Back in 2019, when we were young and naive, we ran a campaign here at Akumina around how terrible traditional intranets are. "They're content graveyards," we said. "They become a dumping ground for links that people might need, but that never get updated. And they're SO UGLY."

That time has passed, and we're older and wiser now. Now we know that those old, ugly intranets were just a product of the software used to power them. Nobody needs those clunky traditional intranets. But every business needs a mechanism for mass communication, for collaboration, and yes, for content management. Every business needs a way to unite all of its employees under a single culture, mission, and vision. The solution is not in the intranet itself. It's in the modern intranet platform that powers - nay, empowers - the intranet.

There are many reasons to adopt a modern intranet software platform for your organization (increased collaboration, unification under a single culture, open lines of communication between all entities in an enterprise, a home page with a weather widget... I mean, the list just goes on and on).

Here are my top 3 reasons to adopt a modern intranet platform. Drumroll, please.

1. Increased productivity

The driving factor for most companies implementing modern intranet software is to increase employee engagement and productivity by limiting what we call "context switching." The idea is that, the less frequently a user needs to switch from one tool to another to complete her job, the more engaged in the task she will be. As a result, her productivity simultaneously increases.

By implementing a modern intranet platform that provides a single pane of glass experience with all of the tools a user needs during the day, you're providing that ability.

2. More bang for your buck

A modern intranet platform built on top of the Microsoft Office 365 suite is uniquely positioned to drive O365 adoption for an organization. If you choose a solution like Akumina's, which sits on top of SharePoint, your licensed users have easy access to all of the Microsoft tools that you've purchased. As a bonus, you can inconspicuously push updates to those applications through your intranet, and your users automatically adopt the latest version, with minimal-to-no disruption.

3. Scalability

One of the most powerful lessons I learned when I was working toward my teaching degree was how to get small children to complete big projects. The trick is to break big tasks into a series of smaller tasks, and tackle them one by one. I think the main reason this works for the kiddos is that they get a big pat on the back after they finish each mini-task, and that keeps them going. At the enterprise level, the benefits are more around budget and planning.

When you're thinking about improving employee experience, or changing the culture at your organization, start by putting a modern intranet platform in place. Build out your intranet, taking the time to do deep user research, get buy-in from all invested parties, and implement the right tools. From there, add on until you reach your ultimate vision.