QuintilesIMS’s gorgeous intranet focuses on internal social media

It’s no surprise that QuintilesIMS’s intranet, iQ, is the winner of the Best Overall Intranet prize in Ragan’s 2016 Intranet Awards program. After all, iQ was also the winner in two other categories: blogs and internal social networks. 

The latest version of iQ (its third iteration) was undertaken for infrastructure reasons: the transition from an on-site-hosted intranet to the cloud-based SharePoint 365 and Office 365. The transition offered an opportunity to look beyond communications and engagement and develop an intranet that would also affect productivity and affinity. 

iQ was re-envisioned as a mobile-first entity. Personalization was also built into it, permitting employees to configure the home page to more effectively meet their day-to-day work and information needs. Access to resources was simplified, information streamlined, and usability improved. 

Search—a problem area on most intranets—was also revamped, allowing employees to search the entire intranet as well as team sites, with results filtered and easy to access via smartphone. 

Most impressive, however, is the integration of collaboration and internal social media tools. Employee blogs and Yammer are not merely options employees can access by clicking a link—they are featured content on the home page. Employees have embraced both Yammer (34,000 Yammer accounts have been activated and 450 accounts started) and blogging. 

Congratulations go to all nine members of the global, cross-functional team that made iQ version 3.0 happen.