Features Include:

Permission-Based Article Categories
Intranet Administrators can create article categories and allocate permission settings to individual users, groups or roles through the admin panel. Each article adheres to the permission structure of the category it has been assigned.

Easily Create Visually Attractive Articles
The Knowledge Base WYSIWYG Editor offers system administrators numerous tools to efficiently create visually attractive articles. The ability to preview the article’s content before it has been published is also available.

Schedule Knowledge Base Articles
An element of planning can be incorporated in regards to the publication and removal of intranet articles.This ensures that out-dated information is automatically removed and that the organisation’s intranet acts as a hub for relevant information.

Add Videos, Images, Google Maps and Embed Media
To enrich intranet users’ experience and provide visual elements within the Knowledge Base article, a range of media types can be uploaded using the WYSIWYG Editor.

If you’re interested in learning more about our Knowledge Base application you can gain first hand experience by logging in to our free intranet demonstration system, alternatively further information can be found here.

“I understand my role in promoting internal branding is a balancing act. On one hand, I have a responsibility to not only adhere to, but support the corporate branding messages of the organization. On the other hand, I am tasked with promoting a distinctly internal space where staff know they will be treated as insiders, and as family. The difficulty is putting that “balance” into practical terms. What does this mean in terms of visual and artistic elements of a brand? Should the intranet have its own logo? How similar should the intranet be to the external website of the organization?”

We explored this topic further with David and the following points were highlighted:

An Intranet Brand

The intranet should be your employees’ first point-of-call in finding out relevant information which covers various areas of your organisation.

An intranet’s brand should positively affect user-adoption and build trust. The branding should therefore communicate a clear sense of what the intranet’s purpose is, and its mission – to do this it must have a strong identity

The Intranet and Corporate Brand

The intranet brand should in some way align with the current corporate branding guidelines, but not entirely copy it. This could simply be reflected in the fonts & colours and intranet name.

The Intranet and Corporate Website

A primary reason for developing a separate intranet brand identity is to clearly distinguish the intranet from the corporate website. Certain design elements can be carried through to the intranet. An example of this can be seen below:

Claromentis Intranet Demo: Header Design

Claromentis Corporate Website

*If you were faced with this very same task, please get in touch by providing a comment below.

Alternatively, you can gain first-hand experience by logging into our intranet demonstration system or view some our clients’ intranet designs

Having raised over £200 for such a vital cause, Mike will continue to raise awareness and would like to thank both clients and team members for providing him with support.

Furthermore, the Claromentis Team will be participating in a 54 mile bike journey from London to Brighton on the 16th of June. Preparation has begun in the form of bicycle purchasing and the design of the team T-shirts. Get training guys!

The demo site thus allows users to gain a first-hand experience of each intranet application; from simply previewing a document to completing a course in the Learning Management System. With a combination of business, communication and social applications, as well as a variety of intelligent homepage components, our intranet demo site is the most comprehensive test site available.

Gain access to our free intranet demo site today

Since deploying the Claromentis Intranet Platform, the Group has identified the Document Management System as an invaluable resource adopted throughout their organisation. Collaboration tools such as the Forum application and corporate social networking features have enabled project teams to communicate in real-time.

To discover information relating to the reasons why the Technopolis Group chose Claromentis as their intranet provider and the benefits they’ve experienced, please read the full case study.

If you’d like to experience the business, collaborative and social tools offered by the Claromentis Intranet Platform, try our free intranet demo.

Launching an intranet undoubtedly takes time and effort and we can’t help but celebrate our clients’ excitement having worked in partnership with them throughout the entire process.

@claromentis very powerful!

— GD (@GeraRDoDH) January 9, 2013

This week our new intranet packed full of social and collaborative features launches. I’m so happy its arrival is so exciting and that peop…

— Kayleigh Powell (@kyliesquelch) December 16, 2012

Getting ready for the big #intranet project. Excited for the @food4thehungry & @claromentis partnership! twitter.com/DavidRCurtis/s…

— David Curtis (@DavidRCurtis) December 11, 2012

*If you’d like to see some previous intranet design examples or fully test our intranet features, access our free intranet demonstration area.

Once we have completed the design process for each new intranet project we majestically place the intranet design on our office walls. Having welcomed over 40 new clients this year, it is fair to say that we are experiencing an alarming rate of wall-space depletion.

As we celebrate the end of 2012 and wave goodbye to our magnolia coloured walls, we have decided that it is time to compile a few of our favourite intranet designs.

Choosing just ten intranet designs wasn’t an easy task but here they are:

The Claromentis Intranet solution allows intranet administrators to create a ranking system whereby points are automatically allocated to users upon completion of specific tasks. Once a user has accumulated a certain amount of points they will be assigned a ranking status such as, ‘Top Contributor’.

Intranet Ranking Systems are commonly utilised during the preliminary stages of deploying an intranet. Similarly, they can also be used to encourage collaboration and participation, as the ranking system can be applied to granular activities such as, ‘adding a comment’ or ‘uploading a document’.

By following the simple steps below intranet administrators can create their very own ranking system:

Step 1

To allocate a numerical value to a particular feature such as ‘commenting on a news article’ or ‘uploading a document’ navigate to your ‘Administrator Panel’ and select ‘Audit’.

You will now be presented with four options – select ‘Configure Audit’ and a list will appear allowing you to choose from each activity associated with a particular application.

Step 2

Add a higher value to the activities you’d like to promote, in this instance, ‘adding news’ , ‘viewing the entire article’ and ‘adding comments’ have been allocated with points.

Step 3

Now that you’ve allocated a score to each individual activity, it’s time to create an associated status i.e. once a user has obtained a score of 200 points, they will automatically be assigned the ‘Major Contributor’ status.

Using the breadcrumb, simply navigate back to the ‘Audit Panel’ and select ‘Configure Ranks’. Once you have submitted your preferred statuses, simply save the changes made.

Step 4

To confirm the changes made click save - you’ve successfully created a ranking system!  A ranking status will be displayed on each user’s intranet profile and the system will automatically allocate these statuses once a user has reached the specified number of points.

]]> http://www.claromentis.com/blog/quick-tip-monday-applying-a-ranking-system-to-your-intranet-activities/feed/ 0 http://www.claromentis.com/blog/quick-tip-monday-applying-a-ranking-system-to-your-intranet-activities/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Intranet-Software/~3/BrEjE2QyGdw/ http://www.claromentis.com/blog/claromentis-achieves-iso-9001-quality-management-certification-for-the-5th-year/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:48:34 +0000 Paula http://www.claromentis.com/blog/?p=4483 We are very happy to announce that we have received ISO 9001 accreditation for Quality Management – this is our 5th consecutive year.

Following a rigorous independent audit from external Quality Managers we have been awarded the ‘High Quality Company’ status.

The ISO 9001 accreditation demonstrates a commitment to quality, customers and a continuous effort to improving efficiency.

]]> http://www.claromentis.com/blog/claromentis-achieves-iso-9001-quality-management-certification-for-the-5th-year/feed/ 2 http://www.claromentis.com/blog/claromentis-achieves-iso-9001-quality-management-certification-for-the-5th-year/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Intranet-Software/~3/TtL_8FAx6ho/ http://www.claromentis.com/blog/claromentis-version-7-1-is-here/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 14:27:49 +0000 Paula http://www.claromentis.com/blog/?p=4465 We are happy to announce the addition of new social features and productivity enhancing tools to the 7.0 platform.

The release of the 7.0 platform represented a new standard in the intranet and collaboration space as it included user-centric enhancements to the visual interface and front-end architecture. Its responsive design allows employees to access their online workspace through any device, or computer, as the visual interface automatically adapts to each viewport size.

The latest release, version 7.1 contains the following features:

Social Intranet Profiles

The Claromentis People Application has been designed to securely store and display personal information relating to each employee. Permission-based user accounts and interactive employee profiles can be effortlessly created to reflect the unique structure of each organisation.

A new social feature has been added to Staff Profiles enabling employees to carry out the following activities from  their intranet profile:

• Create a Google+ hangout and invite others
• Access their Skype account to communicate with colleagues located in geographically-dispersed offices
• View a user’s Twitter feed
• Send instant messages to other colleagues in LinkedIn

Notifications Digest

The Notification application facilitates real-time communication amongst employees through the deliverance of instant messages. Additionally, system generated notifications are sent to an employee’s email address or intranet inbox – depending on their preference.

With the introduction of Notifications Digest in version 7.1, rather than receiving sporadic notifications and alerts, employees can opt-in to receive a concise summary on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. These collective notifications can be issued from specific applications, chosen by the receiver.

Intranet Search

The Claromentis Search functionality ensures that intranet users can rapidly find information relevant to them. Furthermore, intranet administrators can continually tweak intranet search results to enhance their users’ intranet experience.

Alternative Suggestions, Search Requests and Best Bets have been added to further enhance functionality.

]]> http://www.claromentis.com/blog/claromentis-version-7-1-is-here/feed/ 0 http://www.claromentis.com/blog/claromentis-version-7-1-is-here/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Intranet-Software/~3/CynmV_kafEg/ http://www.claromentis.com/blog/quick-tip-monday-is-it-time-to-update-your-intranet-content/#comments Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:18:18 +0000 Paula http://www.claromentis.com/blog/?p=4432 Obsolete, lacklustre and vague content on a corporate intranet can negatively affect employee productivity, increase the likelihood of mistakes being made and discourage employees from viewing their intranet as a useful tool.

The use of statistical data relating to the number of page views and employee feedback will help provide a clear indication of when the content on your intranet should be updated.

Intranet Analytics

Data relating to the number of page views at any given time is presented in graphical form. Simply navigate to the Intranet Analytics feature, select ‘Publish Pages’ and specify a time frame – results will automatically appear.

A list of the Most Popular Pages along with Top Publish Pages Updaters and Last Added/Edited Publish Pages can also be viewed.

Intranet Pages

When using the Publish application to add a new intranet page, the ability to enable or disable user commenting can be found under Page Description. Furthermore, a review date can be allocated to remind intranet administrators that the intranet page should be removed or updated at a later date.  These features ultimately help to ensure that content on an intranet is up-to-date and relevant.

User comments act as an indispensable guide for intranet administrators to differentiate between pages that provide helpful information and those that need updating.

Some well-known issues associated with using SharePoint are:

• It can be difficult to estimate the overall cost of SharePoint as many organisations only discover the true cost after deployment
• Low user adoption rates due to its complex and unwieldy nature
• It can be a daunting system for non-technical users
• Having to wait years for upgrades and enhancements
• A major strain on resources particularly IT
• Unable to fully customise the visual interface

Benefits of using Claromentis over SharePoint

Claromentis offers a transparent pricing policy enabling organisations to appropriately allocate and stay within their budget.  The easy-to-use nature of the system equates to increased user adoption levels whilst the comprehensive applications and modules provide a robust digital workspace for all employees. Moreover, clients’ business needs and opinions contribute to the platform’s product roadmap.

Regular upgrades and system enhancements allow organisations to continually see a return on their investment. In addition, the design team build visual interfaces that reflect the specific needs and branding guidelines of each organisation – view some of the recent intranet designs.

Contact us to find out how much your organisation can save

The latest release is SCORM compliant and is offered as a module within our Intranet solution. Additionally, using our framework the Learning Management System can be extended into a significant learning portal – with custom home pages, news systems, social networking, forums, and the document management system.

If you’re interested in an eLearning Solution for your corporate intranet or a standalone Learning Management System for your organisation – please feel free to contact us. Alternatively, further information regarding our latest module can be found here.

Buy-and-Sell is a great tool to use if you’re trying to draw employees to the intranet and can be particularly useful during the intranet launch period.

Follow the steps below to turn the Claromentis Forum application into a buy-and-sell feature within your intranet:

Navigate to the Forum application on the admin panel and select ‘Add New Board’. Add the required information and choose the preferred position of the Buy-and-Sell forum post in relation to existing posts. The permission settings are important as you can select particular individuals, groups or roles to view, contribute and moderate the buy-and-sell forum post. The ability to set permissions is particularly useful when you would like to include or restrict certain groups or users, however, leaving it open to all employees is the most appropriate action when trying to encourage intranet adoption.

NB Tick the ‘subscribe users’ checkbox if you wish to auto-subscribe all users with view rights to the board. Subscribed users will receive notifications about board updates.

Topics can now be added, thus enabling employees to efficiently post items for sale. Images of the item can also be uploaded.

Whilst browsing the topics or in this case, items for sale, employees can rate previous posts and submit a response. The author of the original post will be notified when a response has been submitted.

Recently, I held a discussion with a number of intranet managers and we talked about day-to-day intranet activities and discussed innovative ways to capture additional business requirements from their users.

As cloud systems propagate and users often create their own volatile spaces the concept of providing seamless access beyond the framework becomes increasingly important. At one of our clients before they installed Claromentis managers had to remember 19 URLs and Passwords to access the key applications they needed for their work.

We refresh our designs often – and the latest one uses both buttons and sliders to provide this useful and visual aspect to the system.

To understand why we use one or the other I sat down with Alan – a senior designer – and he shared some of his perspectives with me as to why you might use a slider or a button.

One important consideration is the available space – clearly the use of small buttons and large sliders is influenced by the balance of the whole design, as well as the practical issues of fitting everything in.

• Location

Buttons tend to be in the top right – its an important area for the eye. Sliders might often be on the left of the home page.

• The number of items

Sliders are used for more temporary announcements – the graphic element tends to attract our attention, we see a new image and read the abstract to see if it interests us. By contrast over time a familiar button will become an instinctive one click whenever we need that application or information.

• Compromise!

Alan has often implemented combination sets – so sets of buttons in a slider. In this case the first set will be the higher priority, or most frequently needed.

These kind of visual clues to help users be aware of and access information and applications they need is a large part of modern web platforms and digital workspaces.

The design and layout should reflect the organisation’s identity but most importantly, it should be a place where employees can efficiently solve their day-to-day business problems.

Internal brainstorming sessions can be presented in various forms – a whiteboard and marker, a simple sketch and as we’ve recently discovered, cut and paste.

In a recent Intranet Design workshop, our client created their perfect visual interface by pasting together elements of previous visual interfaces.

And here’s the result!

View our short slideshow: Starting the Intranet Design Process

According to the source above, Collaboration Tools are at the top of the list for better time management and increased productivity.

It is interesting to note that the third title is “Take Advantage of Online Platforms”.

According to the survey, the most common time-wasting pain is “Waiting for Information”

Illustration

Say an employee wasted 15 minutes on a phone call each day to find relevant information and on average has to make 2 of these calls each day, this means 30 minutes wasted for each employee.

Multiply this with the total number of employees in a company, so say 50 employees, 50×30=1500 minutes, that’s 25 hours nearly 3 days work gone.

Let’s put monetary value on this for example, your day rate is £400/day.

You have just saved £1200.00 a day, say it happens 3 times a week

That’s a whooping saving of: £187.200 a year!

Source: Mashable Business

Employees can seamlessly do the following:

• Create a Google+ hangout and invite others
• Access their Skype account to communicate with colleagues located in geographically dispersed- offices
• View a user’s Twitter feed
• Send instant messages to other colleagues on Linkedin

View our short video:

An important aspect of this preparation involved working in close partnership with web platform provider, Claromentis, to develop an intelligent communication tool. This communication tool, named Assurance Toolkit, will assist in the deliverance of a safe and secure Olympic Games. Additionally, this tool will play an important role in the allocation of resources in response to emergency incidents during the summer of 2012.

READ THE CASE STUDY