An intranet improves communication, integrates and gives a sense of belonging. Apart from purely practical advantages, it has a number of assets of a social nature (“social intranet” is also one of the keywords searched in Google). If you are looking for an intranet/extranet that will be functional, intuitive, advanced in terms of functionality and friendly from a visual point of view, we recommend a combination of the Confluence system by Atlassian and Linchpin by Seibert Media.

Whether or not to implement an intranet/extranet solution (in short: an intranet is a closed portal, functioning within an organisation, while an extranet is a portal for the exchange of information between business partners; one system can perform both roles) does not require much to think about. There are two possible solutions: stay in the e-mail loop, call a lot of meetings and store all the necessary files on disk or move the lion’s share of communication and materials to a shared system. Confluence + Linchpin is one of the best tools of its kind available.

Social intranet for companies

Confluence by Atlassian is a solution that makes it easy for millions of users around the world to work every day. The system has a lot of functionalities, thanks to which it is possible to create specific spaces, pages and content. You can read more about it in the following text: Confluence – opinions and most important functionalities from a user’s perspective.

Linchpin, on the other hand, is an application full of additional functionalities, which makes an existing intranet able to offer a lot more possibilities. Combining both applications creates a competitive intranet for the most rooted giants, such as Microsoft SharePoint, while meeting the expectations and needs of users accustomed to functioning on social media.

Confluence’s rich functionality related to storing documentation and files and creating diverse content, combined with Linchpin’s enhancements, is a set that will satisfy even the most demanding corporations.

Piotr Tokarski, Practice Area Director, Transition Technologies PSC

Corporate design

A style compatible with a company’s brand book

Linchpin, in contrast to the basic version of Confluence, offers more possibilities when it comes to the appearance of the intranet itself. A company can set its own logo and adjust the colour scheme to its own visual identity. This allows employees to immediately know that they are navigating within a company space. The application’s interface is friendly, clear and modern. An example is presented below:

A screenshot of the Linchpin application, which works only when added to the Confluence system as an additional application with intranet functionality. The screenshot shows an example of the appearance of a company page accessible only to company employees. We see a header with a search engine on the left and space for a large logo in the upper right corner. The header is cut off from the rest by color, below it you can see an example of company posts from the "News" and "Events" tabs.

Elements that can be added or edited

  • Heading (name, logo, colour, font, height)
  • Subheader
  • Menu structure
  • Footer
  • Sidebar
  • Button and link styles
  • Appearance of the content of individual pages
  • Space layouts
  • Macro template (Linchpin Teaser Macro, Layout Box Macro)
  • Custom Landing Spaces

User profile – more possibilities

Linchpin developers have put a lot of emphasis on personalisation, in terms of the main message board (news feed), the ability to create and share content within the system, as well as the configuration of the user profile itself.

Linchpin gives administrators the ability to enter custom fields into user profiles. In addition to the basics, such as first name, last name, job title and contact information, these can also include date of birth, interests, favorite movies or even unfulfilled dreams and goals. It just depends on your imagination and needs. On top of that, we get the option to automatically synchronize data with Active Directory and hide information for selected groups. This significantly increases the importance of the user profile. Each user also has a place where their published content is displayed (the so-called Wall). This, in turn, effectively improves collaboration.
Mirosław Żyszczyński, Service Delivery Manager, Transition Technologies PSC

A screenshot of the Linchpin application, which works only when added to the Confluence system as an additional application with intranet functionality. The screenshot shows an example of what a user profile, or employee profile, looks like - so we see a header with a photo showing the person and his or her contact information, and below that other information grouped into tabs such as "individual information" and "expertise." From this level, the employee can also access her shuffle, statistics, information about people watching her profile, pages saved to read for later, etc.

An intranet that engages

Newsfeed

Users can see two types of content: company news displayed according to the employee’s profile settings (e.g. based on data such as language, location, office, department, supervisor, teams and groups to which they belong, etc.) and individual newsfeeds from other users (as well as their own) – similarly to social networking sites.

A screenshot of the Linchpin application, which only works when added to the Confluence system as an additional application with intranet functionality. The screenshot shows an example of a newsfeed, i.e., a main page with entries created by all employees in public mode, so we see tiles with photos depicting a given topic and short keynote texts - when the user clicks on a tile, he or she is taken to the entry in question.

Microblogging

Creating individual news feeds inevitably involves the need to comment, share your achievements or inform about any important or interesting events. Employee engagement ensures that the intranet functions dynamically and becomes a place of discussion, plans and company life. Content exchange takes place in real time.

A screenshot of the Linchpin application, which only works when added to the Confluence system as an additional application with intranet functionality. The screenshot shows an example of microblogging functionality, i.e. posting short posts that other users can comment on.

Events

An important, interesting and useful function is the creation of events with the possibility of inviting selected users to participate in them. Access and visibility can be adjusted with restrictions.

A screenshot of the Linchpin application, which only works when added to the Confluence system as an additional application with intranet functionality. The screenshot shows an example of an events page. It looks similar to a page with company entries, but in addition to a photo, it also includes the name of the event, the date the location, the organizer, the number of users signed up so far and labels that approximate the topic, e.g. "entertainment", "leisure" or "training", "work management". The screenshot shows one example (the event tile) highlighted, with others in the background.

A screenshot of the Linchpin application, which only works when added to the Confluence system as an additional application with intranet functionality. The screenshot shows an example of an events page. It looks similar to a page with company entries, but in addition to a photo, it also includes the name of the event, the date the location, the organizer, the number of users signed up so far and labels that approximate the topic, e.g. "entertainment", "leisure" or "training", "work management".

Mobile App

A space that engages and integrates the community must be easily accessible. Linchpin enables mobile intranets so employees can use them anytime, anywhere, even behind a firewall within their own company network.

Photo showing hands holding a phone, whose screen shows a mobile version of a user profile page from the Linchpin solution, an application that works exclusively with Confluence to create a modern intranet for companies.

Linchpin, additional advantages:

A text graphic showing a purple box with additional assets of the Linchpin solution, a Confluence add-on, written on a white background. They include, listed sequentially: a dynamic knowledge base, the ability to publish in different language versions, integration with popular communicators, extensive user profiles, a rich content editor, the ability to create events, microblogging, a huge database of macros, i.e. diagrams, charts, tables, etc., protection against content duplication, an intuitive mobile application, access to favorite applications (App Center).

Some people complain about Confluence’s crude appearance and lack of interface modification options. Linchpin fills these gaps while providing, at the same time, new, community-based functionality. With this solution, the intranet becomes even more “human”, friendly and dynamic. Employees gain a shared database of documentation and all necessary files, as well as a business community portal, through which they can organize their own initiatives (well, previous creation of events), share personal experiences (by writing and publishing articles), as well as opinions (by commenting on other people’s publications).
Mirosław Żyszczyński, Service Delivery Manager, Transition Technologies PSC

A modern intranet – what does the company gain?

  • Efficient internal communication.
  • A great tool for communication with business partners.
  • No more e-mail chains.
  • A single place for all necessary files and documents.
  • A portal for employee integration.
  • Appearance-consistent with the visual identification of the company.

Confluence + Linchpin is a highly functional solution, visually refined and offering possibilities in line with the latest trends and habits in social networking. Investment in Linchpin has a business (process improvement) and image justification. In the above text we presented the most distinctive features of the Linchpin application. We would be happy to tell you and show you more – feel free to contact us!

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