How to Create a Mobile-Accessible Intranet?

In just a decade, the mobile phone has become the most used digital device by the French to browse the internet. In 2023, according to Statista, 50.7% of French web traffic occurred on a smartphone.

To offer an optimal employee experience, particularly for frontline workers, enhance employee engagement, and encourage information sharing, organizations must incorporate this new habit into their internal communication strategy.

The solution? Equip yourself with a mobile intranet application that makes your company intranet easily accessible and pleasant to use for both frontline employees, hybrid teams, and headquarters staff.

So, how can you create a mobile-accessible intranet? In this article, Mozzaik explores the subject: employees’ needs, essential features of a mobile intranet, steps to make your intranet platform available on smartphones, and the best intranet solutions for mobile devices.

The Needs of Mobile or Hybrid Teams

An intranet application addresses various needs of today’s employees:

Intranet Accessibility for All Profiles

A mobile application is the ideal solution to make your intranet available to all your employees. As long as they are equipped with a smartphone, your on-site teams, factory workers, retail staff, traveling consultants, or salespeople on business trips can smoothly, pleasantly, and securely use your internal network.

With this internal communication and collaboration tool, mobile and frontline workers are fully integrated into company life. They have access to the same information and communication channels as office-based employees, which enhances their engagement and sense of belonging.

The need expressed by frontline employees is significant. Indeed, according to Forrester, 63% of them are dissatisfied with the technology available to them. Offering a mobile version of your intranet to your employees thus allows you to meet this strong demand effectively.

To make the transition easier, choose a mobile intranet solution that is accessible to all employees, including those without a Microsoft license. Employees—especially frontline workers without a Microsoft license—can then connect to your mobile intranet platform even if they do not have Microsoft credentials or an Active Directory profile. For example, the Mozzaik mobile app allows employees to access your Microsoft 365 Digital Workplace via their phones, even without a license. Your SharePoint intranet therefore excludes no one.

Working While Traveling or On-Site

Whether they work in a store, warehouse, at a client site, or on a train, your employees need quick access to their digital work tools, communication channels, calendar, company directory, task lists, shared files, or HR information.

Thanks to its mobile intranet application, a technician working at a client's site can, for example, consult the company’s technical manual in the document library or find an internal expert in the directory who can assist—all without returning to the office or making numerous calls. The result is saved time and more satisfied customers.

Fast and Responsive Collaboration

A modern intranet accessible via mobile also meets the need to streamline internal collaboration. Field and traveling workers remain connected and synchronized with their colleagues. A traveling consultant or salesperson can, for example, continue co-editing a PowerPoint presentation with their team and always have access to the latest version of a document.

Thanks to real-time notifications, integrated messaging (email, internal social network, Teams channels and teams, etc.), news feeds, or shared calendars, employees quickly receive the information they need to collaborate, even when located far apart. Say goodbye to communication issues that hinder performance and create tension.

With a mobile intranet application, a warehouse manager who notices an unexpected delay can, for example, notify delivery drivers of updated delivery slots simply by updating the shared schedule and automatically sending a notification to their smartphones. As a result, frontline employees become more productive and deliver better service to the company’s customers.

Essential Features of a Mobile Intranet

To meet employees’ needs, be adopted by them, and help them become more efficient and engaged, your mobile intranet application must include several essential features:

An Optimized User Experience (UX)

According to Lakeside, 52% of frontline workers believe that the digital employee experience should be a top priority, and 20% of executives see a need to improve the digital experience of their teams. Your mobile intranet application must therefore address these expectations by offering an optimized user experience (UX).

In other words, using your mobile intranet solution must be intuitive. Users should be able to quickly find and view the information, tools, contacts, conversations, or documents they need to work effectively on a daily basis. They should also be able to navigate smoothly between their various applications, without wasting time scrolling through them or searching for the ones they use most often.

Finally, to be appealing and become a true engagement tool, your mobile intranet platform must be customized with your company’s branding and reflect its culture. Your employees should be able to recognize the main elements of your visual identity—for example, your organization’s name, logo, and color palette.

Real-Time Notifications

Real-time alerts are essential to make your mobile intranet application an effective tool for collaboration, internal communication, and engagement. When you post an article on your intranet, when a colleague updates a task list, or when an employee edits a document, the relevant users must be promptly informed. Thanks to live notifications, the mobile intranet thus enables better team information and greater individual responsiveness, contributing to collective performance.

Enhanced Security

On-site or remotely, the security of your organization’s data is paramount. The mobile version of your company intranet must therefore protect your information from data leaks, cyberattacks, or identity theft. To achieve this, the chosen solution must include a robust authentication system, data encryption, access rights management, threat monitoring and detection, and of course, regular updates and patches.

Steps to Make Your Intranet Accessible on Mobile

Setting up a mobile intranet is a key step in your company’s digital transformation. This knowledge management, collaboration, and communication tool helps boost organizational performance and is essential to retain frontline workers. So, how do you create a smartphone-accessible intranet? Let’s take a closer look.

Needs Assessment and Current Usage Audit

Like any digital transformation project, creating a mobile version of your company intranet starts with analyzing your employees’ needs, current practices, and the processes that can be improved through a mobile intranet.

If you're a retail company, for example, your in-store sales staff may need easier access to stock information in order to respond faster to customer requests without having to walk across the store to use a shared computer.

To identify your employees' needs, understand their habits, detect pain points, and accurately grasp their priorities, adopt a participatory approach—by organizing internal surveys, interviews, and collaborative workshops, for instance.

Choosing the Right Tools and Technologies

Once your specifications document is ready, it's time to choose the solution that meets its requirements. To find the best intranet application for your company, compare tools by assessing their compatibility with your existing software, their user-friendliness, customization capabilities, and levels of security and compliance.

Next, review pricing by considering both the initial investment and maintenance costs, as well as the expected productivity gains (ROI).

Finally, to support your decision and reduce the risks associated with adopting your new mobile intranet solution, have a small group of users test it before rolling it out on a larger scale.

Progressive Deployment and Support

Once your mobile intranet application has been selected, proceed with installation, data migration, and integration with your existing software. Then, launch an internal communication campaign through posters, newsletters, seminars, or by setting up a digital ambassador program. The objective: inform employees about the platform’s launch, raise awareness of its benefits, and provide reassurance.

At the same time, train your teams to use your new mobile intranet application. Offer workshops, tutorials, and a mentorship program pairing early adopters with more hesitant users. Also, provide technical support in the form of a FAQ, chat, or hotline to quickly address any issues employees may encounter.

Lastly, monitor mobile intranet adoption by analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) such as the number of active users, frequency of use, average session duration, number of actions taken (e.g., file sharing), number of support requests, and of course, user feedback. Use this information to optimize your intranet application and continuously improve the digital employee experience.

Mobile Intranet Solutions

Looking for the best mobile intranet application to boost employee productivity and engagement—whether on-site, remote, or on the go? Two solutions stand out in our view:

The Microsoft Teams Mobile App

The Teams app allows you to create a social intranet on mobile. This solution has the advantage of being fully integrated with other Microsoft 365 tools, ensuring a high level of security and seamless interoperability between different programs (Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, SharePoint, etc.). Additionally, a mobile intranet through Microsoft Teams is easily adopted by employees already familiar with the desktop version.

However, for your employees to access the platform, you will need to purchase a Microsoft license for each of them. Teams also has functional and visual limitations. It is minimally customizable and configurable, preventing you from creating a fully engaging and intuitive digital work environment that reflects your company’s identity.

The Mozzaik Mobile App

The Mozzaik mobile app is an extension of your Microsoft 365 Digital Workplace. It is fully integrated into your Microsoft 365 environment. Like Teams, it includes the essential features of a good mobile intranet (real-time notifications, targeted information, document search, etc.).

However, unlike Teams, the Mozzaik intranet mobile app is accessible to users without a Microsoft license. This results in lower costs, but also more flexibility and inclusivity, as well as simplified deployment and management. The mobile version of the Mozzaik Digital Workplace also stands out from Teams with its many customization and configuration options (logo, colors, etc.), allowing you to tailor the interface to your employees' needs and ensure an optimal user experience.

How to Create a Mobile-Accessible Intranet? Conclusion.

The growth of remote work and the widespread use of smartphones in daily routines for information and communication make implementing a mobile intranet essential in every company. Thanks to this technology, all your employees—including frontline staff—are included in organizational life and have access to the resources they need to work effectively each day.

The best way to deploy a mobile version of your intranet, especially if you work within the Microsoft 365 environment, is to adopt a fully mobile application that connects directly to your Microsoft 365 space. It should be accessible to users without a Microsoft license to ensure no profiles are excluded, while also being customizable and configurable to meet your employees' specific needs and reflect your company culture. The Mozzaik mobile app perfectly meets these criteria. Contact us to learn more about this solution and easily create the mobile version of your intranet.