Intranet requirements checklist: Key elements and questions when planning your intranet [Free download]

Launching or replacing an intranet is one of the most significant investments you can make when it comes to improving digital workplace and internal communications. But without a clear roadmap, you run the risk of sinking time, budget, and employee goodwill into a solution that doesn’t actually improve your comms and engages employees.

The roadmap you need is an Intranet Requirements Checklist. This checklist and free downloadable worksheet provides a definitive structure for your intranet search. We’ll take you beyond just a list of features, covering intranet requirements analysis, stakeholder requirements, implementation planning, and vendor selection process that leads to an intranet that fits your needs.

We’ve created award winning intranets for Burger King, SCS and Sevita and, having worked in the intranet space for over 30 years, we like to think we know a thing or two about what makes a successful intranet.

The intranet requirements analysis…defining your foundations

Before you begin to analyse features and capabilities, the first step is understanding how an intranet can potentially improve your comms and impact wider business goals. An intranet requirements analysis is the crucial first step for deciding what you need.

What is an intranet requirements analysis?

An intranet requirements analysis is a formalised process of gathering data, feedback, and requirements from key stakeholders and end-users that determines the current state of internal communication, collaboration, and information sharing. Doing an intranet requirement analysis should determine where you are and where you need to be.

Why conduct an intranet requirements analysis?

The primary reasons for conducting an analysis are so you can:

• De-risk the investment: Ensuring that your intranet has features that have an impact on genuine business pain points.
• Boost user adoption: By involving users early, you build buy-in, excitement for digital transformation and guarantee the platform will have a positive impact on their day-to-day job role.
• Give clarity to stakeholders and vendors: Providing clear, documented requirements allows your stakeholders to understand the impact an intranet can have, and allows vendors to present tailored, accurate proposals.

How to define your intranet's goals and users

Define a goal for your intranet

Your intranet should have a positive impact on current business problems. Do you want to streamline and improve onboarding to reduce employee turnover? Are you looking to save time and reduce information overload by centralising scattered documents? Do you need social features to boost employee engagement? Define 1-3 primary goals that will solve current employee engagement and comms problems.

Understand your intranet users (and their needs)

Having an intranet that allows you to effectively communicate to all your employee groups is crucial. Identify all your potential user groups (e.g., frontline workers, desk workers, managers, remote staff) and their specific needs and preferred communication channels and styles.

Action: Gather answers to the following questions:

• What tools do employees currently use that maybe aren’t working effectively?
• Where do they go to find company news?
• What information do they need to access right now?
• What types of content do they prefer (video, newsletters, status updates)?

The Ultimate Intranet Requirements Checklist (Functionality & Features)

This section provides a high-level overview of what a modern, award-winning platform must deliver.

Essential Functionality for a Modern Intranet Solution

For an intranet to be future-proof and genuinely engaging, it requires robust functionality across three key areas: communication and engagement, document and knowledge management and collaboration and engagement.

Core Communication & Engagement Features

Feature Description Smart Delivery Personalised targeting to ensure the right message reaches the right people at the right time. Mobile and Deskless Support A dedicated app for seamless access for deskless and remote staff (Mobile-First Design). Messenger Built-in intranet messaging for secure chat between deskless and desk-based colleagues. Automated Email Newsletter Automatically generated news round-ups with the option to tailor content to different audiences. AI Intranet Leverages AI for content creation and personalised feeds (e.g., Personalised Newsfeeds). Social and Community Integrated social features and hubs to encourage collaboration and create closer communities. Recognition and Awards Tools to show appreciation and create a positive work environment (Employee Recognition & Social Tools). Pulse Surveys and Polls User-friendly tools to capture employee sentiment or boost engagement. Analytics Access to data and reports on intranet behaviour and engagement. Auto Translations On-demand translation to ensure international colleagues feel included. Campaigns Automation tools to schedule and amplify internal communications for maximum impact. Conversation Management Functionality to set usage standards and ensure safe digital spaces. Homepages and Branding Features to easily create engaging homepages and reflect brand identity. Onboarding Tools to train, educate, integrate, and inspire new hires in one space. Help Desk Functionality for IT, HR, and support staff to efficiently track and resolve issues. People Management Detailed profiles that enable staff to easily access any colleague's bio (Employee Directory). Search and Tools Personalised access to everything employees need, including essential communications and news.

Document & Knowledge Management Features

Feature

Description

Search and Tools

Powerful, unified search to find documents, content, and people quickly across the entire platform.

Content Management

Hosting everything in one place, enabling easy navigation and management of documents and resources (Centralised Document Hubs).

Knowledge Base

Provides on-demand walk-through videos, user guides, and FAQs.

Forms

Built-in online form creation to streamline internal processes and save time.

Mobile and Deskless Support

Provides access to documents and resources from anywhere via the mobile app.

Integrations

Connecting with third-party apps like SharePoint where documents may be stored.

Homepages and Branding

Organising document hubs and knowledge base content with clear navigation.

Extranet

Maintains security and efficiency when sharing documents and collaborating externally.

Onboarding

Utilising documentation and guides to train new hires.

Help Desk

Storing and accessing relevant documentation needed to resolve support tickets.

Collaboration & Productivity Features

Feature

Description

Integrations

A secure and centralised hub that brings together multiple tools with third-party app integration.

Oak for Teams

Enables reaching people easily through Microsoft Teams to stay updated, connected, and engaged.

People Management

Detailed profiles (bios, job title, location) that help employees connect (Employee Directory).

Messenger

Secure, built-in chat for collaboration between colleagues.

Help Desk

A ticketing system that helps IT, HR, and support staff efficiently track and resolve issues, boosting team productivity.

Extranet

Functionality to collaborate externally with clients, partners, and suppliers while maintaining security.

Forms

Streamlining productivity by allowing users to create and personalise built-in online forms for processes.

Social and Community

Encourages collaboration through integrated social features and community hubs.

Search and Tools

Empowers employees with one place to access essential tools, improving work efficiency.

Content Management

Enables teams to easily access and manage shared documents and resources needed for projects.

See how Oak Engage’s features can transform your comms

Requirements by Stakeholder & User Role

Part of your intranet buying process needs to consider success based on the department and employees using it.

Intranet Requirements for Your Internal Communication Team

• Targeting & segmentation: The ability to instantly push emergency alerts or scheduled updates to highly specific audiences.
• Measurement & analytics: Deep data on reach, engagement, and content performance.
• Multi-Channel publishing: The ability to publish content once and have it appear on the app, desktop, and email.

Intranet Requirements for Your Employees 

• Easy messaging and connection: Any employee can reach any person they need instantly via instant messaging, teams integrations and tailored channels. 
• Mobile app: Employees can stay connected and in the loop, no matter where they are, so they always have access to the right information. 
• Social and community: Features for employees to create their own content, show appreciation for colleagues and spaces that prioritise forming connections and building relationships over shared hobbies and interests.
• Multi-language comms: Different languages shouldn’t mean comms barriers. On demand translation means employees can consume content in their preferred language. 

Intranet requirements for HR

• Policy & document centre: A single source of truth for all crucial HR documents.
• Onboarding journeys: Dedicated spaces for new hires to get up to speed and part of the furniture seamlessly. 
• Employee self-service: Access to payslips, benefits information, leave requests, salary and more. 

Intranet Requirements for admins and IT

• Security & compliance: SSO (Single Sign-On) and GDPR readiness.
• Scalability: The ability to handle rapid employee growth without performance degradation.
• Ease of maintenance: Intuitive admin interface that doesn't require constant developer input.
• Integrations: Active and easy integration with key workplace tools like Microsoft365, Monday, Google Workspace, SAP, learning management systems and workforce management platforms. 

The Intranet Planning, Implementation & Budget Phase

The intranet planning phase is where your blueprint becomes a reality. 

Critical Pre-Implementation Decisions

Decide Which Intranet Features Are Essential vs. Nice-to-Have

Prioritise features based on your intranet requirements analysis. The "must-haves" (the 80/20 rule) should be included in Phase 1; your nice-to-haves can be parked for later phases.

Plan Intranet Budget and Resources with your finance team 

Ensure your budget includes licensing costs, implementation fees, and internal resource allocation (e.g., content managers and training).

Manage Your Intranet Timeframe

Successful launches require a structured approach. Define your key milestones, including data migration, content creation, user-training and a launch plan to encourage user adoption. 

Vendor Selection and Long-Term Success

Choosing your intranet partner is part and parcel of choosing your software. Will your chosen provider give you the support, training and resources you need… and be a solid partnership for the long-term?

Navigating Intranet Vendors: Key Questions to Ask

The following questions focus on partnership, support, and technology:

📝 Action: Gather answers to the following questions: 

• What is the vendor’s approach to post-launch support?
• How often are platform updates rolled out and how are they communicated? 
• What is their roadmap for future integrations and are customers part of that process?

The Journey: Monitoring, Reviewing, and Future-Proofing

Monitor and Review Intranet Engagement

Your journey doesn't stop once your intranet is launched, it's important to have a plan for keeping engagement going and making this a place that employees want to visit and keep updated on company news. A platform that showcases analytics will help you track key metrics that will inform your internal comms and engagement strategy. You want to monitor metrics such as:

• Log-ins per day/week.
• Total number of users
• Interaction rates with different types of content and top performing content
• Top contributors
• Percentage increases and decreases of content
• Search insights 
• Most active time periods 

Oak Engage also provides a monthly report complete with your intranet insights and statistics, as well as strategies and recommendations for better results, delivered straight to your intranet.

“Through the reporting suite, we can find trends and patterns in user behaviour which is really helpful for us to understand and make improvements. We speak to our team members on a regular basis to find out feedback and what works and what doesn’t. We’re continually getting positive feedback because they can see that we’re listening to them and taking action.” - David Maynard, Head of Central Operations at Pizza Express

Ensuring your intranet keeps thriving

Your intranet should be a living hub that serves as the digital home for your employees, it requires regular content governance, fresh communication campaigns, and iterative improvements based on user feedback.

Intranet requirements checklist FAQ:

What are the different types of intranets?

A good way of distinguishing types of intranet is by its purpose or goal, so:

• Collaborative Intranets: Collaborative intranets are all about connection, conversation and improving the way employees work together with a big focus on easy information and access and seamless project management. 
• Communications intranet: Communications The purpose of a communications intranet is for sharing news, announcements and company updates.
• Knowledge management intranet: These intranets are designed to store and share company knowledge, documents and resources. 

However, your intranet can be a combination of all three of these types of intranet. 

What should be in a company intranet?

Your company intranet should serve as the central hub for all internal communication, collaboration, and resource management. Key content and features include:

1. Employee Directory & Profiles: A searchable list of all employees with contact info, department, and skills.
2. Company News & Announcements: A dedicated section for official updates, CEO messages, and important organisational changes.
3. Policies & Procedures: An easily accessible, searchable library of HR policies, IT guidelines, and operational manuals.
4. Forms & Templates: Central storage for essential documents like expense reports, vacation requests, and brand assets.
5. Knowledge Base: A repository for detailed, long-form information, such as product specifications, training materials, and historical project data.
6. Collaboration Tools: Features like team workspaces, discussion forums, or links to integrated tools (e.g., Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams).
7. Personalisation: Customised homepages, feeds, or dashboards based on the employee's role or department.
8. Calendar & Events: A shared calendar for company-wide holidays, training sessions, and social events.

What are the elements of a good intranet?

A good intranet is one that employees actually use because it helps them be more productive and engaged. The elements of a successful intranet are:

1. Intuitive User Experience (UX): It must be easy to navigate, with a simple, modern design.
2. Powerful Search Functionality: Users need to find information quickly, so a fast, accurate, and comprehensive search tool is crucial.
3. Mobile Responsiveness: Employees need to access information on the go, so the intranet must function perfectly on smartphones and tablets.
4. Governance & Ownership: Clear guidelines on who is responsible for content creation, updates, and moderation to prevent information decay.
5. Integration with Core Systems: Seamless connection with existing business tools (e.g., CRM, HRIS, document storage) to centralise workflows.
6. Personalisation & Relevance: Content and features are tailored to the individual user's role, location, or team.
7. High Adoption Rate: Success is measured by how many employees use the intranet regularly and actively contribute to it.

What is required to access an intranet network?

Accessing a modern company intranet network typically requires three things:

1. Valid Credentials (Login): This is usually a username and password provided by the company's IT department. For security and convenience, most modern intranets use Single Sign-On (SSO), allowing employees to access the intranet using the same credentials they use for their computer or email.
2. A Network Connection: The employee must be connected to the company's private network.
   • On-Site: Connected via an Ethernet cable or the company's Wi-Fi network.
   • Remote: Connected via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to securely tunnel into the company network from an external location (e.g., home or a café). Many cloud-based intranets only require a standard internet connection, but the user must still authenticate securely.
3. A Device and Browser: Any standard device (desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone) with a modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari) that meets the intranet's technical specifications.

How do I set up an intranet?

Setting up an intranet involves planning, selection, implementation, and launch. The process can be broken down into these core stages:

1. Planning and Strategy

• Define Goals: Determine the primary objectives (e.g., improving internal communication, reducing time spent searching for documents).
• Identify Users and Needs: Conduct surveys or interviews to understand what employees need and what they currently struggle with.
• Create a Content Strategy: Decide what old content will be migrated, what needs to be created, and who will be the content owners.

2. Selection and Procurement

• Choose a Platform: Select a solution (e.g., SharePoint, dedicated intranet software, or a custom build) based on your requirements checklist, budget, and existing tech stack.
• Set Up Governance: Establish the core team responsible for the long-term success of the intranet (IT, HR, and Communications).

3. Implementation and Configuration

• Design and Structure: Configure the site map, navigation, and visual design.
• Integrate Systems: Connect the intranet with core business tools (e.g., Active Directory for user login, file storage).
• Content Migration: Move essential documents and create initial, high-value content.

4. Testing and Launch

• Pilot Program: Test the intranet with a small group of employees to identify and fix bugs and usability issues.
• Training and Communication: Develop training materials and an internal marketing campaign to generate excitement and teach employees how to use the new platform.
• Official Launch: Release the intranet company-wide and immediately begin tracking usage and gathering feedback for continuous improvement.

Conclusion

With this intranet requirements checklist roadmap you have a definitive structure for your intranet search. Make sure you download our Intranet Requirements Checklist Worksheet that will take you through all the elements discussed in this blog, so you can determine the exact requirements for your intranet that relate to your goals and business outcomes. 

Download Now ⬇️ The Ultimate Intranet Requirements Checklist Worksheet

Ready to transform the way your organisation connects and communicates?

Oak Engage is the provider of award-winning intranets for global brands like Burger King, Five Guys, Sevita, River Island and more – designed to improve employee engagement, frontline mobile access, and give everyone the tools and information they

Book a Demo today to see how Oak Engage can fit with your intranet requirements.