Employees today expect real-time accessibility from their company in order to be productive and move as quickly as their customers demand. Legacy intranets, however, have failed to deliver that real-time access to complete business tasks anytime and anywhere—from approving time-off requests and accessing the latest travel policies, to identifying the right experts within the company. 

There is an opportunity for intranets to blend with the social and mobile world, enabling a Company Community that connects employees to information anytime, anywhere and from any device. An effective internal Company Community allows employees to:

1. Publish, review, and approve content.

Employees can target specific information to their colleagues based on roles, job titles, and profiles. Examples: The compliance department distributes the latest travel guidelines, the HR team easily flags changes to employee benefits, and the IT team rolls out new security policies—all in real-time.

2. Find and engage your experts.

 Rich social profiles for every employee will track their influence and expertise automatically. In addition, employees can collaborate directly with experts or groups within your organization.  Any employee can find a legal expert to answer a question, discover the best people to attend a cross functional meeting, or quickly get answers to questions, whether they be on IT issues or stock options.

3. Share files and collaborate.

Access, post, share and get feedback on the latest files and knowledge articles to ensure teams are accessing the most up-to-date information. Now HR can gather feedback via polls on proposed new policies, a salesperson can get advice on the best way to deliver a presentation and facilities can survey employees about their latest needs.

4. Access apps.

With a single, trusted place for employees to access all the apps they need to be productive, employees will be able to make the most of those valuable minutes to approve vacation requests, access annual training or certification courses, or fill out a new hire wizard.

Leading customer companies such as Brown-Forman, Burberry, and Virgin America have built company communities to connect with their employees in entirely new ways. Salesforce Company Communities is currently scheduled to launch in the second half of 2013.

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