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20 May 2022
What name to give to your intranet? How to find this name? Like a baby being born, the launch of a new intranet - or its redesign - is often eagerly awaited after months of gestation and hard work.
Interactive, carrying transversality, the intranet carries the promise of a transformation of the organization and, ideally, the answer to the expectations of the employees, in terms of information, communication, even collaboration.
Why is it important to give a name to your intranet?
The vocation of an intranet is to be a reference tool in the communication and the optimization of the "living together" of an organization. Its name must be chosen with care to be aligned with the ambition that one wishes to carry to it. It will contribute to building the collective identity through which each employee, each team, each department will refer to and become attached to.
A name is therefore never insignificant. As with a child's first name, the name of an intranet must be thought out beforehand. It is an integral part of its identity. It embodies, by its evocative power, a vision, a state of mind which is part of the organization's own culture. Naming it therefore means making it exist, in the eyes of all, as a new living element of the organization.
It is therefore understandable that going for simplicity by naming your intranet... "the intranet"... is a missed opportunity to federate employees and stimulate the feeling of belonging.
What is the ambition of your intranet? Is it to provide top-down information (info-com site)? To access online services (a portal)? To allow exchanges and collaboration (a collaborative platform)? Perhaps all three at once (a hub, a digital workplace)? Is it open? Dynamic? Above all practical? Totally innovative? A name, because it tells a story, fully participates in the change that takes place.
What name should you give to your intranet?
You lack inspiration? The world is a big place! Here is an anthology of names to baptize your project.
The mother of democracy, Greek and Roman antiquity inspired many names of collaborative and social intranets, bringing with it values of participation, collaboration and transversality. Among the names of intranet or CSR of this inspiration, we find for example, "Agora", "The atrium", "For'Hum", "The Tribune", "Opus", "Chorus"...
When it comes to sailing or surfing, we imagine the waves, the horizon, the journey... It is not surprising that the maritime world is also a source of inspiration for naming your intranet. Like a promise of adventure, of a change of scenery, unless it is the one lived by those who led the project to its end. Some intranet names spin the metaphor of navigation on the web: this is the case of "Onboard", "Odyssey", "Wave".
Nature is also an inspiring universe when it comes to device names. Because some living organisms have developed forms of collective intelligence, by borrowing these names, intranets convey values of innovation, participation, and collective performance ("The Hive", "Antz", etc.).
Nature is also the "chirping" of birds - in reference to the social network Twitter - which materialize the richness of exchanges on the social network. Finally, companies particularly concerned by sustainable development or whose business is focused on the environment or raw materials, will choose names such as "Planet" or "Resources", conveying the idea that the intranet is a wealth from which employees can draw.
The tribal life of the Amerindians or the aboriginal populations is also a source of inspiration: collective games, means of communication, cultural or religious symbols...
So many representations of this community life which displays values of exchanges, of collective, carrying for an intranet that we will call " Tamtam "; " Boomerang ", " Tempo " or even " Totem ".
On the web, globalization is unavoidable, and with it, a lot of anglicisms that qualify most of the concepts related to digital transformation (or should we say digital ;-)). On intranets too, Anglicisms are legion: they convey the idea of modernity and are also easier to use in international organizational environments. For example, there are many intranets that use the company's name with the particle "My" or the ending "online". In order to promote collaboration and collective work, there are also many names such as "share", "shake", "connect", "square" and "link". The internal, the employees, the intimacy of the company's interior are also reflected by certain names such as "Inside", "Life", "Home" or even "Team" which are attached to the company's name. More traditional, the notions of portal in English - "Myportal", "Workplace", "Box" - give meaning to any unifying intranet project replacing an old galaxy of sites.
When you talk about intranet or corporate social networks, you inevitably talk about technology. A field from which you can also draw inspiration. Simply add the ending "2.0" or "3.0" to your current intranet name in the case of a new version. You also have all the vocabulary related to communication tools such as "Network", "Channel", "Network", "Hub", to use alone or in a combination of words. In this universe, there is no shortage of ways to enhance the value of technology, just as there is no shortage of opportunities for employees to meet each other.
Straight out of the late nineties and the first intranets, easy and unifying, the names of devices in "net" are still in vogue. Take the name of your organization and add the ending "net" and you're done! On the other hand, in the age of collaboration, connected objects, big data and the cloud, some names are now obsolete and should be avoided. Goodbye "The Gazette", "Intralink" and names such as "docnet", "onet" or even the particle "cyber"!
Organizations are champions of acronyms. From directions to projects and processes, everyone has them...
And why not the intranet? Here is an example: "KIT" (Keep in Touch!)...
Finally, you can also simply - and just as perfectly - take inspiration from the culture and the internal context of the organization, from its state of mind, from its famous DNA. The name can also bring together, through a play on words or a combination of two words, the name of the company.
We can quote " PoP " (contraction of " Power of Purple ", purple being the master color of the company) or T.ENET, T.E being a contraction of the name of the company and also a beautiful anagram made famous by Christopher Nolan in his eponymous movie.
However, keep in mind that in case of a merger or reorganization, the name may have to change.
To find the name which corresponds to your project, your company, your culture, several solutions are offered to you:
Reflecting the corporate culture, and contributing to the feeling of belonging, the intranet is a powerful tool of commitment which informs, facilitates and creates links. It is in the interest of an organization to choose its name carefully so that everyone, at all levels of the company, can embody it.
Mobilize your future ambassadors, the contributors, the community leaders, the project team whose work and energy are at the heart of this living device. The name chosen for your intranet is above all the one that will resemble your company and the people who make it up!
Source: The little dictionary of intranet names is a creation of Arctus, aggregating ideas of names from operations carried out at our clients, real names of intranets encountered at our clients or during benchmarks. Ellen van Aken's scoop-it also provides some inspiration...
Senoir consultant
Isabelle Houdaille is a consultant in internal digital transformation and a facilitator in collective dynamics. She is passionate about all topics related to employee experience, commitment, communication and service design.
External consultant
Gaëlle Roudaut is a consultant in digital transformation, trainer and graphic facilitator (La Patate @Work). She regularly works as a consultant for Arctus.
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