For the first time, ClearBox Consulting has combined their ‘independent intranet’ and ‘SharePoint intranet in-a-box’ product reports into one comprehensive report to help companies select the correct product for their business. The new Intranets and Employee Experience Platforms Report highlights five top findings from the 30 solutions they reviewed:
- User experience is consistently strong
- Internal communicators will be pleased by the features on offer
- Users are more likely than ever to find what they’re looking for
- A real sense of community can be built easily
- Mobile solutions have improved
As Suzie Robinson from ClearBox Consulting shares, “many excellent options are available to organisations looking for a new intranet or employee digital platform. The technology is mature, you no longer need to rely on in-house IT experts just to get the basics underway, and there are some genuinely innovative features coming through. It’s a great time to update your intranet or introduce an employee experience platform.”
“It’s a great time to update your intranet or introduce an employee experience platform.”
—Suzie Robinson, ClearBox Consulting
Internal communicators top choice
Publishing content is a true value for internal communicators, and the Firstup Platform delivers! With a score of 4.5 out of 5, ClearBox made note of how effective the Firstup platform is at delivering the tools internal communicators need to help them create, manage and reach users, including different news types, crisis communications, and ways of reaching people beyond the given platform. From its ease of building effective content and targeting capabilities, to its ability to publish in one place and reach audiences wherever they are, the Firstup platform impressed.
“Firstup offers internal communicators detailed tools to create impactful comms across multiple channels, complete with excellent results measurement.”
Analytics
Content owners not only need to be able to create effective content, they need to be able to measure the effectiveness of their efforts, and Firstup gets high marks here as well. Again with a score of 4.5 out of 5, the Firstup platform with its ‘Insights’ console that displays a good range of analytics, with highlevel overviews as well as detailed reports on areas such as ‘audience lifecycle’ or ‘user performance’. With the addition of custom reporting, the attractive graphs and tables caught their attention.
“The suite of analytics available on Firstup is among the best we’ve seen.”
Orchestration
The strongest accolades were for the Firstup Orchestration Engine, which “introduces behavioural data (via AI) to content targeting and scheduling to avoid repetition across channels, and brings excellent results for users and publishers alike.”
Noted as the ‘wildcard,’ the powerful orchestration engine helps ensure that users never miss vital posts that can be hidden by the nice-to-know stories.
“The orchestration engine has been well-developed and introduces an exciting and relevant element of AI to internal communications.”
Key benefits
- The overall experience of the platform, for users and admins, is visually striking and simple.
- Tools for creating news articles and other post types are superb, resulting in attractive posts regardless of publisher skill level.
- Audience targeting and the orchestration engine help publishers reach the right users at the best time.
- Communication and campaign analytics provide detailed data for publishers in visual and extendable charts.
- A digital assistant approach to third-party integrations delivers a simple and consistent user experience within Firstup itself.
“Firstup is an excellent communications platform that has among the best tools for internal communicators that we’ve seen.”
While an intranet helps people get things done, employee experience platforms contribute to the way workers feels about the place they work, and can have significant impact on the bottomline—from improved employee retention to better customer service.
However, communicators and IT professionals need a north star to guide their decision on the best product for their business. ClearBox Consulting has evaluated multiple workforce communications platforms to provide a comprehensive, third-party analysis of top-performing vendors in the market, and Firstup is proud to be a part of it.
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