An intranet “killer app” is a service that drives staff members to the site, and keeps them coming back. Something so essential, that you can’t live without it in your daily work.
As such, they can have a positive effect on the rest of the intranet. Even the killer intranet applications that are not directly business-focused can play a vital role in promoting the intranet to staff and stakeholders.
To identify your killer apps, you could do a simple exercise. Ask yourself, what would happen if the intranet was deleted. What important tasks would be impossible (or much harder) without the intranet?
Some typical examples of intranet killer apps, that I have collected from our groups of intranet professionals, include
- Phonebook: What is John's number? Who else can I contact if he is not there?
- Locations and room booking: How do I find John's office? What meeting rooms are available?
- My forms: Where do I find forms for travel, vacation, education?
- Dynamically updated KPIs: How is our organization doing right now in relation to the strategic KPIs?
- Sales per hour: What are the sales numbers for our stores? How does my store compare to the rest of the chain?
- Financial reports: What do I need to know as a manager?
- Project management tools: What is the status on my project? Who is assigned to which tasks?
More unusual – but nevertheless useful – examples include
- Workflow for new employees: Imagine if everything could be ready the first day the new employees goes into work; computer, passwords, phone, newspaper subscription, etc.
- Having what’s relevant for you on the intranet sent to your inbox.
- A help section that is the place to go for all manners of support, from obtaining system passwords to getting a light bulb changed.
For much more on intranets; not just killer apps, but all the other aspects of running one, check out our intranet groups in Europe and the US or attend the intranet conference track at the J. Boye conference in Philadelphia in May.
What are your intranet killer apps? How did you first identify them? What are you doing to promote them?
Looking at your list it is difficult to differentiate between intranet “killer apps” and “must haves”! A useful checklist though – thank you.
One feature that has proven to be a “killer app” on our platform is our Dropbox – essentially a virtual drive where users can upload large files to and then share these files with others – whether users of the intranet or not. The recipients receive a download link in an email. Besides getting around the size limits on corporate email it provides a more functional and easier to use interface than other alternatives such as ftp. This small feature repeatedly draws in the most reluctant of intranet users. One to add to your list perhaps.
Kevin
As a intranet software vendor we have a entire suite of applications. I would be lying if I said they were all Killer. The most popular apps within the Noodle Intranet are:
Document Management
Instant Messenger
Profile pages and status updates (part of a social intranet)
Search (of course)
And Wiki Pages
We have other applications like questions managers and blogs but they are not as popular or used as much as the ones above.
Tim
Intranet Software Consultant
[...] week, Dorthe Raakjær Jespersen, an analyst at J.Boye, wrote about killer apps on an intranet. So what is a killer app? According to Jespersen, a “killer app” is a service on [...]