The Enterprise Intranet Goes Social at eXo

Q: 🖧 What is an intranet?

intranet is a term used with abundance whenever the subject of internal communication and collaboration is brought up which makes defining it a bit challenging. In its simplest form, an intranet is an internal website for your organization. It is used mainly for top-down communication where employees can access corporate news, policies and announcements. ➝ See the full definition of intranet

Q: 🌐 What is an intranet portal?

An intranet portal is a secure internal website where employees can access information, tools, and communication channels in one place. 🔗 See full explanation of intranet portals

Q: 💡 What is a CMS Intranet?

A CMS intranet is a secure internal platform that allows employees to create, manage, and share content across the organization. Think of it as your company’s digital headquarters—where communication, collaboration, and information management come together in one place. 🔗 See the full definition of CMS intranet.

Q: 🚀 Why is a CMS intranet important for my business?

A CMS intranet helps businesses streamline communication , improve collaboration , and boost productivity across departments. It replaces scattered tools and email overload with a unified, structured digital workplace . A well-designed and powerful CMS intranet can do wonders for your organization. It can: Improves employee productivity (up to 25% according to McKinsey) Encourages knowledge sharing and team collaboration Centralizes workflows and key resources Reduces internal emails and communication silos Enhances employee engagement and retention 🔗 Read more on CMS intranet benefits.

Q: 🎰What are the main types of intranet portals?

Different intranet portals serve different purposes. Key types include: Traditional internal website Employee intranet portal Social intranet Front-door digital workplace Employee experience platform (EXP) 🔗 Explore intranet portal types

Q: 📝What features should a modern intranet portal have?

A truly effective intranet portal in 2025 is more than just a digital filing cabinet—it’s the central hub for communication, collaboration, and productivity in your organization. Whether you’re upgrading an old system or deploying a new one, here are the must-have features for a modern intranet Intuitive Content Management System (CMS) Powerful Enterprise Search Social & Collaboration Tools Mobile Accessibility (iOS & Android) Seamless Integrations Personalization & Smart Recommendations Document Management & Version Control Task & Project Management Employee Self-Service Portal Analytics & Engagement Tracking Security & Compliance Gamification & Recognition 🔗 Discover essential intranet portal features

Every tech company should be the best example of its own technology, so we thought it was time to share the eXo story of how we built and use our social intranet. Launched with eXo Platform, our social intranet satisfies the specific needs of our enterprise organization: managing content, as well as collaborating on projects worldwide – U.S., France, Vietnam, Tunisia and Ukraine. In doing so, the notion of “going social” has been redefined for us — now it’s more interactive, more sticky and more useful, and we have 100% adoption among our 180 employees.

Read on and you’ll find out how eXo built and uses its social intranet, including our rollout and rapid initial adoption, use cases and snapshots, as well as some unexpected benefits along the way.

Companies create intranets and internal company websites to establish a central “start page,” a dashboard that users visit throughout the day for relevant, up-to-the-minute news and information. That’s the vision. In reality, traditional intranets and websites tend to be static and stale, discouraging user visits. Now, companies can make their intranets more interactive, more sticky, and more useful by “going social” with web 2.0 and social network features. Ultimately, this new breed of social intranet can connect employees, ideas, discussion and content to more fully empower users throughout the organization – in both expected and unexpected ways.

When eXo decided to launch a social intranet using our own eXo Platform, our goal was much the same. We wanted a better way to communicate comprehensive and detailed information on all things eXo, from project status to team activities and beyond. We wanted something that fell between pushing out email and posting a static page on our previous intranet. But most of all, we wanted our users to want to return to the social intranet, eagerly and frequently. If we had to mandate or otherwise force user engagement, our social intranet would surely be limited in its adoption, and possibly a wasted investment.

Our social intranet has been a dramatic success. And we offer our own experiences as a case study for project managers and developers charged with building a new company intranet or adding social network features to an existing intranet. What can be done with social technologies, and what happens when they are introduced to the enterprise? Let’s find out.

The paper covers several issues we found significant in our social intranet experience, including:

Dashboards – the concept of dashboards (which is central to the eXo Platform and to our social intranet) and the benefits and core technology of dashboards:

Building and organizing the social intranet –the framework and features of the social intranet.

Using the social intranet – our rollout and rapid initial adoption as well as use cases and snapshots.

Impact and unexpected benefits – improvements in our day-to-day work experience, including company unification, product development, remote and mobile employees.

Before we move on, let’s put a few things in context. First, “going social” for us was far more than the adoption of Facebook-style posts or Twitter-like activity streams. No doubt, those are significant parts of our social intranet. But eXo itself is an enterprise organization. If we really wanted to go social, we also needed to be able to manage content and collaborate on projects—features that work with, but are distinct from the social aspects. The eXo Platform already included that enterprise functionality, so we added the social features to facilitate the work inspired and informed by social activity.

Second, the eXo social intranet was not our first intranet. Like a lot of companies, our previous intranet was basically a shared drive with no social aspects whatsoever. At best, the static pages made for a great archive and research tool. At worst, information quickly grew stale and got buried. For managers, it was hard to get their teams to pay attention to updates, and it was hard to communicate with other departments. The result? An extremely low user retention rate. Even when we opened the intranet to select partners and customers—using it as a portal—users only came when they were looking for a predetermined resource. Until another, specific document, invoice or file was needed, there was no reason to return to the intranet.

Stay tuned. We will be publishing more of our journey in creating and using our social intranet throughout this week, here on our blog. First up tomorrow will be: “Dashboards: Central to the Modern Enterprise Intranet.” If you can’t wait, you can jump right to the paper now – it’s available in our new Evaluation Toolkit.

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FAQs

You will find here Frequently Asked Questions about intranet portal with all the answers in one place.

🖧 What is an intranet?

intranet is a term used with abundance whenever the subject of internal communication and collaboration is brought up which makes defining it a bit challenging. In its simplest form, an intranet is an internal website for your organization. It is used mainly for top-down communication where employees can access corporate news, policies and announcements.

➝ See the full definition of intranet

🌐 What is an intranet portal?

An intranet portal is a secure internal website where employees can access information, tools, and communication channels in one place.

🔗 See full explanation of intranet portals

💡 What is a CMS Intranet?

A CMS intranet is a secure internal platform that allows employees to create, manage, and share content across the organization. Think of it as your company’s digital headquarters—where communication, collaboration, and information management come together in one place.

🔗 See the full definition of CMS intranet.

🚀 Why is a CMS intranet important for my business?

A CMS intranet helps businesses streamline communication, improve collaboration, and boost productivity across departments. It replaces scattered tools and email overload with a unified, structured digital workplace.

A well-designed and powerful CMS intranet can do wonders for your organization. It can:

Improves employee productivity (up to 25% according to McKinsey)
Encourages knowledge sharing and team collaboration
Centralizes workflows and key resources
Reduces internal emails and communication silos
Enhances employee engagement and retention

🔍 What features should I look for in a CMS intranet?

Look for features like page builders, WYSIWYG editors, permissions, version control, search tools, and multilingual support. These features ensure your CMS intranet grows with your team and remains easy to use.

Key features include:

Drag-and-drop page builder
WYSIWYG editor
Content workflows and approval processes
Smart publishing controls (schedule/expiry)
Granular permissions and access controls
Multilingual and multi-site support
Version control and audit logs
Powerful search with tagging and metadata

These features ensure your intranet is user-friendly, secure, and scalable as your company grows.

🔗 Explore the top CMS intranet features

🎰What are the main types of intranet portals?

Different intranet portals serve different purposes. Key types include:

Traditional internal website
Employee intranet portal
Social intranet
Front-door digital workplace
Employee experience platform (EXP)

🔗 Explore intranet portal types

💼Why are intranet portals important for businesses?

They help solve major challenges:

Centralize documents and communications
Improve team collaboration
Increase productivity and engagement
Reduce internal emails and meetings

🔗 Learn more about the importance of intranet portals

👨🏻‍💻 How can an intranet solve everyday work problems?

Reduces email clutter
Helps find files faster
Improves employee focus and happiness
Connects remote and hybrid teams

🔗 See how intranets solve daily challenges

🌟What are the key benefits of an intranet portal?

An intranet portal serves as a powerful tool for modern organizations, offering numerous advantages that enhance productivity, communication, and employee satisfaction. Below is a detailed breakdown of its key benefits, followed by a concise comparison table for easy reference:

Centralized Information Hub
Enhanced Internal Communication
Improved Collaboration & Teamwork
Increased Employee Engagement & Satisfaction
Streamlined Workflows & Processes
Better Knowledge Management & Retention
Reduced IT Burden
Enhanced Security & Compliance
Improved Onboarding for New Hires
Data-Driven Insights
Mobile Accessibility

🔗 View full list of intranet portal benefits

📝What features should a modern intranet portal have?

A truly effective intranet portal in 2025 is more than just a digital filing cabinet—it’s the central hub for communication, collaboration, and productivity in your organization. Whether you’re upgrading an old system or deploying a new one, here are the must-have features for a modern intranet

Intuitive Content Management System (CMS)
Powerful Enterprise Search
Social & Collaboration Tools
Mobile Accessibility (iOS & Android)
Seamless Integrations
Personalization & Smart Recommendations
Document Management & Version Control
Task & Project Management
Employee Self-Service Portal
Analytics & Engagement Tracking
Security & Compliance
Gamification & Recognition

🔗 Discover essential intranet portal features

⚙️How do you implement an intranet portal?

Implementing an intranet portal is a strategic undertaking that requires careful planning and execution. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Define Your Purpose and Goals
Conduct a Needs Assessment and Content Audit
Assemble an Intranet Team
Choose Your Intranet Software Provider
Design and Customize Your Intranet
Develop a Content Strategy
Pilot and Test
Training and Launch
Monitor, Measure, and Iterate

🔗 Step-by-step intranet implementation guide

🛠️How to Build Your Own Intranet?

Building an intranet portal can mean two things: building from scratch or implementing an out-of-the-box solution.

Building from Scratch (Custom Development)
Implementing an Out-of-the-Box Solution (SaaS or On-Premise Software)

🔗 Find out a detailed comparison to build or buy an intranet portal

🔥How do you increase intranet adoption among employees?

A powerful intranet portal is only effective if employees actually use it. Low adoption rates are a common challenge. Here’s how to boost engagement:

Here are some Tips to drive adoption: