Ask an employee where the latest price list is. If the answer is "in an email from Maria, though I am not sure whether they updated it", the company has an internal information problem. Usually this problem does not hurt acutely, it leaks slowly: ten minutes per person per day, one misunderstanding per week, one lost document per month.
An intranet is an internal system accessible only to the team, gathering in one place the information, procedures and tools needed for daily work. This article explains when it makes sense, what it contains, and how to choose a solution without paying for functionality nobody will use.
When an intranet solves a real problem
Not every company needs one. With a team of five sitting in one room, a shared folder and decent discipline do the job.
There are specific signals. If the same questions are asked every week of the same people, a knowledge base is missing. If new hires take two months to reach speed instead of two weeks, structured onboarding is missing. If documents circulate as email attachments and nobody knows which version is current, a single source of truth is missing. If you have several sites or remote staff, a shared place for communication is missing.
It also makes sense under regulatory pressure. When you have to prove that every employee received and acknowledged a procedure, email receipts are a weak argument while a system with an audit log is a strong one.
When it is not worth it
When the problem is actually organisational. If procedures do not exist, the intranet has nothing to store. If management does not follow its own rules, no system will enforce them. Technology amplifies the existing organisation, including its chaos.
What a working internal portal contains
In practice the modules that get genuinely used are a limited set. The rest often gets added on paper and stays empty.
News and announcements. A central place for management messages, with history and a record of who has read them.
A knowledge base of procedures and instructions. This is the core. How a complaint is handled, how an invoice is issued, how the machine is set up, what happens when a colleague is away.
File storage with versioning. Price lists, contract templates, brand assets, presentations. The key is one current version and a clear history.
A staff directory. Who is responsible for what, who covers for whom, internal extensions. It sounds trivial and it saves a lot.
Requests and approvals. Leave, travel, consumable purchases, system access. This is where the intranet turns from a library into a working tool.
Onboarding for new hires. A checklist, documents to sign, training material, a comprehension check.
| Module | Saves | Implementation complexity |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge base | Repeated questions, senior staff time | Low |
| Versioned files | Work on outdated documents, lost files | Low |
| News and acknowledgements | Email chains, disputes over who knew what | Low |
| Requests and approvals | Paper, delays, no traceability | Medium |
| Onboarding | Manager time, uneven training | Medium |
| Accounting or ERP integrations | Double data entry | High |
Ready platform or custom build
This is the main decision, and it turns on three factors: team size, process specificity and budget.
Ready platforms cover standard needs quickly. Microsoft SharePoint is the logical choice if the company already runs Microsoft 365, because it integrates with the rest without extra work. Google Workspace offers a lighter route through Sites and Drive, suitable for smaller teams. There are also specialised knowledge base and internal communication products on a per user monthly subscription.
The upsides are clear: fast start, vendor support, regular updates. So are the downsides: a monthly fee that grows with the team, limitations on non standard processes, and dependence on somebody else's roadmap.
A custom build is justified when your processes are a competitive advantage and do not fit a ready model. A manufacturer with a specific order workflow, a service organisation scheduling technicians across sites, a distributor with regional access hierarchies. In such cases the off the shelf product gets bent so far that configuration cost exceeds development.
There is a third option that often gets overlooked: a combination. Standard things live in a ready platform, while the specific process is built as a separate application and connected. That is usually the most sensible balance.
If your company already uses Google, see our article on Google Workspace.
Access, permissions and security
An internal portal holds information that must not leak: prices, margins, employee personal data, contracts.
Permissions are designed around roles, not individuals. "Sales", "Production" and "Management" are roles. When someone changes position you change the role, not twenty individual permissions.
Two factor authentication is mandatory, especially if the portal is reachable from the internet. A password alone is insufficient protection for a system with sensitive data.
Access is revoked on the day someone leaves, not when somebody remembers. This is among the most common and most dangerous oversights.
Employee personal data needs separate attention under GDPR: minimum volume, clear basis, retention period. There is more in our article on GDPR.
Hosting is a separate question. An internal system with company data requires a secure environment, regular backups and access control. See also our hosting service.
How to roll it out without it going empty
The most common failure is not technical. The system gets built, presented at an all hands meeting, and two months later nobody logs in.
Three things prevent that.
First, start with the most painful problem, not with a full system. If the biggest time sink is hunting for current price lists, build that first. Success in one thing earns trust for the next.
Second, move something people must use. If leave requests only go through the portal, everyone logs in at least monthly and sees the rest.
Third, appoint a content owner. A knowledge base without an owner goes stale within six months and people stop trusting it. One person with two hours a month for review is enough.
Measuring the result helps too. Weekly active users, number of procedures opened, request processing time. Without numbers the discussion turns into opinions.
Connecting to other systems
Real value appears when the portal stops being an isolated island.
Connecting to accounting lets people pull reports without calling the accountant. Connecting to CRM gives sales one environment instead of two. If you do not have a CRM yet, see our article on choosing a CRM system.
Automation reduces manual work: a leave request that routes itself to the line manager and then to HR, a chat notification when a new procedure is published, automatic task creation when a complaint arrives. This part often returns more than the portal itself. See also our automation service.
Budget and timelines
Cost splits into three parts: licences or development, implementation and content. The third is usually underestimated. Writing the procedures takes longer than configuring the system and cannot be fully outsourced, because the knowledge lives inside the company.
With a ready platform on per user subscription, cost is predictable and starts from a few euro per person monthly as a general market reference. With a custom build there is a one off investment and lower running cost. The point where development pays off depends on user count and expected lifetime.
WEBPROGRESS does not work from a fixed price list on such projects, because scope varies widely. After a conversation about processes and priorities we prepare an individual quote and send it within 24 hours.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an intranet and a shared folder
A shared folder stores files. An intranet adds structure, role based permissions, change history, full text search, request and approval processes, and a record of who saw what. At ten people the difference is small; at fifty it is decisive.
Can the intranet be accessible from outside
Yes, and it is usually more useful that way, especially with remote work or multiple sites. It does require serious protection: HTTPS, two factor authentication, failed attempt limits, and for particularly sensitive data an IP restriction or VPN.
How long does implementation take
For a basic portal with news, knowledge base and files on a ready platform, expect two to four weeks of technical work. Filling it with content takes longer and depends on you. For a custom build with processes and integrations the timeline is two to four months.
Does a team of ten need an intranet
Rarely in the full sense. More often a well organised knowledge base and clear file structure are enough. The real need typically appears around twenty to thirty people, or with multiple locations regardless of headcount.
Who maintains the content after launch
An internal person, not an external contractor. The contractor can maintain the technology, but procedures change inside the company and only insiders know when. The usual pattern is each department owning its section, with one coordinator for the whole portal.
Conclusion
An intranet is exactly as useful as the content inside it and as the frequency with which people actually open it. The technology is the easier part. That is why a good project starts not with choosing a platform but with an honest conversation about the three most expensive internal time losses.
If you recognise these symptoms in your company, write to us through contact. We will review the processes, propose a first phase scope and send an individual quote within 24 hours. See also our services for automation, web systems and hosting.
