For communications to be truly effective content has to be targeted, personalised, in context and at a volume, tone and timing that ensures recipients only receive what they need, when they need it. If content needs to be available for future reference, then this needs to be accessible by those who you want to be able to read it and easy to locate. Can your intranet do this?
Intranets can be hugely beneficial to a corporate online presence however there are several disadvantages to Intranets in a business environment that you want to keep in mind. Time, Cost and Organisation.
Intranets are time and resource hungry. Putting aside the technical design complexities for a moment, the actual setting up and maintenance of an intranet is often overlooked to the point where Intranets quickly become expensive ‘data dustbins’ where content is quickly out of date, difficult to find and often replicated across different communication options within the business (i.e. posted on the intranet, emailed for good measure and sent as hard copy in the post too) – whoever thought Intranets were supposed to make life more productive?
In terms of cost – aside from the man-hours required to maintain the content, the software and infrastructure cost can be significant. Add in the desire for workflow logic, unified search and audience targeting then these figures can multiply up quickly.
Organising content is also a real challenge and often much more difficult than simply coming up with a naming scheme for documents along with a hierarchy for storing files and creating portals for specific departments. Add in who can access what from where and you soon find the dreaded words ‘departmental portals’ being discussed.
Metro Unified Comms delivers all of this and more from within a single interface to the user irrespective of how a communication has originated – whether messages, emails, voicemail, news, tasks, policy/reference material, communication from customers, head office or field-based staff, it is all held within the same place and accessible from PC, Tablet or Mobile phone. Provided on a simple ‘Software as a Service’ basis, one monthly cost delivers all of this functionality and more complete with hosting, support and maintenance.
So if you hear someone ask ‘Do we need an Intranet?’, well, the answer is simple ‘Absolutely no…Never’.
Then send them over to www.metrofy.com to find out why.
Recent Comments