How to Build a WordPress Intranet

Could implementing an enterprise intranet based on WordPress increase the productivity of your business?

If your staff isn’t consolidated in a single office, investing in the establishment of a company intranet can be a good idea for several reasons. For one, intranets can be used to store critical company documents centrally. More importantly, intranet networks can be used to facilitate easy collaboration and communication between disparate teams of virtual and remote workers.

What is an Intranet?

Building an intranet is essentially the same as creating a mini-Internet or social media network, exclusively for use by your business. Intranets are private networks and can include a variety of features including (but by no means limited to):

• Cloud storage of SOP manuals
• Project collaboration tools
• Workflow management tools such as expense submission forms and virtual training environments
• Internal communication areas like employee forums

There is just one problem. Building an intranet can cost upwards of thousands of dollars. This is why many SMEs adopt WordPress intranet solutions. More specifically, intranets hosted on WordPress, either separately or alongside front facing company websites.

WordPress Intranet Benefits

The benefits of hosting an intranet on WordPress are simple. WordPress is not explicitly designed as intranet software. However, plugins exist which make it easy to lock down WordPress and enable several forms of intranet functionality.

To help companies save on costs, a WordPress intranet can also run on the same server and WordPress installation as Internet-facing company websites.

Top WP Intranet Plugins

Building an intranet on WordPress is altogether easy. This is thanks to the fact that several free (and premium) plugins exist, which are designed to take care of all the necessary heavy lifting.

WordPress All-In-One Intranet

WordPress all-in-one Intranet is a plugin which locks down WordPress to create the foundation of a private intranet network. After installation, users can use a simple checkbox to ensure that a  WordPress intranet is only visible to logged in users. (Not publicly viewable to regular Internet users.)

All in one Intranet can also be configured to automatically log out inactive users and create dedicated intranet login landing pages.

WordPress Use-your-Drive Google Drive Plugin

When building an intranet, most SMEs look to create a platform where essential company documents and files are instantly accessible to all employees. To help achieve this, the WordPress Use your Drive Google Drive plugin, can be used to make Google Drive files available directly via your WordPress intranet.

When using the Use your Drive plugin, intranet admins can configure specific user folders, make key files easily searchable, and facilitate secure collaboration on different files and folders. As a bonus, the plugin can also be used to access files hosted on Dropbox and OneDrive.

The Events Calendar

The Events Calendar is a plugin from Modern Tribe, Inc. which can be used to add an interactive events calendar to your WordPress intranet. This allows organizations to list important upcoming events which are viewable to all intranet users.

WordPress BBPress Forums

Adding a forum to a WordPress Intranet is a fantastic way to facilitate easy communication and interaction among employees. With this in mind, plugins like BBPress make creating intranet forums altogether easy. Once installed and configured, company supervisors can make important company announcements via forum posts, and engage directly with remote workers in different locations.

WordPress Intranet Cost Savings

All of the plugins above can be used to add basic but extensive intranet functionality to any WordPress installation. In doing so, businesses can create intranets for a fraction of the cost of for-purpose enterprise networks, while also saving on ongoing network maintenance.