Why integrate the intranet into your digital workspace?

What is the intranet and why is the intranet so useful in your digital workspace? The intranet has changed over the years. In the past, the intranet was mainly very traditional and static, while today’s intranet is much more about interaction. Are you curious about the advantages of intranet in your digital workspace? Keep reading!

What is the intranet?

To integrate the intranet into your digital workspace, it is good to know what ‘intranet’ actually means. An intranet is, for employees within an organisation, an internal private network where you can share information with your colleagues. In addition to sharing information, you can also use the intranet to collaborate and share fun or important company news. The traditional intranet was mainly intended for sending top-down information. Now, the intranet is much more active and is all about creating interaction. That’s why now the intranet is often referred to as a social intranet.

Intranet vs. digital workspace

What is the difference between the intranet and the digital workspace? A digital workspace is an environment in which you can open all your applications, information and documents to work anywhere and at any time. As mentioned before, the intranet is a private network within your organisation where you can share information with your colleagues.

You can, of course, integrate your entire existing intranet into your digital workspace. But you can also use intranet elements in your adoptive workspace, such as the announcement tile, birthdays tile, contact and much more. This combines your intranet and your digital workspace in one environment. The social aspect of your work is then not seen separately from you digital workspace, but as one whole.

A digital workspace and the intranet often have many things in common, such as working together in a file or in documents that are important for you to be able to sufficiently carry out your daily work. This way, you don’t have to switch between applications all the time, but you get to see all your information from your intranet in one digital workspace. For example, you can add videos, share information via the Announcement Centre and you can integrate Yammer into your digital workspace to stay up-to-date on all the information shared by your colleagues.

Advantages of intranet in your digital workspace

1. All your information in one platform. Whether it’s task-oriented or business-oriented information, everything can be found on one platform. By combining all your information in one place, you don’t have to switch between platforms, you save people time searching for information in different places and you streamline processes and workflows, as important business information, policies and tools for communication and collaboration are not separated from documents, applications and task-oriented information. This way, you can quickly and easily access all the information you need to work from any device and any location.
2. Better employee engagement. Because the intranet is no longer a separate application, but is integrated in your digital workspace, employees can’t ignore the information shared in the digital workspace. It is immediately visible as soon as employees open their digital workspace. This way you can increase the adoption of your intranet and communicate more effectively with colleagues. This can be in the form of announcements, videos, and intranet integration or with an RSS feed.
3. Reduce costs, more updates. By integrating the intranet into a digital workspace, the various features are updated each time without having to invest time and money. This way, your intranet is constantly up to date and you make use of the latest applications.

Why choose a digital workspace that supports the intranet?

As mentioned before, there are many advantages to combining the intranet and the digital workspace. If you choose to do so, it simply makes sense to choose a digital workspace that already enables you to, instead of trying to make this integration work with one that doesn’t. By choosing a digital workspace that already supports the intranet, you seamlessly merge the digital workspace and the intranet and make us of both in the same way. This way, you can easily integrate your entire existing intranet or customise the workspace based on what features you need or , so that everything remains organised and you don’t have any unnecessary information that takes up space in your workspace.

This has become increasingly important since COVID-19, which caused people having to work from home more and more. Because of this, there must be good communication within the company. In addition, you no longer see your colleagues every day and chatting during lunch or taking a coffee break with your colleagues is also a lot more difficult. By choosing a digital workspace that supports the intranet, you can easily allow employees to get in touch witch each other and share information.

Selecting a digital workspace

There are companies like Workspace 365 that integrate the intranet into your digital workspace, so you don’t have to do this yourself. There are a number of things to consider when choosing a digital workplace.

1. Static or innovative

Do you want to have a specific functionality in your workspace? That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to choose for a solution that already has this functionality. In the end, it’s cheaper to request a functionality with an organisation that will develop this quickly for you, than to choose for a solution that already has it, but doesn’t or barely develops anything else – and thus, in the long-term, won’t adapt quickly enough to your needs. The solutions that are constantly developing update their functionalities frequently and keep improving, to make sure that you can carry out your work in the best possible way. Within Workspace 365, you can expect new releases every three weeks.

2. Co-creation

With application such as Yammer, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams, you can collaborate with your team and/or post content. This makes it easy to collaborate in documents and share your content with the entire organisation. Check with your employees which application suits them the best to do their work and take into account whether you can integrate it when choosing a digital workspace.

3. Role and environment

It is important to choose a digital workspace that ensures that people can carry out their work as efficiently and well as possible. This way, people who do important work can focus on primary tasks and the work they consider important. By choosing a digital workspace that adapts to each individual’s role and environment, this can be achieved.