The 10 Best Tips for Evaluating Intranet Return on Investment

When picking a new intranet, there are a lot of elements to think about. What does the setup process resemble? Can it be combined with Google Workspace and other external platforms? How are permissions handled and is it possible to divide secret data between departments? Is it feasible to transfer employee information from our current system?

These are only a few of the various facets that are taken into account while selecting an intranet. However, a typical query posed by leadership is:

How profitable is the intranet in terms of return on investment (ROI)?

It’s a good inquiry and not necessarily a straightforward response. Companies resort to intranet platforms for different purposes – and these initiatives shape what goes into the intranet ROI and what the ROI appears like. This could be why some firms don’t perform an intranet ROI evaluation.

What makes the intranet ROI at times hard to decide is that numerous entities exploit the intranet for multiple needs. We typically start by inquiring about the people examining solutions for what they are using their intranet for.

• Intranet software?
• Internal communications?
• Knowledge management?
• Team collaboration?
• Workplace culture?

To gauge the return on investment (ROI) of an intranet, it is essential to consider the use case, which can be either related to improving company culture or increasing collaboration and productivity. In the former, one must consider the effect of the tool on employee experience and retention. The latter, on the other hand, will require an assessment of the number of hours saved searching for info, the total number of users, and the cost per person, among other factors. Leveraging the Creative Social Intranet ROI Calculator will help you get an accurate evaluation of the ROI. Before this, you should also consider ten high-level factors that will aid in assessing the intranet ROI.

What functionality is your intranet already built with?

To assess the return on investment (ROI) of an intranet, consider what features it includes and how they streamline internal processes. As productivity can take many forms, finding out how the intranet aids employees in working more effectively will demonstrate how valuable it is. To gain the most value from the intranet, here is a breakdown of essential intranet features:

Internal Communications

• Tools for Creating and Publishing Content: The capacity to fabricate and distribute diverse kinds of communications, declarations, and corporate records. The objective is to depend less on electronic mail and get your workers where they will observe significant material and make a move.
• Personalized Communications: Your aim should be to ensure that the right people are getting the right data. If you make sure that confidential matters are dealt with in private areas and separate out messages according to teams, departments, or boards, then you can exclude any redundant information and let everyone focus on what pertains to them.
• Notifications: Users are informed of important activities by notifications, which don’t interfere with their job. It is a compact but effective tool that gives prompt updates and keeps everyone on schedule.
• Chat: Converse as if everyone were in the same space. When staff can communicate directly to those they require, they can be more productive and their work will be more efficient.
• Social Tools: A snappy and interactive approach to inform others that you are paying attention to the content and updates. Expressing your opinion with likes, comments, and emojis is a straightforward way to participate in conversations.

Knowledge Management

• Document Storage: Having a unified source of information is made possible with a user-friendly document management system. It allows employees to simply add and exchange files, as well as to find what they are looking for quickly and efficiently.
• Integrated Search: It is possible to look for anything with the help of an integrated search feature that includes fine filters, tags, and the capacity to draw data from other systems. This search tool is useful for quickly locating a document.
• Regulations and Allowances: Ensure the preservation of secrecy for any private material, works, and conversations. With rights and duties granted, you can manage who can access confidential info and areas within your internal network.

Collaboration

• Workplace: Teams can collaborate in the workplace where they can access files, read important messages and updates, and browse. It serves as your central resource for all information about organizations, forums, and groups.
• Intranet/Extranet Integration: Make it possible for people who aren’t affiliated with your company—such as clients, investors, or community members to engage with your workforce and discover the resources they require.
• Streamlining Work: To ensure that initiatives stay on course, set up a sequence of controlled steps. Managers may easily assign projects with the help of a systematic approval process, and your intranet provides updates on their progress.
• Cases: Private tickets may be submitted by team members or clients, who may then send them to your team and keep track of them in your intranet until completion.
• Ideations, Polls and Surveys: If you want to gain insight from your staff and progress with projects, a speedy solution is to pose a query to certain departments in your internal network or to the entire business.

When examining your company’s internal network, consider if the intranet assists in the accomplishment of primary business objectives and if the functions of the intranet are helping to achieve these targets. This will be your guide to estimating the return on investment of your intranet.

Do your intranet be used by employees?

In many cases, companies are worried about how their employees will accept a new platform – and for a good reason. According to 1E research, US firms squandered $30 billion on software that was rarely or never used in four year.

What sets intranet software aside from the rest is that, when equipped with the correct characteristics and user interface, it boosts two essential components for any organization: internal communication and information exchange.

When an intranet is working effectively, it serves as an entry point for your staff to gain access to all the things that are related to their jobs. This means that, in theory, everyone should be logging in regularly – which is a major indicator of the intranet’s return on investment.

We examine a few analytics to assess engagement, adoption, and how much—or little—time is spent in your intranet:

The length of time staff devotes to obtaining information. If teams don’t spend too much time on the intranet, it’s a good indication that they can find what they need and go on with their projects.

The amount of material distributed. What are the purposes of your intranet and how often is it used? Built-in analytics and distribution statistics can help you assess activity in your intranet.

The number of interactions with content, such as likes and comments. Are people actively participating and connecting with content?

Opinion scores. How do your people feel about the information shared on your intranet?

Audience Overview analysis. How many people from your user base are regularly signing in on a daily and weekly basis?

Does your intranet support organizational goals?

It’s essential to determine a specific purpose for setting up an intranet. Establishing what your aims are is a must. Is it to bring together information and reduce email traffic? Maybe it’s to decrease employee turnover? Or is it to upgrade morale and culture? Draft a plan on how your intranet will help you reach these goals. Several suppliers have customer support to guarantee you are making full use of the intranet. Additionally, survey staff to see if the objectives are being met. Set clear objectives and make sure your intranet is ready to accomplish them. This is a great way to measure the return of your intranet.

Your employee’s level of engagement?

If staff members are enthusiastic about their job, this is likely to result in better productivity, customer service, and corporate image – which will draw the sort of personnel you want to recruit. Conversely, when engagement is lacking, staff retention is probably low as well, which can have expensive consequences. It costs a minimum of $3,000 to bring in a new hire. This doesn’t even consider the time needed to train them adequately, or the additional time it takes for them to become comfortable in their role. When your teams are engaged and content, you will maintain your top personnel and save on recruiting costs and resources. This is where an intranet can assist. By organizing daily procedures, making information easily accessible, and enabling two-way communication between management and personnel, you can improve the employees’ experience, resulting in satisfied and sustainable teams.

To assess your intranet’s return on investment, you can take advantage of the built-in analytics. This can provide you with insight into how often different content, posts, search criteria, and audience’s being used. This way, you can gain a better understanding of how employees are engaging with the intranet. This engagement is essential for creating a positive employee experience and to promote the desired company culture.

Can you integrate new employees quickly?

It doesn’t matter how loyal your employees are, at some point your business will have to welcome new colleagues. An intranet can create a consistent experience for all new staff members by consolidating forms, instructional videos and internal regulations. Forrester reports that utilizing an intranet efficiently can reduce the time taken to onboard newcomers by an average of 25%. This not only saves resources, it also helps to ensure that everyone is familiar with the processes, the corporate culture, and is set up to be successful.

How recent is your information?

The importance of being relevant cannot be overstated. McKinsey found that the average worker spends a considerable amount of their working week looking for the necessary information and people to get answers. Can you imagine how much more productive employees could be if finding information was easier?

This is why the ability to reduce clutter and wasted time has great returns for an intranet. With purposeful communication and dedicated workspaces, you have control over who will receive your communication and where it will be seen. By directing messages and data to the right locations, you can send fewer emails, thereby cutting down 28% of the time spent reading through emails.

Another advantage of an intranet is the provision of relevant spaces for essential team members to collaborate and access vital documents. Intranet governance allows you to create private spaces for particular people. By offering directors, superiors, and departments a secure platform to progress their projects, you can ensure that the right people are looking at the right tasks.

Has your business’s effectiveness increased?

Estimating the Return of Investment (ROI) of an internal network requires taking into account the productivity of the organization. Have you been able to finish all of your plans? Did you reach your yearly objectives? Does your performance contribute to the profitability of the company?

The secret to increasing effectiveness for any target is ensuring that teams have an effortless and natural way to collaborate. Just like Cisco did – when they implemented fresh collaboration tools and internal procedures for their 60,000 staff members, they observed a ninefold return on investment.

What were the central factors that caused this rise in output? Of course, the technology, but also putting emphasis on its personnel. It wasn’t enough to merely give new technology to everybody and expect the best result. Combining individuals under the same procedures in conjunction with collaboration software enabled Cisco to remodel its operations on a universal scale.

Observe the change in collaboration before and after the intranet. If you direct your objectives with collaboration and people as priorities, you will gain the most ROI.

What is the degree of satisfaction?

To determine the return on investment of your intranet, request feedback from your staff. Using polls and surveys is an effective way to get a better idea of how your employees are doing and what advantages from the intranet they find to be the most beneficial.

You can ask them which features they appreciate the most and why, as well as what tools or integrations they would like to have access to. Frequently, the capability to meet the desired goal may already be available through the Creative Social Intranet, but the client just needs to identify what they are in search of.

Is controlling your intranet simple?

Maintaining certain platforms with a high degree of customizability can be a difficult and expensive task. Take SharePoint, for example; it requires licenses, and any number of additional costs such as consulting fees, implementation assistance, customization services, and training, which can quickly add up to thousands of dollars. Unanticipated expenses become hidden burdens. Having an intranet that can be easily adjusted to suit your needs and managed without requiring extra overhead is a great return on investment. You want a platform that can do what you want it to, look the way you want it to, and does not require additional resources to maintain. Owning an intranet you can use internally and that is simple to use for all of your users is a wise investment in your organization’s future.

How does innovation emerge?

The intranet technology sector is ever-changing, so you should ensure that any intranet provider you select has a program of regular product releases. Various vendors offer quarterly or yearly updates, while others, such as Creative Social Intranet, provide upgrades and new features every month. When you invest in a vendor that keeps up with the current market trends, your teams can keep on top of the latest tools, and your intranet will remain a valuable base for your business in the years to come.

Conclusion

Calculating the worth of your intranet, either in tangible or intangible terms, is essential for assessing your intranet’s return on investment. This will help you determine whether your objectives are being met and whether the effort is worth it.

When you’re ready, the Creative Social Intranet ROI Calculator will provide you with a definite benchmark of what you can expect in ROI. This way, you can keep track of the value of your intranet and always have a reference point to gauge it against.