There are many different platforms, social intranets, timelines and other solutions for internal communities. And the offer is growing steadily. At Evolve, we know the market by now, not least because we regularly support our customers with platform selections. From time to time we share a more extensive look at a platform via a blog. This time: Iris Intranet.
Digital workplace
Iris Intranet is a product of the company triptic, a full service internet agency that has been active in the world of online communication for twenty years. An important starting point in triptic’s work is the combination of functionality, design and technology. Or as they themselves say:”the fact that there are complex systems behind the scenes is no excuse to complicate yourself at the front”.
With the approach and experience developed triptic Iris Intranet. A ‘ digital workplace which can be deployed as a traditional intranet and as a social intranet. The platform is available as a standard solution, with options for customization and hosting is possible both internally and externally. Iris is currently large in healthcare and government land, but Dorel Juvenile (the company behind Maxi-Cosi), Dille & Kamille and Bouwinvest also use the platform.
Iris is a standard (social) intranet solution that is generally – especially compared to many other platforms – simple to use. In this regard, triptic with Iris Intranet fulfills its promise that users do not get tired with complex processes at the back end.
Linkable
More and more intranets and other communication platforms have a strong focus on connecting to other work systems. Iris is a forerunner and can be linked to various CRM and / or ERP systems such as SharePoint. This does not bring in’ another new system’, but rather integrates all kinds of separate systems at the front for users.
The most beautiful way of linking is to actually show information from systems in widgets on the homepage or a dashboard of their own (users can build their own homepages in Iris by adding, removing and sliding widgets). Think of showing a schedule or task lists from an external system in a widget on your dashboard. Keep in mind that many links can be customized. And for every platform, more customization means a higher price tag.
Social functionality
In terms of social functionalities, Iris works as you would expect: with groups and a personal timeline where you see all your posts. This is all activity that has something to do with you, such as general updates and comments, updates and likes from the groups you are a member of as a user. The good thing is that groups are quite versatile, because group administrators can provide their group with pages, blogs, events, polls and photo albums if desired.
Groups are of course in open and closed variants. It is a pity that private groups cannot be found by the employees if the Group owner chooses to keep the group hidden from non-members. As a result, it can happen that two closed groups have the same topic, without knowing about each other’s existence. A hidden group is very useful in certain cases, but when it comes to knowledge sharing, transparency is very important.
Appearance
Iris has a fixed structure with the ‘pocket knife’ on the right side that is always there (for example for the timeline and search engine). The left side of the homepage is divided into three columns of equal size in which various widgets can be placed. Although the widgets can be moved, the layout is still fixed. For example, it is not possible to make a widget two or three columns wide and that limits you in the possibilities to design the homepage according to your own taste and highlight specific parts better. In addition, in our opinion, it is not the most modern platform to see.
Distinctive features
if it is indeed linked to other business systems, Iris can act as a decisive search engine (which in Iris is also called ‘Finder’), which looks beyond the activity on the intranet (updates, comments, documents, profiles). A good example of further integration is the possibility to receive a push notification if something has been changed in procedures or documents – stores in other systems with which Iris is linked – that are relevant to your work.
By default, Iris is accessible from your smartphone or tablet. The mobile site is fully responsive. In the second half of 2017 there will also be an application from Iris. This makes it easier to access the intranet and view notifications. At this time, the users receive push notifications via email or sms. You can set this yourself. Another nice standard functionality is the statistics module in which quantitative data is weergeven.
In short
Iris is out of the box a complete and (social) platform that is easy to use. The added value increases exponentially when all integration possibilities are used. Of course, we also see an opportunity for improvements, such as in the aforementioned closed groups, the flexibility of the homepage layout and the appearance. With the important side note that Iris is still much more attractive than the intranets that most organizations have running.
Iris Intranet is a platform to dive deeper if you are looking for a complete, ready-made and user-friendly social intranet.
Previously, we took a look under the hood of Jive, Valo Intranet, Speakap, A&M impact and Viadesk. To learn more about available platforms and their capabilities? Feel free to contact us!
Original publication: 28-9-2015
Update: 19-5-2017
