To learn how to choose the ideal software for internal communications, read on.
Software for Internal Communications: What Is It?
Often referred to as "business messaging software," internal communications software gives employees a way to communicate with one another and with the company as a whole through the usage of instant messaging. These tools are designed to be easy to use and provide fast communication amongst team members. Sending lengthy emails expecting terse replies is a thing of the past. Communicating with colleagues is now as simple as chatting with friends on social media or sending a text message thanks to business messaging solutions. In order to foster more casual and genuine dialogue amongst employees, most internal communications platforms provide the ability to use emoticons and GIFs.
Key Benefits of Internal Communications Software
- Provides the ability for team members to communicate instantly and interact with each other no matter where they are.
- Makes messages easily searchable.
- Provides a less formal virtual workspace for team communication.
- Connects an organization horizontally and vertically.
Why Use Internal Communications Software?
One would be hard pushed to find a firm that isn’t employing an internal communications platform in this day and age. Their abundance of useful features has solidified their place as foundational components of contemporary software architectures.
Rapid – "Instant" is pretty rapid, and internal communications systems deliver instant messaging to a workforce. Teams can communicate with one another rapidly, allowing collaboration amongst distant employees, between teams, or across offices.
Informal – Email etiquette is famously tough to grasp and can feel like too formal of an avenue for simple questions. Business messaging solutions allow teams to cast off the overly professional formality and focus solely on the topic at hand.
Mobile – All competitive internal communications systems prioritise having a solid, easy mobile application to pair with their desktop offering. The nature of work nowadays needs people to continually be online and available to support their colleagues. Business messengers are as easy to use on the go as they are at work.
Adoptable – Instant messaging feels normal for most users at this stage. Millennials are now the bulk of the workforce, and instant messaging is a cornerstone for how this age communicates. Internal communications tools feel comfortable and, subsequently, are accepted readily.
Who Uses Internal Communications Software?
Organizations of various industries and sizes lean on business instant messengers to connect their personnel. The software equips users with a rapid and efficient manner of communicating with peers for any and all issues, giving a time-effective and notification-heavy alternative to more passive mediums like email or less intrusive in-person meetings. The benefits provided by internal communications software are relevant to businesses made up of 3 or 3,000 workers. Efficient communication is crucial, whether it be to coordinate shifts in a university’s psychology lab or meetings in a Fortune 500 company.
Kinds of Internal Communications Software Standalone — Many internal communications software are separate solutions with plenty of integrations. Dedicated internal communications solutions will also sometimes incorporate additional capabilities like video conferencing, limited VoIP functionality, and employee directories to build a full internal communications hub.
Embedded — Instant messaging can also come as an added feature in other types of software or larger collaboration suites. Internal communications feature can typically be found in employee intranet software, employee engagement software, or virtual workspaces. Other types of communication software, including video conferencing software, can also enable instant messaging.
Industry-specific — Some internal communications technologies are created for specific industries with their unique needs in mind. For example, internal communications solutions for manufacturing and field service will commonly contain push-to-talk (PTT) software built in so distant staff have numerous instant communication channels available to them. There are also clinical communication and collaboration systems and HIPAA compliant messaging software created expressly for health care use cases, which take compliance into consideration. Some popular, broad internal communications options have also begun to produce industry-specific solutions or embed compliance into their product so they’re available for specific industries out of the box.
Internal Communications Software Features
Internal communications software share a few basic features across all products. As the area gets more competitive, however, several suppliers have introduced extra communication and productivity capabilities to help their product stand out among the throng.
Instant messaging – Instant, direct messaging is the mainstay of internal communications applications. Users can instantaneously message one another on a 1:1 or group basis. Groups can be formed by users and administrators, depending on the administrator’s rights.
Status updates – Users can leave a status attached to their profile to indicate their availability.
Activity feed — An activity feed is offered to notify users on new messages delivered to them individually or ones in groups they are a part of. The feed will also sometimes include replies to posts made by the user.
Notifications – Business messaging tools will send notifications when the user has received a direct message or a message has been posted in a group they are a part of. Additionally, users can turn notifications off or select particular permissions for notifications.
Emojis – Business communications apps will typically come bundled with emojis. Some applications will even allow users to design their own.
Search – A search box allows users to utilise keywords to seek for old communications.
File sharing – One of the key benefits of corporate messaging is the ability to easily and rapidly share files and documents. Users can either transmit links to documents housed in the cloud or attach files that are saved on a desktop to the message they’re about to send. Some programmes will even interface with file repositories for simplified file sharing.
Surveys and polls — Business messengers will typically incorporate simple survey and polling tools that allow users to fast come to conclusions within the app.
Additional Internal Communications Features Conferencing — There has been considerable effort on the part of enterprise messaging companies to include audio and video conferencing capability within their solutions. Users who are able to switch between text-based and audio-based conversation in-app can fix difficulties and answer enquiries more quickly.
Knowledge base integration — Some knowledge management technologies function as connectors between internal communications apps and knowledge bases. They will attach questions asked to answers then send them to a knowledge base, which can then be searched in a Q&A manner.
Automatic translation — Some commercial messaging applications include the capacity to automatically convert communications from one language into another via machine translation software.
Screen sharing – Business messengers with video conferencing capacity will typically additionally allow for screen sharing between conference participants.
AI assistants - AI assistants will occasionally be integrated in business messaging apps to help direct users to behaviors based on the messages they’ve sent. For example, if a user communicates to another that they need to meet at a given date or time, an embedded AI assistant can generate a prompt for the user to register an appointment on their calendar.
Trends Related to Internal Communications Software
Addition of conferencing features — Traditionally, firms depended on one technology for internal communications and another for video and audio conferencing. This was important as conferencing often includes foreign entities that wouldn’t otherwise have access to solely internal technologies. However, more firms are understanding the benefits of video conferencing and VoIP for internal use cases. Since most firms currently have these functionalities split over numerous tools, it might be inconvenient for users having a conversation in one application to migrate to another, even if it would be a more successful exchange if they did so.
Subsequently, more firms are seeking for internal communications platforms that also give channels for discourse. More business messengers integrate video conferencing and VoIP capability in their offering, however not the best of breed since they’re not the major feature of the platform. This may be changing, however, and more products are putting audio and video conferencing on same footing with instant messaging in terms of their priorities.
Potential Issues with Internal Communications Software
Contextual inappropriateness — The convenience of instant messaging in the office is more often than not a plus. But as useful as internal communications software is, it is not always the most efficient or appropriate medium for some scenarios. Problems can develop when individuals haven’t set clear distinctions for when it is permissible to use a business messenger over email or another communication channel. While one-line emails might easily be delivered in an instant messenger, long-form conversations with potential external participants aren’t likely to function on an internal communications platform.
This possible problem can be avoided with the introduction of explicit guidelines indicating which communication channels should be used in a specific situation. Businesses and organizations should include these principles in their onboarding and training process and also make them available in a knowledge base for subsequent reference. Individuals who aren’t using the appropriate channels should be gently urged to break these habits.
Software and Services Related to Internal Communications Software
Productivity bots — There are productivity bots created for certain internal communications software that augment the capability of the latter. Productivity bots can function as AI assistants if a product doesn’t have one embedded or give useful features that aren’t otherwise available to users on the native platform. For example, productivity bots can add polls or surveys to applications that don’t offer them natively or connect the app to other software resources.
Employee intranet — Some employee intranet solutions will feature an internal communications tool built into their product. If one isn’t available natively, products will often link with other popular business messaging solutions to address the gaps. Users benefit from having instant messaging capabilities enabled within their intranet so the intranet can then function as a centralised collaboration and communication suite.
Popular Internal Communications Software Categories
Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) Software
Enterprise social networking (ESN) software allows bottom-up communication and collaboration within an enterprise. It provides a digital platform for employees to interact socially, collaborate, and share information, fostering more casual, peer-to-peer contact. ESN software allows employees communicate updates, photographs, and messages directly with their colleagues, like consumer social networking networks. Any firm can utilise ESN software to enhance engagement and collaboration among employees. More precisely, ESN software may enable firms with a hybrid or remote workforce guarantee that employees have opportunities to connect, engage, and socialize notwithstanding their work location. This can help to enhance morale and general happiness among employees.
While ESN software is a type of internal communications platform, it differs from employee communications software in the kinds of conversations they are designed to support. Employee communications software is focused toward comprehensive solutions that offer a number of communication modalities (top-down, bottom-up, asynchronous, synchronous) and broadcasting key company-wide messages. ESN software fosters informal, interactive, and peer-to-peer collaboration, establishing a culture of knowledge sharing and teamwork. Both types of software serve essential roles in increasing internal communication and encouraging a well-connected and engaged workforce.
To qualify for inclusion in the Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) category, a product must:
- Allow users to establish and maintain profiles that include information such as contact info, skills, experience, and interests.
- Have an activity feed or timeline that displays real-time changes, posts, and interactions from users or groups.
- Allow visitors to participate with content via likes and comments.
- Enable users to upload, share, and collaborate on a range of files or document kinds.
- Allow users to exchange direct messages in one-on-one or group conversations.
- Organize groups or communities based on employees’ interests, tasks, or departments.
