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Interact for Office 365

Interact for Office 365 Interact for Office 365

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As Microsoft’s flagship offering for businesses worldwide,

Office 365 provides an ever-increasing suite of cloud-based

applications designed to make organizations more productive

and efficient.

From well-known and core business

applications such as Word, Excel,

PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Skype

for Business, to more niche offerings

such as PowerBI and Staff Hub, Office

365 has established its value in the

workplace, becoming the default

choice for organizations worldwide

with over 100 million monthly

active users.

As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Interact

has worked closely with Microsoft

technologies for many years.

We believe the intranet should be

the centrepiece of any organization’s

digital workplace, working seamlessly

with Office 365 and other applications

to provide a frictionless experience for

employees.

This guide is designed to support

businesses in understanding how

these different technologies can

support and work intuitively with one

another. Whether you already have

Office 365 deployed, are currently

undertaking an Office 365 project, or

you’re considering implementation

in the future, this guide can help

you make an educated decision on

the right intranet solution for your

organization.


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Contents

The Digital Workplace 6

Office 365: an overview 10

What is an intranet, and where does it fit? 12

Interact for Office 365 14

The role of SharePoint Online 18

Interact and SharePoint - an in-depth look 22

Interact beyond Office 365 24

Interact for Office 365: for a centralized digital workplace 40

Interact and SharePoint 15

Is SharePoint Online an intranet? 18

Corporate communications 24

Hub Sites 19

One-to-many communications 26

Limitations of Hub Sites 20

Communication Sites 21

Many-to-many communications 29

Search 30

Seamless integrations 31

Engagement tools 33

Productivity tools 35

Keeping your organization compliant 36

A streamlined and branded mobile experience 38

Azure Active Directory, Skype 16

Microsoft Teams, Yammer, PowerBI, Calendar 17


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The digital workplace

Before exploring the role and functionality of both Office 365 and Interact

in more detail, it’s worth considering the bigger picture of what constitutes

‘the digital workplace’.

In a digitized world, technology and

applications are at the heart of how

we work. In order to perform essential

tasks and connect with the people

and information required to do their

jobs effectively, ‘line of business’

departments and employees are

sourcing an array of applications to

support their day-to-day roles.

Cloud-based tools and the growth of

software-as-a-service (SaaS) models

for enterprise applications have

increased flexibility and choice.

Factor in a growing BYOD and BYOA

culture, as well as the sharp rise in

mobile working, and it will come as no

surprise that enterprise organizations

have seen the average number of

applications rise to over 500 in recent

years. (Source: Ben Kepes, Forbes)

These applications each serve a

single, defined purpose. They’re

best of breed products, designed to

solve a particular problem. Together,

they create the digital workplace

landscape.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2014/07/31/latest-enterprise-application-use-survey-results-more-use-more-risk/#558a60be3559


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Broadly, the common digital landscape can be categorized into the following:

In order to drive productivity, efficiency, and a positive user experience

for employees, each of these distinct types must work intuitively and

seamlessly with one another.

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Personal file storage: for the cloud-based storage of day-to-day

files that don’t need to be centrally or collectively available to the

business as a whole

Document Management System: enterprise-wide document

storage for shared and centralized access to information, often with

additional features to facilitate collaborative working, file sharing,

and version control

Private, small group communications and ESNs: used

to facilitate teams to collaborate or work on projects quickly and

intuitively, with functionality such as real-time messaging and file

sharing

Intranet platforms, such as Interact: employee-focused

applications designed to facilitate corporate communication,

improve the employee experience, and complement the digital

workplace by connecting with other tools

Business productivity: specialist applications designed to

solve a diverse range of business productivity challenges, ranging

from customer service and human capital management to project

management and more


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Office 365: an overview

A core foundation of the digital workplace for many, Microsoft Office 365

is a suite of typically over 20 applications for the common S3 licensing

subscription, made available on a cloud-based model to organizations.

In the digital workplace landscape, these offerings are dispersed across the

different categories within the suite including the most popular applications

such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint Online, but also lower

adoption applications such as Planner, Sway, or Delve.

For the majority of employees,

whether Office applications are cloud

hosted has little impact on their day-

to-day roles. Work is still performed in

the popular native applications, such

as producing documents in Word or

calculations in Excel on their laptop

or PC. For front-line employees, such

as store workers, delivery drivers, or

production line staff, the Microsoft

Office suite may not feature in their

daily roles at all.

At a strategic level from the IT

perspective, it’s a different story. A

marked shift away from traditional

on-premise and self-managed

solutions is now commonplace

in many forward-thinking

organizations; for most industries,

a move to the cloud is a long-term

strategic decision. As a cloud-first

solution with everything handled

‘as a service’, including hosting and

back-up of products like Exchange

and SharePoint, Office 365 provides an

answer that aligns with

this long-term vision.

When considering

the expansion and

future-proofing of the

corporate technology

stack, therefore, it’s

imperative that any

future purchases or

projects will align,

complement, and/or integrate

with Office 365. IT departments

are increasingly using this as a

benchmark to drive decision-making.

Furthermore, the need to avoid future

complexity, increase efficiency, and

provide a seamless user experience is

a constant focus for today’s CTO/CIO.

Alongside this, there is a continual

and critical need to avoid risk and

maintain security of data. In an ever-

growing digital workplace, this is no

small task.


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What is an intranet and where doesit fit?

The purpose of the modern intranet is to support

organizations in connecting and informing each and

every employee.“

Like any business tool or application, an intranet has a defined purpose and

role in an organization. Understanding where the intranet fits in the bigger

picture of the digital workplace is vital to its long-term success and value to

an organization.

Historically, intranets have been regarded as serving a multitude of

purposes; from a content management system to a team collaboration

or productivity tool. At Interact, we believe the role of the intranet has

evolved:

Contrary to previous definitions,

an intranet is not designed for

team collaboration; purpose-built

applications such as Microsoft Teams

or Slack are ideal for this purpose.

Nor is an intranet a document

management system; solutions such

as Microsoft’s SharePoint are designed

to meet this specific need.

This isn’t to say that an intranet can’t

support these goals; however, this isn’t

its core purpose. Where an intranet

delivers true value for a business

is in the process of connecting and

informing employees.

Dispersed or globalized organizations

in particular face a constant challenge

in this regard, with employees based

in multiple offices, on the front-line,

on the production line, constantly

transient, or home-based. Distributing

information and connecting those

individuals to the organization and its

goals, vision, and direction is an acute

painpoint with potentially damaging

and long-term implications for those

organizations who fail to get it right.

This purpose, therefore, is crucial.

The more this purpose can be aligned

with broader business objectives

and needs, the easier it is to get the

resources and budget needed.


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Interact is designed to support your business and its users in maximizing

their Office 365 experience and getting the most from your investment

and licences. Our out-the-box intranet solution can be quickly and easily

configured to work alongside a number of your Office 365 applications,

creating an intuitive and seamless digital workplace experience.

Interact offers out-the-box deep-

level integration with SharePoint

Online allowing you to bypass the

issue of having to create multiple

sites and folders to ensure you only

make relevant information available.

Selectively choose and index the sites

and/or specific folders you want users

to search and surface through your

intranet, empowering staff to access

vital, up-to-date information from a

single and centralized point.

Users can have unhindered access to

the latest versions of your Office 365

documents, without ever needing to

leave your intranet. And once located,

they can use Interact’s popular

features to add value and context to

your content.

Interact and SharePoint

Search in Interact includes indexed

SharePoint files, and simple @

mentioning of documents hosted in

your SharePoint DMS, for a seamless

and user-focused experience.

We explore the role of SharePoint

and how Interact can maximize and

enhance its value in your workplace

more fully later in this guide.

Calendar

PowerBi

SharePoint

YammerTeamsSkype forBusiness

Azure ActiveDirectory

Outlook Tasks

Stream

Stay compliant by maintaining an audit trail of who has read key documentation

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3

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Add a quiz to your content to assess how well employees have understood content

Search SharePoint files via Interact, then view documents inline within the intranet

Allow users to comment on documents, @mentioningco-workers or other content

Tag content for more accurate search results

Allow users to be notified when key content is updated6


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Present your shared Office 365 calendars inside Interact, giving

employees quick access to what’s happening in your organization.

From meeting room availability to corporate events, employees can

quickly view what’s happening on any device, in any location.

Calendar

Reduce the number of apps that are used

day-to-day by providing your employees

with real-time access to emails from

within their intranet. Unread new emails

are shown on your intranet homepage for

speed, ease and convenience.

Outlook

Help your employees keep in control

of their productivity by presenting

their personal Office 365 Tasks

directly through your intranet. Mark

tasks as complete or edit as required.

Tasks

If Skype plays a crucial role in your business communications, launch

those conversations directly from your intranet. Interact and Skype

for Business enable your employees find colleagues quickly and

initiate chat sessions, conduct online meetings, and launch video

and audio calls quickly and easily.

Skype for Business

Interact can be automatically synchronized with Azure Active

Directory, allowing any updates to central profiles to be seamlessly

reflected within your intranet People Directory. Creation and de-

provisioning of users is easy and efficient, reducing the IT burden and

ensuring users are viewing profile data that is current and correct.

Azure Active Directory


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Add your Yammer feed into Interact using Yammer Embed and bring all

your enterprise social networking conversations together in one place.

Yammer

From your CEO’s latest presentation to your bestselling products, easily

embed your Microsoft Stream videos inside your content. Receive

instant feedback with likes, shares, and comments.

Stream

Get easy visibility of your critical dashboards and analytics from within

your intranet, embedding them onto your homepages, team pages, or

department areas.

Power BI

Interact is continually developing

how it integrates with the Office 365

suite, understanding not only the

purpose and value of the different

applications available, but also their

limitations – and where an intranet

can complement or support these.

Looking back at that digital workplace

landscape, we will now explore more

fully the defined purpose of these

different categories and in particular,

how Interact works with, and

improves the employee experience of,

SharePoint Online as part of Office 365.

Find and organize all Office 365 files and documents that are of

most interest to the user – and present them in your intranet. Add

favourites, create boards and see what colleagues are working on to

create an area that is customized and closely aligned to the individual

without compromising permissions or security.

Delve


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The role of SharePoint Online

Document Management Systems (DMS) such as SharePoint Online (as

part of Office 365) offer organizations enterprise-wide document storage,

alongside additional features such as collaborative working (for example,

enabling multiple users to work simultaneously in Word or Excel) or version

control and secure access.

Microsoft SharePoint is a recognized

leader in this market, as the core DMS

product offered by Microsoft since its

inception in 2001. SharePoint Online

is the latest iteration, delivered as

part of the Office 365 suite. Its core

purpose is enterprise file storage

and management for electronic

documents and records, including

functionality such as storage,

archiving, searching and retrieval.

In addition, SharePoint Online offers

further benefits aligned to the Office

365 ecosystem, such as integration

with Yammer and Office 365 Groups,

and native integration with Active

Directory for encrypted/information

rights managed synchronization. It

is generally used as a replacement for

the traditional on-premise corporate

file server, offering a futureproof

solution that is scalable, accessible,

backed-up, and managed.

The answer to this question lies in

looking at its core purpose. A DMS

is primarily used to store files; it’s

around this foundational purpose that

Microsoft SharePoint is designed. By

nature, any document management

system will grow and evolve to

house thousands of files over time,

particularly in enterprise-level

organizations.

For this reason, many historic

SharePoint on-premise deployments

that have been customized and

positioned as an ‘intranet’ have

quickly ceased to viable.

Organizations with existing

SharePoint products, such as v.2007 or

v.2010, are realizing their redundancy;

due to the sheer volume of content,

they are unfit for purpose as an

intranet.

However, seeking a resolution by

looking at another DMS product –

even a cloud-based version - also fails

to address the core purpose of an

intranet: to connect and inform each

and every employee.

Is SharePoint Online an intranet?

Since the advent of Office 365 with

SharePoint Online, a number of

vendors have sought to offer solutions

‘built’ on Office 365: however, the

underlying issue of merging these

two purposes still resides. Products

designed to move SharePoint from

its core purpose as a DMS into a

communication tool with bolt-on

applications will still retain that

vast volume of information stored

in the DMS. There’s no point having

a fantastic looking intranet if an

employee still can’t find what they’re

looking for.

There’s no point having a fantastic looking intranet if

an employee still can’t find what they’re looking for. “

SharePoint’s architecture is based

on the principle of ‘sites’, which has

been a long-standing pain point

for internal communicators and

IT alike. The curse of ‘site creep’ is

common, and in larger organizations,

this can result in hundreds of sites

with unique permission settings,

containing thousands of documents.

It’s a spider web that quickly becomes

unmanageable.

In addition, sites are self-contained.

This reinforces siloes of information,

as there is no easy mechanism to

surface and display information to

end-users from multiple sites to one

homepage.

But what about SharePoint Hub Sites and Communication Sites?

As a proposed resolution, SharePoint

introduced Hub Sites. These aggregate

news or content from all the sites

connected to it, curating information

for a collective experience of those

sites.

However, Hub Sites have their

limitations. To function correctly, they

ideally require a ‘shared responsibility

model’ between the site owners and

IT; it’s highly likely considerable

technical effort will be required to

effectively create a Hub Site that

can serve as a corporate intranet

homepage.

Hub Sites


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Limitations of Hub Sites

Hub Sites don’t work as a corporate homepage: Using a Hub Site

as a home page will not provide the required functionality. The usual

requirements, such as communication controls, targeting, personalization,

and user experience flexibility are missing for communication professionals.

Lack of content control: Communication professionals want control of

content on a homepage including where headlines are positioned and how

long they’ll remain in place. For smaller organizations this may suffice but

larger organizations will not accept this missing functionality.

Heavy Administrative Burden: whether it’s governance of groups and

permissions, communications controls or targeting and personalization, to

get SharePoint to work as a true enterprise intranet requires a great deal of

technical effort.

Launched in 2017, Communication

sites were introduced in Office 365 as a

means to improve the user experience

of a site. Communication Sites allow

those with permissions to create a

responsive and visually appealing

front-end to a site, using web parts

and a building-block approach.

These are best-suited to visual content

and offer some of the experience

of an intranet in terms of look and

feel; however, the functionality is

otherwise limited. Again, these

present silo-ed content from a single

site, rather than a curation from

multiple sites; volume of documents

and information remains an issue.

A lack of governance or workflow

around publishing means control over

information pushed out is limited; for

internal communicators looking to

push corporate news out, for example,

there is no way of assigning priority

or anchoring a story to the homepage

of either a Communication Site or a

Hub Site. Any new story will displace

the older ones. Communication Sites

can soon look stale if content is not

refreshed regularly.

In addition, a Communication Site

cannot be retrospectively applied to

an existing SharePoint Site. To utilize

this functionality, all documents

within an existing Site – for example,

your HR Site, which hosts important

information and documents for

employees – would need to be

transferred to a new Communication

Site. Multiply this over many sites,

and you have a time-consuming and

IT intensive task.

It’s been noted by many in the industry that Hub Sites will likely struggle to

deliver standard requirements for internal communication professionals.

These include:

Sam Marshall - Clearbox Consulting Communication Sites

Hub Sites have their limitations. To function correctly,

they require a ‘shared responsibility model’ between

the site owners and IT; considerable technical effort is

required to effectively create a Hub Site that can serve as a

corporate intranet.

“As ever when you invest in SharePoint, you end up

working the way Microsoft thinks is best.“


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Within this site will be essential

policies, onboarding information, vital

forms and information employees

need and want to access regularly

– for example, your travel expenses

form, or your work from home policy.

There will also be previous drafts or

versions; an outdated data protection

policy maybe, or the unfinished draft

of your confidentiality policy.

Most HR departments will also house

confidential employee records and

personnel files; perhaps recorded

grievances or complaints; alongside

contracts, salary information, or

performance reviews. These are all

strictly private and if a SharePoint site

needs to be accessed by employees,

couldn’t be housed here. This means

using multiple sites or sub-sites –

leading to site creep, or the need for

IT to manage complex and often

untrustworthy permissions, making

privileged information vulnerable -

or information stored on individual

PCs or internal servers, undermining

the strategic goal of cloud-based

hosting and management of company

information.

Interact offers out-the-box

connectivity with SharePoint Online

(alongside v2013 and v 2016) with

the ability to selectively choose and

index which sites and/or specific

folder(s) your communications team

wishes to surface for employees.

This is simple, quick, and easy to set

up and manage, offering real-time

connection with your SharePoint DMS

to ensure staff are accessing the latest

versions of important documents and

information.

In the case of the HR site, the

department could confidently and

securely store all their information

within one site. Single or multiple

folders within that HR department

site, which are approved for

employees to access and have the

most up-to-date content in, would

be indexed and pulled into Interact.

Users and the HR team alike can be

confident staff are accessing the right

information quickly and efficiently,

with no compromise of privileged

information or data.

To put this in context, let’s imagine a SharePoint site owned by the HR department.

Interact and SharePoint - anin-depth look

With the understanding that the core purpose of a successful intranet is

to inform and connect employees, Interact has approached the challenges

presented by SharePoint by understanding its role and limitations as a

corporate file storage system.

Vital policies and information may

be stored in SharePoint, which are

critical for company-wide employees

to access. However, SharePoint can

also become the dedicated ‘document

dumping ground’ in an organization.

A useful intranet pushes relevant,

timely, current information to

employees: not, as a SharePoint site

would, every historic version or draft

saved previously.


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Interact beyond Office 365

While Interact is designed to work intuitively with a broad range of Office

365 tools, its unique position and purpose within the digital workplace

landscape means it can answer some of those critical gaps not fulfilled by

the Microsoft suite or other technoligies. By complementing and supporting

the other elements of the technology stack, the intranet has a valuable role

to play in bringing it all together for an outstanding employee experience.

One of the primary drivers for

employee engagement and

experience of the workplace lies

in how connected and informed

your staff feel to the business and

its strategic direction, demanding

company-wide communications that

connect each and every employee:

not just those who happen to be in

head office, or who are easy-to-reach.

This includes remote workers, front-

line employees dealing with your

customers, offline staff who help

create and deliver your product, or

simply those without regular access to

technology.

Corporate communications

The business cost for failing to

communicate effectively with

employees is extensive, causing

everything from low morale and

high staff turnover to poor customer

service, decreased productivity levels,

and an impact on company brand and

reputation. Lack of engagement often

only comes to light during employee

feedback mechanisms such as annual

or pulse surveys, at which point

C-suite sponsorship of new initiatives

to address the issue come to light.

At Interact, our primary purpose

and mission is to support

organizations by facilitating corporate

communications and helping them

to inform and connect their greatest

asset: their employees. Our intranet

software and services are designed to

empower communicators to deliver

one-to-many, and many-to-many

communications.

85% of non-desk employees say the communication they

receive on the job is not enough.“

Connecting staff to critical business information without an Office 365 licence

In many organizations, there will be a proportion of the workforce

who are either non-desk based or don’t have access to technology as a

day-to-day part of their role; for example, front-line workers, those on

the production line, or perhaps those delivering goods on the road. As

a result, they won’t have a corporate Office 365 account: making the

proposal of using SharePoint as an intranet problematic, unless heavy

investments are in additional licenses. Interact offers an ideal solution

for connecting and informing offline or hard-to-reach employees

without the unnecessary additional cost of Office 365 licences for each

individual employee. Despite out-the-box integration with SharePoint,

Interact has no underlying reliance on either SharePoint or Office 365

in terms of functionality; furthermore, an intuitive and easy-to-use

content management system (CMS) as part of Interact ensures valuable

and relevant content can be displayed to staff without demanding a

corporate account.


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One-to-many communications are

the foundation of any successful

intranet. The ability for a centralized

communications team to easily push

out relevant and timely content in a

top-down format to defined audience

groups is essential to keep staff

informed about their organization.

From more formal communication

around policies or compliance to

latest news and events, informal blogs,

or broadcasting critical information

during a crisis situation, Interact

offers a suite of tailored features

designed to facilitate one-to-many

communications for any situation or

requirement. These include:

One-to-many communications

Broadcasts for when you need to communicate important information,

quickly; for example in times of crisis or emergency

Content areas and pages; for example, for the publication of company news

and updates

The ability to upload or pull SharePoint documents into defined content

areas; for example, your HR or IT policies

Blogs for more informal content

Calendars and eventsWhat about hard-to-reach employees?

On average, up to 75% of employees in any given organization are non-desk-based. While this figure includes individuals who will have access to a computer – for example, remote workers and telecommuters, or sales staff on the road – there are also a proportion of employees who won’t have easy access to technology at all.

However, 95% of American and UK citizens own a cellphone of some kind. Interact offers a mobile-first responsive intranet experience, alongside native apps for iOS and Android: enabling organizations to reach each and every employee.

For those times when it’s vital to get the message out, our Broadcasts feature empowers communicators to get critical or timely information to all employees regardless of their device or location – all from within your intranet. Display a banner on the intranet; send an SMS message or e-mail; or block users from visiting any areas on the intranet until they have read and acknowledged the message.


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With Interact, communicators can

reach users regardless of device,

department, or location. The Interact

Personas feature allows for flexible

segmentation according to a diverse

range of criteria, while flexible and

engaging homepages push relevant

information to users as soon as they

login. Homepages can also be tailored

to ensure users are viewing relevant

communication; for example, by

creating an onboarding homepage

for new starters, or a management

homepage to display business KPI

boards to those at senior level.

Many-to-many communications

Forums

Lack of engagement amongst

employees not only arises from a lack

of effective top-down communication,

but from the feeling that they aren’t

heard or are disconnected from the

organization.

Empowering staff with a voice and

facilitating two-way conversations

through the use of ‘many-to-many’

communication tools not only

provides opportunity for employees

to feedback and be involved with their

organization; it also provides a self-

service approach to resolve common

questions or challenges. When staff

can connect with one another and

crowdsource for input, ideas, or

experiences, true collaboration and

innovation can flourish.

Interact facilitates this enterprise-

wide need with collaboration

features designed for many-t0-many

communications. These include:

For corporate communication

teams looking to gain input from

across their organization or tap into

employee knowledge and expertise,

Forums offer an ideal solution. Using

discussions, questions, and ideas,

forums can be utilized to encourage a

culture of knowledge sharing. Forums

offer an enterprise-wide space for

users to get involved, no matter where

they’re based.

Answers or solutions are centrally

hosted and searchable, saving time

lost to repeat requests; for example,

rather than multiple individuals

calling a HR representative to ask

about the flexible working policy,

hosting this on the intranet can

significantly reduce the number

of calls, saving time and money

internally. In one customer example

at Interact, an intranet project was

launched with a primary objective to

cut calls to central operations by up

to 90%, reducing not only resource

requirements and time spent, but also

associated overtime costs.

Ideation can also be facilitated

through an intranet, enabling

organizations to tap into the diverse

range of skills, expertise, and interests

amongst their staff. Topics such as

environment concerns (e.g., ‘How can

we be greener?’), employee benefits

(e.g., ‘would gym membership or a

cycle to work program be beneficial

to our staff?) and operational

improvements (e.g., ‘the Customer

Team could really benefit from

faster access to information’) can be

identified and rolled out across the

business, encouraging all employees

to have their say.

In one customer example at Interact, an intranet project

was launched with a primary objective to cut calls to

central operations by up to 90%, reducing not only

resource requirements and time spent, but also associated

overtime costs.

“


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Employees who are empowered

to feedback, contribute, and

have their voices heard show

higher levels of engagement and

brand advocacy towards their

organization.

Social technology has given

millions of users worldwide

a voice; it can serve the

same purpose in an intranet,

facilitating enterprise-wide

collaboration and input. Features

such as being able to comment,

@mention, share, upload shared

galleries, add events to calendars,

engage with polls or surveys, or

simply add a reaction to a post or

piece of information, are all powerful

yet subtle ways to tap into a company-

wide collaborative way of working.

An intranet’s purpose is to connect

and inform employees; providing

information that is timely, relevant,

and trusted. Powerful search

functionality is the number one

feature requested by communication

professionals when seeking an

intranet solution; particularly as the

digital workplace continues to expand

across multiple applications, with

vital information often residing across

a variety of different locations.

Research suggests knowledge workers

spend up to 19% of their working

week searching for and gathering

information; significant productivity

and efficiency gains can be made

from making this more seamless and

intuitive for staff. Enabling relevant

information to be sourced in a single

application, rather than having to

search many, is key to achieving the

operational efficiency aspirations

of communication professionals.

Interact’s Enterprise Search includes

out of the box integration with

SharePoint Online, SharePoint

2013 / 2016 on-premise, alongside

alternative storage providers (i.e.

Google Drive, Box) using our powerful

Enterprise Search API.

CMS functionality as part of Interact,

including #tagging and keywords,

‘Best Bets’ (which enable intranet

managers to prioritize particular

content for certain search terms,

ensuring it appears top of the list) and

‘Failure to find’ search analytics make

for an intelligent and intuitive search

experience that supports users to find

the right information, quickly.

Social features

Search

Seamless integrations

Alongside deep-level integration

with Office 365, Interact facilitates

a more efficient and productive

way of working through the use

of integration functionality and

enterprise search, providing users

with a natural and centralized access

point to an organization’s toolset and

information.

There is now a plethora of enterprise

applications available, designed to

solve a diverse range of business

productivity challenges. From

Zendesk for customer service

and Workday for human capital

management, to Asana for project

management and Salesforce for

customer relationship management:

the enterprise application

marketplace has expanded

exponentially in recent years. Now,

there is a business productivity tool to

solve every niche need or challenge.

Naturally, the challenge with this

diverse ecosystem is how to provide

a frictionless and intuitive user

experience for employees, without

creating the inevitable technology

fatigue of ‘yet another application’. In

addition, the constant hopping from

application to application, alongside

multiple logins and the inevitable

duplication of information or effort

across different platforms, has a direct

impact on employee productivity

levels.

At enterprise level, the average organization has over 500

applications as part of its technology stack. “


34 35

Interact partners identity

management providers such as

OKTA, OneLogin and G Suite, as well

as native support for ADFS for Office

365; providing peace of mind for IT

decision makers when considering

integration. To find out more, visit the

Interact Authentications page.

Interact supports a seamless

experience for employees using

out-the-box single sign-on (SSO)

functionality; offering secure and

simplified integration not only with

Office 365, but a vast range of business

productivity tools to give quick and

easy access to the applications they

need to perform their roles.

Single sign-on

Authentications

Employee engagement has risen on

the management agenda in recent

years, and for good reason. Engaged

employees bring a vast range of

benefits to their organization, driving

improvements in everything from

customer service to the bottom-line.

Engage and enable your employees and here’s how you could benefit

Increase employee

performance by

40%

Increase customer

satisfaction rate by

18%

Multiply your

x4 1/2

Decrease employee

turnover by

14%

Engagement tools

Source: Hay Group

https://www.interact-intranet.com/authentication/

https://www.haygroup.com/uk/services/index.aspx?id=2475


36 37

Interact offers a variety of tools to not only support an engaged workforce,

but to help benchmark and measure engagement within your organization.

These include:

Polls to obtain and gauge the engagement level of staff

A comprehensive analytics suite, to understand how your employees are

engaging with and using your intranet; covering everything from frequency

of use to the most popular or engaged-with pages and content

Endorsements to supplement employee profiles on your intranet with

endorsed skills, recognizing their strengths and value to the business

Rewards and Recognition Badges to cultivate a strong culture of

recognition that will motivate and engage staff

The demand to improve productivity

and drive efficiency in business

continues to be at the top of the

C-suite priority list; particularly in an

age of digital noise and distractions.

An intranet can streamline many

processes and improve efficiency in a

variety of ways:

Productivity tools

Enterprise search: as we’ve already explored, empowering staff to find

reliable and relevant information quickly is critical to efficient working.

A centralized search that pulls information from a variety of sources and

can recommend the ‘Best Bet’ can save significant time and effort, helping

employees be more productive.

A homepage to the workplace: using ‘quick links’ and Single Sign-On

(SSO) to connect with other vital business tools and applications from a

single point can reduce time spent logging into different tools

Self-service: hosting answers to commonly asked questions and vital

business policies in an intuitive and easy-to-find way empowers staff to self-

serve, reducing internal tickets or strain on operations staff

People Directory: Interact’s rich people profiles go beyond name, email,

department. Adding skills and expertise alongside interests onto individual

profiles can help employees connect with colleagues who can help more

quickly; for example, searching for an Italian speaker to help with a

customer, or someone with CSS knowledge to fix an issue.

Workflow and forms: bringing commonplace operational workflows

and processes into your intranet can create significant time savings and

efficiencies. By making paper-based forms electronic and accessible via

your intranet you can save valuable employee time, as well as improve the

accuracy of information.


38 39

Ensuring employees adhere to best

practice and abide by compliance

requirements or standard operating

procedures is vital not only for legal

purposes, but to reduce risk, safeguard

both staff and customers, meet

health and safety requirements, and

reduce accidents or incidents in the

workplace.

With a growing focus on data

protection and the introduction

of GDPR in Europe, alongside

political turbulence leading to

changes in regulatory requirements,

international trade agreements,

tariffs and more, keeping employees

compliant is more vital than ever

before. However, with up to 75%

of employees classed as non-desk-

based, potentially without access to

technology as part of their day-to-

day roles, keeping those individuals

informed and acting in accordance

with best practice is a significant

challenge.

These hard-to-reach staff are,

however, typically those on the

frontline who are the most essential

to keep informed, as well as be able to

gauge whether they have indeed read

communications that have been

sent out.

Keeping your organization compliantMandatory Read: Interact’s Mandatory Read functionality within

an easy-to-manage CMS enables communicators to quickly and easily

create essential documents and push them out to defined employee

user groups. Asking users to confirm they have read and understood the

communication ensures you have an audit trail for compliance purposes.

Broadcasts: Send and track important information across multiple

channels from within your intranet, and monitor receipt and

acknowledgments with visibility into messages delivered and read, and

how many have yet to be seen.

Quizzes: these can be used to test user understanding and knowledge,

while analytics allow your communications team to track who’s read and

responded, sending reminders via email or push notifications to those

who have yet to confirm.

Interact has a number of tools to help with this:


40 41

Microsoft offers a range of mobile

apps aligned to its Office 365 offering,

with an individual app created for

each application; from Microsoft

Word and Microsoft Excel to Yammer,

SharePoint, PowerBI and more. The

result is an often overwhelming and

confusing experience for employees,

who may be faced with the reality

of requiring five, 10, even 15 apps to

fully utilize the mobile Office 365

experience.

On a company-owned device with

Mobile Device Management (MDM),

these apps can be installed as a

mandatory requirement; however,

the sheer volume will be a barrier to

adoption. In organizations operating

a ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD)

model, in which employees use their

personal cellphone to connect with

the business, it is unrealistic to expect

individuals to install this number of

applications.

Interact offers a single, business-

personalized mobile experience that

offers an ideal solution. Employees

can download a single native app

for iOS or Android that will serve

as the access point to vital business

communications, as well as providing

integration with the major Office

365 applications. This streamlined

experience removes the burden of

multiple apps, making it easier and

more intuitive for employees to adopt

and use.

In addition, the Interact mobile app

offers white labelling functionality,

meaning it can be completely

personalized and aligned to your

organization’s internal brand. This

tailored experience delivers higher

levels of engagement, helping to

get those hard-to-reach employees

downloading – and using – your

business’s intranet.

Personalize your Interact app to

align to your organization’s brand.

Instrumental in encouraging

employees to download and

access your intranet from any

place at any time.

A streamlined and branded mobile experience

Encouraging hard-to-reach employees to adopt mobile business

applications can be a common barrier for internal communications. This is

particularly true of the Office 365 suite.

Your app here


42 43

The demand for individuals to come together as teams to collaborate

or work on projects has always existed. In today’s modern workplace,

however, those individuals may be working from a variety of

locations, making that process more challenging than ever. In order

to connect employees effectively and empower them to achieve their

goals, organizations need powerful tools to bring together people,

conversations, and content.

Interact for Office 365: for a centralized digital workplace

The Office 365 suite will continue to

be a staple for global businesses and

each individual piece of software has a

distinct role to play. An intranet plays

a critical role in facilitating corporate

communications as its primary

purpose; it can also offer a broad

spectrum of other benefits through

integration with other vital business

tools, including Office 365, alongside

out-the-box features designed to bring

that digital workplace together.

The partnership between Interact

and Office 365, therefore, is

complementary. The two serve

distinct purposes within an

organization, each offering a variety

of benefits; however, when the two are

unified and work together intuitively,

organizations can realize the true

value and potential of the digital

workplace.

Contact Us: New York: +1 (646) 564 5775

Manchester: +44 (0)161 927 3222

[email protected]

www.interactsoftware.com

About Interact

Interact is a global enterprise software company that serves intranet software

to over one million users across more than 850 organizations. We specialize in

solving internal communication and collaboration challenges by combining

our sophisticated intranet software with outstanding professional services,

focusing on developing long-term strategic partnerships with our customers.

Interact has offices in Manchester and New York, and operates across the whole of the US and Canada, EMEA and Australia.

http://interactsoftware.com


44

Station House,

Stamford New Road, Altrincham,

Cheshire WA14 1EP, UK

+44 (0) 161 927 3222

[email protected]

21 W. 46th St. 16th FL,

New York

NY 10036

+1 (646) 564 5775

[email protected]

www.interactsoftware.com

http://interactsoftware.com

Documents

Office 365€¦ · Business productivity: specialist applications designed to solve a diverse range of business productivity challenges, ranging from customer service and human capital