“The next generation intranet will transform businesses in ways that pay, and pay big.”

Over the past decade, quantum leaps in search technology are enabling a whole new era of possibilities for businesses. I am not referring to the search technology that helps people find stuff… that is old news and somewhat of a commodity. I am talking about delivering intelligent insights for workers and customers, everywhere they are, in every app they engage in, every time.

Why does that matter? Because it changes the very nature of work, and it’s reasonably simple to deploy. It drives huge economics, and it addresses the number one constraint of every business: skills!

People empowered with richer information will do more on their own. Again this is not a new concept. What is new is the ability to:

  • Deliver on this goal at scale, with much higher levels of relevance to each person, and in a much simpler way.
  • Leverage all data assets and turning the ecosystem of record into real useful intelligence that drives purchases, service, innovation and operations.
  • Leverage analytics and machine learning to drive knowledge management – in fact turning it on its head – using the wisdom of digital crowds, understanding what content matters most to who, with less effort.

For CIOs, this intelligent search technology offers the ideal platform for an intelligent intranet that makes people PROFICIENT.

Why an intelligent intranet?

Beyond a simple portal with the cafeteria menu and org chart, intranets have evolved to offer more tools that encourage collaboration, promote engagement, and knowledge sharing and re-use.  But they haven’t gone far enough on their own.

The next generation intranet goes that last, critical, mile to understand the employee’s context and recommend intelligent, relevant, and actionable information into his or her flow of work. These insights allow people to handle more complex tasks on their own with less effort… far beyond just sharing or saving time finding stuff.

At a strategic level, this new intranet contributes to the goal of making people more proficient – not just more efficient. This is particularly important in an economy where skills is the #1 constraint to growth according to a recent Gartner global executive survey.

At a tactical level, an intelligent intranet operates on WYSIWYNN (what you see is what you need now):

  • First, the intelligent intranet enables every worker to securely reach the long tail of content across the enterprise, from legacy on-premise systems to cloud apps and content everywhere. In this scenario, the traditional systems of record, the head of the long tail such as SharePoint, become one of many channels of information available.
    The net effect is that workers no longer access only popular or curated content. Instead, they can also leverage highly valuable and intricate content that sits in the long tail of on-premise and proliferating cloud sources, which is likely more relevant to the task at hand, in one swoop.
  • Second, the intranet delivers greater task-relevant “intelligence,” delivering proactive insights and recommendations about relevant experts and content, suggesting content that workers might not have thought about asking, from everywhere. If the intelligent intranet was a person, its first thought would always be: “Since you are working on this and are asking that, and given your behavior, here is something you might be interested in, and someone you should talk to…”

Paradoxically, creating an intelligent intranet is easier to execute than a global SharePoint deployment… Why?

Because moving data is a losing game. The information ecosystem evolves and sources proliferate. Instead of trying to centralize knowledge sharing and content management platforms, new technologies can easily reach content right where it resides, securely, and deliver it in context using analytics and machine learning behind the scenes to understand what matters to who and when. In fact, it leverages existing SharePoint assets, simply adding the rest of the content, then context and intelligence.

The result is highly transformative in three ways:

  • data is turned into useful information at everyone’s fingertips,
  • users are empowered with richer suggestions for their tasks and hence increase their knowledge with less effort,
  • and business is radically transformed.

The next generation intranet will transform businesses in ways that pay, and pay big. Because it is everywhere, intelligent, personal, effortless to use, simpler to deploy… and it makes people more PROFICIENT!

Find out how you can make your employees more proficient with intelligent insights. Visit our website to learn more about creating intelligent workplaces, read success stories of companies that have done it, or contact us for a demonstration.