Rather like those urban legends that persist in doing the rounds – like say the one about New York’s giant sewer gators or the unsuspecting businessmen in strange cities falling prey to kidney thieves – there are a number of myths that have grown up around intranets. You know the scenario – you’ve heard the story so often that a part of you starts to believe it even though you know deep down it’s not true. Well here at MyHub, over the years we’ve heard plenty of myths about intranets. And so in this article, we’ll debunk each of them, once and for all. And like all good countdowns, we’ll start in reverse order.
Intranet Myth #5: An Intranet Is Costly To Set Up
This particular myth dates from the days before cloud computing. When intranets first came onto the scene back in the 1990s, companies were having to develop their own intranets largely from scratch and were hosting them on existing company servers that took up valuable office space. Thankfully the world of intranets has moved on since then and the advent of cloud intranets has largely done away with the bespoke and company-hosted versions of old. Nowadays, cloud intranet providers will host the intranet for you and operate a subscription model. This means that for a modest monthly fee, you can in some cases, enjoy unlimited numbers of users and unlimited data storage along with unlimited help and support. So, far from being the open-ended cheque that was previously the case, cloud intranets provide greater transparency over costs as well as that all-important cost certainty.
Intranet Myth #4: An Intranet Takes A Long Time To Set Up
We’re more than happy to debunk this particular myth. You see, cloud intranets are in fact super easy to set up. The truth is you can quickly and easily implement a professional intranet in a matter of minutes and without the need for any IT resources. MyHub’s cloud intranet utilizes a straightforward five-step site builder wizard. What’s more, you can have access to a setup and design expert at no additional cost. It really is that simple and intuitive. And if you still need to be convinced then why not take advantage of a free demo or a no-obligation trial like the 14-day one offered by MyHub.
Intranet Myth #3: An Intranet Is Hard To Manage
Another myth we frequently hear is that intranets are hard to manage on an ongoing basis. MyHub’s cloud intranet, however, has been specially designed with the non-technical person in mind. This means that not only is it super easy to set up, it’s also super easy to manage.
Your cloud intranet comes with a set of intuitive administration tools already built in. And so it’s a simple process to edit, delete and publish pages. You can even create pages at any time and set them to be published at a future date. And do you need to add or delete users? No problem, a few clicks of the mouse will see you adding or managing a single user or even multiple ones. What’s more, the intranet comes with a set of easily customizable rules and site permissions so that access to sensitive information can be restricted to those staff members that really need it.
So far from being cumbersome to manage, the cloud intranet requires only minimal effort to keep it ticking along nicely.
Intranet Myth #2: An Intranet Is Just A Glorified Shared Folder
While it’s true that the motivation for implementing an intranet is often to make it easier to share information, documents and folders across an organization, you’d be wrong to think that is the full extent of what an intranet has to offer. The fact is a cloud intranet comes with a host of powerful business tools and modules that will impact on all aspects of your operations – not just information sharing.
For example, is internal communications a pain point in your business? Perhaps you have large numbers of contractors or remote workers that you’re struggling to stay connected with? Well, the intranet’s online news blogs and newsletters will ensure everyone stays in the loop with timely and consistent company messages and updates.
Are information silos a problem in your business? Do employees beaver away with their blinkers on so that there is little opportunity for collaboration and joint working? This is a common problem among organizations both big and small and an intranet can go a long way to knocking down those information silos. The self-service nature of the intranet means that employees can source information for themselves, supported by a powerful search function and intuitive site navigation. What’s more, you can set up project areas and collaborative workspaces which allow staff members to share data, insights and best practice across teams for meaningful joint working. And embedding the Office 365 Excel spreadsheet or Google Doc directly in the intranet page means that staff can simultaneously be working on a document in real time.
Perhaps employee engagement is a pain point in your company. We all know that engaged employees tend to be happier and more productive ones with fewer absences and sick leave. Your intranet can be an important mechanism for raising the level of employee engagement in your business. Use the intranet’s quizzes and surveys tool to canvas employees’ views on specific issues. Develop two-way conversations with employees through blogs. And encourage staff members to connect with each other through social intranet features such as staff profiles, activity walls and follow-me functionality.
These are just some of the additional features intranets have to offer which make them so much more than repositories of information and data. And it’s also why many businesses, just like yours, have quickly found that an intranet is an indispensable business tool.
Intranet Myth #1: You Have To Be An IT Expert To Deploy An Intranet
And coming in at the coveted number one spot is the old chestnut that you need to have a PhD in IT before you can set up an intranet. Now rather like those urban myths that we’ve all heard, there is an element of truth in this one. If you’re designing and developing an intranet from scratch or an entirely bespoke intranet, then yes a certain amount of technical know-how will be required. However, this is not the case with cloud intranets like MyHub’s, which nowadays are the most popular choice for businesses by far.
You see, cloud intranets come in a pre-designed template format complete with a range of powerful business modules and tools out of the box. You simply and easily drag and drop functionality and content onto your secure custom intranet pages. Add your own company stamp, corporate colors and branding and hey presto, you have a unique and fully customized intranet! And you can achieve all this without encountering complicated coding or incomprehensible algorithms and computer languages.
So there we have it – intranets are not the difficult, time consuming and highly technical solutions that perhaps you thought they were. Now as to those other urban myths that we mentioned at the start, remember the one about the kidney heist? Well, just for the record, I can vouch that that one is in fact true as it really did happen to a friend of a friend of my cousin.
Want to find out more about how an intranet could make all the difference to your business? Get in touch with us at MyHub for a no-obligation discussion.
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