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8 Essential Steps to Measure your Intranet ROI

Are you unsure about the benefits of your organization's intranet? You're not alone. According to a study by Prescient Digital Media, 51% of organizations don't even bother to measure their intranet's return on investment (ROI), while only 6% do so regularly.

However, measuring your intranet ROI is critical for ensuring that your organization is getting the most out of its intranet. In this article, we'll explore why it's important to measure your intranet ROI and provide you with eight essential steps to do so.

What is the Value of an Intranet?

A modern intranet provides several specific benefits to a company. It is a powerful tool that encourages communications and collaboration among employees at all seniority levels in a digital workplace. It is easy for all workers to use and discourages the old “us vs. them” style of management that was popular at one time.

With a company intranet, all employees are encouraged to read the posts and participate. This communications tool is used to keep a virtual finger on the pulse of the workforce. It can be used to measure employee engagement, which includes which elements are working well for employees and areas that could be improved.

From a practical point of view, the intranet’s value also includes the following benefits:

— Processes become more efficient

When employees are looking for “how-to” information about submitting forms, for example, they don’t have to get bogged down waiting for someone from their team or another department to get back to them. Instead, they can look up the information they need on the company intranet.

— Number of meetings is reduced

Meetings can be necessary at the beginning of a project to set out goals and assign tasks to team members. After that point, most employees would prefer to spend their time actually working on projects instead of sitting in meetings talking about their projects. The intranet’s communication tools make it easy for team members to ask questions, share helpful information, or tell their manager that they need help without having to meet face-to-face. The issue can be resolved quickly and everyone can move on to complete their work quickly.

— Knowledge and expertise are shared more freely

Everyone in the company has knowledge and areas of expertise that they can share with their colleagues. One of the functions of the intranet is to act as an employee directory. Workers can use it to search for colleagues who have the education or background they need to answer questions or provide information on a particular topic.

What is the Cost of an Intranet?

The answer to the question, “How much does an intranet cost?” is a bit like trying to answer the question, “How long is a piece of string?”. In both cases, a correct answer is, “It depends.”

In the case of the intranet, you’ll need to consider several factors when determining how much this digital adoption will cost:

Keep in mind that the more aspects that have to be customized, the more pricey the intranet will be.
Ask whether the price you are being quoted includes the internal communications platform only or if it also covers maintenance and product support as well. If you are being quoted for product support and maintenance, what limits is your provider imposing on support and/or maintenance?
Does the cost include training? If so, how much?
What is the cost per user?
Will the intranet be self-hosted in the company’s data center or cloud-hosted by an external provider (at a lower up-front cost)?

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How to Measure the Intranet ROI?

1. Define the core objectives

Before you can start an intranet analysis, the first step is to define exactly what you want to study. In other words, what types of things were employees complaining about before the intranet was introduced that kept them from doing their work well?

In this case, “Doing their work well” would be anything that interfered with productivity, responding to customers quickly and effectively, finding the best solutions to work problems, and being fully engaged at work. You may also want to address the “brain drain” that occurs when a key employee leaves or retires. That person’s knowledge, often gleaned from years of industry experience, goes out the door with them.

2. Get an analytics tool for the intranet

At one time, intranet effectivity was generally measured based on the uptake. The defining factors were based on the number of pages, the number of people contributing content, etc. As intranets evolved, measuring the ROI also included measuring activity metrics. It became important to measure the number of hits and comments pieces of content were receiving.

Now, advanced intranet software is capable of measuring even more metrics, such as cost savings or money made, lower development costs, and customer service scores. All of them can be used to measure the impact and value that the intranet brings to your company.

3. Analyze the intranet KPIs

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are used by many businesses to measure their success. These defined measurements help businesses track performance over time to help executives and managers comprehend the steps involved in achieving success toward a goal. Companies will evaluate the KPIs to determine where they are in the process and to compare how their business is faring compared to similar ones.

It’s important to measure the KPIs before and after the intranet is introduced, as well as on an ongoing basis. When evaluating the KPIs, look for trends in the indicators to give you the answers you need.

4. Use internet surveys to measure employee engagement

Why would you want to measure employee engagement? Employees are more motivated and productive if they are engaged in their work. A report from the Workplace Research Foundation found that 38% of engaged employees are more productive. When employees are engaged, turnover rates drop significantly. Current employees are more likely to recommend your company as a good place to work to their friends and acquaintances.

An anonymous internet survey should ask questions about the following:

Management effectiveness
Whether their work is meaningful
If there is room for advancement
Relationships with co-workers
Work-life balance

5. Measure your page bounce rates

Webmasters have tracked their websites and landing pages’ bounce rates to determine a conversion rate, relevancy, and for content management purposes. A high bounce rate indicates that a site visitor was only on the page for a short time. They may have only spent a few seconds skimming the content on the page. When the bounce rate is low, it means that the viewer is staying on the page and giving the content their full attention so they can digest it.

Bounce rates can be determined by setting parameters that track the number of visitors to a page. They record how long it takes before they click away to move to another page. Bounce rates can provide great insight into what types of intranet content is most popular with employees.

6. Determine your hard cost savings

At this point, you’ll want to find out whether you have a cost-effective intranet. The intranet investment can be a significant one for your business and it’s crucial to determine how intranet use is impacting your bottom line. Hard cost savings include the following:

Lower paper costs
Cheaper toner expenses
Fewer phone calls
Reduced travel costs

These costs can add up over time. Start with monitoring how often paper is being ordered for your business. Start with the amount being used before the intranet was introduced and then see how the trend continues. The amount should drop as employees can communicate more easily using alternate methods instead of printing off hard copies.

7. Calculate your soft cost savings

Soft costs involve software installations and distributions. Third-party and customized software applications can be run on top of an intranet. This means you don’t have to install applications on individual units and manage them separately.

Once you have an intranet in place, applications are hosted in a central location. Any upgrades are also centralized. This system saves time and money. It is also an efficient method, where IT support does not have to worry about having access to the latest versions. If your company employs remote workers, this feature can lead to big savings.

8. Determine whether overall efficiency has increased

Overall efficiency is a crucial metric for tracking your intranet ROI. An efficient company keeps costs down and is well-positioned for the future. It is lean, nimble, and able to respond quickly to market changes. Efficiency can be measured by a company’s savings as well as how quickly it can launch new products and services and get them to its target market.

With the help of an intranet, employees can collaborate much more easily. This allows them to deliver products and services much more quickly. To determine how well your intranet helps your company in this regard, compare how quickly the process works using standard methods and when you use the intranet.

White Paper

Measure the Return on Your Intranet Investment

Our Intranet ROI white paper breaks down how a digital workplace investment helps enterprises deliver on goals.

Download the White Paper