Getting Creative with Intranet Names

Ok, so you have done your due diligence and research on different intranet solutions and you probably have a phone book of criteria and vendor matrix’s. You have researched all the different vendors, gone through all of the demos, listened to all the different sales reps rattle on about how great their solution is, how much it’s going to save you over time and increase productivity, to the point that if someone even says the word intranet one more time you will probably quit your job and go into sheep herding.

Before you sell all your valuables and purchase a flock of sheep however, I’m here to tell you a little secret about your new intranet and how to really maximize on its benefit to your organization by enhancing employee engagement. It’s about choosing a great intranet name, and this can be a fun challenge.

The Personal Touch

Most of our customers agree that personalizing their intranet is important, and the most common way they seek to do this is to spend time creating a unique and custom design. Design is an exceptionally effective way to engage your users with your newly implemented solution, making intranet interactions more enjoyable and even more efficient. However, something often overlooked; an even easier, faster and less costly method of personalizing your intranet, is simply giving it an intranet persona.

Accepting Your Intranet as One of the Team

You may notice that other systems used within your company are referred to by a name, rather than the type of system they are. You don’t tell someone to look for a customer in the Customer Relationship Management System, you tell them to look in “Salesforce”, or “Max” (Maximizer). Unlike these other systems though, your intranet is not tied to a specific department. Your Intranet is a company-wide living entity. OK, it may not buy you beers on a Friday but it will be there to find documents for you, assist you in booking your vacation request, help find your coworkers, and so on. It is therefore even more important to be treated as a necessary part of your organization’s day-to-day operations – part of the ‘team’ so to speak.

Getting Creative with Your Intranet Name

I remember at a previous company I worked for we had an intranet named MILO. MILO stood for “Mountains of Information Logically Organized”. After finding out MILO contained over 92000 pages of information, I remember thinking “hey… that makes sense”. When a manager didn’t have an answer for you they would usually reply “go ask MILO”. MILO was our go-to with a personality all her own.

Here at Intranet Connections we use our own intranet software. We call it “The SQuintranet” and its brought to us by the “SQuare SQuad”. Just a cute play on square box = simple, as simplicity is one of our core company (and product) values.

Our SQuintranet displays photos from our company events, lists all our employee information, houses our documents, allows us to fill out and submit our time sheets online and much much more. SQuintranet is a helpful and reliable part of Intranet Connections and really helps to promote our unique company culture. Because the name is unique and kind of odd, it has stuck and is used on a daily basis. “It’s on SQuintranet”, “Check out SQuintranet”, “E just had her baby girl, see Berlin’s pic on SQuintranet”.

Other Intranet Name Examples

With over 1,600 customers and 14 years in the intranet software business, we hear some pretty unique and creative intranet names. My favorite are those who personalize the intranet name in relation to their business processes such as The Bob Moore Auto Group’s “Glove Box”, The San Diego Humane Society’s “Fetch” and Specialty Food Association’s “The Chef”.

Some of our customers take the idea of the intranet as a central internal communication system into account when naming their intranet. Such examples include The Canadian Automobile Associations “CAA Connect”, The Lewis Group UK’s “Talking Point”, Muskegon County’s “The Link” and Douglas Library’s “Staff Connect”.

Naming your intranet doesn’t have to be complicated, and there are lots of articles and resources out there that offer suggestions and ideas on creative intranet names. It is really just a way to engage your users with your new intranet system, and give your intranet manager, who sat through all those demos, compiled all the data, and eventually chose an intranet system, a chance to have a bit of fun.

If you have an interesting intranet name I would love to hear about it, please leave your comments below. Looking for more intranet tips and tricks? Check out our 101 Intranet Ideas eBook.

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