Vasyl Grigoriev, Lizard Soft GM

A digital workspace for business is a need that cannot be avoided. Even before the closure of offices for quarantine due to COVID-19 and the full-scale invasion of russian occupants, it became clear that access to company materials + secure information exchange for daily tasks performance + real-time communication with teams must be 24/7 from anywhere, from any device. Otherwise, the functioning and development of the business slow down a lot or even become impossible.

In this race – the digitization of business processes – those who would not only provide but also constantly develop a corporate intranet will win. As now it is a tool for Employee involvement in the company's development. It's not only about a comfortable and safe workplace, equipped with all the means for the effective work of each Employee from each division. But it's also about having a corporate media that, in particular, would distribute important information, news, conduct surveys, etc.

This would increase the productivity of many business processes. And this is what LS Intranet v3.0 Internal corporate portal by Lizard Soft works for.

Here is a short guide through the main parameters of the product.

What's new

• Simplified administrating: Previous versions of LS Intranet were developed on the SharePoint platform. There's no need to list all the advantages of such a solution for Users, starting with the maximum security of data storage and transmission and ending with the ability to change the portal to your own taste, fill it with any content, and access it from anywhere.

  At the same time, along with the advantages of SharePoint Online, such a solution also had disadvantages. For example, the need to know how to navigate SharePoint. Or the impossibility of hosting the portal on your own domain.

  Now LS Intranet v3.0 is implemented as a separate web app on the Customer's domain and involves the SharePoint platform with all its advantages as a repository of data entered by the User. On the other hand, the administrative part of the portal is more classical and simplified and does not require specific skills to work.

  For example, you can use various templates in the Content management interface to place content (publications) – this is much more convenient and easier.

  Images for posts can now be displayed as a carousel. In addition, right here, in the administrating part, using a mouse, you can place widgets at your own discretion: adjust the required number, drag to a convenient area, etc.

  

• Up-to-date organizational structure: Previous versions of LS Intranet pulled the company's organizational structure data from Microsoft 365. That’s how the constant relevance of the data was ensured. Nowadays, such an opportunity is also available. However, if the Customer has their own HRM containing complete information about Users, we would offer integration with this system and provide automated data synchronization.
• The latest interfaces: In addition to a more modern design (of course, we follow fashion trends) and adaptability (which makes it convenient to view web pages on all devices), the LS Intranet v3.0 interface allows you to use the latest approaches to data visualization – i.e., animation, interactivity, stylization, etc.

• Interactivity: Besides the usual smilies and stickers to react to the Users' posts and comments, we offer each business to use its own custom emoji or stickers – an administrating part has already been developed for them.

  Here are emojis our partners created, and the custom stickers we made at Lizard Soft (see images below). You can develop your own emojis and freely use them in communications. In our experience, this is one of the most favorite functions of the Customers.

  

  

• More personalization: One of the business personalization approaches we offer is customized widgets for the needs of the Customer. In addition to standard congrats on birthdays, the newbie first day, or work anniversaries in the Company, these can be, for example, congratulations on promotion, important family (having a baby, wedding, etc.), or other events in the Employee's life.

  

What came from LS Intranet v.2

The most popular functions of the corporate portal, according to our Customers, have been modernized and moved to the new version. It is, in particular, about:

• Bank of ideas: A module for ideas of Employees. A colleague describes their initiative in the corresponding window, chooses a subject tag (preconfigured), and then the idea goes to the relevant department. The idea statuses can be tracked. It is also possible to react to the idea posted with smileys, stickers, and comments.
• Vacancies is one of the most popular modules among our large Clients. Vacancies open in the Company are posted there. Thus, each interested Employee can propose his/her candidacy to fill a vacant position or recommend another person outside the office.
• Departments and project groups websites: Each department/team has its own space within the corporate portal. It can be open to all Employees, like usually the page of HR departments that publish corporate policies, application templates, job descriptions, etc. Or it may be closed as usual legal departments do, as they share with their division colleagues some top secret documents, NDA policies, etc.
• Notification of ACM events: A function that allows you to be aware of all events in your ACM, even if you are not there at the moment. All events are classified by priority (for example, Important and Not important). Therefore, notifications about important events can arrive, for example, in the mail box or in the UniBot Personal Assistant & Corporate Chatbot. And the rest can be viewed in the «bell» on the corporate portal.

  Thus, the User wouldn't need to monitor all the events that took place in the ACM throughout the day but would be distracted from work only by those that are determined to be important.

• Photo and video gallery, news, widgets with classic greetings: No business can do without this content. We've improved these interfaces to make them even more user-friendly and easier to manage content.

A modern workspace in the cloud is not the future or rocket science. This is the reality in which 90% of Fortune 500 companies and the major share of your competitors already exist.

But new technologies along with opportunities create new challenges. One of these was the need to rethink certain approaches to data security issues. If earlier the protected perimeter was considered to be the local network of the enterprise, then in the concept of cloud work, the perimeter passes through all the devices of Employees who have access to corporate information. And since a modern workspace is not only about efficiency but also about security, for LS Intranet v3.0 we chose the way of maximum integration with Microsoft 365 services. This allows us to combine convenience, ease of access, and a pleasant interface of LS Intranet with the world's best systems of corporate content management and data security. And of course, we've left the option to work with all your favorite Microsoft 365 apps.

And if you want to look a little into the future, consider LS Intranet v3.0 + UniBot v.2 package offer. This would allow you to move from the concept of the usual corporate media to the concept of a corporate content distribution system so that you would not worry about how to attract Users to the portal. Your content would be delivered to Users in the apps they use the most. For example, in Microsoft Teams.

And if you want to look a little into the future, consider LS Intranet v3.0 + UniBot v.2 package offer. This would allow you to move from the concept of the usual corporate media to the concept of a corporate content distribution system so that you would not worry about how to attract Users to the portal. Your content would be delivered to Users in the apps they use the most. For example, in Microsoft Teams.