Is it worth investing the money in a custom intranet? Maybe you are better off with an out-of-the-box solution. Our biggest piece of advice: No matter where you start, you should always have the ability to easily scale your intranet as you continue to scale your business. We have all learned that life doesn’t go exactly as we plan it, so your intranet needs to be flexible enough to adapt and adjust.

When choosing the way you want to build your intranet you want to make sure that you don’t lose too much control with the functionality and usability. Companies who are extremely invested in their digital workplace want the ability to brand their intranet with company colors, have full design control over the UI/UX, and add custom integrations.

Let’s take a look at each option and who they benefit.

What is an intranet in a box?

An intranet site with standard functions and features like an employee directory, company calendar, and news feed. It includes some basic branding (company colors and logo).

Who should use it?

A standard intranet is a good fit for organizations who are looking to satisfy a very specific need (such as reducing email volume by delivering company-wide communications in a single location) and who want to get up and running very quickly.

An enhanced version of an intranet-in-a-box, which includes a best-in-breed information architecture, the features and functions of an intranet-in-a-box, plus the added value of a personalized design and a scalable platform that can grow with your business.

Who should use it?

An employee experience platform is a step up from an intranet-in-a-box. It’s a good fit for organizations who want to deliver a personalized intranet experience to their users, and who value the design flexibility that allows them to deliver a branded user interface. Employee experience platform customers often view their initial deployment as a steppingstone to a more robust solution and can even eventually build out a custom digital workplace-style implementation.

A built-from-scratch system with custom information architecture and content types, unlimited design capabilities, more than 200 features and functions, and full tech stack integration.

Who should use it?

The best candidates for a custom digital workplace are enterprise organizations who don’t want a one-size-fits-all intranet, and who have a significant amount of time and funding to build a full platform from a blank canvas. For these organizations, the ends justify the means. Custom digital workplaces provide organizations with all the functionality and features that they need, the personalized content and design that they want, and integrations for all the applications that they use.

Akumina combines the best features of each option in one unified solution. Using a decoupled approach that allows you to configure management apps and presentation widgets separately, Akumina’s platform creates personalized experiences for your entire workforce from your C-suite, through your knowledge workers, and to your deskless staff. Whether delivering a quick return on interest with hundreds of out-of-the-box components or tying into the back-end platform for a more in-depth, custom build, Akumina delivers the right option for each organization’s modern workplace initiative.

To learn more about which solution is right for your business check out our modern intranet buying guide or chat with one of our specialists to learn more about what platform might be right for your organization.