Blog | Sparrow Connected

Trending from desktop to mobile: Where does your intranet fit?

Written by Adam Zouak | Oct 6, 2017 1:10:20 PM

The corporate intranet has long been the organizational heartbeat; the central location for all that is important to inform, engage and connect our teams. 

Over the last decade however, the state of the modern workplace has evolved, offering a more diverse job structure to the modern worker. Employees are no longer ‘chained’ to their desks from 9-5 as employers increasingly provide the opportunity to telecommute or work a more flexible schedule. In addition, mobile workplaces mean that field workers are required to return to the office less often.

As the modern worker trends from desktop to mobile, it is more challenging than ever for communication professionals to reach employees through the corporate intranet. According to a study from Cisco, three of every five employees (60%) believe it is unnecessary to be in the office, at a desktop, to be productive. So where does that leave us?

 

The Shift to Mobile Workforce Strategies

The modern workplace is a blended environment of information workers with 9-5 access to a computer, remote or mobile workers who access information via mobile devices wherever they are, and front-line or field workers, who often don’t have any access to a computer on the job. Luckily, one common denominator brings these employees together: their mobile devices.

A recent study by Citrix reveals that “91 percent of organizations plan to have a mobile workforce strategy and the average organization already has only seven desks for ten people.” Work is no longer someplace you go. It’s something you do.

Strong internal communication has a halo effect on all business operations. With a mobile and remote workforce how will senior executives and internal communication professionals ensure that all employees receive, read and respond to critical business information? How is successful communication measured and where can the data that informs strategic planning be found?

“The workplace of the future will be core to business strategy, where adopting the right technology and putting the right policies in place will be key to organizational success. Companies will build and protect amazing cultures that foster diversity, collaboration and innovation while supporting work-life balance and offering employees an element of choice in workplaces and devices.”  – Workplace of the Future Study

Giving field workers, remote employees and managers access to the most up-to-date, real-time information needs to be seamless to enhance efficiency, productivity, engagement and advocacy.

According to the Apperian Mobile Enterprise Application Survey, mobilizing business processes is key:

  • 53% of leading organizations are creating apps to address core business processes, which includes internal app development or partners developing apps
  • 49% of respondents believe training is crucial
  • 43% of respondents are interested in analytics, which indicates that organizations are looking for more metrics about their mobility programs

While all employees can benefit from the use of mobile strategies in the workplace, field workers in particular stand to gain the most. Mobile strategies have the ability to deliver seamless interaction and collaboration, fostering a sense of connection that didn’t previously exist with corporate intranets. They have the potential to keep all employees in the know about the company direction, decision making and connected to that all-important line of sight.

 

Drive your mobile workforce strategy with Sparrow

Sparrow is a corporate intranet and mobile app that empowers your organization to better communicate by securely targeting corporate information to employees on any device. Your entire team is now able to access the information that is most important to them, when they want to, anywhere they work. Including all of the great features you’ve come to expect from a modern workplace, Sparrow is the platform that your employees will love to use.

Sparrow Intranet in a Box

DevFacto’s Sparrow intranet solution is simple to implement, making it a cost effective way to get the modern intranet features your organization needs including: a modern mobile-first design, advanced analytics, contextualization, a targeted news centre, related content and more.

Sparrow Mobile App

The Sparrow Mobile Application allows employees to receive news and other important information from your intranet through the most effective communication channel available today: their mobile phone. Articles submitted through the Intranet News Centre are pushed to employee’s phones based on the topics that interest them most.

Better Together: Sparrow Analytics

A game-changer in the mobile space, Sparrow delivers real-time data and in-depth analytics to empower proactive communications management like never before.

Sparrow’s sophisticated read heuristics provide in-depth analysis of specific pieces of content by tracking scroll activity and determining read patterns. Data across summaries provides a solid foundation for overall analytics including engagement scoring, topic awareness, and other valuable KPI’s.

For more information about Sparrow, please visit our website www.sparrowconnected.com or contact Chris directly via email at chris.izquierdo@sparrowconnected.com