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8 Company Intranet Use Cases (With Real Examples)
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Sometimes dismissed as “outdated”, the intranet still has plenty of life left in it! Used regularly by 72% of employees¹, this tool has become THE go-to reference for staying informed about internal news and capturing company knowledge. More and more these days, it also includes collaborative features that make it easier to interact and work in project mode. There are therefore plenty of ways to use the company intranet . But which are the most common? And how do organizations make the most of this platform?
In this article, discover the main use cases for this tool, along with concrete examples of company intranets rolled out by our customers.
PS: these use cases are complementary—nothing’s stopping you from using your intranet in several different ways 😉
Capturing information
First, the company intranet can be used to capture the company’s information and knowledge, and so make it easier to share know-how. This is often called a “library” or “knowledge base” use.
Here are two concrete customer cases to illustrate this example:
Example #1: Pôle Emploi
The intranet isn’t just a tool for businesses! The public sector, too, can make good use of this tool. Just look at Pôle Emploi, the French public employment service, which uses the Talkspirit platform to capture all the resources and knowledge of its International Mobility team in the Hauts-de-France region.
The goal? To bring together in one place the information each person has gathered through their research, so the whole team can benefit from it and build up their knowledge.
“Talkspirit is a bit like our digital library. We use it to centralize all the ‘cold’ information on every topic related to expatriation in the countries we’re responsible for: living conditions, daily life, housing, taxes, job searching, and so on. Each piece of information gets its own dedicated post of its own and comes with a description noting the themes covered and/or the documents shared.” Sandrine Delassus, Head of the International Mobility team for Hauts-de-France at Pôle Emploi
News feed of Pôle Emploi’s Talkspirit platform
Example #2: SCPARE
Another example: the anesthesia and intensive care practice SCPARE, which uses Talkspirit to “capture information in one place” and “make sure everyone has a single source of information”.
Several working groups were created to share information only with the people who need it, and to avoid the information overload sometimes associated with intranet use.
“All the documents and information specific to each group are stored on the Talkspirit drive, then shared in a dedicated post, which lets us keep a history of all our exchanges.” Nicolas Rocq, Anesthesiologist-Intensivist at SCPARE
Example of a SCPARE post on Talkspirit
The result: since rolling out Talkspirit, “we hardly receive any internal emails anymore, and traffic on Signal (our old chat tool) has dropped by 90%”.
Read also: Improving information capture in the healthcare sector
Streamlining internal communication
Internal communication is one of the most common uses of the company intranet. Whether it’s sharing news, showcasing the company culture, or giving visibility to teams’ projects, internal communication plays a key role within organizations. Because where there’s information transparency, there’s also an improved employee experience, stronger engagement, and better talent retention!
Here are a few examples of organizations that use the company intranet to streamline their internal communication:
Example #3: Solimut Mutuelle de France
Solimut Mutuelle de France, a values-driven non-profit health insurer, wanted to replace its “outdated” intranet with a modern platform: Talkspirit. Its challenge: to make internal communication more engaging and dynamic, and to give visibility to the projects of its 500 employees spread across several sites.
To meet this challenge, the insurer created several types of groups: working groups, monitoring groups, resource- and news-sharing groups, and so on. Everyone can share information with the relevant people by creating a post, or simply by sending a message on the group’s chat.
Thanks to Talkspirit, Solimut Mutuelle de France can now showcase the company’s news and events, encourage employees to speak up and share their successes, and make information easier to access for all staff.
Talkspirit lets us showcase our various projects and the people behind them. When an employee creates a post, they can see their colleagues’ reactions and encouragement live, which is really beneficial.” Elise Attia, Internal Communication Manager, Solimut Mutuelle de France
Example #4: The Town of Venelles
This internal communication challenge also comes up at the Town of Venelles, a municipality of 8,500 residents near Aix-en-Provence. Its challenge, however, was different from Solimut Mutuelle de France’s. With 160 staff working both in the offices and in the field, the goal was rather to bring these staff together on a single platform accessible to all, and to cut down on internal emails.
Rolled out at the start of the Covid crisis, Talkspirit was a real hit within the town hall, becoming the place for both formal and informal exchanges. The town uses it in particular to share its monthly internal newsletter, as well as information about its events and ongoing projects.
Several informal groups were also created to share good tips, swap recipes, and even post riddles!
“With Talkspirit, information circulates faster, more easily, and more freely. It lets people from different departments and levels of the hierarchy interact with one another, and so strengthens cohesion among staff.” Carine Ponsot, Internal Communication Officer, Town of Venelles
Read also: Energizing internal communication with Talkspirit: the Town of Venelles case study
Engaging the members of a community
The intranet can also be used to engage and connect the members of a community, and to strengthen mutual support and cohesion within that network. Indeed, several company intranet features lend themselves very well to this use case:
- the welcome portal, which lets you share the community’s news with all members, and bring together all the business apps you use,
- the news feed, to organize exchanges by topic,
- the library, where members can find all the cold information they need,
- the webinars, which let you organize events for members and split them into several rooms to make brainstorming easier.
Read also: Webinar “6 best practices to energize your community”
Example #5: Gîtes de France®
Among the standout examples for this use case is the company intranet of Gîtes de France®: Talkspirit, renamed “Rezo 2.0” internally. This tool is used for a whole range of purposes. Indeed, it lets the organization:
- develop the sharing of best practices between the network’s 94 regional branches,
- keep information flowing between these branches,
- make remote collaboration easier through working groups,
- and engage the community through events and fun activities.
No more silos with Talkspirit. Now, employees can easily relay information from the field, which also helps boost their engagement!
“A real freedom to speak up has taken hold among employees. They now dare to give their opinion, suggest improvements, and exchange with colleagues from other departments to find solutions together. That wasn’t the case before—everything was very siloed. Today, they’re all far more involved.” Christine Cheret, Internal Communication Officer at the Gîtes de France® Federation
Example #6: La French Tech Grande Provence
Of course, the company intranet isn’t limited to a company’s internal stakeholders. It can also – like the extranet – bring in external players (partners, clients, suppliers, etc.). This is a use favored by French Tech Grande Provence to engage its startup ecosystem.
In 2020, the association decided to roll out Talkspirit to communicate and share information more easily with its members, as well as to make remote collaboration easier within the internal team.
French Tech Grande Provence uses the platform in particular to showcase events, news, and best practices, and so unite the community around shared topics.
French Tech Grande Provence’s Talkspirit welcome portal
“Day to day, Talkspirit lets us share information internally and with all the association’s members. Thanks to the Twitter integration, we pull every tweet mentioning us straight into the news feed, which gives more visibility to our updates.” Laure Baudouin, Head of Administration and Communication at French Tech Grande Provence
Discover how to energize your network with Talkspirit
Making project collaboration easier
In recent years, the company intranet has modernized to further develop its collaborative side. More than just a communication platform, it’s also a tool that can be used to make project-based work easier.
Here are two examples of company intranets illustrating this use:
Example #7: The French Army
Back in 2018, the French Army’s recruitment department identified the need to set up a platform to run several projects at once, in coordination with numerous external suppliers.
To meet this need, the French Army turned to Talkspirit. 100% made in France, the platform keeps the organization’s data on French soil, and above all ensures its security. That’s a particularly important consideration for the French Army.
“Both a workspace and a discussion space, Talkspirit also won us over with its ability to bring internal staff and external suppliers together on the same platform.” Laurent Bastide, Head of the data strategy section, recruitment marketing office, French Army
Several working groups were created on Talkspirit to centralize internal and external exchanges on the recruitment unit’s marketing projects. The team can now collaborate effectively with its suppliers, without going through endless email chains.
Read also: Streamlining the French Army’s marketing projects with Talkspirit
Example #8: Le Petit Vapoteur
Spread across several sites in France, Le Petit Vapoteur wanted to set up a company intranet to make communication and project collaboration easier. A challenge Talkspirit was a perfect fit for.
Used by teams both in the offices and in the field, the tool brings real added value to project management. The sales team used it, for example, to plan a promotional campaign for the Euro 2021 football tournament. A dedicated group was created to discuss the project, list the tasks, and assign them to team members through checklists.
Everyone can inform others and stay informed about task progress via the group’s chat room, but also by checking off the tasks assigned to them as they go.
“Since we put Talkspirit in place, the communication flow is much smoother. We interact more across departments, which lets us work better together on our cross-functional projects.” Mathieu Mercier, Head of Purchasing, Logistics and Transport at Le Petit Vapoteur.
Discover the benefits of Talkspirit for collaborative work
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There’s no shortage of ways to use the company intranet! Internal communication, knowledge storage and sharing, collaborative work, community engagement… There are many ways to use this platform. Our advice: choose a company intranet that can meet all your needs, to avoid piling up tools. 100% French, Talkspirit offers you an intranet solution that can be customized to your use cases. Get in touch with our team to discover everything the tool has to offer 😉.
Once these examples are laid out, the question also arises: how do you successfully roll out a company intranet? And how do you manage change among employees? In this methodology sheet, discover the key steps to follow to roll out your company intranet:
Get the Methodology Sheet
In this methodology sheet, you’ll find: the 8 steps to set up your intranet, the questions to ask yourself to identify your needs, the decisive criteria for choosing your solution, the elements to include in your communication plan, as well as our best tips to ensure your platform gets adopted.
¹ 2021 study by the Observatoire de l’intranet & du digital working
