knowledgepoint - companynet · 2020. 6. 26. · microsoft sharepoint platform, and can be...
TRANSCRIPT
KnowledgePoint Rapid-to-deploy, bespoke intranet solution
A perfect balance of customisation and affordability, KnowledgePoint provides a
world-class, bespoke intranet, without the costs and timescales you might expect.
Our solution incorporates the collective input of hundreds of digital communications and
marketing professionals – ready for deployment in your data centre or in the cloud.
Solution overview
While each organisation is unique, we have found that even the most diverse workplaces share the
same core needs when it comes to an intranet. Developed through years of engagements with customers from across the public and private sectors, our KnowledgePoint solution comes ready-
built with the functionality essential to every corporate intranet.
Its development has been informed by the requirements, thoughts and ideas of a huge range of communications and marketing professionals, providing an extremely mature starting point that
accelerates your intranet’s development straight to the customisation stage.
KnowledgePoint is trusted by organisations as diverse as Hymans Robertson, Tesco Bank, ICAS, Cairn Energy and NHS Health Scotland to power their corporate intranets. It is built on top of the
Microsoft SharePoint platform, and can be seamlessly integrated with most enterprise systems.
Because of the head-start KnowledgePoint provides, we can deliver your bespoke intranet within
a matter of weeks.
Ready when you are.
A fully-customised
KnowledgePoint installation is typically ready to deploy
and use in just a few weeks.
Let’s work together.
We collaborate with your
organisation to ensure a tailored solution that’s
widely adopted.
A trusted platform.
Used by leading companies
and organisations to deliver their corporate intranet
experience.
Customisations and extra features
SharePoint platform
KnowledgePoint application
Acc
ele
rate
d s
olu
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n
KnowledgePoint
A Happy Medium
We believe KnowledgePoint occupies a ‘best of both worlds’ position between off-the-shelf and fully
bespoke solutions. Off-the-shelf solutions are cheap but generic, while fully-bespoke solutions are
tailored, but can be expensive and slow to develop. KnowledgePoint hits a sweet spot in the middle ground – a solution which is well-rounded and will meet your needs, budget and timescale.
Out of the box, KnowledgePoint delivers a fully-featured corporate intranet at an affordable cost – either purchased outright, or as a subscription on a per-person-per-month basis. Because we have
pre-built the features common to most intranets, we can focus on customising and configuring
your intranet to meet your organisation’s unique needs.
Key benefits
An affordable customised intranet – We’ll work with you to build a fully-branded solution
that meets the needs of your staff and your organisation.
No ‘big project’ delays – Depending on the level of customisation you require, delivery time is a matter of weeks.
Powerful enterprise search - Find anything: news, articles , FAQs, blogs, Yammer
conversations, documents, people – in short, the knowledge users need to be fully informed.
Works on the devices your staff use – Responsive design adapts to any modern browser.
Designed to encourage user adoption – Personalisation options such as drag-and-drop widgets, favourite links and colour schemes ensure users feel at home and keep coming back.
Easy for users to access – Transparent single sign-on thanks to Active Directory integration.
Easy for admins to secure – Control who can view and edit any area of the intranet, with
granular user permissions.
Won’t meet all your requirements
Low cost / low risk
Off-the-shelf solution
Rapid results
Can’t guarantee future direction
Can’t adapt with your business
Significantly more expensive
Meets requirements exactly
Bespoke development
Unproven solution
Slow to deliver and deploy
Higher risk of failure
Reduced cost
KnowledgePoint
Reduced risk
Meets requirements
Rapid results
Future-proofed
KnowledgePoint
Tailoring your intranet
We will work with you to design and configure an intranet
that meets your specifications – from implementing
consistent branding and layout, to designing content types that suit your business.
Our development process starts with a period of
engagement with your organisation’s staff. We
collaborate with them to create an information architecture for the new intranet. This process helps users
engage with the project from the start; the resulting user-
focused structure improves the chances of widespread
user adoption once the intranet is deployed, too. We
augment this with tailored training after delivery to make
sure your investment is a success.
We’ll design and build your intranet, implementing your
branding, configuring each detail and ensuring throughout that everyone is on the same page. By
working closely with your organisation and your staff, we make sure everyone is delighted with the
final product.
About us
Founded in 1996, CompanyNet
started out specialising in
bespoke intranets and extranets.
We are now one of Scotland’s
leading independent software solutions businesses, with clients
including Tesco Bank, Whyte &
Mackay and the Scottish Housing Regulator. As a longstanding
Microsoft Partner, we were one of
the first in Europe to achieve Gold
Partner status in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Collaboration and Content (SharePoint). We also now hold Silver status for Data Analytics and Application Development.
Our slogan, “Collective intelligence for better business”, isn’t just a phrase; it’s the philosophy
behind everything we do. We believe the strongest solutions come from close collaboration towards a common goal. This is reflected in how we work and in the systems we build. We help unlock the
collective intelligence of your business, its people and data, making the whole greater than the sum
of the parts.
We take time to understand the purpose, function and goals of your business. This lets us select the
most appropriate models to suit your needs, and – where needed – bring in specialists from our
network of trusted partners. And it lets us all – client, partners and CompanyNet – work collectively
to deliver a truly successful project.
KnowledgePoint
KnowledgePoint takes care of the requirements common to every
intranet, letting us focus on customising it to your users’ needs.
KnowledgePoint
Shaping your new intranet
We know your corporate intranet is a huge investment – and that it stands or falls on the ability to
meet its users’ needs. Before we write a line of code, we will collaborate with your staff to draw up
an information architecture that reflects the way your organisation works. If you’re replacing an existing intranet, or have particular features in mind, we will go through a feature-mapping process
to ensure KnowledgePoint covers each of your requirements.
Basic intranet structure
KnowledgePoint comes with a base structure and feature set. We’ve pre-built the features common to the vast majority of corporate intranets, which lets us focus on tailoring a structure and adding
features unique to your business.
Automatic login and security groups
KnowledgePoint uses existing Active Directory credentials for login, meaning staff on internal
machines will be automatically logged in. External users can access the intranet using their familiar
Active Directory login details.
Users can be assigned to fully-customisable security groups. We will help you design groups that reflect your needs. A typical set of security groups might include:
System Administrator Central admin, can configure SharePoint services
Intranet Administrator Can modify/view all content, set privileges, monitor usage
Content Editor Can create and manage subsites
Breaking news content Editor Can create and modify breaking news stories
Intranet Member Can view content, edit profile, add/edit noticeboard items
In this case, the ‘Intranet member’ group would be mapped to SharePoint’s ‘Everyone’ group, giving
all users access to the intranet by default.
News Centre
Staff Directory
Homepage
Subsites Subsites Subsites
The news centre displays news stories created by staff around the
organisation, updated automatically from content across the site.
The staff directory lets you find the right contact quickly – search by
name, role or location, or even by team or skills.
The first port of call for all users, the homepage pulls key information
from around the site and provides entry points into all the content.
Unlimited subsites can be created for use as team, group or topic areas of the intranet.
KnowledgePoint
Publishing, design and personalisation
Pages Library and audit trail
KnowledgePoint uses the SharePoint Publishing Framework for production, approval and
publication of pages. All pages are stored in a pages library, which users with sufficient privileges (such as administrators) can access to add, modify, review and approve content.
Automatic version and approval control is applied to all pages created in KnowledgePoint. Copies
of previous versions of each page are kept, complete with metadata about the pages. This creates
an audit trail telling administrators who created a page, who approved it, and when it happened.
Creating pages - as easy as writing an email
Creating and editing pages is completely
straightforward. Just give your page a name, and start writing using the built-in visual editor.
Because it’s built on Microsoft technology, users
are already familiar with the Word-style editing features. In fact, if you can write and format an
email, you can create a page on a
KnowledgePoint-based intranet.
Responsive design and page templates
The design and layout of your intranet is essential to its usability. A clean, friendly and intuitive
design can significantly boost take-up and use of the site.
We work with web design experts to create a front-end to your intranet that makes it a piece of cake to use. KnowledgePoint sites
are fully responsive, meaning the intranet automatically adapts its
layout to work with any modern web browser. Regardless of platform and device, your users will have a great experience.
Since content is what makes the intranet useful, there should be no
barriers to publishing and editing it. We make content editing
hassle-free using master page templates. These are pre-designed and can be applied by users with no design skills, meaning ordinary
users can create and edit pages without worrying about breaking
the layout.
Per-user personalisation
Users can personalise their experience with a range of widgets, drag-and-drop layout customisation
on the homepage, favourite links and colour schemes. For organisations with multiple office locations, we can also implement a location picker to let customise the user’s experience based on
their geographic location.
Personalisation settings can either be stored in a cookie in the user’s browser, or against their user
account for consistent cross-device personalisation.
KnowledgePoint
Cross-site navigation and widgets
A selection of navigation tools and widgets can be added to enhance your intranet. These help users
move through the site smoothly, find information quickly, and personalise their experience.
The site’s menus and navigation are informed by the information architecture:
Primary navigation appears on every page, providing routes into the most-used content.
Secondary navigation appears on subsites and displays pages available to the user at the
current team or subsite level.
Breadcrumb trail navigation shows the user exactly where they currently are.
Footer navigation contains general links, such as to corporate social media accounts.
The following widgets can be made to appear on every page of the site:
Quick Find
Users can start searches pre-
filtered by key business areas to
get to the documents or data
they need more quickly.
Search panel
Lets users instantly search the
content of your intranet and
staff directory.
Theme picker
Lets users pick their
preferred colour scheme.
Location picker
Lets users personalise what they
see based on office location.
Breaking news ticker
Rapidly notify staff of breaking
news, such as IT outages,
weather warnings or new clients.
Links panel
Quick links to popular parts of
the intranet. Can display fixed
links and user-added links.
Most popular
Displays the most popular news
items, pages or documents
across the intranet.
KnowledgePoint
Homepage
The layout of the homepage can be configured with a variety of additional widgets. These provide
useful functions and display key information pulled from across the site.
The Headline News panel is the main focus of the homepage, fixed in place front and centre. The
other widgets are dynamic, and can be dragged and dropped to let users create their preferred layout. This layout is then saved in a cookie, or against their Active Directory profile.
Widgets are styled to fit seamlessly into your design and can be configured to reflect your
organisation’s interests. In addition to our standard widgets, custom widgets can also be
developed, if you have specific business needs that require them.
Headline News panel
The focus of the homepage,
a list of key corporate news
items can be presented in
this widget. It displays each
story for a few seconds and
cycles automatically.
Internal News widget
Displays news drawn from sites
across the intranet. Can be
localised to the user’s location.
External News widget
Displays a selection of stories
from any public RSS feed, such
as BBC News.
Blogs widget
Shows recent posts pulled from
blogs around the intranet.
Don’t Forget widget
Acts as a small ‘advertisement’
which can link to a specific
page on the intranet.
Noticeboard widget
Lets staff share items such as classified ads, fundraising and social
events. Any user can publish a notice, set a date for their item to
expire, categorise it and edit or delete it.
KnowledgePoint
Subsites
KnowledgePoint gives you the opportunity to create an
unlimited number of subsites.
These can be used to encourage collaboration and sharing between departments and teams, as well as to provide a
focus on a particular client, topic or shared interest.
Typically, each team and project would have its own subsite.
Subsites can contain documents, pages and discussions, as well as further subsites. This allows
your staff to create a hierarchy of sections – for
example, the HR subsite could contain its own subsite
on staff benefits, which itself would contain documents on pensions and so on.
User permissions for viewing and editing content can be assigned to each subsite. You
can therefore give specified staff the ability to edit the parts of the intranet that fall within their remit, without granting site-wide editing privileges. It’s even possible to restrict who can
view a subsite, meaning sensitive information can be controlled and made available only to
those who require access.
Subsite homepages can be customised to give them a distinctive personality. Each one can display its own custom image, as well as ‘localised’ widgets which present news and
updates specifically related to that subsite.
Site Search and Delve
KnowledgePoint includes a fully-featured
enterprise search system which indexes content
from across your intranet. The search feature is available via a small widget found on every page
of the site. It provides an instant way for users to
find what they need without having to hunt for it.
Search results can include pages from across the main site and all subsites the users has access to,
news items, blog posts and people. The search
function is faceted, which means that, as well as full-text search, you can filter by a number of parameters like result type and department. We can
help you determine which filters and search scopes would be most appropriate for your intranet
during the initial scoping process.
SharePoint also integrates with Microsoft’s Delve technology (pictured), which lets users search in
a highly-personalised, visual way. Delve automatically prioritises content relevant to the user,
interpreting their search query using natural language processing to reveal the most useful
documents, emails, and Yammer conversations.
Homepage
Subsite
Another subsite
Documents
Documents
Discussions
Subsite
KnowledgePoint
News Centre
Internal news, external news and blog posts also appear in the News Centre, a dedicated section
which brings together complete news from across the organisation in one place. As with the
homepage, this can be personalised to show news important to the current user, based on their team and office location.
Staff directory and profiles
The staff directory lists all staff members in your organisation, and
offers a number of ways of filtering
them. This helps users quickly and
intuitively identify information about the person they need.
Key information about staff members
can be displayed in the staff directory search results. This includes name,
photograph, job title, office location,
team, phone number, mobile number and email address. Integration with the Microsoft Lync platform means it can even display a real-
time status indicator to show whether that person is available to contact. A filter panel (pictured
below) can be used to quickly narrow down search results by any attribute held in the staff directory.
This can be thoroughly customised to fit your business needs.
Selecting a person from the search results will take you to their
profile page. As well as a summary of the user’s details, the profile
page can include information such as their responsibilities, biography, what subject matters they are experts in, recent
interactions with others on the intranet, and an interactive
organisational chart showing their position within their team and the organisation.
Users may edit fields in their own profiles, where permission has
been granted. Some fields may be automatically populated by data
from Active Directory to ensure it is kept accurate and up-to-date.
Social features
Social features built in to KnowledgePoint allow a level of interaction between users. This helps encourage a sense of
community and further fosters collaboration.
On a colleague’s profile page, users can view a newsfeed showing their recent activity on the site.
Users can also follow each other to be alerted when people important to them create a new post, and ‘like’ and comment on posts.
KnowledgePoint
Technical specifications Feature comparison
The on-premise and Office 365 editions of KnowledgePoint share most features. There are some
technical differences due to the nature of each platform. We will help you choose the right platform for your business.
Minimum requirements
* On-premise, we typically deploy KnowledgePoint on a three-server farm (Web Front End server,
Application Server and SQL Server). This can be doubled for larger installations.
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
Microsoft SharePoint 2013
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
Three servers*
On-premise
MS Office 365 E3 or SharePoint Online
Subscription
Office 365
Se
rve
r
Minimum supported web browser versions: Internet Explorer 9, Safari 5, Chrome 10, Firefox 4
(other browser versions may work but are not officially supported) Cli
en
t
Quick Find People Search
Highlight news panel
Internal news widget
Links widget, including per-user ‘My Links’
Noticeboard widget External news widget (RSS) Departmental sites (including rollup content
and images)
Search layouts
Hide Ribbon items based on group membership Blogs widget – Either from user My Sites or from
page content Most Popular widget
Homepage personalisation and colour picker, stored with user’s profile
My Sites personalisation Sub-site templates
On-premise
Quick Find People Search Highlight news panel
Internal news widget Links widget, including per-user ‘My Links’
Noticeboard widget External news widget (RSS)
Departmental sites (including rollup content and images)
Search layouts
Hide Ribbon items based on group membership Blogs widget – Page content Homepage personalisation and colour picker,
stored with a cookie
My Sites (themed)
Sub-site creation process
Office 365
KnowledgePoint
Cost breakdown
We know cost is an important factor in your decision. Our experienced team will work with you to
choose a technical solution that keeps the project within your budget while meeting your needs.
Start the conversation We hope this brochure has given you some insight into what KnowledgePoint is, and what it can do
for your organisation.
We’d be happy to answer any further questions you have about KnowledgePoint. If you’d like to
discuss any aspect of the system, from functionality to cost, please get in touch.
KnowledgePoint license £40,000 Configuration and customisation based on
extra requirements Microsoft Windows Server, SharePoint and SQL licenses
Per-user client access licenses (CALs)
Server hardware
On-premise
KnowledgePoint license £2-£4.50 per user per
month Configuration and customisation based on extra requirements
Office 365
On
e-o
ff
On
go
ing
Maintenance/upgrade costs
Office 365 Enterprise E3 or SharePoint online client access licenses (CALs) – per-user, per-
month
Talk to us about what KnowledgePoint can do for your business.
Contact our sales team on +44 (0)131 559 7512 or email [email protected]
www.company-net.com
Some of the organisations who have already chosen KnowledgePoint