find, share, use
Cloud intranet
Product description
Copyright © 2016 Company Net Ltd
Contents
Homepage and layout
Homepage .......................................... 3
Master pages ...................................... 4
Homepage widgets
Most popular ..................................... 18
Tasks and tools ................................. 19
Administration
Automatic log-in ................................ 29
Security groups .................................. 30
Navigation
Global navigation .............................. 5
Local navigation ................................ 6
Breadcrumb navigation .................... 7
Search
Content search ..................................
People search ....................................
Staff profiles ......................................
Search panel ......................................
Quick find ..........................................
Authorship tags .................................
Mobile and tablet
Responsive design ............................. 31
News
News centre .......................................
Highlight news panel ........................
Internal news .....................................
Breaking news ticker .........................
8
9
10
11
Content and publishing
Pages .................................................. 12
Page editor ......................................... 13
Pages library ...................................... 14
Document library ............................... 15
Blogs ................................................... 16
Noticeboard ....................................... 17
20
21
22
23
24
25
Sites
Sites and subsites ............................. 26
Social features
Yammer integration .......................... 27
Comments and ratings ..................... 28
3
Homepage and layout
Homepage
What it is
The homepage is the heart of your intranet.
It draws information from throughout the
intranet, with a variety of homepage widgets
available.
The homepage comes with a selection of
personalisation options, which can be turned
on or off by administrators.
This layout personalisation is stored either in a
cookie or against their Active Directory profile.
Why we developed it
The homepage is your users’ way into the
knowledge and content held on your intranet.
If the homepage is unattractive, unintuitive or
too dense with content, users will soon stop
using the intranet as a whole.
Kira works to ensure the homepage of your is a
dynamic, fresh and relevant starting point for
users, whether they arrive seeking information
or are just browsing.
One style of Kira homepage
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
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4
Homepage and layout
Master pages
What it is
Master pages define the look and feel of your
website, providing an overall layout, and
generating the branding, header and footer
elements.
Layouts can be selected based on the profile of
the user currently browsing the site.
This allows different business areas,
geographical locations or internal brands to
enjoy a different look and feel, while using the
same underlying intranet and content.
Why we developed it
By using a set of master pages, the design
of your site can be quickly altered or even
changed completely.
Master pages also allow the user experience to
be personalised based on the user’s needs and
situation.
A typical page layout based on a master page
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+44 (0)131 559 7514
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5
Navigation
Global navigation
What it is
The global navigation bar offers direct routes
into the content of your intranet.
This top-level menu is fixed and will always
appear the same for every user.
Typically this menu includes links to the
homepage, News Centre, Employee Directory
and Quick Find.
We can work with you to develop an
information architecture based on your users’
needs, from which additional top-level menu
items can be drawn.
Why we developed it
The global navigation provides a consistent
and familiar entry point to the most important
information on your intranet.
Some examples of top-level navigation
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
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Navigation
6
Local navigation
What it is
A second level of navigation is provided by the area the user is
currently browsing. This lets users access related content with
just a few clicks.
In the example pictured, the user is browsing the “Customer
Hub” site.
The local navigation provides links to its parent site
(Departments) as well as other sites at the same level
(Customer Relations, UK Finance) and child pages of
Customer Hub (Contact Us, Meet the Team).
This navigation therefore remains static within each site. This
provides a constant reference point for users, as well as clear
signposting to other related and relevant parts of the site.
Why we developed it
Local navigation means users can explore a particular area of
the intranet, such as a departmental site, without getting lost.
It provides a consistent set of links that also help the user
identify where they are in the site structure.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
7
Navigation
Breadcrumb navigation
What it is
Breadcrumb navigation provides a very clear
picture of where the user is currently located
within the intranet.
Each level is also a link that can be clicked to
take the user back up the hierarchy.
Why we developed it
As with local navigation, the breadcrumb
navigation feature helps prevent users from
getting lost, and shows them their current
location in the site hierarchy.
Examples of breadcrumb navigation
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
News
8
News centre
What it is
The News Centre is a dedicated section
which brings together news from across the
organisation in one place.
Why we developed it
We know that one of the biggest advantages a
good intranet offers is the ability to share news
across the whole organisation.
On the back of research with many of our
customers, we developed our News Centre
to go a step beyond that, tailoring news to be
totally relevant to the user.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
9
News
Highlight news panel
What it is
The highlight news panel is a homepage
widget which brings key news items and their
associated images to the attention of users.
The widget is very flexible, and can be
presented as a static panel or as a dynamic
carousel of items.
Why we developed it
The highlight news panel was developed to
reflect the fact that some news articles are
more important than others.
By promoting certain news stories in a very
visually attractive way, users are more likely to
read and act on them.
Static (left) and dynamic highlight news panels
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
10
News
Internal news
What it is
An unlimited number of additional news items
can be added to the homepage as required
using internal news item widgets.
Every news article has a ‘priority’ setting in
its metadata. This lets content creators set
the importance of a news item, and controls
whether the item appears in the highlight news
panel, or further down.
Multiple styles of internal news items can
be created, allowing them to be grouped by
priority.
As with the majority of content on your Kirabased intranet, news items can be filtered
based on the user’s identity, business area and
physical location.
This ensures that, for example, a marketer in
Edinburgh does not receive news that is only
relevant to IT staff in London.
The internal news widget provides a highlyconfigurable way of displaying news items
beyond the Highlight News Panel.
In the real world, most businesses will want
to display more than just the most important
news items.
The internal news widget lets you give visibility
to additional news items that might otherwise
go under the radar.
Why we developed it
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
News
11
Breaking news ticker
What it is
The breaking news ticker appears above the
Highlight News Panel.
It relays important recent news in a very visual
and attention-grabbing way.
Why we developed it
Our customers requested a way to use
the intranet to convey important breaking
information, such as travel problems or
adverse weather conditions.
The breaking news ticker enables
administrators to issue an alert that will catch
every user’s attention.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Content and publishing
12
Pages
What it is
Most content on your intranet is stored in
pages. Pages can contain content including
text, images, links and embedded media.
As well as the content, each page will also
display:
• who created the page, and when (with a
link to the author’s profile, and – if Skype
for Business is integrated – employee
presence information)
• who last updated the page, and when (with
a link as above)
• tags such as business area, department
and location, plus any additional metadata
tags specified by the author
• optionally, the opportunity to rate and
comment on the page
This ensures a consistent user interface and
user experience, whether you are editing a
page on a subsite, a news item or a blog post.
That means a smaller training requirement
and a far smoother content creation process,
significantly reducing traditional barriers to
content creation.
Why we developed it
We developed Kira intranet to use Pages at its
primary form of content.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
13
Content and publishing
Page editor
What it is
Kira provides a built-in page editor for creating
and editing content. This features the familiar
Office Ribbon, and is totally intuitive to use for
anyone familiar with using packages like Word.
When creating a new page, or editing an
existing one, the page editor lets content
creators add:
• a title
• rich page body content
• a main image
• a short page abstract used to promote
the page elsewhere on the site - if none is
provided, the opening lines of the body
text will be used instead
• the scope of the page (e.g. normal page,
news article, corporate announcement)
• what department and geographic location
the page relates to
• tags to help users find the page
When a user edits a page, it becomes ‘checked
out’ to that user, which ensures others can’t
make changes to that page until the user is
finished editing.
The user can then publish the changes by
checking the document back in. This process
can be automatically interrupted by a
workflow if the document requires the consent
of an approver before publication.
Why we developed it
Great content is the at the heart of every
intranet. We wanted to reduce the barriers to
entry for creating and editing content.
We worked in collaboration with a large
number of business, communications and
IT professionals across a range of sectors to
develop the page editor.
The result is something so easy that anyone
who can write an email can create a page on
the intranet.
Page editor
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Content and publishing
14
Pages library
What it is
The pages library lets you see all the pages on a
site, and manage them in bulk.
It displays information about every page,
including when the page was last modified,
and by whom; who the page is currently
checked out to, its owner and its average
rating.
Why we developed it
The master overview provided by the Pages
Library gives authorised users oversight of
every page within a site.
This is very useful for keeping an eye on the
site content as it grows, managing more than
one page at a time, and ensuring everything is
up-to-date.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Content and publishing
15
Document library
What it is
Each site has its own Document Library. The
Document Library is a place to which content
editors can directly upload files of any type.
These files can then be linked to from pages
to provide handy downloads. Files added to
the Document Library are also automatically
indexed and will appear in search results.
Why we developed it
The document library provides a centralised
location for every ‘attachment’ on a site,
allowing administrators and users to get
an overview of exsisting documents and
preventing multiple versions.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
16
Content and publishing
Blogs
What it is
Blog pages allow specific users (selected by
administrators) to have their own blogs.
Rather than using SharePoint’s built-in blogs
feature, which we found to be lacking in some
areas, we developed this more advanced
content type specially for Kira.
A blog widget can be placed on the homepage
which draws the latest posts from your
organisation’s blogs into one place.
Each blog then has its own section of the
intranet and is presented with the newest
posts at the top.
Why we developed it
The built-in blog feature in SharePoint did not
offer our customers a good user experience.
We created our own blog solution to fit better
into the intranet and to provide a consistent
content creation experience across the site.
Homepage blog widget (left) and a typical blog (right)
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Content and publishing
17
Noticeboard
What it is
The Noticeboard appears on the homepage. This
feature allows users to post personal ‘classified’
notices for the attention of their colleagues.
This could include items for sale, notices of social
outings and charity events. Clicking a noticeboard
item opens up a page about that item with a full
description.
Users can add and remove their own notices, or set an
expiry date so the notices remove themselves once no
longer relevant.
The noticeboard categories can be fully tailored to
meet the needs of your business.
Why we developed it
The noticeboard helps foster a sense of community on
the intranet homepage, keeping users coming back.
It also provides an incentive for users to learn basic
content creation and editing concepts, opening the
door to them creating more substantial and useful
content.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Homepage widgets
18
Most popular
What it is
The Most Popular widget provides links to the
most popular pages on your intranet. It bases
the popularity ranking on number of page
views.
The number of popular links to display is
configurable. Most Popular can be used on the
homepage, on sites, and on subsites.
Why we developed it
Using page metrics gathered automatically
by the intranet, this widget can significantly
shorten user journeys to the most popular
content on your site, ensuring users can get the
information they need even more quickly.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Homepage widgets
19
Tasks and tools
What it is
The Tasks and Tools panel appears on the homepage,
and provides quick links to external systems with a grid of
graphical icons.
It is automatically tailored to the user’s business area and
geographical location, so (for example) users working in
different countries would be linked to their respective
country-specific HR systems.
Tasks and Tools items are also indexed and therefore will
appear in search results.
Why we developed it
Tasks and Tools provides a seamless link between your
intranet and external systems, meaning users do not have to
remember or bookmark multiple systems.
It thereby ensures the intranet becomes the first port of call
for users, regardless of what information they need to find.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
20
Search
Content search
What it is
Kira is underpinned by a very powerful
enterprise search system.
Virtually all the content on your intranet is
indexed, including sites and subsites, pages,
news items, Tasks and Tools links, document
libraries and events.
Search results are rich and relevant,
ensuring users find the right information,
first time, every time.
Search results can be filtered by facets
including business area, originating
department, author, document type, specific
tags, geographic location, and date of last
modification (as a range). These filters are
provided to the side of the search results.
If a particular document or page is deemed
relevant to a particular search term, it can
also be manually promoted, ensuring it
comes top of the results every time a user
searches for that term.
Search includes a ‘rollover preview’ – a
small preview of the linked document or
page when a user moves their mouse over a
result.
This allows people to quickly assess whether
a search result is relevant to them.
Why we developed it
Our customers have told us that search is
the most important part of the intranet to
get right. On this basis, we developed search
to be extremely smart, providing rich and
relevant results every time.
In fact, search powers many of the other
features of the intranet, including the
majority of the homepage features, and the
News Centre.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
21
Search
People search
What it is
People search allows users to search
for people across the organisation. It
provides an experience consistent with
Content Search.
Full integration with Active Directory
means the search results are kept upto-date with any changes made across
the system.
People search not only allows you
to find people by name, but also by
department, job title, projects, skills or
interests.
Results immediately display the
person’s name, phone number, photo
and email address.
Rolling the mouse over a search result
will display further information about
the person, including skills, projects
and interests. It also provides a link
to follow that person in your social
activity feed.
Clicking a person in people search
results will take you to their full staff
profile.
If your intranet has Skype for Business
integration, it will also show a user
presence indicator by their photo to
show whether they are available, and
will display a Skype communication
box when hovered over.
People results can be filtered
by a number of facets, including
department, skills, projects, and
location.
Why we developed it
Finding people is a core feature of any
intranet. We have made the experience
of finding people as rich as possible,
while maintaining a clear and intuitive
layout.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
22
Search
Staff profiles
What it is
Staff profiles display a full page of information
about people in your business.
They are typically accessed either through
clicking a result following a people search, or
by clicking a person’s name elsewhere – such
as where they are the author of a page, or
where they have posted a comment.
The staff profile includes:
• Role details: job title, department, area of
business, office location
• Contact details: phone number, mobile
number, email address, line manager
• Personal details: skills, past projects,
interests
Staff profiles also feature our dynamic
organisation chart, which lets you browse
people in a highly-visual way, seeing where
they sit in the organisation chart. This helps
reveal connections and may help provide
alternative contacts if needed.
Integration with Skype for Business means
a person’s presence status, as well links to
initiate communication, can be provided on
staff profile pages.
Where staff profiles are shared between Kira
and other SharePoint-based systems, Kira
can detect whether the user arrived from the
intranet or from another system.
It will then theme the profile accordingly –
either with an ‘intranet’ view or a ‘classic
SharePoint’ view.
Why we developed it
Staff profiles are an essential part of every
intranet, immediately providing useful contact
information, as well as data that lets users
assess whether they are the right person to
contact.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Search
23
Search panel
What it is
The search panel appears on every page of
the intranet, and provides a consistent way to
instantly initiate a new search.
The search panel allows users to search
for content or people by default, but these
selectors can be optionally changed or added
to if needed (such as team search or news
search).
Why we developed it
Since search is so integral to any intranet
experience, we wanted to make sure it was
immediately accessible from every part of the
site.
Typically the search panel appears at the top
right of every page, which user experience
testing shows is the natural place people look
to begin a search.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Search
24
Quick find
What it is
Quick Find is a feature built into the main
navigation. It provides quick links that go
straight into pre-filtered searches.
For example, a ‘Policies’ Quick Find link would
take the user to the search results for all
policies.
Why we developed it
Quick Find takes advantage of Kira’s powerful
search capabilities to provide short routes
directly to the most useful or searched-for
content on your intranet.
This makes the search journey even shorter
and enables your staff to access the content
they need more quickly.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
25
Search
Authorship tags
What it is
Authorship tags provide a link wherever an
author’s name is mentioned. The link goes to
the user’s profile.
Where the intranet has been integrated with
Skype for Business, the authorship link also
has a presence indicator (showing the user’s
live status), and will also pop up a Skype
communication box when hovered over.
Why we developed it
The tags allow users to find out more about the
author of a document, get in touch with them,
and follow them in their social activity feed.
This promotes communication within the
organisation, and gives users a quick way of
contacting the author of a page, document or
news item.
Authorship tag appearing on a page, with a Skype for Business communication box
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Sites
26
Sites and subsites
What it is
Sites and subsites underpin the structure of
your Kira intranet.
They provide spaces for groups, projects,
departments and teams to create content in
their own area of the intranet.
Administrators can restrict the editing powers
of content creators to a particular site or
subsite.
Why we developed it
Sites and subsites are important in creating a
structure to the intranet.
Further, giving each department its own area
to cultivate adds to the sense of ownership of
the intranet and means each area is created
and developed by subject matter experts.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Social features
27
Yammer integration
What it is
Your intranet can be integrated with Microsoft’s
Yammer corporate social networking service.
This provides a window into conversations taking
place among your colleagues, available directly
from your intranet. Optionally, a specific Yammer
group will be shown based on which part of the
intranet you are in.
Why we developed it
Yammer integration incorporates social mediastyle status updates and discussions into your
intranet.
It creates a space where colleagues can share
information with each other in a way that is
captured for the future, while also creating a
community around your intranet.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Social features
28
Comments and ratings
What it is
Comments and ratings allow users to interact
with pages, by providing a rating out of 5 stars,
or adding a comment.
After rating a page, the user’s rating is added
to other users’ ratings, and an average rating
displayed.
Why we developed it
Ratings allow intranet administrators to
monitor how popular content is, and whether
there are any problematic pages.
They also provide a way for users to interact
with the content and voice their opinion
quickly.
Comments add to this by allowing users to
discuss content with their colleagues, and
share additional knowledge directly on the
page.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Administration
29
Automatic log-in (Single sign-on)
What it is
Single sign-on allows authorised users to
use the intranet without having to sign on a
second time. Their access to the intranet is
transparent, with no log-in prompt.
Single sign-on is available where users have
already logged on to the corporate network
via Active Directory, either by accessing the
intranet via a corporate desktop or laptop PC,
or by connecting over the corporate Virtual
Private Network (VPN).
In Kira Cloud, this feature depends on certain
ADFS features being enabled and configured
within your existing IT infrastructure.
Why we developed it
If a user is already logged on to a computer
via the secure Active Directory log-in process,
single sign-on removes a barrier to intranet
access by not requiring a second set of
credentials.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
30
Administration
Security groups
What it is
Security groups govern access rights to view,
create, edit and approve content on the
intranet.
Typically, users would be divided into four
groups:
• Visitors
• Content authors
• Content approvers
• Administrators
Other groups can be defined and group
permissions altered by administrators as
necessary.
We’ve made adding a user to a group very
easy; an administrator simply selects a group
and starts typing the user’s name, which
automatically brings up any matching users to
be added.
Why we developed it
Security groups are essential to the good
governance of intranet content.
They can be used to ensure particular areas
of the intranet can only be edited – or even
viewed – by specific groups or individuals; they
can also be leveraged to ensure that a content
approval workflow is followed.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]
Mobile and tablet
31
Responsive design
What it is
Kira-based intranets are always built with mobile in mind.
The intranet is designed to be fully-responsive, meaning it
will adapt to best fit the user’s screen size and format.
As well as reflowing layouts, this means the functionality of
certain elements is altered to suit the device.
For example, buttons that perform an action when a
desktop user rolls over them with the mouse are altered so
no rollover is required.
This accommodates the fact that touchscreen devices such
as mobile phones do not have a mouse cursor with which
to roll over.
Why we developed it
Mobile and tablet devices have become ubiquitous, and
there is a clear expectation that your intranet should work
on them.
Every Kira intranet meets modern web standards, ensuring
a smooth and consistent user experience, regardless of the
user’s device.
http://company-net.com/kira/
+44 (0)131 559 7514
[email protected]