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Buyer's Guide to Intranet Projects

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Finnish intranet products are conquering the world – introducing Universe

6.9.2017

Lately there has been a lot of talk about the competetiveness of the Finnish economy. One thing is for sure: in the intranet market we aren’t doing badly at all! Two Finnish products designed for intranet and digital work – Valo and Universe – are churning out outstanding sales figures around the world. In the spirit of our centenary year of independence, we decided to introduce these two top export products.

We interviewed representatives from both Universe and Valo, giving them the freedom to praise their own products as they see fit, but we also asked them to evaluate the competition and describe their product development philosophy. So, in this article we shall focus on Universe.

Continue reading “Finnish intranet products are conquering the world – introducing Universe” →

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Case: Paulig – Bold new intranet implementation supports culture development

27.6.2017

Paulig Group is a family-owned, international enterprise in the food industry. Their portfolio includes strong brands such as Paulig, Santa Maria, Risenta, Gold&Green and Poco Loco. The Group has about 1,900 employees in 13 countries. They are working in four business divisions and common functions.

Paulig has grown via acquisitions and they wanted to redesign their intranet structure to support productivity and their internal Paulig Way culture development towards ‘one company with several brands’ better than before.

Continue reading “Case: Paulig – Bold new intranet implementation supports culture development” →

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The intranet market in Finland

13.6.2017

Intranets in Finland are used for organizational, HR, and strategic communications, and to communicate company policies and guidelines. On top of these two traditional roles, most of the intranets are also tools to facilitate the forming of a common organizational culture and sense of community, our latest study on Finnish intranets reports.

Continue reading “The intranet market in Finland” →

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SharePoint Online in mobile devices

6.2.2017

One of the most important benefits of SharePoint Online is that it contains well-designed tools for shared creation of documents within teams and projects. If it is mandatory to be able to open Office documents directly from the intranet and for multiple users to edit them simultaneously, scale is often tipped towards SharePoint right from the beginning when selecting the most suitable technology for a new intranet implementation.

But when intranet usability on a mobile device is taken into consideration, the choice is not so obvious anymore. Yes, SharePoint Online is available as a cloud service from outside the organization’s own network, but SharePoint’s proprietary page templates and themes are not responsive, and using sites designed for desktop screens is far from inviting on a mobile device. What are the remedies, then?
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Sustainable communality grows from the community itself – supported by the intranet

Nov 3, 2016

After organizational communication and work instructions, the third most important task for an intranet is “creating communality” (Intranet Services in Finland 2016 survey). In practice, this happens in two ways. Continue reading “Sustainable communality grows from the community itself – supported by the intranet” →

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How much does Office 365 intranet cost?

Oct 26, 2016

Setting up a simple Office 365 intranet is a rather straightforward task. With the appropriate license, basically anyone with SharePoint administrator rights may click their way through setting up one. In the fortunate event that one actually knows what they are doing, the result may actually be a very good intranet. This is what we used to do at North Patrol in the past, and this is likely what is currently being done in many smallish organizations where working is greatly focused on documents. Convenient for sure, especially since there are no costs in addition to licensing.
Continue reading “How much does Office 365 intranet cost?” →

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The three functions of an intranet

Sep 14, 2016

Intranet renewals typically involve pondering whether or not workspaces are part of the intranet, and should collaboration in the workspaces be implemented on the same technology platform as the communicational intranet . Yes and no – both are possible.

When we look at the intranet from the perspective of its communicational nature and communicational features, its functions within the organization fall into three main categories: Continue reading “The three functions of an intranet” →

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How to start intranet renewal

Apr 6, 2016

There are several potential needs for intranet renewal. The technology platform may be rotting away, the intranet in its present form does not meet today’s needs, the organization has changed in mergers and acquisitions, a new strategy combines formerly independent units into one global actor with the resultant intranet needs, or the intranet has just become so stale that the best solution is to start again from scratch and launch it under a new “brand” to make it useful to the organization. Continue reading “How to start intranet renewal” →

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Office 365, Slack and other intranet technology trends

Mar 7, 2016

I held a two-part presentation at a conference in Oslo last year, the first part of which discussed typical intranet concepts and technologies in the Nordic countries. The second part was about intranet conceptualization methods and things like various workshop techniques. In this story, I’ll summarize the topics of the first presentation through five assertions.
Continue reading “Office 365, Slack and other intranet technology trends” →

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The role of the intranet in the internal communications channel mix

Nov 25, 2015

An intranet is able to replace many traditional communications channels inside an organiozation: bulletin boards, weekly newsletters, email lists, and staff magazines. It may function as a channel for personnel briefings, or it can be a unofficial meeting place like a real-life lunchroom. An intranet harmoniously conveys employer’s strategies and instructions regarding off-duty periods, procedures for different processes and information on changes and successes in all levels, as well as offers a platform for the whole organization to discuss these. Continue reading “The role of the intranet in the internal communications channel mix” →

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Intranets in large enterprises

Oct 13, 2015

Genuinely large corporations constitute their own special group in the field of intranet technology. With thousands of employees working in many different countries and business functions, designing an intranet concept is not entirely straightforward.For such complex organizations, intranets are essential business systems – often in many ways. Continue reading “Intranets in large enterprises” →

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The future is mobile – a mobile strategy for the intranet

Sept 20, 2015

The internet is already accessed more by mobile devices than desktop computers. The increasing use of the internet is based on modern mobile service subscription plans. Continue reading “The future is mobile – a mobile strategy for the intranet” →

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Intranet requirement specification – 10 tips for good results

Jan 26, 2015

As a result of the intranet concept design phase, a specifications document is created. This document is attached as a part of the request for proposals (RFP) for possible vendors. Carefully prepared requirement specifications function as a general guideline throughout the whole intranet implementation.

These tips will lead you to even better results when drawing up your own specifications
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How much does it cost to build an intranet? Prices compared

Jan 12, 2015

There is a lot of variation in the prices of setting up an intranet. The differences are dependent on the size of the organization and the intranet service itself—its purpose and its role. At North Patrol, we assist our clients in finding a vendor for their intranets through a competitive bidding process. We went through all the proposals from the tendering processes we have been facilitating in 2013–2014. We compared the prices and estimated workloads, and calculated the averages. So here are the prices of building an intranet!
Continue reading “How much does it cost to build an intranet? Prices compared” →

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International intranet competition—What are the differences between Finland and Sweden?

Nov 4, 2014

Finland and Sweden often arrange playful competitions between each other. We challenged both countries to an “intranet open” comparing the freshly published results of the Intranets in Finland 2014 survey with the corresponding survey in Sweden. The topics include intranet platforms, access to intranets, usage activity, content and functionality, and intranet governance models.
Continue reading “International intranet competition—What are the differences between Finland and Sweden?” →

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First-ever intranet study in Finland reveals six megatrends

Sep 17, 2014

Intranets are rising in importance but still lack strategic management, the first comprehensive study on Finnish intranets finds.
The study, Intranets in Finland 2014, gathered responses from Finnish intranet managers. In addition to mapping the intranet technology, the survey studied the role and use of intranets and how intranets are managed, the typical content and features, as well as the role of the intranet managers and the emerging trends in the field.

The study found six emerging megatrends in Finnish intranets: Continue reading “First-ever intranet study in Finland reveals six megatrends” →

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Confluence Challenges SharePoint as an Intranet Platform

Sep 8, 2014

It’s cheaper, it’s simpler, it’s more user-friendly. And its content editor might be the best on the market. It’s Atlassian Confluence.

Confluence is truly challenging Microsoft SharePoint, the market leader, as an intranet platform in Finland. SharePoint is still the king of the hill based on our latest survey on Finnish intranets: 51 % of intranets are running on SharePoint (version 2007 or greater), and only 7 % on Atlassian Confluence. Continue reading “Confluence Challenges SharePoint as an Intranet Platform” →

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Discover the true differences between intranet tenders

May 28, 2014

Buying an intranet project may sometimes be a nightmarish experience. After all that labor you have put into documenting your requirements and creating an effective request for tender, you get a truckload of paper from the tenderers, and they all seem to have completely different views on your needs. How can you compare the tenders and what should you be looking for?
Continue reading “Discover the true differences between intranet tenders” →

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