became mainstream. Since then, the intranet has continued to evolve with the implementation of major features and developments.
In the 90s, the intranet for most organizations was for top-down communication. It also served as a knowledge base where employees could access information via a basic set of links. The traditional intranet was based on local networks where computers were within the same geographical location – school premises, company grounds, etc. These on-premise software solutions require on-site server installations to support the technology. The server’s capacity would depend on the number of users and the quantity of data transfer. Even with the state-of-the-art installations, many organizations experienced limitations.
The turn of the millennium witnessed the addition of the social aspect of the intranet. With enterprise portals, employees could create blog-like content and generate interaction from coworkers. Gradually, there was a shift from the top-down system where only a limited few employees could post information to a system where every employee could post on the platform.
Naturally, the social aspect added the incorporation of content management into the intranet. The platforms served as an information portal to answer employees’ questions and find information for achieving tasks.
Next, as technology and software moved to the cloud, so did the intranet.
The Cloud-based Intranet
The cloud-based intranet uses remote servers instead of on-site servers. A cloud-based intranet eliminates geographical barriers and allows employees to access information from any device and any location. .
Additionally, cloud-based solutions remove the need for on-site maintenance and upkeep costs, and time-consuming backups. Everything is managed remotely and only a high-speed internet connection is required. This allows for real-time content uploading, communication and automated maintenance.
With a cloud-based intranet, upgrades are streamlined. If a company needs to add employees or increase content bandwidth, it’s a simplified process.
Intranet 2.0: The Social Intranet
The social intranet represents a shift from the top-down communication model of the traditional intranet. It approaches content from a more humanized perspective, focusing on the people as authors of the content. Traditionally, with “Intranet 2.0.” systems, any member of the network can create and share content, bringing in interactions from other employees. It’s similar to how most social media platforms operate but private to a specific organization.
What is the difference between intranet, extranet, and internet?
The significant difference between the internet, intranet and extranet is access. The internet is publicly accessible, but both intranets and extranets have restricted access. The intranet is only open to employees of an organization, and extranets are designed to be accessed by external parties that need constant communication with the company, like suppliers or partners.
The difference in accessibility extends to communication content and coverage. Another difference between these networks is ownership. The internet has no single owner. On the other hand, the intranet belongs to the organization whose employees have access. The extranet may be owned by a single organization or co-owned by all the companies with access to the network.
Free Employee Intranets: Differences between WordPress CMS and Drupal CMS
A content management system (CMS) is a platform where administrators, content creators, and other users can create, share, collaborate, and manage content. As expected, a CMS intranet platform is only accessible by authorized users. For small companies or those just testing how an intranet works, two of the most popular options are Drupal and WordPress. They provide organizations with a free solution that is built on an open-source framework, giving room for customization. Each option has its own pros, cons and differences.
- Drupal has a higher degree of flexibility than WordPress. It also comes with more native functionalities. Hence, developers can get a lot done without using third-party plugins. Functionalities like multilingual capabilities are available in Drupal.
- On the other hand, WordPress is more user-friendly. With the abundance of third-party plugins available, non-developers can achieve more with WordPress. Also, WordPress developers are easier to find. You’ll likely spend more when hiring a Drupal developer.
Free intranet software gives users some familiarity with intranet structure, but once a company scales up or needs to install a complete solution for their business, a modern intranet solution is required.
LumApps intranet for Employee Experience:
Why is an intranet important for your company?
Email has always been the primary means of communications, and it remains that way for most organizations. It is an effective method of communication as it creates a trail of communication and prevents misunderstanding.
However, as employee collaboration evolved, the amount of workplace communication increased 10x - more emails, more chats and notifications. Different communication channels have become more effective based on the communication type, and the importance of having a centralized system to integrate different communication forms became critical. That’s where a modern intranet comes in. Instead of a catch-all email that may or not be read, modern intranets provide a way to send targeted and personalized messages. If a company-wide email is needed, modern intranets provide analytics to review effectiveness.
Further, modern intranets integrate with the most popular email and communication tools, so employees have a central hub for communication. But the capabilities of modern intranets extend far beyond a communication hub, here are the other benefits for enterprise organizations.
It makes information accessible
A major challenge of the modern employee experience is finding helpful information and content spread across search tools and storage solutions. Business-critical information is stored in Google Drive, SharePoint, email and chat history, internal tools, another colleague’s computer – and more.
Sometimes, the biggest challenge is knowing where to look.
Traditionally, intranets served as knowledge bases and content management systems. However, finding information is still tedious for organizations with gigantic databases. Modern intranets make information more accessible by incorporating universal search functions.
Efficient collaboration
Communication is at the heart of collaboration. Teamwork requires several levels of communication and feedback in the planning, strategizing, implementation, and execution stages. These lines of communication are multiplied by multiple teams and stakeholders are involved.
Modern intranet solutions enable teams to integrate seamlessly with different collaboration and communication tools, leading to enhanced productivity. For example, if an organization communicates via Slack for instant messaging and collaboration via Jira, an employee experience platform like LumApps enhances communication by integrating these tools into your intranet. Organizations can also build their own integrations using a Software Development Kit (SDK).
Keeps employees engaged
In traditional on-site workplaces, managers and HR professionals try to increase engagement by sending out weekly newsletters or posting bulletins on the break room board. These are friendly gestures, but the modern intranet introduced much more effective and elaborate employee engagement tools.
Instead of blast emails or documents, digital discussion boards within an internal platform encourage employees to like, comment, and interact in different ways. This form of engagement strategy is also easier to measure and iterate on.
Builds transparency
Having a transparent organization is one of the most effective ways to build job satisfaction among employees. Most employees want to feel a sense of purpose and belonging.
A modern intranet encourages transparency by enabling leadership teams, HR and department managers to host information in one centralized place. Employees can access information on demand, when they need it.
Modern intranet features such as a newsletter provide templates for product news, company updates, and other relevant internal communications - make it easy for any employee to distribute information.
Enhances productivity
Today, most employees make efforts to optimize their productivity by using project management software, chat, and calendar tools. You can plan meetings, collaborative work hours, break time, and personal time.
A modern intranet centralizes productivity tools. Calendars are embedded into a home screen, while productive software and chat tools are integrated with out of the box connections or custom-build API solutions. With a single dashboard, employees don’t need to have several tabs open or constantly navigate between tools.
Additionally, IT departments gain a productivity boost from using a modern intranet. Most requests that IT and support teams receive are repetitive and they’re forced to give the same or similar answers throughout the day. IT support applications help, but don’t always provide employees with a centralized, self-serve database for information.
Modern intranets, such as the LumApps employee experience platform, helps IT teams solve this technology challenge through an integrated knowledge base, a powerful search with advanced options and a support hub homepage for quick access to important links.
Intranet ROI - The Impact of a Digital Workplace Investment
Our Intranet ROI white paper breaks down how a digital workplace investment helps enterprises deliver on goals.

What are the main features of an intranet?
Cloud support
A modern intranet system should be cloud-based. As discussed earlier, it has numerous advantages over the traditional physical server system. Some of these benefits are backup, real-time content management, and removal of geographical limitations.
According to an Accenture Future of Work Study, 63% of high-growth companies have a hybrid workforce. With a cloud-based intranet system, employees connect and collaborate from anywhere. Also, managers and human resource professionals can manage international teams more efficiently since a cloud-based intranet allows real-time communication globally.
Integrations
A full-featured intranet system integrates seamlessly with business-critical tools that employees use everyday. An employee experience platform such as LumApps includes deep integrations with Microsoft and Google. Modern intranet should also feature integrations with tools such as Okta, Slack, Zendesk, and other apps. The ability to build custom integrations with a Software Development Kit (SDK) is also a key intranet feature.
Security
A well-secured intranet system is protected from unauthorized access or leak of confidential information. A secure intranet enables administrators to assign varying access levels to specific content and actions. Proper protection ensures that permissions and restrictions are impenetrable once put in place.
Content management system
A content management system enables users to create, store, share, consume, and interact with the content of various forms. With an efficient CMS, modern intranets empower creators and managers to keep content updated and ensure accessibility for the content consumers. In addition, the CMS should have smooth integrations with other platforms and sources like Google and Microsoft.
Employee recognition and rewards
A modern intranet not only allows employees to say “thank you” and “congrats,” via comments - it makes it easier to identify and recognize outstanding team members. With a well-detailed employee directory, you can take recognition up a notch by placing spotlights on essential milestones like birthdays. When a significant achievement deserves company-wide recognition, modern intranets enable communication and a success story to be posted across the company.
Internal job board
A dedication to employee career development leads to higher retention. It’s essential to advertise new job openings internally. With a job board on the company’s intranet, employees have a better opportunity to change careers or advance into new positions. Also, internal job boards increase the possibility of hiring through referrals.
Multimedia compatibility
Content and communication are stored in different forms – text, audio, video, and graphs. For the intranet to be suitable as a CMS, it must be compatible with all these formats. Also, a modern intranet should enhance communication using various multimedia forms – audio calls, video conferencing, and meeting features should be present.
Steps to integrating an employee intranet
1. Choose a steering committee or internal champions
Modern intranets must support cross-department goals and objectives to be successful. A steering committee or group of internal champions consists of members from different departments to ensure the implementation process is thoughtful and effective. Aside from implementation, a diverse project team will increase the chances of quick adoption.
→ Read more: How To Create The Best Company Intranet?
2. Set clear objectives
What do you want the employee intranet to achieve? Every organization has unique needs for its team members. Although there are general goals for adopting the intranet – collaboration, communication, knowledge sharing, and employee-generated content - each company has specific goals and metrics to track. Setting these objectives at the beginning will provide a standard for measuring success after deployment.
3. Select the intranet software
After setting the objectives, look for modern intranet software that incorporates these goals into its features and benefits. Employee experience platforms. such as LumApps offer all the modern intranet features along with advanced tools for employee communication and employee journeys.
Lastly, it’s best to choose modern intranet software that allows non-technical users to create content and be platform admins. Intuitive, user-friendly controls and templates for creating content empower employees to do this.
4. Training
After selecting the best modern intranet solution for your organization, training is key for adoption and the employee experience. Each member of the steering committees should commit to training members of their department. Every employee must get familiar with the specific functionalities of their jobs. Also, encourage trainers to collect feedback and questions, these can be turned into knowledge base articles to help the entire organization.
5. The launch
The launch should be a special occasion to ensure that employees quickly adopt the new intranet software. Creating an official event for the launch creates a buzz, stirring up excitement and curiosity. Early adoption is crucial because some employees may be reluctant to change, especially if your organization is replacing an existing intranet. A well-communicated launch with the proper training protocols encourages all employees to adopt the new solution and not feel left out.
After the launch, be sure to check the Intranet best practices fo follow.
Modern intranet FAQ
This is the new version of the original intranet. In the past, company intranets usually only consisted of a welcome page and perhaps some company information and announcements. Modern intranets are sleek, easy to navigate, fast, practical, user friendly and cloud-based. A modern intranet:
- Allows employees the flexibility of remote working
- Promotes the social exchange of information
- Supplies access to documents
- Maintains employee engagement
Here’s why a modern intranet is important for organization:
- Time efficiency
- Cost savings
- Employee advocacy
- Employee Engagement
- Valuing Opinion
- Cloud based
- Integration with External Apps
- Social
- Mobile app
- Storage
- Knowledge
- CMS
- What is the purpose of the intranet?
- What features should a modern intranet have?
- How to choose the best company intranet platform?
- Company-wide Announcements
- A Company Directory
- Content Management System
- Social Network for Employees
- Company FAQs
- Recognition for Good Employee Performance
- A CEO Blog
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